We all love prisons don't we?

We all love prisons don't we? To put the unjust behind bars is all that we are about, aren't we? Don't follow a rule and you are behind it, those great steal rods. It makes an interesting movie doesn't it? Till the time, someone you love, goes just behind those iron rods. The floor sweeps off your feet and the world doesn't exist anymore. Such are the loyalties I have towards family and friends and probably so do all of you, who read this today.

Today I will talk about Truman Capote. He wasn't able to come out of the darker side of life because he fell in love with his main protagonist, based on the killings of Nov, 1959. And frankly, how could he? I'm with him. A person who gave us a sun-lit breakfast at Tiffany's couldn't write after he wrote "In Cold blood". It's not difficult to see why though. He got so close to the murderers, their story and their confession of the crime, he couldn't come out of the shock of seeing them hang in front of him.In the righteous world, some part of him wanted that too, to see those murderers hung but a human part of him could't bear the site of this human malice. And he was never to finish a novel again or to fill our lives with another breakfast in Tiffany's and understandably so.

So, when we all live in an era of quick justice and quick life, I now start to question " The death penalty". I do believe in Karma and all that jazz as they say and it still boils my blood silly when I hear about a "Jessica Lal murder " case and the likes. But, there is another part of me that started to question the penalty! Am I getting soft? Is it the likeness and the insolvency of a Capote that makes me question that system? Honestly, I don't know.

All I know is that I could never rise after what a Capote saw. Would you be able to live through that? Do you believe that death penalty is the ultimate justice to all mankind? What else is there if not death for these murderers? Why does it still make us shed a tear to see someone hang even if it is a wretched murderer? 

The thing about war..

After watching Schindler's list for the first time today, I've gone in to a deep thinking mode. I have lot of questions regarding wars and I have a lot of observations from the movie.

First the questions. Why does one go on a war or let's come down to ground level, even fights? In my understanding it usually starts from a deep hunger of power. The deep hunger comes from a certain depravation, it could be food, shelter, human dignity and of course money. Wars should ideally have stopped after the need is fulfilled right? But then there comes the ego, they say "Make a lion taste blood and then he wouldn't stop hunting". In reality even they stop after their hunger is met with. So what then is the cause for a war to go on? Is it then the ego? Once you started, you can't step down or stop, can you? Ego then becomes more precious than the initial hunger that one started out for, doesn't it? Who really wins in this war? As I understood from history: no one. Why then do people repeat the same mistakes what has been shown to us, taught to us or told to us? Is the human race meant to perish by it's own hands? After all "The dictator" who killed the millions, finally took his own life too. So, what was this war about then? All the people, and may be that's why I hate groups, followed the whims and fancies of one man? The one man who finally took his own life. (I can't help but smile at the foolishness that lives in us. We have the power to create but in that time we miserably choose to destroy). What would have happened if someone as smart as "The dictator" had decided to invent a time machine rather than spend time and resources on building concentration camps?

My observation in the movie was  that Schindler says " The war makes people bad, really bad, in-fact the worst!". And then you see, Schindler's heart change and him leading the way for 1100 people like Moses.It reminded me of the scene from 10 commandments. I would say, it took out the best in him. Not only did he save lives, he re-started manufacturing and made money in the war. He had a business during the time of war? Have you ever heard that before?

My friend put it correctly today, she said it's not one man, it's any of us. Most of us, if given a gun in our hands would misuse it or feel powerful, wouldn't we?It's the choice we make, when we hold that gun in our hand. Are we holding it to protect someone or to harm someone?The fantastic thing about power is that it comes from control. Yes, again Schindler's quotation. Which brings me to another question: Why do we need guns? Is it because we are scared someone will harm us? And if so who? Or is it because we are so scared of ourselves?

Lastly the most important observation and question that comes from the movie is: "Why do we so easily destroy when we can powerfully create?"

Hmm..Think about it..

What if I was a tree?

OK..so every afternoon, every evening and before I go off to sleep, I see this pine tree from my window and I wonder..could it hear me? Could it already know about my day, before me actually saying it? Could it possibly be telling me stuff that I can't hear because of my disability of having a sixth sense?

Now, I start to think about it's life. It was probably planted before I was born because of it's height and spread across my lawn. It has also seen more life than I have. May be the people who were living here before I was, have also spoken to it or thought about it's "withstanding nature".

