My Take ...

'Coz if you didn't know it's Goodbye Again

2010-12-20T00:18:00.000-08:00

I blog, today, with what I must admit, is a stab of pain in my heart. My blogs have languished for long without updates, with sporadic updates, few and far removed – I am aware. I don’t write quite as often as I used to, not counting the limericks I send my Mumbaiya friend. My uncertain “writers’ block” has lasted way too long, I guess. I sometimes wonder if I have been in love with the idea of having a writers’ block only for the pleasure of being able to overcome it.

And let’s face it. If I churn out a masterpiece a day, I expect to be appreciated as I otherwise should be. *kidding, duh*

No, really, I haven’t been writing. Scraps and pieces that have not come to much; half written prose (and poetry) that has served only to pique friends’ attentions but have not been completed – ah! aplenty.

But I just did something that as Browning would put it “o’ertops them all”. I signed up to work with an organization last week. And my contract says I shall not write personal blogs or something to that effect. To be told I may not? Till about a couple of years back I’d have said that’s a sure shot way of getting me to do just that. Rebellion. Question, rather the Koschen now is “Is my rebellion dead?” Nope. Very much there. Problem is, every rebel needs an audience. A rebel, like a trapeze artist needs an audience. To awe, to scare, to evoke incredulity. Deprive a rebel of an audience and the rebellion dies a natural death.

This, btw, is one of the profoundest theories of parenting. I do just that with my son. Everything is perfectly acceptable. And hence the fun of doing the unacceptable is absolutely dead. with no anger, no punishment, I shall sigh and resign to the ‘acceptable’. Perhaps age IS catching up.

I digress. But I wonder is that not, nay, was that not my definition of death? How, shall I survive? A possible answer – as the Living Dead do.

Prayer

2010-07-01T21:53:00.000-07:00

Dear God, I do not know how to pray. So hear my prayer as it is and help me pray. Take this pain away, I ache, I hurt terribly. Let there be only peace and calm and love.For you. Make me strong enough to embrace your love, your grace and compassion. Let me not rebel against you. Let me not hate, for it is blasphemy to hate what you have created. Let there be light.

Bell Bajao

2009-03-29T01:42:00.000-07:00

Ringing the bell shows you care
How your neighbours and brethren fare
Stop the violence, curb the crime
Now's not the time to act the mime
Save the neighbour from a vicious nightmare.

Magick… As I See It (And as told to Maya)

2008-08-25T20:48:00.000-07:00

We all live our lives with different beliefs. It is undeniable that some are happy, some not so in life and a vast majority live with a mixture of happy and not-so-happy events visiting their lives. It is but human to want only pleasurable and pleasant occurrences, as is our attempt to try to negate the unpleasant, sorrow giving ones. We all work towards a better quality of life. Now some work towards their goals slowly, in practical, pragmatic, seemingly “non-magickal” ways. However, what we fail to realize is that no matter if this working is worldly i.e. to say material or spiritual, ordinary or extraordinary, there is the Will behind this to change the past or current situations or occurrences and improve the future. It is the Will that is behind every successful and purposeful transformation that is what I mean by magick. This could explain the delay in the manifestation of magick .

Using an analogy from the book “Illusions” by Richard Bach, we live lives which are but games of the soul. Now we could choose to get caught up in the game, live by the rules and restrictions and hence choose a life ‘by default’. The author says, we could remember that it is a game we have chosen to play, hence can change the rules, change our play strategies or even quit playing, just at Will. This according to me is magick. It is the ability to change one’s world, the events in it, as per our Will.

The world as we know it, and as explained by physics, is made up of matter and energy, both of which are interconvertible. Hence any magickal ritual, such as casting a spell etc. is simply sending into the universe certain energies (whether with the help of tools, elements etc is upto the specific ritual), not just physical but also thought energies and mental waves, in order to receive back certain energies or physical events (which are made up of material things, which are in turn but energies converted into matter). No energy is ever destroyed, claims physics. So no magical ritual ever goes futile. However, the exact outcome, or the extent of change effected by the magick depends on a lot of factors such as the strength of the Will, the right kind of energies sent out etc.

Lastly, from a religious perspective (of Hinduism), there is a Shakti behind every Shivam, or an energy behind every auspicious occurrence. Magick, for me is simply the ability to harness this Shakti and utilize it to cause the Shivam in our lives.

To conclude, I quote celebrated astrologer Linda Goodman “Miracles are not violations of the law of nature; they are confirmations of the laws of Metaphysics and affirmations of the deeper depths of Nature’s Law”. Magick is simply the ability to manifest such miracles.

On Being Tamil...

2008-07-03T00:26:00.000-07:00

"To be, or not to be: that is the question"

MTC...

