The world will always be full of dreamers. There will always be mavericks whose only purpose in life is to jump into as many frying pans (and fires) as possible. Forever restless, always on the move. They infect you with their madness. They are charming and magnetic in their passion. Your shell of diligent preoccupation […]
Insights
Freedom
Oppression is intrinsic to mankind; as compelling a force as rebellion. The desire to oppress and the impulse to rebel against it go together, like the two sides of a coin. Whatever its scale- family, community or nation- the core is the same. When an individual or a group wishes to gain advantage at […]
As Simple As That
I wake up most mornings with one thought dinning in my head. The thought tumbles over itself exuberantly in the sleep dimmed spaces of my mind. I can almost hear the screech of the thought ricocheting with supersonic speed in my skull. It is an irritating sound; it sets my nerves on edge. Over […]
Unlimited Canvas
There are days, like this wet, chill morning, when I feel as if I have turned into a sheet of unlimited canvas. On this blank canvas, an artist unleashes his passion in vibrant color and bold forms. His images etch themselves on me. In his all- consuming passion of creation, he forgets to notice […]
An Everyday Morning
There are a couple of Bulbuls sitting on the balcony ledge outside. A kingfisher is calling out in its typically musical lilt. I can also hear two doves cooing to each other. Just this moment a cuckoo has begun its loud mating call. From the opposite end, a koel has launched into its plaintive call […]
My Phrase for 2012
The last post was a kind of advance warning… though NOT in a predictable way.. which would be hopelessly boring. 🙂 Of all the neat things that Mark Twain has said, I find this the neatest: Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the […]
Fenced-in
There is a lot to be said in favor of fences. Fences are put around things one is afraid of losing or damaging. They are a way of protecting things, of containing them so they don’t hurt themselves or be hurt. Fences are a sure way of letting a precious thing know how well it […]
The Five Mile Trek
There are two kinds of people I keep myself distant from- the weak and the clueless. Make no mistake, I like people, I even love some of them. But there is also the other end of the spectrum. I have never hated anyone. It has always seemed too much trouble, besides being a pointless waste […]
The Gift
Deep in the wilderness of an African village, there lived a missionary. He was a loving man and his piety never came in the way of his love for his little flock. Unlike other more zealous men of God, this man’s primary- and sole- focus, was in giving service, not in collecting souls. Naturally, the […]
Power
He is a powerful man, they say. They say it like ‘he’ has tapped into an obscure, secret generator of the universe, forever denied to the rest of humanity. Statements of this kind annoy me. They make me want to take them apart to see what lies behind them and what makes […]