Wednesday, December 30, 2015

A Seaside fable ...

Once upon a time in a far off beach, it rained heavily and the sea got rough. The sea hit the land and lashed all its anger on him. The land smiled and held her in his arms. He said to her,

"I will be there for you always...."

The summer sun scorched the land and he was burning hot as if he had fever. The waves hit the sand gently and said

"shhhhh ... everything will be all right" and washed away all his tears.

The sun went hiding in shame seeing the care the sea had for the land and the land's love for the sea. The sea smiled at the land and kept talking to him day and night - whispering to him all that she saw around the world. Taking the tears of the land away into her heart. She turned salty with the lands tears.

The land said to her,

"When you smile, sun hides behind the clouds thinking that there is something more than suns shine in it"

Every moment of the day and night the land opened its arms to hold the sea when its tears fell on her. And told the sea... 

"I will be there always to hold you till the world exists, however harsh you get or how soft you become."

And the sun came from behind the mountains to see the sea and land hold their hands together again ...The land took the salt and made the water pure again. He threw a spring out to the world and told the world that his sea is pure and sweet. 

The sun got envious and made the waters of the stream a cloud. Seeing the clouds, the land prayed hard. The prayers of the land brought back the sweet rain and filled the heart of the sea, and they still talk day and night. 

And still the sea tells her beloved land ....

"shhhh ... everything will be all right"

Thursday, December 24, 2015

Twinkle Twinkle more to it ....

"Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" is a popular English lullaby, from an early 19th-century English poem by Jane Taylor, "The Star". The poem, which is in couplet form, was first published in 1806 in Rhymes for the Nursery, a collection of poems by Taylor and her sister Ann. The English lyrics have six stanzas, although only the first is widely known. 

Twinkle, twinkle, little star,
How I wonder what you are!
Up above the world so high,
Like a diamond in the sky.

When the blazing sun is gone,
When he nothing shines upon,
Then you show your little light,
Twinkle, twinkle, all the night.

Then the traveller in the dark
Thanks you for your tiny sparks;
He could not see which way to go,
If you did not twinkle so.

In the dark blue sky you keep,
And often through my curtains peep,
For you never shut your eye
'Till the sun is in the sky.

As your bright and tiny spark
Lights the traveller in the dark,
Though I know not what you are,
Twinkle, twinkle, little star.

But the poem has more than it seems to have. Some of the meanings that I could fathom are as given below

Astronomical: Stars shine when it is dark as the sun's brightness prevents us from seeing stellar objects. Stars have a position system which has been used for navigational purposes. The distance of the stellar objects are more than humanly navigable. Even during the day stars shine but cannot be seen. The composition of stars are not fully known to man. In the stellar objects seen, those which twinkle are stars and the others are planets and other stellar objects. Carbon is a major compound found in stars (Diamond is a form of carbon)

Philosophical: Every shining star needs to be seen at the right time. For every brightness there is darkness attached to it. Even the achievers exist around us, they are known when seen in times of need. The achievers guide us in our lives with their experience. We fully do not know the lives of people who shine bright. Even while we sleep, achievers toil to shine bright. Even the stars we adore are bound by the broad universal truth. Those achievers who shine in life are to face difficulties and only the hardness in self values will make them shine (Diamond is the hardest substance known)

Artistic: Little stars leaves us wondering as they look like diamonds studded up in the deep blue canvas of the sky. They are the seeds of creativity who are so patterned that they guide us through. And leave awe and wonder in us forever - for a thing of beauty is a joy forever. 

There are many layers to it, but we do not see the truth hidden in these lines. You might come up with a whole new meaning in life with simple lines and nursery rhymes... Keep thinking and shine like a star, knowing, the time for you is limited... as the poem rightly points out.

Have a great thoughtful time ahead ....

Tuesday, December 8, 2015

Ottal ...

Last week I was invited to a screening and review of a movie. "Ottal" an adaptation of Anton Chekov's Vanka by Joshy Mangalath, directed by Jayaraj. The movie won a National Award, good thing. But a movie which should reach out to millions remains branded as an "Award Movie" or as the elite refer to it as an "Art House Cinema". But after watching it, I realized that a movie, if it is considered as a language of expressing one's thought, is better understood if watched by more people. I had the same feeling about the movie "Artist" by Shyamaprasad. 



A close to life movie, Ottal, talks mainly about a child's feeling when he is forced to leave his beloved land and his grandfather and work in a firecracker company for sustenance. But on a closer look the movie has many layers. It talks about the status divide in our land, it talks about children who do not understand the social divides, the bad practice of claiming someone else's work to be their own, the old practices, which are slowly getting erased from the world due to developments and many more. 

The movie opens with Kuttappayi writing a letter to his grandfather. Even writing letters has become a thing of the past. The beauty of Kuttanand, the old light posts for boats, the innocent friendship of Kuttappayi and Tinku, the old techniques of hatching ducks eggs with a brooding hen... the movie takes you through different layers of knowledge. If in Anton Chekov's short story Vanka was making shoes, Kuttapayi is trapped in the fireworks factory. Even after a 100 years of growth in the world, have we reached only at a point where the same social conditions persists. It is an eye opener or a rain check for what and where we are heading to.

The skills which a child gets being close to the older generation and nature is a gift and Kuttapayi, the protagonist has been bestowed with all that and more. All to end up in a factory. Child labour is not the issue alone, it is the childhood itself. How many children are close to nature as we were. We were fortunate enough to have played in the sand and mud and enjoyed the colours of nature and not stuck with Playstations, Xboxes or Wii's. 

The world that is devoid of feelings these days, or even if it exists, it is limited to social networking sites, gets a whiff of fresh air from this film. A must watch, if you understand what I have scribbled here.  Read Anton Checkov, or watch Ottal .... at least make a beginning ... an effort to change.