Th0ughts IN Thunder !

 *****I Want the Br0wn Trucker Cap :( *****

Why live in bits and pieces? Why judge others? Why hate? Life is so short! Can’t we spend it in a happy, happy way? Why can’t we spread happiness?

Throw the rhetoric to four winds, dear Farheen. :))

1. Go play Enrique and dance to it on classical Indian moves! You’ll have fun :D Trust me, I already am!  :D Dance like no ones watching!!

2. Tell people who make your life miserable to go to hell!! You deserve better!

3. Identify the people/things that make you happy. And tell those people that you love them. Make them smile! Spread happiness!

4. Be crazy! Trust me, the world is crazy, but there is a serious lack of ‘crazy’ people of the right sorts. :)

5. Celebrate life! Its beautiful! Yes, it is. You have to believe in this, coz if you don’t, you are most likely going to miss the most beautiful things even if they are right before your eyes!

6. Fret not over what you don’t have! Look at what you have! There are many people who are deprived of even the most basic stuffs. Count yourself lucky, (because you really are!) for whatever you have. Just realize that.

7. Learn to forgive. Don’t take offense easily. Don’t prove yourself to anyone. Don’t explain yourself. Don’t demand love or respect, these are the things that can never be extracted from anyone!

8. Don’t be a cynic. Be clear about what you expect from others and let the other person know. Work out the differences.

9. Don’t stress yourself out! Never try to ape others OR try to be what the others want you to be. Let “Be Yourself” be your chanting mantra!!!!

10. Believe in yourself. Have faith in your capabilities. Know that Everything’s. Gonna. Be. Alright. :) :D

Wtf! You take off the earphone for one damned second and the song goes from “Everything’s Gonna Be Alright” to “The Rhythm of the Rain” .. its raining outside, but there is no rhythm in this rain!!! Only thunder.  Scary thunder. Is Zeus angry or what? :P

“I have been crawling in the dark, looking for the answers.. do the answers even exist?

How much farther do I have to go, how much longer till I find the know?

Coz I am looking and I can’t see what’s in front of me.”

See? You are going to be asking the same questions, like you are probably asking yourself now, ten or twenty years down the line.! So why suspend everything else for finding out the answers (answers that perhaps don’t even exist) ? How are these answers even going to help us anyway? I may become the object of ridicule or mockery, even hatred, for adopting this ‘low’ and philistine attitude to the ‘higher’ secrets and purposes of life. But, believe me, I care two hoots for that kind of a judgement. :)

Be true to yourself and the people you love. Be happy. Spread the smile. Never ever give up Or give in. The capacity to change and adapt is indeed a virtue and not a vice. Don’t be afraid to change for the better. Don’t think you are going to lose your ‘identity’ in doing that, because your identity is in a perpetual stage of formation. It’s a continuous, life long process. If you feel good about it, do it. Don’t let perspectives prohibit or delay your actions. Hamlet need not be aped here!

Have a happy life mi amigos ! :)

Be what you are. Don’t change for anyone else.

I am what I am. Take it or leave it (and regret) :) :D

G0od Mawning ! (1:42 AM) :P

//Return of the 0ld happy night-writer ! :D :D

/farheen

Shillong 09-09-2012

It’s been a few days more than a month and its still beautiful.

Accha baccho batao aapne kya seekha?  Shillong ki vaadiyan na kewal sundar hai apitu unki sundarta lambi awadhi ke baad bhi utni hi manmohak lagti hai jaisi wo prathan darshan pe lagti hai.

The beauty of the valleys of Shillong are enduring. Even after spending some time here one does not easily get over it.

I’ve settled into the hostel. This is a 2D representation of the view from there…

 

Oh there is another thing that hasn’t changed… We sleep a lot maybe it’s something to do with the height and how soon it can wear us off, so we sleep and get refreshed.

But with all the beauty and freshness comes the effects of onslaught of the city on the landscape. A large area of virgin forests have been cleared to make new colonies. Wherever we go we can see some construction work going on. The effect can be already seen, this year has been the hottest in many, as far as the signals that nature gives to warn us of what is not suiting her health is concerned this fever is just the first indication.

Going Away… 30-07-2012

Going away from home or now that I am here I should rather call it coming here to Shillong was nothing less than the physical journey that we had to undertake to reach this place whose beauty once inspired the name “Scotland of the East”. This scenic city is located in the North-East Indian State of Meghalaya in the heart of the Khasi Hills.