On Religion

2008-06-21T00:22:00.000-07:00

I belong to many religions, not one. At last I am ready to come out and embrace it - nay, them. And when I say I belong to many religions, I really mean many religions belong to me. Because, at the heart of my religious practices, my spirituality lies a strong belief in ‘personalized religion’ as opposed to ‘organized religion’. Today, I stand up, with rather uncharacteristic pride and declare, “I am as much Wiccan as I am Hindu”.

On Equality

2008-05-01T06:11:00.000-07:00

“No two people are equal - not even the so-called identical twins. People r born unequal, have unequal intelligence, unequal capabilities, unequal opportunities, unequal value systems and so on.” Thus spake IAWIT. What exactly do we mean by equality is perhaps the foremost idea we must reflect upon here. Everything else remaining constant (which is most often not the case) no two children are born exactly ‘equal’, not even twins. Given. But is that the launching pad for the notion of ‘superiority’? Are some human beings superior to others? I think not. Given that each may contribute differently to society, his family and fellow beings, some more significantly than others, the contributions nonetheless remain. Each has his own space carved out in the fabric of society. Cataclysms were wrought by a man, who thought that the Aryan race was superior to others; by the fair skinned men who wished to dominate my brown skinned brethren. People may be better skilled at one or the other task or profession…but what makes one man superior to the other?
The division of a caste-based society was more professional and aptitudinal, I believe. Even Plato’s Republic advocates the same, India is no exception. The division of class was based on the different methods by which one could contribute to society; but never do the shastras mention that the contribution of one class was less significant than the other. The shastras also allow for changing of one’s caste, Vishwamitra being a significant example. Ancient India was, then, much more liberal than we are willing to be.

On Writing...

2008-04-25T00:50:00.001-07:00

What do we mean by global language? Archaic English, American English, Australian Lingo…these are all just banalities…Paulo Coelho talks of the Universal language. There is indeed a language that people across the world understand – the language of smiles, a pregnant pause, an unanswered question… People often understand silences more then they understand words. As writers, what we need to understand is when to hold our words back and let the mind of the reader do the talking. When do pictures express better than the written word? Blogging is a great exercise in writing and in silence. I blog, but not everyday. I am as fond of my words as of my silences. Long silences, writer’s blocks make me uncomfortable. But they are rather necessary. Why force expressions, why toy with words when none come naturally? As a writer I know every day is not the same, it is not a job that can be done everyday; only when the inspiration is right…As always I turn to my favorite author Richard David Bach, "I do not enjoy writing at all. If I can turn my back on an idea, out there in the dark, if I can avoid opening the door to it, I won't even reach for a pencil. But once in a while there's a great dynamite-burst of flying glass and brick and splinters through the front wall and someone stalks over the rubble, seizes me by the throat and gently says, "I will not let you go until you set me in words, on paper." That's how I met Illusions."

Diamonds

2008-04-24T00:37:00.001-07:00

"Knowledge knows no hierarchy" thus spake Jai. He's right, methinks. And besides, knowledge is always a two way process. This girl I knew, this girl who always turned to me for advice, who took my advice for almost a year now...she sighed and spoke for hardly two minutes; and I was dumbstruck. "Don't quote a low price on yourself, Sujatha. No one will buy a diamond for a tuppence", she said. The simple truth behind it astounded me. With child-like candour she spoke words of wisdom. The question is: "When will I learn?"

Genius is often misunderstood

2008-03-03T20:13:00.000-08:00

“Genius is often misunderstood”, they say. True. And yet, do we stop to ponder how many, today, are artists/philosophers/poets/intellectuals in the true sense? These epithets I use, are rather lose in their definition, given that a piece of art may be totally useless today but might be deemed a masterpiece by the next generation. Whom do we call a celebrity? One who’s art or creativity or thoughts we appreciate at a given point of time. But what if a person is “ahead of his/her time”? Are we capable of judging him/her? Our benchmarks are only as good as we are. A number of reputed fashion designers or artists (mark, I do not say all or most) of the day lack basic aesthetic sense. It is also important to note, that society has a way of either celebrating or condemning what it does not understand fully. Hence, the controversy.

I am reminded here of Plato’s book, “The Republic”. He tells the tale of cavemen who live their chained existence in the belief that shadows are reality. When one man breaks free and leaves the cave to find a vivid world outside and tries to educate them he is ostracized. This is part of the reason why meaningful movies never make it at the box office. But looking at the other side, I find it extremely easy for people to pass off as an intellectual or an artist, given that the masses lack the basic knowledge to judge them by. How many people really know of Cubism and Postmodernism? General notions, often wrong ones, are picked up and pseudo-critics rule the roost. Do we teach our children literature and art and music? Are we capable of making informed judgments? Unless we are, there will be controversies.