On Silence

Too many women in too many countries speak the same language, the language of silence - Dasgupta

Silence - Anon
She sits alone amongst the ruins
Ruins of a dream they once nurtured
Vacant eyes stare into the vast emptiness
Eating away at her very soul

The terrifying silence screams
as raw pain washes over her
The evening shadows close in
Enveloping the remains of yesterday

Silence - Anon
Silence is the best speaker
Hear the sound by heart.

Read 'On the Blue Shore of Silence' - Pablo Neruda

To be or not to be

To die: to sleep;
No more; and by a sleep to say we end
The heart-ache, and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to, 'tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wish'd. To die, to sleep;
To sleep: perchance to dream: aye, there's the rub;
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come...

Mock Turtle

Reading a book where the principal characters are discussing a book titled 'Mock Turtle'. The basic outline of the book is decidedly hilarious - how long before an author comes up with a book based on it.

It is about a swimming instructor at a watering place, who had contracted such an unfortunate anti-nudity complex through watching so many bathing beauties that it completely inhibited all his natural emotions. So he got a job on a whaler and fell in love at first sight with an Eskimo, because she was such a beautiful bundle of garments. So he married her and brought her back to live in a suburb, where she fell in love with a vegetarian nudist. So then the husband went slightly mad and contracted a complex about giant turtles, and spent all his spare time staring into the turtle-tank at the Acquarium, and watching the strange, slow monsters swimming significantly round in their encashing shells.

Altogether, significant.

To dos

bike ride to Leh/Ladakh,
feel snowflakes, build a snowman,
laze on a beach the whole day - Ibiza?
stand on the edge of a cliff and feel the wind on my face - Irish coast,
catch the northern lights,
drive a bike at top speed on the highways of Germany,
travel the length of New Zealand and not meet a living soul (cows don't count :-)) - just nature ,
travel on a Concorde (erm, not possible now),
stay in the Ritz,
catch a show of Mousetrap,
learn to enjoy life,
learn French and Spanish,
visit Paris, go to the Louvre,
have coffee at a roadside cafe and spend 3 hours over the coffee,
lookup all the great paintings,
walk barefoot on grass covered with dew,
try bungee jumping and/or para gliding,
write a book,
play the violin,
attend a concert in Austria,
learn to trust,
take a one month leave and only watch movies and read books,
gorge on Swiss and Belgian chocolates,
have a pet dog and go for long walks,
let my hair down for a day,
try snorkelling,
learn to love myself,
watch a Fed match live on centre court, wimbledon and he better win it,
watch a football match - Man U / Chelsea,
build a new product,
adopt a child,
one life :-)

Why

Saw this piece in the TOI and liked it.

Why don't all Indians have one common prayer?
Why is school admission more painful than child birth?
Why do we find more animals on our roads than in our zoos than in our forests?
Why does a rapist only get 7 years imprisonment and the victim, a life-term?
Why do we take tuitions from the same teacher who teaches us in school?
Why do we see music more than we hear it?
Why can't our rivers be clean enough to swim in?
Why do you have to die to be praised?
Why do we have to be married to live together?
Why isn't there a compulsory politeness course for all Delhiites?
What about downsizing the parliament?
Why don't we ban ragging?
Why are our beautiful outdoors treated as one big giant toilet?
Why can't there be capital punishment for makers of spurious drugs?
Why are massive shopping malls being built with micro parking lots?
Why are we wearing mental corsets?
Why does it take Madonna to make yoga popular?
Why don't politicians have a retirement age?
Why can't we learn how to stand in a queue?
Why are TV promos more exciting than the actual film?
Why are schools allowed to function without a playground?
Why do all government offices look like government offices?
Why do we take ourselves so seriously?
Why are we more concerned about building temples than schools?
Why do we have statues only of politicians?

Truth

Came across this line recently - The notion of the truth as an idea that exists in the singular is being hollowed out. Truth is now very clearly an account delivered from a vantage point. The opposite of the truth is not a lie but another wannabe truth.

And the skies opened up

First rains have a sense of lovers meeting after a long bout of separation - those first tentative droplets splashing down over the rain-starved earth, lingering for that one tantalizing minute around the cracks before being sucked in, dry leaves soaking in the attention and coming alive to the ministrations of the rain, birds huddling over their nests, little outstretched hands and upturned faces - the expression saying it all.

Of all the seasons, the rains never fail to amaze me, it seems to bring nature alive - swaying trees in all hues of green, the mountains going from a dull brown to a vibrant green, overcast skies, emerging rivulets. If you really want to experience rains, you should go down south, Kerala during the rains is bliss. There's nothing crazier than standing under a banana leaf and still getting soaked to the skin. And then sipping hot tea spiced up with some herbs to protect you from the flu.

Today is different - the rain is falling in sheets, to the accompaniment of a crazy wind determined to make even the most sturdy trees bow in subjugation. Had come to the garden to walk barefoot over the dew-kissed grass when all of a sudden, the skies opened up. There's a small wooden shelter in the middle of the garden and I sat on the bench waiting for the storm to pass. Only it seems to be in no mood to let go. As the rains lash and pound on the roof, there is a feeling of being completely isolated, civilization suddenly seems miles away. It rained non-stop for a good hour before it decided to make peace with the world and move on.

They say every man is an island, in that all too short time, I savored that feeling.

(Dated post - too lazy to hit the submit button :-))