With violets and purples and pinks and reds
The flowers play holi above our heads
The grate of traffic, the thwack of tennis balls
Someone singing, discordant bird calls
Tall bamboo curtains like prophets of doom
Suddenly among the maddening bloom
Dodging dog poo, watching the sky
Eyeing that bit of muscular white thigh
In future years all this will bring
Home to me this psychedelic spring
But for this morning, we three
Fill our senses and enjoy the company
Written By Pritha Choudhuri
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Sunday, March 15, 2009
Spring In Cubbon Park
Paths stretched in blue mortar , bathed in the late early morning sunlight
The air light.. with the mists of the night before and maybe a few lost years
The buds and blossoms fragrant, rich in texture and color shrouding the city sun
People and pets walking into relationships without expectation
Little china dolls smiling into camera phones surrounded by the purple jacaranda
The pink, the white, the yellow petals ,
Bathing fading sneakers
China dolls , grown up.. no longer unbreakable, no longer fragile. and yet
Surrounded by the jacaranda
beautiful, sublime, happy in the moment
and reaching to touch high branches laden in bloom
The air light.. with the mists of the night before and maybe a few lost years
The buds and blossoms fragrant, rich in texture and color shrouding the city sun
People and pets walking into relationships without expectation
Little china dolls smiling into camera phones surrounded by the purple jacaranda
The pink, the white, the yellow petals ,
Bathing fading sneakers
China dolls , grown up.. no longer unbreakable, no longer fragile. and yet
Surrounded by the jacaranda
beautiful, sublime, happy in the moment
and reaching to touch high branches laden in bloom
Saturday, March 7, 2009
Milk: The Movement
I have come to recruit you !-says Harvey Milk.
Powerful orators often times make zealous revolutionaries, but being a revolutionary is not about great screenplay but conviction, passion and commitment.
The story of Harvey Milk is not only the portrayal of the struggle of the 'other' to be accepted in the ' looking glass' of a pathetic , rigid society but
a reminder to all of 'us' who are self proclaimed liberals , that arm chair theorization does not give any human being the right to feel complacent that they are rooting for the good guys.
Revolution is born of and from struggle. Revolution is born from and of praxis ( practical action , if you will). A revolution is not born of a man but of the recognition of a loss in many men. ..And then a messiah comes along ,adding momentum and leadership to the movement because he speaks what the 'other' and the 'us' know but are diffident to voice.
A revolution is therefore a collective voice and the movements of yesterday ,strangely , sometimes become the middle class truths of today.
Arguments for and against the recognition of homosexuality by society are no longer relevant.What is relevant is , that when u are divorced from a cocktail party conversation do u still go to bed with the same levels of acceptance.
I don't know, if any ,or all of us know this simple truth...
That every single one of us is born bisexual and it is the socialization process which teaches
girls to play with Barbies and boys to play with guns&trucks. The associated rites and belief structures of ' boy's don't cry,' and girls ' like to dress up,' inculcates in the ambiguous child the notion of gender. Sex and gender are divergent in nature,
simply put sex is what u are and gender what you are supposed to be.
Most of us loose out in this struggle to realise our sexual preferences since gender neutrality is not a part of the school curriculum.
My thoughts and belief in these emotionally crippled times, where love has been replaced by a modern day 'use''abuse''refuse' operation...is that if , you stumble on to someone who genuinely loves you and whom you genuinely care about..then gender should not be a restricting block. Inclination and choice not society and culture should be the reason why you are with someone or why you can be around friends who choose to be different.
As for the thousands of nameless people in the crowd who are suffering because they cant express their individual spirit for fear of rejection or false morality...may they find the strength of Harvey Milk....
More Power To Him who is different , because he has chosen to believe and define his world in his own terms..and that is the celebration of the human spirit, of life itself and the only true characteristic of Being !
Powerful orators often times make zealous revolutionaries, but being a revolutionary is not about great screenplay but conviction, passion and commitment.
The story of Harvey Milk is not only the portrayal of the struggle of the 'other' to be accepted in the ' looking glass' of a pathetic , rigid society but
a reminder to all of 'us' who are self proclaimed liberals , that arm chair theorization does not give any human being the right to feel complacent that they are rooting for the good guys.
