Dead Poet's Poetry

"Everything in life is writable about if you have the outgoing guts to do it, and the imagination to improvise. The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt. "
- Sylvia Plath

Have you ever thought of writing one when you happened to feel the words of a well-written poetry? It happened to me when I listened to the song “Aisi Sazaa” from the bollywood movie “Gulaal” (Country:India, Language: Hindi, Direction: Anurag Kashyap). The following is what I’ve come up with. If you are able to sense “Aisi Sazaa” in this piece of work, it can be called as a translation. The reader has the right to accept it or reject it saying “It is the worst translation of a well written poem” or the reader can choose his/her own words to yell at me.


"Burning air blows through my wandering soul.
Long, dreadful nights tend to eternity.
Loneliness lacks harmony,
Sleep sounds asleep and I wish you are there,
Feeling the warmth of my rain of love,
To bring a sonnet of heart from the breeze.
The dew drop that rests on our eye lashes,
Tell the planet stories of love, desire and life.
You are disturbed but adamant of losing someone.
Life is the same no matter where we go,
so is the story of mankind.
Travel well!
We’ll meet at the same place,
To recollect the reminiscences where they were left."

Our Theatre Experience…

“All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances,
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages.”

……..

                        (As You Like It- William Shakespeare)

 

        When Sriram called me for a two days theatre workshop at Alliance francaise de Bangalore, it sounded a great weekend plan as I desperately needed a relief from the hectic work schedule.I read Shakespeare till mid-night and I practiced some of the eminent dialogues from “Romeo and Juliet” facing the mirror. The anticipation was very high as it was supposed to happen in Alliance francaise and we thought it would be the great opportunity to learn the nuances of stage drama from the people who are in element with it.

 

       As usual I reached the venue ten minutes late and surprised to see Sriram and a more handsome, young man (Sorry Sriram, I have to be honest.) having some wounds on his face and in his right hand, standing in front of the gate. Sriram introduced him as  Alok. The following is my conversation with Alok.

 

“Dude, what happened?? How did you get injured?? Did some one slap you badly or you met with an accident??”

 

“No yaar… It’s a big story. I was riding my girl on my bike through the forest and a tiger appeared in front of my bike. We lost control and fell down.”

 

“Interesting.. Then what happened??”

 

“The tiger attacked me and I was helpless. My girl friend thought I was too weak to fight against the tiger and she eloped with the tiger thinking the male tiger is more powerful than a man.”

 

      We cackled… I came to know that the venue for the workshop was changed and the contact person wasn’t picking up the call when Sriram pinged him. We got frustrated and when we decided to leave, Sriram got a call from the person in charge and he gave the address of the venue.

 

      We rushed to the place by an auto rickshaw only to find an eccentric, shabbily dressed young man with long beard. Everything about him seemed to be weird whether his looks or his dirty clothes. He took us inside his small filthy room which was completely occupied with bunch of papers and books.

 

     There were 3 people standing inside and some good music was in the background. He said he had already started the work-outs and he requested us to watch for sometime what they were doing. He talked in pure British accent and his voice was mesmerizing. In a nutshell, he was a filthy intellectual. He played a piece of piano through the music player and one guy was moving his body rhythmically from bottom to top and another was helping him out with his hand rolling over his body. It was more or less similar to hypnotism.

 

      We three were looking at each other and we were pretty sure that it was not the right place to conduct a theatre workshop. We found it difficult to breathe and the noise from the lavatory was more disgusting. We informed him that we were uncomfortable with what was going on there and left the place.

 

     Sriram was dejected that his plan went wrong. We tried to soothe him saying “Every dog has a day, today is your day”

 

 

 

" J. Krishnamurti " - The Immortal Friend

"That Reality is not to be bought, to be sold, to be repeated; it cannot be caught in books. It has to be found from moment to moment, in the smile, in the tear, under the dead leaf, in the vagrant thoughts, in the fullness of love."
-- J. Krishnamurti

J. Krishnamurti is a distinguished philosopher and spiritual thinker. His writings and speech had a life changing impact on a number of people around the Globe. He worked diligently to awaken people, to awaken their intelligence, to awaken their sense of responsibility, to awaken their consciousness.

His passionate search for a “well formed society” was not stranded in any particular religion, caste, nationality or philosophy. The path he had chosen to realize his ultimate vision was not a political revolution or a social movement nevertheless he believed that the total change was possible only through a complete transformation of individual consciousness. He spent his life traveling the world as a speaker. His “Book of Life” is the Bible I read everyday. He adopted me through his writings and caresses me with the mother’s warmth at times I really need love. He is, the eternal master who guides me through the path where I’m destined to, the friend who is with me for eternity. The following is one of the quotes from “Book of Life”.

