Dusty Idol

If it wasn't for my slow feet
it would have escaped my
weak wet eyes and grey hair.
Unattended, alone, dusty
Holy to my mind
unholy to the uncaring passer-by
I held it close
the chipped, clay model of God
A measure of hope
for my unknown self
discovered... on cracked footsteps.
Holiness, in a crevice
Hope in mud..


"Hope" is the thing with feathers- that perches in the soul--- Emily Dickinson

Course On Happiness

The newest rage is this mad mad world. Happiness needs to be taught to kids and adults alike. And with the freaky pace with which we compare, contrast and condemn our performances, I don't mind a little self-help wave washing our rather restrained and tired souls.
Jump onto the bandwagon fellow zombie!



The Constitution only gives people the right to pursue happiness. You have to catch it yourself.--- Ben Franklin

Happy Valentine's Day...

Anti-Piracy or the China crisis

I have never quite understood why the debate over piracy rages on. As much as we may want to support the anti-piracy debate, I really don't think so, I will be quite as happy to give up my freedom to install free software/pirated software on my PC. True, I am an arts person, and my work matters to me, but then again its not the same stuff as plagiarism. Piracy maybe cheap selling of an original product, but then as Chris Andersen puts it on his blog " Obscurity is a far greater threat to authors and creative artists than piracy". At least in piracy you have your name on it. The credit remains. So rather than playing around with words and leading movements, the best thing to do would be to march towards an open source movement?
Not Really.
The opposite of this China. Where the Intellectual Property System doesn't exist. So the result is, a dozen or so replicas, with no real meaning of the innovation. Its like a dog finding a bone in a hole and then finding many others with equal ease. There is no point in the discovery after a while.
Solution: Revel in the joy of being able to purchase stuff for free or paying less than the actual value, but ensure a good judicial or copyright system for the inventor.

I have no real respect for discoverers. If they didn't discover it when they had to , someone else would have done it later on. ---Friend

The Voting Power

Some of the most interesting insights(sometimes gossip!!) are developed in long queues. now if you are in a long queue and its for the collection of an educational form, betcha 100 bucks the conversation will veer towards reservations. And usually the best thing to do is to stand and listen.
So at this really long queue, the reservation topics went on an on and one smart guy, who was observing the lamenting and commenting decided to intervene( thankfully!!!! ...those students had reached some hypothetical 90%reservations act..very optimistic I know! )and said something really interesting! He felt that the reservations are a result of the lack of voting by the general category. Most dalits and OBCs make it a point to vote. For some of my Dalit friends going to vote is like going for a family outing and election candidates are discussed on dinner tables. And that got me thinking. Colaba, which supposedly has the largest number of educated people(This statistic is right of Page 3 Of BT...though personally, large and expensive houses aren't a product of owner common sense..simply market value) registered a voting percentage of a measly 26%. Now if the dalits (if any in Colaba), were to vote in large numbers,they would surely elect their representative. And this percentage was after the 26/7 deluge. Agreed, Colaba was the least affected by the flooding, but then most other suburbs hardly came out to vote. Only 46% of Mumbai came out to vote, for an election that could in all probability, decide whether we might wade in neck deep water in July this year or not! Wow...And we are the finance capital, marketer's haven and we might me having the largest SEZ in Navi Mumbai!! We sure are aware!
When you see the reservation issue in the light of voting power, everything falls into place. The general category's innate aloofness for the elections and sometimes inborn cynicism, might take this country into the deathly hallows of 90% reservations!
Ah the things a keen ear can teach you!

There's nothing like eavesdropping to show you that the world outside your head is different from the world inside your head---Thornton Wilder

Iraq

Boggled me
This vagary of life.
They thought my shut eyes
were a sign of strife.

The dust on my face
would lead me to tears
unaware are they?
of my human fears.

The beloved path
would lead maybe to a veil.
the stillness of the night
leaves nothing to steal.

The point of no return is right here.
why should they mock me?
tell them to look and listen
the path to meaning they'll see

To rise and stand
may seem low aim
amidst cries and shouts, life
seems different, seems same.

With a splinter in the eye,
I, a tiger to tame
the spirit in me
seems different, seems same.

P.S.--Lest we forget broken lives and wounded nations.

The pioneers of a warless world are the youth that refuse military service--Albert Einstein