Why the(y) gossip?

 Does it surprise you? To me, it surely does! Yes, who, and why, can spare the time, energy and (non-)sense to go on gossiping about others?

 But, yes, surely there would be, nay, are neighbours who have your complete itinerary of each day. They begin with, When did you wake up? Why did you wake up late? Why did you stay up late? Are you alive at all, to begin with? If you are dead, how to get the body out? No, you sneezed. Okay, alive! How many times? Farted, shat, pissed, and so on, and so on? 

What did you cook? What were you saying to the veggie vendor? Ah, yes, we were trying to listen to what was transpiring between you and the kachrewali, which actually is nothing but an innocent exchange about where to put the 'wet dustbin' tomorrow morning as you would be in a tearing hurry, given the exam duties!

Do not you think that such people could be asked a few counter questions? Let us look at at a few examples, right? How do you know that I slept late? What were you doing keeping awake so late, for instance? As for the physical activities mentioned, we really cannot, right? Yes, for one thing, we are too decent to mention such unmentionables. For yet another thing, the gossips are using their mouths to perform these activities! Metaphorically, of course!

Honestly, by now, I am cent per cent certain, someone pays such creeps to keep an eye on the absolutely innocent life I lead. Well, see, how helpful I always am! The good for nothing's sitting at home for ages doing nothing are thus getting some tax free income, right?

Basically though, seriously I feel that they are completely unfulfilled, totally incomplete in their own lives. They have hence such curious poking of nefarious noses in others' lives. Their marriages, for instance, happen/exist/continue/ are functional at all because of sheer convenience. Such dissatisfied souls have to hence worry about others' romance as it is totally absent, and forever, in their own lives!

Poor creeps! Even the Lord cannot forgive them, because they know perfectly well what they are doing!

Pratima@ It is a certain truth universally accepted that you hunger for what you lack! See, the poor baby monkey, Punch! Absolutely lacks love. Hence searches for it outside. Poor thing! Unlike gossips, it is too young to know that all that is good, within resides!

Quote of the day:                                                         Gossip is the business of loafers whose empty vacant lives give them time galore to spread vicious nonsense believed by idiots!

Word of the day: smear campaign                      Smear campaign refers to a conscious planning of  discrediting someone by whispering false accusations.

We, men, make history!

  She was fourteen. Her poor family married her off to a fifty-two year old man. She hid herself in the cow shed during the wedding night, and, next morning, she began her walk towards freedom, across a mountain, on lonely roads, with next to nothing to support her. Yet, yes, she made it! 

This girl was thirteen when her drunkard of a father almost sold her off, to an extremely abusive man of his age, who beat the kid black n blue, made her a mother at fourteen. One fine morning, she took off with her baby, and oh, yes, she, too, made something of herself. 

What do you think? Whose stories am I telling ? Where could they have taken place? Oh, you think that I am narrating the plight of some "Nakushi" from the hinterlands of India!?!

You certainly need a reality check. The first is the sad saga of Sara Hutchins from Kentucky, America who braved the Appalachian Range, bitter cold and a hundred and eighty kilometres long walk in winter to make a life for herself!  The second example, incidentally, is from America, too. 

In the meanwhile, meet this granma in her mid sixties. Her marriage made her in to a maid, and a baby making machine. At sixty-seven, this mother of eleven chose to walk out to make thus something of herself. 

In other words, be it Dr. Rakhma Bai or a "nakushi", be it India or be it the U S., be it the late nineteenth century or the  early to late twentieth century, simple women who are not a symbolic somebody's somebody (like a daughter/sister/wife of a powerful/famous man) braved all that is bad in patriarchy to make something of themselves, and on their own terms and conditions. 

Hence the need to celebrate March 8! Unfortunately, in the echo chambers that most discourses currently are, many would be busy berating "Brahminical"  patriarchy or Manusmriti (about) which hopefully they would have read! 

At the other end of this kline, there are women who use this opportunity, too, to splurge, to shop, to roam, the maids of the market that they are! Neither do their daughters, who never had to struggle in any way, had all the rights without any responsibilities, understand the relevance of the day beyond fashion and feste!