Revolution is born of and from struggle. Revolution is born from and of praxis ( practical action , if you will). A revolution is not born of a man but of the recognition of a loss in many men. ..And then a messiah comes along ,adding momentum and leadership to the movement because he speaks what the 'other' and the 'us' know but are diffident to voice.
A revolution is therefore a collective voice and the movements of yesterday ,strangely , sometimes become the middle class truths of today.
Arguments for and against the recognition of homosexuality by society are no longer relevant.What is relevant is , that when u are divorced from a cocktail party conversation do u still go to bed with the same levels of acceptance.
I don't know, if any ,or all of us know this simple truth...
That every single one of us is born bisexual and it is the socialization process which teaches
girls to play with Barbies and boys to play with guns&trucks. The associated rites and belief structures of ' boy's don't cry,' and girls ' like to dress up,' inculcates in the ambiguous child the notion of gender. Sex and gender are divergent in nature,
simply put sex is what u are and gender what you are supposed to be.
Most of us loose out in this struggle to realise our sexual preferences since gender neutrality is not a part of the school curriculum.
My thoughts and belief in these emotionally crippled times, where love has been replaced by a modern day 'use''abuse''refuse' operation...is that if , you stumble on to someone who genuinely loves you and whom you genuinely care about..then gender should not be a restricting block. Inclination and choice not society and culture should be the reason why you are with someone or why you can be around friends who choose to be different.
As for the thousands of nameless people in the crowd who are suffering because they cant express their individual spirit for fear of rejection or false morality...may they find the strength of Harvey Milk....
More Power To Him who is different , because he has chosen to believe and define his world in his own terms..and that is the celebration of the human spirit, of life itself and the only true characteristic of Being !
Thursday, March 5, 2009
I stand alone without beliefs,the only truth i know is you
And so you see I have come to doubt
All that I once held as true
I stand alone without beliefs
The only truth I know is you
These four lines from Kathy's song , define what the angst ridden, recession hit people ,conceive of the world they are living in.
In the hushed corridoors of plush offices you will see without a doubt , thousands of well pruned heads staring blankly into excel sheet ridden screens, brows furiously knitted up....calculating the TCO (total cost of ownership)of the life which one has led in comparison with the life one is supposed to lead in hard times.
As our sensex and our belief systems waltz arm in arm into a downturn..what do we turn to? ..how do we manage with the myriad problems of mortgage, E.M.I's ,rent and responsibility....?
When you see yourself affected by a system far greater and larger than your abilities and individual performance, all you can do ,is revisit your core...and hopefully if our core is not defined by material moments and instruments we will find our answers.
Primitive societies survived in spite their challenged technological state due to their ability to hunt , gather and farm in packs..The collective before the individual does not always lead to hara kiri, or altruistic suicide or communism ;) which might for a cynic ,be a subtle expression of the intercourse of both events.......
But modernism teaches us to celebrate the individual spirit and this stops many of us who believe we are self made brigands to reach out to other people.
In that circumstance how do you cope with this anoemic condition?
No one has seen tomorrow and there is no poetic justice in being a prophet of doom , my two bit for keeping angst and depression at bay, is reach out to the spirit you have acquired to fight your recessions through life.
This is not the first time you have been hit by lack and hard times. Recognise that.
Think about every time life has kicked you in the butt and how u have survived that hurt in the posterior...
Numerous inabilities which you have conquered will jump to the forefront.
You gave up sucking your thumb, and sleeping with your favourite night comforter,wetting your bed, the green monster beneath it.
You steeled out of braces, the inability to see distances or read close, imitating Boy George and Madonna,(the agony and ecstacy of stiff perms, one lobe pierced and leotards) stuttering,copying your parent's singature on bad report cards, lying about everyone u knew.
You got out of talking about your imaginary girl/boy friend,stealing money,pimples , acne, humiliations by the kule gangs u weren't invited to belong to,not understanding the merits of masturbation, talking to God.
You quit envying your best friend's good skin, better placements and partners, you quit hurting people who loved you because it gave you a kick ass sence of power, chasing people who u creeped out because it hurt your ego, and passing judgements on the world perse.
