We don't name the dead.
Everyone who loses somebody wants revenge, on God if they can't find anyone else.
But in Africa, in Matobo, the Ku believe that the only way to end grief is to save a life. 

lf someone is murdered, a year of mourning ends with a ritual that we call the Drowning Man Trial.

There's an all-night party beside a river. 

At dawn, the killer is put in a boat.
He's taken out on the water and he's dropped. 

He's bound so that he can't swim.
The family of the dead then has to choose. 

They can let him drown, or they can save him.
The Ku believe that if the family lets the killer drown, they'll have justice but spend the rest of their lives in mourning.

But if they save him, if they admit that life isn't always just..... that very act can take away their sorrow.
Vengeance is a lazy form of grief.

                                                                            ......The Interpretor.

Green !

Like never before !
:-)

Why so Pale and Wan?

WHY so pale and wan, fond lover?
         Prithee, why so pale?
Will, when looking well can't move her,
         Looking ill prevail?
         Prithee, why so pale?

Why so dull and mute, young sinner?
         Prithee, why so mute?
Will, when speaking well can't win her,
         Saying nothing do 't?
         Prithee, why so mute?

Quit, quit for shame! This will not move;
         This cannot take her.
If of herself she will not love,
         Nothing can make her:
         The devil take her!

                            ............... Sir John Suckling.

Of persons arrived at high positions, ceremonies, wealth,
scholarships, and the like;
(To me all that those persons have arrived at sinks away from them,
except as it results to their bodies and souls,
So that often to me they appear gaunt and naked,
And often to me each one mocks the others, and mocks himself or herself,
And of each one the core of life, namely happiness, is full of the
rotten excrement of maggots,
And often to me those men and women pass unwittingly the true
realities of life, and go toward false realities,
And often to me they are alive after what custom has served them,
but nothing more,
And often to me they are sad, hasty, unwaked sonnambules walking the dusk.)

                                                                                       ........Walt Whitman.

A Botheration of eternity!

Most often I find myself in a situation where I can't help but butt into a conversation of understanding a point. The whole point is lost when someone is trying to act like a bulldozer (according to GD nomenclature). I dislike it immensely when I do not get to complete what I want to say. Cutting off, is what its called. Of course, it is perpetual quality that I practice with my friends, who swear they could kill me for the same. But that is a different situation altogether. Most often I have noticed that people do not ask me anything. In a way it is good probably, but sometimes I feel maybe its an impression that is set. I remember I used to see people run around to some assholes(sorry but can't help it right now) because of their pompous nature. I guess blowing a horn does help. But I cannot, absolutely cannot tolerate an uljhan occurring in front of me. I have to somehow gather my uljhan ko suljhao rescue team into operation. Go through the foot in the mouth situation (a syndrome common to me and PH) ka repercussions ! I again retire to the line that I have been repeating in my head for the few days "why can't you just shut up!". GOD please rescue me from this torture I say ! 

Mita de apni hasti ko, agar kuch martaba chaahe,
Ke daanaa khaak mei milkar, gul e gulzaar hota hai....

                                                                   .............. Allama Iqbal.          

The Road Not Taken

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference. 

                                          ............Robert Frost

Cheapsters !

I do not understand this at all. How can some people manage to surpass the cheapometer standard they set for themselves progressively each time? I wish I could be one of those people who can stick to their determination and say "Neither do I forgive nor do I forget". Unfortunately, or fortunately-I don't know, it is with great displeasure that I admit I'm amongst those who forgive easily and probably forget soon too :-/
It is this attitude or inborn trait that makes my life miserable. Making the same errors over and over again. I think I must resolve to not loose my guard and stay focused on forgive and don't ever forget and never give a second chance to the person again !

A Good Evening .....

After hours of pouring into piles of papers, rummaging through every self mailed files on my email account, hunting for images and videos on google, making and remaking and remaking of a handful of slides, making hazaar mental notes on stuff, I FINALLY FINISHED MY JC !!

I was very happy with it. If I were truly being honest about it, I did feel I could have done better or added more detail. Of course, whether I wanted to speak further about them or not, my audience, who were already minimal in numbers, would have reduced to sub-zero :-P 

The best part of it was, I was relaxed about it. I generally never am. I get all fidgety and oh my god oh my god kinds. Maybe because it was more informal, it felt safe and conducive. We were just a bunch of girls sitting and talking about things we know and about those we/I don't. Yes, none of the boys turned up, my boss included. My parasitic castration joke went down the drain with it! :-D

I then followed PH to her usual hangout urf kiosk. It was a lot of fun sipping coffee under the golden-mauve-grey-orange lit sky. Again, another relaxed and peaceful setting. The sky was so beautiful that I kept wondering about how painters or artists capture those colours on their canvas. Mixing of colours, the right way, in the right amounts. Bringing out the plain colours to life.

I went back home, after ascending and descending some buses here and there. :-D 

Although I felt peaceful and ready to hit the bed, the sleeping plan never reached its completion. My mom was one of those lets talk moods, so, I couldn't go ahead with my secretive sin of sloth. Completely exhausted, with deep sunken eyes, here iyyam, writing my blog. Distraction distraction go away, come again another day, little shalu wants to lay, so ..........!

Before I sound more drunk and remotely sober, I shall put and end to this.

Point Blank / Bull's Eye !

Its one of those days, I have been itching to finish writing four to five drafts that I began writing since 1947 a love story ! :-P More so, because I have a presentation to give tomorrow. FYI, I have just finished making the slides for introduction, which I believe will take up more than half the time allotted for the talk! CBag's voice keeps ringing in my head each time I see those eight slides with truck loads of information that I "intend" to disseminate :-/. 

Meanwhile I decided to take a break. I have been taking one for the past one and half hours now by the way :-P. For once I wish I could turn into a pumpkin or something as soon as the clock ticks four in the late afternoon today :-/. I suddenly remembered that PH sent me something to please my ears earlier in the afternoon yesterday. I decided that while I'm anyways vellaofying my precious time, I might as well listen to them. I opened the lyrics of the songs while I was listening to them simultaneously. Before I could finish hearing the songs I ended up reading the lyrics of the entire song. Can't help it with my restless, it sets out of my mind like light waves ! Aneehoooo. By the time I reached the last paragraph of the first song tears already started streaming down my gargantuan cheeks. Stopped right after I finished reading the second song.

Sometimes words, in any form (uttered or on a piece of paper or from a song), feel like they stroke the precise chords inside your head. Like they had access to what you wanted to hear deep deep down. Like you have been waiting for someone to say it out loud just for the heck of it. Not because they carry a promise that things "will" change or be different from now. Because it helps to regain your strength through the reassurance they posit.

I don't know why PH sent me those songs. But they hit the bull's eye in my head ! Thanks a lot :-)

Tick tock. Tick tock ! I shall go back to my preparation. I'm already running late on my set time to finish the slides. Aza Aza fighting :-D !!