Actually, with the advent of the AI, women would be rendered more vulnerable both in the public sphere and in the private space. As the AI guzzles up jobs, women would yet again be invisible in multiple ways in the public sphere, while, individually, given the AI  rendered identity thefts, and ingenious harassments, they would suffer still more! But who cares? The much celebrated  demographic dividend is busy with fashion, accessories, and "chill", while 'ab-using' men!

Time passes, in a linear fashion, at times, arrives cyclically. Yet, despite all possible hurdles, often consciously craftily caused, we, men, make our stories which have lovely morals! Long live Match 8 in all its meaning-full avataars!

Pratima@ March 8 is not a decorative day. It is an occasion to meet one's own self, yet again and in multiple ways!

Quote  as well as words of the day:            Asserts Maya Angelou:                                              "As I walk through frozen sands/Through the flames of burning lands/My feet are torn, they're torn to strands/I will not thirst

As I cross the raging sea/Waves are crashing over me/They drag me down, they drag me down/I will not drown

They'll know my name/After the storms are passing through/They'll know my name

When they've forgotten all about you/They'll know my name

They're calling out, they're calling out/ They're calling out, they're calling out my name

And I shall rise, oh well I shall rise/Again and again/I shall rise, oh well I shall rise/Again and again

And I shall rise, oh well I shall rise

Again and again.

I shall rise, oh well I shall rise

Again and again

I shall rise, oh well I shall rise

Again and again

I shall rise, oh well I shall rise

Again and again"

Writing n painting: A rough draft

Do two different arts relate to each other? Sure they do. Why, there are any number of literary texts that deal directly with paintings, while there are many more portraits of authors. Why, the inviting cover page itself can be a painting!  While it is easier to explore the relationship between  music and literature, the bond between painting and literature could be explored a little more, may be! 

Let us begin with the most banal observation. Both painting and writing need paper! Of course, these days both have promoted themselves to the newer canvas called the computer/mobile screen, not to mention the ready-made mode imposed on both by the  new fangled AI schema, right? 

Yet NOTHING like the paper itself, inviting you to de-sign a new universe out of a plain canvas, whether it be writing or painting, right? Next, both require the background to add a unique texture. While writing quotes it with words, painting coats it with mostly the base white or black. 

Both begin with a rough sketch. Yet often the strokes, the patterns, the images, the symbols that thus emerge create their own story, and most colourfully. 

Often they say that a few lines of a painting can present what hundreds of lines and thousands of words may not. Let me disagree completely. Let me give you an example to prove my point. Look at that famous painting "Mona Lisa." 

Many say that despite its world wide fame, an actual look at it in the Louvre is almost disappointing, especially because the small little frame is almost dwarfed by the grandeur of the other masterpieces.

Let an author describe it though, even without having seen it in person in that Parisian museum. Indeed, the painting would not only come alive. Many more meanings, may be, not even intended by the artist, would make even Mona Lisa smile, and openly! In brief, long live writing as it enriches existence itself!

Pratima@ Writing is not merely creative. It, moreover, is analytical by nature. No wonder, unlike other arts, it can critique all these arts, and itself. A mode of be(com)ing, in short!

Quote of the day:                                                      Has to be by who else but Shakespeare! The quote is rather well-known but most apt in this context. Asserts the author of authors,             "The poet's eye,/in a fine frenzy rolling,/   doth glance from heaven to Earth,/from Earth to heaven;/and as imagination bodies forth/ the forms of things unknown,/ the poet's pen turns them to shape,/ and gives to airy nothing/ a local habitation and a name." 

Word of the day: spontaneous                              Spontaneous means performed or occurring as a result of a sudden impulse or inclination and without premeditation or external stimulus.                       That is what writing alone can be! Let there be an author, and miracles happen, and out of nowhere!

 

The War

 The Middle East is on fire yet again, as it has been since the October 7 Hamas attack. All sorts of causes beginning with the Wahabi history to the ancient Crusades between Christians and Muslims have been quoted. 

Is it the case that the war is between the Sunni's and the Shia's who appear to be supporting the terrorists? Very many are the (conspiracy) theories ranging from crude oil to cruder Epstein files, and all are equally true, not to forget the much oppressed Iranians' fate!

It is quite obvious, however, that the weapons industry, what with weapons like cluster bombs being used as if it were a festival or a party, must be laughing its way to bank accounts overflowing with the mollah, right?

