Pakistan and Freedom
Filed under Writings
Times carried another article on how new-age, modern, successful women of Pakistan interpret freedom.
- > Being free is about making bold choice - personal and professional (Nabila, celebrity image maker)
- > Freedom is about making the right decision (Umera Ahmed, writer)
- > True independence is not brought about by diminishing each other, it is found by celebrating each other (Sonya Battla, fashion designer)
- > The challenge is to translate reality - that’s freedom (Mehreen Jabbar, film director)
God, Religion, Faith or Whatever
Filed under Writings
This is perhaps the first time I found something interesting to read in the Sunday Times Life edition. As usual the story pinned on celebrities to sell the idea, but the idea itself was nice. It was about finding one’s faith in life. Some good lines/ quotes: “The focus of praying has now shifted from being religious to coping with life situations successfully.” Or, “Seekers are no longer happy with blind faith; They need practices that help them understand life”. And ending with one of my favorite adverb: “What you give is what you get”. Some points to ponder.
Gender Equality
Filed under Writings
According to CP Surendran, gender equality exists in the higher societies, as in, the dog and the bitch gets the same biscuits! All this while.
I was browsing through the latest Femina at the dentist and paused on CP’s name. What’s he doing in Femina? Anyways, if one thought that the issue is with the lower societies, it apparently is not. Scientists have discovered that this faster growth of humans as compared to other animals is due to the fact that we chose to split the workload between genders — men to hunt and get food, women to grunt and feed the family.
I am sure we are not the only species to settle into this arrangement. On cosmetic difference, I think lions are better example than men. But having started writing for Femina now, I think CP definitely is trying seed some thoughts into the women of substance.
Standing emptiness
Or Why I made a category called POEMS:
You really dont need a category
to write something serious, but
there can always be value
to silly things you write as well.
But the fact is just this,
I write here, right now
only to fill in the space.
I cant stand emptiness,
no matter how many advices
that I get say, “son,
be tactful and considerate”
On writing well
Filed under Writings
Franklin D. Roosevelt was given a memo to sign on the blackout order of 1942:
Such preparations shall be made as will completely obscure all Federal buildings and non-Federal buildings occupied by the Federal government during an air raid for any period of time from visibility by reason of internal or external illumination.
“Tell them,” Roosevelt said, “that in buildings where they have to keep the work going to put something across the windows.”
Simplify, simplify.
Wisdom
Filed under Writings
Unni wrote: Trust in Allah, but tie your camel. This is the first lesson when you are in unfamiliar deserts so that the camel doesn’t walk away when you are asleep.
Easy Words
Filed under Entertainment, Writings
“She asked the driver to park under the gulmohar tree and waited at the portico. Silence and jasmine petals fallen off young girls’ hairdos, lay embraced on the steps that lead to the verandah. The evening sun and the shadows gave finishing touches to her face” *
Divine. The writer may be a sheer romantic here, but I have no other words to describe Padmarajan’s work. I have not read anything as poetic a prose as above, including works of Sylvia Plath. If Plath and Eliot (primarly poets, which Padmarajan is not) were highly imaginative in expression, they were not as simple. It is like classical music vs light music. Mass appeal, but still pure.
There was a lot of ‘pop’ in Padmarajan’s creations which was ideal for films. And was eventually used by filmmakers. He wrote 36 scripts in 15 years (and directed 18 of them). Almost as fast as Fassbinder. But not all classics, nor did they have innovative cinematic techniques. But they all had a compelling feature - simple poetic story telling. In my opinion, truly, art for the masses.
I have tried narrating some of his films to people who weren’t really aware of the social/regional contexts. But the fact that they absorbed it completely is a sign of ‘universality’ of his themes.
As I said earlier, I haven’t read anything like that before or after Padmarajan (He died at 45 in 1991 during the screening of his 18th film). It would be nearly impossible to write like Padmarajan. The casualness and lightness of his writing is the most moving and the most difficult to achieve. As they say, “It is easy to be difficult. But difficult to be easy”
* Nakshathrangale Kaaval, 1971.
Closing Remarks
Filed under Writings
The most common closing lines that I have seen/heard/read in media are “Only time will tell” and “The rest is history”. I read both of these statements in today’s TOI. I remember reading them 10 years ago as well. Do these writers always have to go back to the same damn thing? Over and over again? Cant there be a better phrase to use in such situations?
Forget
“There are three things I always forget. Names, faces — the third I can’t remember.” — Italo Svevo.
Well, I forgot to write on my blog. I think that is the simple truth. Not that many people out there are waiting for me to write. I am no writer or pretender. Lots of stuff was happening and couldnt get to the start page of blogger. The stuff is still happening, but as they say, I decided not to sweat the small stuff (coz it is all small stuff)
Read Lolita
Filed under Writings
“If you are down, read Lolita. It will get you up, like a shot of Glenfiddich. One moment you were contemplating, not for the first time, suicide, and then you down your golden Glen, and lo and behold, you are thinking of murder, which of course is altogether a more proactive enterprise.” — CP’s tribute to 50 years of Nabokov’s Lolita.
