Silence

Sheltered by
A beautiful cloak of silence
I walk on
Through the vales of life.

Pausing here
To feel the breeze
And pausing there
To see the flowers.

I reach home
Or the valley underneath
And catch the clouds
Float by.

And then I float up
To the top of the hill
At home
Welcomed by silence.

Haywire

Broken rhythm
Incomplete melodies
Ambiguous thoughts
Cluttered mind
Harrowed soul
Garbled existence
Inane conversations
with persistent attempts to overcome them all!

The Maze

I stand lost in this maze
Confounded, bound, helpless, unsure
Is it worth marching ahead?

The paths seem known, from distant memory
Familiar yet untreaded
Shadowy and sheltering

That point of light
Warm, loving, friendly and tender
Lurks at the journey's end

I don't decide, I just follow
The auburn alleys
For I have experienced bliss, before...

Enjoying myself ...

... Walk in the rain, jump in mud puddles, collect rocks, rainbows and roses, smell flowers, blow bubbles, stop along the way, build sandcastles, say hello to everyone, go barefoot, go on adventures, act silly, fly kites, have a merry heart, talk with animals, sing in the shower, read childrens' books, take bubble baths, get new sneakers, hold hands and hug and kiss, dance, laugh and cry for the health of it, wonder and wander around, feel happy and precious and innocent, feel scared, feel sad, feel mad, give up worry and guilt and shame, say yes, say no, say the magic words, ask lots of questions, ride bicycles, draw and paint, see things differently, fall down and get up again, look at the sky, watch the sun rise and sun set, watch clouds and name their shapes, watch the moon and stars come out, trust the universe, stay up late, climb trees, daydream, do nothing and do it very well, learn new stuff, be excited about everything, be a clown, enjoy having a body, listen to music, find out how things work, make up new rules, tell stories, save the world, make friends with the other kids on the block, and do anything else that brings more happiness, celebration, health, love, joy, creativity, pleasure, abundance, grace, self-esteem, courage, balance, spontaneity, passion, beauty, peace, relaxation, communication and life energy to...all living beings on this planet.

-Bruce Williamson, It's Never Too Late To Have A Happy Childhood, 1987

Something like an Autobiography

I have always loved Akira Korosawa’s films. And I have just finished reading his autobiography – “Something like an autobiography”(Translated by Audie E. Bock).
The most striking feature about this autobiography is the utmost modesty with which Kurosawa captures his life. One of the most inspiring autobiographies I have ever read, I was particularly mesmerised by Kurosawa’s spirit, his love for life and his dynamism.
It is very difficlult to capture the autobiography here and I'd like to recommend it to all and sundry. I think the best way of capturing the essence of the autobiography is to enlist excerpts that touched upon different aspects of his life...
On Life:
…as if I had after a long time at last come to a place where there was air
…there were many such teachers who harboured a libertarian spirit an a wealth of individual qualities. By comparison with them among today’s schoolteachers there are too many plain “salaryman” drudges. Or perhaps…there are too many bereaucrat types…the kind of education they dispense isn’t worth a damn
…Nature takes good care of herself. What makes nature ugly is the behaviour of human beings.
…the memories of this place fade into the distance like a village seen from a train window, growing smaller and hazier
…I set out on a winding path beset by wind and snow
…This is probably true of human life everywhere – a light exterior hides a dark underside.
…to develop a personal vision is not easy…this insufficiency caused me not only dissatisfaction but uneasiness…I became more and more irritated with myself
…At last I had climbed to the base of the peak I had to scale and I stood gazing up at my mountain.
…I can’t help wondering what fate had prepared me so well for this road I was to take in life
His marriage and the backstabbing of the friend he employed to play cupid.
…To this day I can’t understand it. I can’t think of any reason this fellow should have hated me so much.What dwells at the bottom of the human heart remains a mystery to me. Since that time I have observed many different kinds of people – swindlers, people who have killed or died for money, plagiarists – and they all look like normal people, so I am confused. In fact, more than “normal” these people have nice faces and they say very nice things, so I am more confused.
…The cheerful brightness of the song threw my black mood into high relief intensifying my sorrow to an intolerable degree. …The emptiness we felt was neither sadness nor loneliness For Rashomon - Human beings are unable to be honest with themselves about themselves. They cannot talk about themselves without embellishing. This script portrays such human beings – the kind who cannot survive without lies to make them feel they are better people than they really are. It even shows this sinful need for flattering falsehood going beyond the grave – even the character who dies cannot give up his lies when he speaks to the living through a medium. Egoism is a sin the human beings carries with him from birth; it is the most difficult to redeem. This film is like a strange picture scroll that is unrolled and displayed by the ego …and angel appeared out of nowhere …people indeed have immense difficulty in talking about themselves as they really are…the human animal suffers from the trait of instinctive self-aggrandizement.
On censors
…the censors…behaved as if they suffered from persecution complexes, sadistic tendencies and various sexual manias. They cut every single kiss scene out of foreign movies…They said that such things would stimulate carnal desires
His joy of film-making as expressed for all his films
... my overall impression of it was that of a very pleasant excursion, like a picnic, for a director each work he completes is like a whole lifetime
His arresting narrative of his gradual maturity as a professional.
And his sensitivity is best manifested when he doesn’t directly speak of post-war pain, but shows it in ‘Stray Dog’
To sum up, "Something Like an Autobiography" is a very good read indeed!

Unbroken rhythm

Moody Drizzle
Unbroken Rhythm
Nostalgia

Poetry
Melody
Somnolent hours

Adda
Cha
Kolkata

Blissful (im)mobile existence

Being technologically challenged(and very apologetically so), I have never been able to fully and unconditionally appreciate the mobile phone and it's intrusion in our lives.

From my perspective, that is severely clouded by mobile dementia, I have only been able to fathom the discomfort of having to carry that piece of machinery with me always, as expected by the rest of the world. To me the mobile phone resulted in

a loss of privacy("Hey what are you doing now"),

being answerable to all and sundry("Where are you?"),

tolerating irritating tele-callers("Mr. Nilanjana would you like a home loan?"),

being tracked by work/business associates("How far have you'll reached?"),

and being subject to silly sms-es("Now download your favourite jokes...") at wee hours in the morning.

And now that my ex-mobile phone has ditched me, and the next one is still on it's way, I am peacefully blissful(to say the least).

Enjoying the honeymoon till it lasts:)