At times, I do feel that even at the (inter)national level, it is just better to plain ignore the silly screaming of rabid fools replete with nuisance value. Honestly, it saves you a lot of headache, and the foolish creeps completely expose themselves, anyway!

This morning, for example, in our lane, bang beyond our fence, some crazy hoodlums were screaming their brainless nonsense for hours on end. No use asking them to keep quiet because such weirdos are absolutely aware of their "democratic" rights, however much may they constantly trample others' peace because of their brainless chatter!

Most probably, those stooges were paid to thus yak away. So they absolutely appeared. No knowing if they belonged to the "peaceful" community as, every Friday, at the recently built dargah/mosque tops two hundred feet behind my home, there is a huge rush of the faithful who terribly inconvenience by parking their vehicles right opposite the gate! 

If I were to get in to the Israel mode and question those creeps, how to prove that they were paid to thus bother? One needs huge contacts in the upper echelons of the police and/or administration to get sick sadists behind bars, where they belong beyond doubt!

If one does not reap such benefits, what does a law abiding citizen leading a good clean life do? Follow, I suppose, the advice by Winston Churchil; namely, ''Never wrestle with a pig. You get mired in the gutter, dirty and slushy. The pig anyways loves it"!

Wish Israel and America were equally prudent n wise! The world would have been spared a huge n brutal spectacle because the crooks are like the tail of a piglet. Try anything, it would never straighten. Crooked never change, rather like the spots on the skin of a swine. Creeps they were, cheap they will continue to be!

Pratima@ Hoodlums, local or (inter)national, need to be taught a lesson, but without getting down to the level of their viciousness. Otherwise, who is afraid of downright ignoble ignoramus?

Quote of the day:                                                       "If you do not learn lessons at the right time, life will teach you the same lessons at the wrong time, and in the worst way." 

Word of the day: offender                                       An offender, most often such criminals are repeat offenders, is a person who causes problems, does something surely wrong, commits an illegal act.

If the bottle be new, why the old wine?

 Yesterday, on a group was shared a video about robots. You bet, tough it was to believe that they were robots. They were absolutely life like. Their skin looked soft as a petal. Their faces were fabulous and youthful. Their waists slim n trim, in great shape were their bodies. 

They could perform very many activities, too. They exchanged pleasantries, they hugged n kissed, they spoke faultless English, they exercised! Nattily dressed they were. The tag line was, "within five years, one of these could out-perform you as your companion." 

So far so good! Then why such a title to/for our blog? Well, their surface look was feminine, and they were treated as female! They were effective, undoubtedly. They were not presented as efficient though! 

Made by men, male fantasies they were essentially. All of them were sexy. They were dressed provocatively. To open them up, to check some robotic functions, all the switches were near their breasts or below the belt!

In other words, be it the rock/stone (st)age or the robotic age, women are eye candy. Who cares about their intelligence, their minds or their souls? In the most vulgar way, stupidly they are assigned one and only one function in the male imaging. And such beasts are called men!

Pratima@Men, who have vulgar thoughts/words about women, and reflect these in their eyes and 'activities', should never forget that they were born of a woman, and are so-called fathers to daughters! Their deeds would sure sooner be reciprocated on to their daughters, and hundred-fold! That is the law of nature!

Quote of the day:                                                        "Lust is satanic " Anonymous but universal!

Word of the day: gender                                         Gender refers to identities with reference to social and cultural considerations rather than biological ones.

Wild Life

 To most, especially if they belong to the currently potent Gen Z, or the counter-culture gang of the sixties, wild life might mean the "vida loca", the "high" life in every sense of the term, right? 

To me, too, wild life has a huge appeal. For me, however, it refers to the ferocious forests where the footprints belong to  majestic lions, terror-fic tigers,  intelligent elephants, elusive snow leopards, bears of all types, sprinting deer and zippy hares n rabbits running races with the wind on ancient trails known only to gnarled trees and twisting creepers. 

Yes, forests of all types, however much mankind might manage to destroy them, flourish and in all their truly wild beauty. Wild life, too, survives there, living proof of the adaptability beyond all possible Darwin's. Hence the importance of the World Wild Life Day. 