The center of suffering:

“When you see a most lovely thing, a beautiful mountain, a beautiful sunset, a ravishing smile, a ravishing face, that fact stuns you, and you are silent; hasn't it ever happened to you? Then you hug the world in your arms. But that is something from outside which comes to your mind, but I am talking of the mind which is not stunned but which wants to look, to observe. Now, can you observe without all this upsurging of conditioning? To a person in sorrow, I explain in words; sorrow is inevitable, sorrow is the result of fulfillment. When all explanations have completely stopped, then only can you look - which means you are not looking from the center. When you look from a center, your faculties of observation are limited. If I hold to a post and want to be there, there is a strain, there is pain. When I look from the center into suffering, there is suffering. It is the incapacity to observe that creates pain. I cannot observe if I think, function, see from a center - as when I
say, 'I must have no pain, I must find out why I suffer, I must escape.' When I observe from a center, whether the center is a conclusion, an idea, hope, despair, or anything else, that observation is very restricted, very narrow, very small, and that engenders sorrow.”

A year passed by..

 

“Take [Romeo] and cut him out into little stars,

And he will make the face of heaven so fine

That all the world will be in love with night

And pay no worship to the garrish sun.”

 

                                         (“Romeo and Juliet” William Shakespeare)

 

Alone I was, amidst the haze on that exceptionally earsplitting late night, witnessing the darkness’ triumph over light, receiving wishes from acquaintances through the prodigal communication device. The beauty of darkness was revealed by the glittering stars and the scintillating fireworks. The whole world was in love with night. Hard it was, to believe that a year was passing by and how thorny it was to say Good Bye 2008.

 

There would be a few moments which reminisce a year passed by, depend on the reason behind. Here comes my list of the best in 2008.

 

World Movies:

 

•  Kite Runner.
•  Slumdog Millionaire.
•  Jasmine Women.
•  WALL-E.
•  The Magdalene Sisters.
•  The Dark Knight.
•  Flawless.
•  Che.
•  The Counterfeiters.
•  A Christmas Tale.

 

Indian Movies:

 

• The Last Lear (Hindi).
• A Wednesday (Hindi).
• Tahaan (Hindi).
• Fashion (Hindi).
• Rock On (Hindi).
• Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na (Hindi).
• Rathri Mazha (Malayalam)
• Malabar Wedding (Malayalam).
• Thirakadha (Malayalam).
• Gulmohar (Malayalam).
• Calcutta News (Malayalam).
• Veruthe Oru Bharya (Malayalam).
• Subramanyapuram(Tamil).
• Kanchivaram (Tamil).
• Santosh Subramanyam (Tamil).
• Saroja. (Tamil).
• Vaaranam Aayiram (Tamil).

 

Songs:

 

• American Boy.
• Golden Age.
• Electric Feel.
• Lollipop.
• Paris.
• Kabhi kabhi Aditi (Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na, Hindi).
• Guzarish (Ghajini, Hindi).
• Sinbad the Sailor (Rock On, Hindi).
• Pehli nazar mein (Race, Hindi).
• Singh is Kinng (Singh is Kinng, Hindi).
• Bakhuda tumhi ho (Kismat Konnection, Hindi).
• Kankal Irandaal (Subramanyapuram, Tamil ).
• Nenjukkul Peithiidum Mamazhai (Vaaranam Aayiram, Tamil).
• Adiye Kolluthe (Vaaranam Aayiram, Tamil).
• Taxi Taxi (Chakkarakkatti, Tamil).
• Chinnamma Chilakkama (Chakkarakkatti, Tamil).
• Anjalai (Vaaranam Aayiram, Tamil).
• Engu Ninno Vanna (Calcutta News, Malayalam).
• Oru Naal Subharathri (Gulmohar, Malayalam).
• Chirikal Thorumen (Adayalangal, Malayalam ).

 

Best Places Visited:

 

• Wayanad (Kerala).
• Agasthyarkoodam (Kerala).
• Sharavathi Valleys (Shimoga, Karnataka).
• Srisailam (Andhra).
• Lepakshi (Andhra).