You stopped trying to erase your past, mourning for the friends and family who dimmed out of your world, took a break from sex, drugs, rock n roll and came to terms with who u were ,finally.
A person like any other ,inadequate but content, not mirror cracking good looking but loved, not vastly succesful but creating value , not very rich but a highly prized person,
not
an epic but a haiku...
not an opera just a lilting happy tune in someone's head,
not perfecion but a lasting imperfect impression.
And so my friends...you are the strength you seek and the recession is just a moment in time which will ebb into nothingness ..while you the Ullyses Of Unchartered Waters will conquer forever.
and even as you strive to be the capable loner, believe me when i say that somewhere there is always a person who will think of you ...and hum another verse from Kathy's song..
My mind's distracted and defused
My thoughts are many miles away
They lie with you when you're asleep
And kiss you when you start your day
Have a lovely weekend :) folks
All that I once held as true
I stand alone without beliefs
The only truth I know is you
These four lines from Kathy's song , define what the angst ridden, recession hit people ,conceive of the world they are living in.
In the hushed corridoors of plush offices you will see without a doubt , thousands of well pruned heads staring blankly into excel sheet ridden screens, brows furiously knitted up....calculating the TCO (total cost of ownership)of the life which one has led in comparison with the life one is supposed to lead in hard times.
As our sensex and our belief systems waltz arm in arm into a downturn..what do we turn to? ..how do we manage with the myriad problems of mortgage, E.M.I's ,rent and responsibility....?
When you see yourself affected by a system far greater and larger than your abilities and individual performance, all you can do ,is revisit your core...and hopefully if our core is not defined by material moments and instruments we will find our answers.
Primitive societies survived in spite their challenged technological state due to their ability to hunt , gather and farm in packs..The collective before the individual does not always lead to hara kiri, or altruistic suicide or communism ;) which might for a cynic ,be a subtle expression of the intercourse of both events.......
But modernism teaches us to celebrate the individual spirit and this stops many of us who believe we are self made brigands to reach out to other people.
In that circumstance how do you cope with this anoemic condition?
No one has seen tomorrow and there is no poetic justice in being a prophet of doom , my two bit for keeping angst and depression at bay, is reach out to the spirit you have acquired to fight your recessions through life.
This is not the first time you have been hit by lack and hard times. Recognise that.
Think about every time life has kicked you in the butt and how u have survived that hurt in the posterior...
Numerous inabilities which you have conquered will jump to the forefront.
You gave up sucking your thumb, and sleeping with your favourite night comforter,wetting your bed, the green monster beneath it.
You steeled out of braces, the inability to see distances or read close, imitating Boy George and Madonna,(the agony and ecstacy of stiff perms, one lobe pierced and leotards) stuttering,copying your parent's singature on bad report cards, lying about everyone u knew.
You got out of talking about your imaginary girl/boy friend,stealing money,pimples , acne, humiliations by the kule gangs u weren't invited to belong to,not understanding the merits of masturbation, talking to God.
You quit envying your best friend's good skin, better placements and partners, you quit hurting people who loved you because it gave you a kick ass sence of power, chasing people who u creeped out because it hurt your ego, and passing judgements on the world perse.
You stopped trying to erase your past, mourning for the friends and family who dimmed out of your world, took a break from sex, drugs, rock n roll and came to terms with who u were ,finally.
A person like any other ,inadequate but content, not mirror cracking good looking but loved, not vastly succesful but creating value , not very rich but a highly prized person,
not
an epic but a haiku...
not an opera just a lilting happy tune in someone's head,
not perfecion but a lasting imperfect impression.
And so my friends...you are the strength you seek and the recession is just a moment in time which will ebb into nothingness ..while you the Ullyses Of Unchartered Waters will conquer forever.
and even as you strive to be the capable loner, believe me when i say that somewhere there is always a person who will think of you ...and hum another verse from Kathy's song..
My mind's distracted and defused
My thoughts are many miles away
They lie with you when you're asleep
And kiss you when you start your day
Have a lovely weekend :) folks
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