Inner Metamorphosis

It’s hardly a secret. We know the day will come. Yet, when it announces its arrival, we’re in denial. At some point, we begrudgingly accept it: the middle age. It’s difficult to pin the middle age. It’s probably when we experience what it means to be parents of rambunctious children and to be children of overbearing parents. When stray sprains and headaches show no signs of budging for days. When your memory fails you at the most inopportune time. During one of my long morning walks, it stuck me: what if I had misinterpreted the script of my life so far? Did I allow myself to be sentenced to silence too long? Did I willingly forfeit my right to defend myself and let others' judgment to prevail upon me? Could it be possible that guilt blinkered me from seeing how debilitating circumstances forced my hand as much as my own incapacity. The middle age, for all its attendant decays, provides one extraordinary compensation in bargain: perspective. All these years there was no data to und...

After long I return to western philosophers (staple of my early works), for I accidentally stumbled upon a hitherto unexplored interpretation of philosopher Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel’s famous dialectic philosophy. The man is long dead, but his philosophical ground sprouted thoughts that stormed the world.   Karl Marx, the most influential thinker of modern times, was inspired by Hegel.   Hegelian Dialectic Explained So, the Hegel’s dialectic philosophy is about three stages of development: Thesis + Anti-thesis = Synthesis This leads to diametrically-opposite interpretations, Sanction of status-quo (present being considered as synthesis) Revolution against status-quo (present being interpreted as thesis, to which anti-thesis is legitimate reaction). On the surface this appears to be a discovery tool: trying to make sense of history using these categories. For example: Capitalism (thesis) + Communism (anti-thesis) = Mixed economy (synthesis) Not ...

There are times when I read an interesting perspective, only to discover that I, too, had been tantalizingly close in my unpublished draft (there are many). Why didn’t I publish them then? Whatever little I had written was written overcoming time-scarcity, laziness, lethargy and sense of futility in one magical moment when ego momentarily triumphed humility.  What else explains a writer’s foolish endeavor to add more to the tomes of printed material accumulated since writing was invented! There were times when I had voluntarily silenced myself to escape the scathing disapproval I had come to expect from others.  When I later chanced upon a work that reinforced what I had always felt (but didn’t articulate), I couldn’t help feeling stupid to have not pursued that line of thought to the end. During one of my maths class back in school, I effortlessly waded through the complexities of the problem only to reach a dead-end and gave it up thinking I got it wrong somewhere....

“There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you .” – Maya Angelou. In the age of social-media fueled narcissistic fetishism, the very suggestion of writing about one’s problems invariably invites scorn if not disinterest. However, research indicates that there’s more to this than meets the eye. The Grieving Angel The crucial role of writing in helping alleviate trauma wasn’t so apparent to me until I read “ Eaten by the Japanese ” (review here ; briefly a story about a British Indian soldier captured by Japanese as PoW during World War II). Richard Crasta’s essay makes a very insightful observation about his father’s book which, according to him, was probably an effort to “ exorcize his ghosts by consigning them to paper ” (what a vibrant phrase!). Likewise, the after-taste of Richard Crasta’s “ The Killing of an Author ” (review here ; the story of the struggle of an uncompromising, independent writer) lingered in my mind long after I had finished...

Meeting friends after long is always a pleasure, but this time it left me with mixed emotions. A realization dawned – somewhere down the line I missed the bus. Even with the rose-tinted glasses I occasionally sport, the chances of revival appear bleak. 20s is when possibility overshadows actuality; 30s signals the end of this honeymoon (or delusion?). It’s common for many in their 20s to think that they can successfully pursue many streams of work simultaneously. But this is fool’s errand. To attain even a decent depth in any discipline demands large amounts of time and dedication. For every turn we take in the road of life, the opportunity to traverse several other roads is precluded forever. To take up the path we desire, we must renounce several others permanently. The hardest part of this learning process is that life seldom affords man an unlimited choice. The endeavor to taste food in all the leading restaurants of your city can be realized effortlessly, but many li...

Author Stephen King, the master of the macabre, to demonstrate his ease with variety wrote “ Different Seasons ” – a collection of four novellas, probably in an effort to avoid being pigeonholed into his forte of horror genre.  Yet, when a young film-director Frank Darabont approached him for rights to adapt one of its novellas “ Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption ” into a movie, he didn’t think much of it. The rest, as they say, is history; with some alterations the movie “ The   Shawshank Redemption ” turned out to be the best-ranked movies in IMDb, surpassing even the cult-film “ The Godfather ”. Plot A banker Andy Dufresne is sentenced to life at Shawshank State prison for murder of his wife and her lover, despite his claims of innocence. At prison, he befriends Ellis Boyd “Red”, the prison entrepreneur, and turns out to be the most unconventional prisoner. Meanwhile, the ruthless prison warden is eager to exploit Andy’s financial skills for his selfish e...

The recent news on hearing of Maria Susairaj and parallel announcement of Director Ramgopal Verma that he’s coming up with a movie titled “Not a love story” based on this incident is good news for RGV fans like me. In crux, Maria, a kannada actress along with her fiancé Emile Jerome (a former navy officer) is accused of murdering TV executive Neeraj Grover in a flat, made love in the very flat after the murder, chopped off body of Grover in parts and disposed it to a nearby jungle and finally burnt them. RGV tweets “My interest in a film inspired frm susairaj case is to understand hw 2 seemingly ordinary everyday ppl can commit sch a hair rising crime”. Indeed, something that the world in general and India in particular must be ready to very interested to know. Crime is not new to the annals of human history. History is replete with instances of brutal violence and cruelty. And for those of us who would live to believe that we are moving away from quiescent past to cha...

--> In 'Sarkar'(movie) Selvar Mani says “Jiske paas power hai uska wrong bhi right ho jata hai”. The extent to which the character was correct was something I grossly underestimated. As I have come to see it these days, the very definition of right and wrong is defined by those in power!!! Anyway, what is power? How does one define it? If you would have asked an uncivilized man of Stone age, he would have defined it as the physical strength one has to overwhelm another person. But soon, men would have realized this manner of resolving things is eventually detrimental to all concerned. Hence, men would have associated themselves into groups, so that he can receive security from these people and in turn must pay back to the group his service and loyalty. Thus despite his personal weakness, by owing allegiance to his group, he can rest assured of protection and security. Thus, the shift begins to a brutal crude method of settling matters to a more ...