It stand in front of me, so strong, so untouched and like an audience..what each day has in hold for it. We face such extreme weather conditions here and while I sit here in my heated house, it faces the heat, the wind and the mean cold weather. Yet it never once thinks about bending down or succumbing to the harsh realities which I translate in to my blogs or poems. It stands there as a symbol of: What true strength is all about?

It's about an unconditional love, it's about unconditional strength. A tree would never look for a job, would it? It knows what it was meant, born and grown for. It wouldn't expect me to leave it a thank you not every night for listening to it or for being there for me..would it? It would naturally be a listener to my deep or shallow thoughts? It would even be correcting me, without me knowing it. Oh boy! Such grace, beauty and strength in just one of nature's great wonders!

Now..what if..I could just be a tree..do what I have to do without bothering what anyone expects me to do, watch people as an audience, rather than contributing anything to their testing, what if I could give, without getting anything in return?

What if I could be a tree? I wonder....

Cheers!! 

Happy mother's day to who? (Sexual predators on the loose!)

This is dedicated to all the women I know, if you are man enough to be a women, then go ahead read this. You are my mothers, my sisters and even my best friends. You have been my confidant and my support but most of all, you were there to protect me because that is the nature of women-kind. We believe in territory and we believe in securing rather than conquering. Why do we then keep silent on issues that determine our life and the ones that we love and want to die for?

I am going to talk about child abuse, as it is and as we saw it on Satyemev Jayate. Some of us, actually 1 out of 2 of us have gone through it. I am not ashamed to admit that someone in my family could've attempted the same with me. This is how they go through it, they are trusted, they are our relatives, they take us in a room and touch us in all the places, we wouldn't let anyone and I even mean our boyfriends or our lovers and now our husbands to go in to. Then we let these leeches in society prey on us. Why? Well, in the beginning it is out of innocence, in adolescence, it is because of rejection from society but when we reach adulthood, why do we still refrain or restrain from talking about it? Don't give it the name of repression or respect for your elders because guess what after 25, the only respect that one can earn is, through that respect from us.

Why do we then continue to give reasons to our silence?As you must have seen in the show and  like in big organizations give it the name of "whistle blowing". Why can't we implement the same at our houses? What is the worst that you can face? Honestly I think nothing except that we can save generations to come and start a trend of awareness. I see nothing wrong with that.

I guess all that I have to do or anyone of us 1:2 has to do is to tell our parents what happened to us. What happens next is up to them. May be some of them may even die after listening to what we were put through or how our innocence was taken away from us but what is guaranteed to us is: It will not happen to anyone next to our kin. Not so bad right?

I think we should do it, let us get up in the morning, think about this or form the right words to break it to our parents. Let's bring this to age. Let them learn something from us or from what we feel from all that we learnt from them. How about that for a change?

It's time we break this stupid silence and wish our mom's for real. Happy mother's day mom.

Why can't we be?

So this is for you my friend. It took me a midnight walk and a few glasses of wine to come to the answer of why can't we be? It's human. The human mind. It is so strong. We can be who we want to be, create what we want to create, make people believe what we want them to believe, we have come of the day and age, where we can let our imagination, enter the minds, hearts and touch the souls of everyone around. It's human to want to be and to let others believe that they can't be.

How we miss out on this is that in this world of make-believe: The only audience that we miss out on most days is us. We refuse to recognize what we are capable of..and it is not motivation we require or at this age, even an approval. It is the simple alignment of mind, body and soul.

Once we manage to align our feelings and drive our minds to what our goals are, the universe falls short of options. The other thing that we miss on apart from recognizing ourselves is: The present. The present somehow slips away each time we sit around pondering. Time really is like the sand grains in a glass bottle.In the good times, it always seems to move faster. It is through the tough and obstructive times, that we get caught in to it. The only thing that helps us move forward better is to spend the present wisely. To be able to embrace whatever little we have, and to build it like artillery for the future.

No one knows what the future holds or for that matter who it holds in it for us. The only thing certain is what's within us.Everything that we invest in ourselves will for sure stay with us. So whether it's education, whether it's a new sport, a new instrument, an intelligent conversation or just that walk in the midnight; it's all these that will see us through to be what we can and want to be.

Take time out, time out to kill every possible fear, pain and inhibition and look around and for the time being, even if it means blending around and doing what you have to do, do it. It's called being and existing and some how through this being and existence, we will stand out. It's Darwin's theory isn't it: survival of the fittest. The only race we have is with ourselves, so where is the problem really?

I say we can be! Can be what we want to be. So let's dream big and like Walt Disney said "I dream, I do.."

Cheers!!