Desert sands

what's your colour?

“Light shines, but so does Shadow. It is not everyone’s calibre to see the light of Shadow”, remarked a friend of mine. I was further intrigued into pondering over the desert and its depths. Taking cue from this philosophical viewpoint, i am trekking this path...

Desert, as it emerges in the mind’s eye, portrays extremes of nature’s variance, an unwillingness to emancipate from emaciation, a juxtaposition of coarseness and harshness that reality can ever be.

But, seldom do we witness the dance of abundance and lushness that is hidden beneath the cloaked and crooked. How else can one explain the alchemist's adventures to extract the elixir to the enigma called life. Just as darkness to light, misery to mirth, failure to fulfilment, harshness to holiness enhances the latter’s purpose and purport. As we traverse through physical to metaphysical realms, the examples too fade and cease to exist in the tangible domain but gently crossover to the empire of emotions, of which our dear desert is a silent symbolism. I take leave with just this ...

Arid and alive, they stretch far and wide,

Blowing winds and blazing sun are taken in stride,

Lessons for the willing and lesions for the wailing,

They stand in silence, all the while smelting,

Life’s rare facts galore threadbare,

Subtle and sublime having scarce fanfare,

For a winning heart it is prospects unlimited,

To a wilting hearth all’s connived and encrypted,

Open your eyes to see through the image,

Dear friend, truth is hidden beyond the mirage.

TidBits

Try to memorize...its fun !

(from the movie, V for Vendetta, Contains 49 words beginning with 'V' )

Voilà! In view, a humble vaudevillian veteran, cast vicariously as both victim and villain by the vicissitudes of Fate. This visage, no mere veneer of vanity, is a vestige of the vox populi, now vacant, vanished. However, this valorous visitation of a by-gone vexation, stands vivified and has vowed to vanquish these venal and virulent vermin vanguarding vice and vouchsafing the violently vicious and voracious violation of volition. 

The only verdict is vengeance; a vendetta, held as a votive, not in vain, for the value and veracity of such shall one day vindicate the vigilant and the virtuous.

Verily, this vichyssoise of verbiage veers most verbose, so let me simply add that it's my very good honor to meet you and you may call me V.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uW6HbZXI9Y0

On wasting Food...

Ever wondered why food is respected here in India? Those of us with traditional mindsets continue to pray before we eat. We bow in reverence when we stamp it under our feet. Why is this so? When everywhere else in the world food is treated as a commodity to be consumed, we strangely call ‘annam parabramha swarupam’ (Food is a manifestation of the Divine), raising it to the altar of the divine.

I understand the key lies in recognizing food as the life giver and benefactor which deserves respect. Each of us might have been flooded with email forwards about the dire conditions of some sub-saharan country and the contrasting lavishness others are suffocated in. You might ask, what difference does it make. The answer, strangely is hidden in a rhetorical question. How did Gandhiji make a difference by dressing conservatively? The key my friend, is empathy.

The entire universe is connected by a strange web of love and faith. If you are child like, it becomes a mother to caress you. If you are heartless, its a ruthless task master. Empathy- is a prayer that heals the suffering without anything being exchanged. So, i think its clear why wasting food is a self injurious activity. To make it clearer, let me give an analogy. How does it feel, if all our life’s achievements and aspirations are nullified at a single stroke by some unknown force? Then, why this discrimination, for, every grain is a plant’s life time achievement. Please don’t undermine.

The state of ART

Shouldn't we be doing more?

Ever tried to compare the life we lead to that of an ant’s? ...please do and you would be startled at the remarkable similarity most of us share. Though the comparisons seem out of scope, on appropriately scaling down, patterns emerge. From the constant run for food to response to stimuli we are all homogenous... glory to God. Then the irony begins, we have the extra applets...wisdom and intelligence too available with us! This, as they say should enable us to take off to higher planes. So much so, for the clichéd verbatim. Lets see what we need to do with what we have got.

Achievements so far:

We have successfully created mindsets which continuously pursue ephemeral pleasures (ironically being aware of the REAL throughout), spend time unwisely, necks programmed to never look upwards and minds with pessimism as default mode. Increasingly encouraged are narrow minds with deep (‘er ’, we constantly compare) pockets, disgust in place of empathy. Truly, narrow emotional hearts with cholesterol loaded physical hearts make strange bed fellows. Human endeavour is measured in dollar terms. No returns, no credit, is the mantra. The tragedy of the whole story is revealed at the end.... every dying man realizes that life is not what he had perceived it to be and there were better options available to earn the same lasting satisfaction.

What to do:

‘Be Conscious’. The more i think of the solution, the more appropriate the two words seem. You would definitely realize that this is the gist of most of the sacred scriptures and erudite commentaries. This is the panacea to the problems and the elixir to everlasting peace. So, make effort and as they say, “Aim for the stars and may be you’ll reach the sky.”