 

 

Paulo Coelho, The Psycho Magician (1)

I often see appealing girls reading books with mixed emotions during train journeys. I could never stop gazing at those girls. Being a lunatic, you might think that I got attracted towards those girls because they were gorgeous. You crazy!!! How dare you think I’m an ordinary Indian guy (???) who always tries hard to cruise chicks. It is not because they were stunning nor I was snooping what they were reading but I like to watch their animated faces and the funny gestures while reading the dumps produced by the pulp writing factories like Sydney Sheldon, Jeffrey Archer, Chetan Bhagat…

Surprisingly, during my journey from Chennai to Delhi I was amazed to see an angel (might be from Srirangam), sitting opposite to me, dressed semi-formal in human clothes, was reading a book with a name on the cover “Paulo Coelho”. The name sounded peculiar and I thought it was the title of the book. While I leaned over to seek out some details about the book, I was tempted to look atop when I heard some one yelling “What do you want??” There was a man in the upper birth, seemed to be a man in his early 60’s, staring at me with his devilish eyes (might be the angel’s father) and started gesturing towards me. Before he said anything, I told him that I just wanted to have a look into the book. Troubled by our conversation, the angel came for my salvage. She handed over the book to me with a mesmerizing smile and gestured something towards that elder person. He calmed down with a sardonic smile. What did she tell him?? I didn’t have a clue as I was ignorant about the language of the angels. I just had a look into that book and grasped the title and author’s name. The title of the book was “The Alchemist” and the author “Paulo Coelho”. This is how Paulo Coelho entered my life.

“The Alchemist”, looked familiar but I couldn’t recollect it from my subconscious mind. Closing my eyes, I tried to locate the region of the memory where the reference to “The alchemist” was stored. “Excuse me!! Could I have my book please??” Disturbed by the angel’s voice, I abruptly opened my eyes and looked at her. Angels look more beautiful when they are annoyed. Beautiful but fragile!! She might have misinterpreted that I was sleeping with her book in my hand. Momentarily, I handed over the book to her and thanked her. It was during our college days, one of our lecturers told us the story of the novella “The Alchemist” with the intention of motivating the young minds. It resembled the mystical bed-time stories that my grandmother used to tell during my childhood.

A year after that train journey, I came to know about the mysterious fables of “Paulo Coelho” through the notorious Tamil writer “Charu Nivedita”. I began my hunt for Paulo’s works. I could say it is a sort of “Beginner’s Luck” that I started off with “The Alchemist”.

Reading Paulo Coelho is a fascinating experience. His works of fiction burst with optimism and spirituality. “The Alchemist” might look like an adaptation of modern philosophy and spirituality yet it is more precious. There are times in our life; we die for somebody, to inspire us, to tell us that our dreams may come true. So we could easily identify us in Santiago, the protagonist of this novel. When the Alchemist appears to Santiago in the form of an old king, he says “when you really want something to happen, the whole universe conspires so that your wish comes true”. This is the philosophy, this novel tries to convey.

As Santiago, an Andalusian shepherd boy, travels to the market of Tangiers into the Egyptian desert, Coelho questions the futility of human kind and eventually answers them. He is the inquisitioner and the executioner too. He says, “When some one sees the same people every day, they wind up becoming a part of that person’s life. And then they want the person to change. If someone isn’t what others want them to be, the others become angry. Everyone seems to have a clear idea of how other people should lead their lives, but none about his or her own.” This is a typical Coelho way of saying how expectations destroy human relationships. Nobody but Coelho could have questioned the stupidity that lies in human relationships like this before.

Talking about Coelho’s spirituality, he criticizes the problems with the organized religion despite being a Catholic. He says “The danger is that every religion, including Catholic one, says, “I have the ultimate truth.” Then you start rely on the priest, the mullah, the rabbi, or whoever, to be responsible for your acts. In fact, you are the only one who is responsible.” Nevertheless Coelho lauds some of the aspects of organized religion like discipline, collective worship and the humbleness towards the mysteries.


(to be continued)

To Mad Women(Men)…With Love.

This blog is dedicated to all the lunatics in this universe. If you, the reader, believe that you are not a mad (of course all the mad says that) you may stop reading this blog and go back to business.

Any body over there??? Cool… I got some readers. Well.. The idea of writing a blog often arises from my subconscious mind thanks to the bloggers who write some brilliant pieces of blogs. This is my first attempt to enter into the realm of writers whom I believe could possibly change the fate (face) of the society. Sorry readers!! I never want to make a sentence with the words “I”, “My”, “Me” etc.. But I couldn’t stop me from using those words. Hope you’ll forgive as this is my first blog and I’m trying to explain you why the hell I’m here. I hear some one says, “Who the hell ask you to write and why?”. Is it real or hallucinations? What ever it may be, I answer your query. I’m here to share with you the thoughts that I perceive from life. A professional writer must not wait for inspirations. Well… I’m not a professional writer, a novice, an amateur. So where do I get my inspirations from?. From imaginations and where does this imagination come from? From subconscious mind. Not convinced?? Better read the first paragraph and go to hell.

The baffled readers can have a large of Johnnie Walker Red Label and come back to reading.

In the coming days, I’m going to write about a few artists who redefined my thought process till then Good night and Good Bye!!

May your head break with a bang if you don’t write a review comment after reading my blogs!!!!