Want proof? Yes, the jungle safaris! The lions' mesmerizing yet amused look captures the camera, rather than the other way round! Or the tigers with their famous "fearful symmetry"! Trapped they might feel by the gypsies on both sides, overloaded with the descendants of monkeys chattering, shrieking, and what not. Yet they quietly twist their way out.

My brother, Sanju, sent his son, nine year old Kunal, for a children's camp in a tiger reserve. Kunal came back with fabulous photos. How? "Oh, they are coolly moving about," was the kid's response!

Thus, in brief, big cats to smallest animals have learnt to adapt. Even when human beings have encroached their habitat, patiently and yet proudly they continue to lead their natural ways. 

Beastly indeed we are. Poaching, international trade in animal parts, constant encroachment in to and destruction of deep forests, felling of trees in the name of development, wild life tourism, scarce funds, many are causes affecting the wild life.

Undoubtedly heart warming are the efforts at conservation, too. Though I do not exactly appreciate throwing food at them as if they were strays in a dirty lane, the Kevinson's of the animal world-mankind interface prove how responsive they are, and responsibly!

Luckily, circuses cannot ill-treat them any longer. Imaginative movies like "The Lion King" romanticise them almost in an anthropomorphic way.  "Vantara" type of rescue and rehabilitation centers proliferate, despite the controversies. In other words, the wild jungles called metros and cities have  taught human being to respect forests, wild life and the tribes co-habiting with them!

Pratima@Yes, wild life in all its forms is visually appealing. I find the sounds and silences of the wild life fascinating, too. The rustle of the leaves, the babble of the brooks, the swish n whoosh of the wind, the very many calls of animals "talking" to each other, and the unique profound silence, the soundscape is simply fabulous. Long live wild life, however many species might have been rendered extinct unfortunately. 

Quote of the day:                                                         "Wild animals never kill for sport, " says J.A.Froude. Unlike so-called human beings!

Word of the day: savage                                            Savage refers to an animal (or force of nature) fierce, violent, ferocious and uncontrolled. Jean-Jacques Rousseau had an interesting take on the "savage" though. More about it some other time. 

Respecting Authors!

 These days, does anybody write? Why, most people prefer to orally send even their WhatsApp messages. Typing a message is considered either bothersome or boring! No, it is not merely due to the human tendency to laze around. 

Why, every recent most technology, be it the simple WhatsApp or the latest ChatGPT version or some such recent most, and never nascent, AI avataar, it assures you that you have to speak the message, and it would get converted in to the written form, if you so wish at all! 

Dictators hence most people are! Do remember that such habits enter the human psyche, and start twisting it accordingly.  When you speak, for instance, you hardly think. Rather you shoot ( n scoot!)

 When you write, irresponsible you are not allowed to be. You tend to think through. Automatically you get to to correct yourself. Such a self-check, both literally and metaphorically, is absent when you choose to speak! 

If this is the condition of the daily, banal exchanges which, moreover, are invaded by that modern hieroglyphic called the emojis, imagine the condition of any serious writing.

 As it is, most readers (a quite rare tribe, given the yen for browsing!) anyways read the DIY, the "useful" kind of books. Given the information explosion, coupled with the summarising, re-presenting, editing technologies, forget students, even most lecturers refuse to touch serious tomes reference material with a barge pole! .

In such a scenario, how about literature? Well, given the curtailed attention span,  everyone explores not even short stories, well, even editors glorify, "flash fiction"! May be, payment might be the consideration, too, given the tough times most publication houses face! These two/three hundred words, moreover, might be machine made!

If such such are the times, great need there is to respect authors who are still ready to spend their time, intellectual energy and innate creativity to craft a book, be it literary or be it on a knowledge-able(d) reference material types. Hence the relevance of March 3, the international writers day instituted by the international P.E.N. Association! The 3/3 is indeed auspicious!

Pratima@Authors, whether they attempt discursive, journalistic or creative writing, are using both intellectual and imaginative resources to creatively craft an alternative world through words. Thus authors open up the existing world, too. Hence are inequalities, inequities, injustices lesson-ed n lessen-ed! Long live authors! The writerly space is indeed sacrosanct!

Quote of the day:                                                         Says Susan Sontang, "A writer, I think, is someone who pays attention to the world." 

Expression of the day: attention deficit                  Attention deficit refers to inattention and not being able to keep focus which may result in impulsive hyper activity, especially among children.