When I caught the first glimpse of the hills from the window of the train, the hills were still at a safe distance from a possible, impending human assault. As we drew nearer little houses came into vision that slowly expanded into communities and then into cities. The train took us to the city of Guwahati (the capital of the Indian state of Assam and the nearest air/rail-way connected to Shillong by road), from there we hired a Sumo Taxi that took us on the breath-taking journey towards our destination, the city of lakes: Shillong.

Shillong had been beautiful when I first set foot here… (well nauseating too coz of the undulations on the way here from Guwahati) but mostly pleasing and beautiful. At that time what struck me most was the weather, the pleasant sun, soft wind and a Temperature which could not decide whether it wanted to be hot or cool(pun intended). Well after a four hour sleep the nausea was gone and it was only then that I felt that truly I was at a new place. A place where no two houses have their roofs at the same level (sloping ground), car parking sheds indicate presence of a house underneath(cars need to be parked at the road level)… well these are the only features visible from the hotel balcony… more coming up later.

c  ya

Meg.

AN OPEN LETTER TO ELIOT

Eliot and His Problems: My Love-Hate Relationship with the Great 20^th C Man

                                

“Few people have even admitted that Eliot the man is the primary problem, and Eliot (as in his critical writings), only secondary.”

Dear Eliot,

You are one person I highly admire and deeply respect. You have, as one critic rightly pointed out, “made English criticism look different”. I know you did not write your essays for me to read, but the fact remains that you have become an intrinsic part of my thinking procedure, and so I need to write to you. I must write to you. Please listen to me!

You are one prime reason for many problems in my life. You see, I can’t point at any “objective correlative” for this, but then this is life, my life, and not a work of art, so it’s okay. (I only hope you won’t declare me to be a “life failure” as Hamlet is an “artistic failure.”) Anyway, two years of my life has gone into trying to make sense of what you said almost 70 years ago. In trying to reconcile your seemingly antagonistic ideas in order to understand which one is correct, my life has been, as you see, encircling your words and everyday I discover a new thing and then I go back to square one. Every time I start reading one of your essays, I go like this.

 Blank-Eureka moment-That’s mean-That’s Wrong!-That’s It! And then after a few days, That’s self-contradictory!-That’s so Eliot!-That’s Right!-Blank-Oh Wow!-He’s Right-But…

I don’t like this kind of reaction, but you make me think, and some times I pull my hair in madness. (Feigned madness, as you’d say it.) But, really, Eliot, tell me:

1. How am I to distinguish between “the mind that suffers” and the “mind that creates” ? For as far as I know, I have only mind, both for suffering and creating. But then, as a student of English Literature, I am supposed to nod my head in understanding of whatever you say. And that’s really a cause of shame and worry for me.

2. The mind (of man or the poet in him) acts as a catalyst, you taught me that, and this is precisely what makes me admire Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” all the more. Hamlet’s well read philosopher’s mind acts as a catalyst for many of the seemingly inexpressible, yet overpowering emotions in him. As a man, he couldn’t have pointed out at single “formula” for a particular emotion him. And this is where the genius of Shakespeare lies! He practically makes Hamlet live his emotions in front of us! Life’s like that! And not like Othello. No one would set out to kill a Desdemona just because of the handkerchief, no matter how ‘fatal’. And then immediately (almost drastically) realize the full import of it and kill himself. It goes against the grain of verisimilitude.

If we could find an “objective correlative” for everything, life will cease to be the beautiful thing it is! And art or literature will stop being a source of wonder and delight. And besides, how can I be sure if all the readers in the world will agree that this particular emotion has been caused by this particular thing? If we could point at a formula for things like that, art will cease to mirror life!

But of course, you are “the” Eliot. So all I can do is try to understand you. But, please don’t torment me so! Don’t visit at nights, because unlike you, the wrestling of thoughts in my mind generally stop by that time, and I want to sleep! I’ll put it in the way of someone you deeply admired (and understood and followed), in hope that maybe then you’ll understand what I mean:

The apparition of your face in the night,

Is, for me, a cause of deep terror and fright.

Please Eliot, either you start making sense or stop visiting when I am trying to sleep!

Make no mistakes, I am a huge fan of your critical writings, I can’t really say about your poems and verse (pun intended) drama. But, I agree, as I said at the outset, that you’re one of the greatest men of all times. Thanks a lot for everything. But please have some mercy at me (and a thousand other students whose self confidence is at peril just because we live in constant fear of getting caught by the professors for ‘not’ understanding ‘Eliot’. It’s almost blasphemous even to admit that to oneself!) Have mercy!

Yours truly,

A Student who swears by The Sacred Wood :)