A Thousand Splendid Suns: Heart-wrenching

Image courtesy: Google

Powerful. Moving. Thought-Provoking.Deep.

The details so life-like and the situations so agonizing. A Thousand Splendid Suns, is a poignant story that'll move you and leave you wondering about the adversities that dwell beyond our comfortable world. An account set against the turbulent war background in Afghanistan, painted through the words of two women whose lives are weaved together in a place where happiness and hope have dried up like parched lips in drought. A male author's description of such tragic incidents has amazed me. The characters represent typical Afghani  women and the sufferings they endured during the war period. The analogies drawn make the narration so staggeringly beautiful and deep.For instance, the characteristic of earthquake to be more dangerous in depth yet appearing as mere tremors on surface is so aptly compared with Aziza's condition in orphanage. She is so happy outside, hardlya reflection of what boils deep inside.

These lines below are  kind of a spoiler, if you haven't read, but need mention here just because without it the review is incomplete. Indispensably, they capture the gist.

Mariam wished for so much in those final moments. Yet as she closed her eyes, it was not regret any longer but a sensation of abundant peace that washed over her. She thought of her entry into this world, the harami child of a lowly villager, an unintended thing, a pitiable, regrettable accident. A weed. And yet she was leaving the world as a woman who had loved and been loved back. She was leaving it as a friend, a companion, a guardian. A mother. A person of consequence at last. No. It was not so bad, Mariam thought, that she should die this way. Not so bad. This was a legitimate end to a life of illegitimate belongings.

So, if you haven't realized what Afghan war did to the innocents, read this book to enlighten you about the hardships that entailed. Don't miss the opportunity to be a listener to one of the most heart-wrenching tale ever told or at least ever read by me. A tale of overcoming harships and biting bad time, in wait of the good. As a line says:

" Of all the hardships a person had to face, none was more punishing than the simple act of waiting.”

PS: Looking forward to Khalid Hosseini's The Kite Runner, only that I already have seen the movie. Still the narrative of the book will be unparalled, I have gauged !

What are u chasing in life

Pessimist: Man, this life sucks more. You can do all the hard work but all you get is criticism.

Optimist: It is not true. You have to bide your time. Rewards pour in later.

Pessimist: Come out of your fictional world. There is no Bollywood ending that makes everything perfect in the end. Sometimes it remains as it is. Life isn’t that long. You need rewards to keep you going.

Optimist: Fictional world?I am telling you what Hindu sacred book tells us-to concentrate on work and let go the thoughts of rewards.

Pessimist: Oh really? Then what inspires you to do the work if not the end result?

Optimist: Inspiration comes from satisfaction of doing work.

Pessimist: And passion comes from aiming at the lingering reward. Is your ideology man passionate?

Optimist:  He is passionate to perform.

Pessimist: Only perform? That can be forever. It can go on and on. You obviously need an incentive. A spur to perform. A reward to aim at.

Optimist: But if you think of that reward too soon, you are never working your way up to it. You have to look at the current rung of the stairs and not the top rung. Otherwise, you can trip and fall on the ground.

Pessimist:  It is your timid perception. I see it as the one who has the inspiration to reach up the flight of stairs, has a goal. That makes him go up quickly and outrun the world.

Optimist: That is where your philosophy backfires!

Pessimist: Where?

Optimist: To outrun the world. All you need is to outrun your own targets. If you are outrunning others, you are outrunning the standards they set. You can’t define yourself according to their standards.

Pessimist: What if even after outrunning yourself, you are far behind others and miss the reward hence.

Optimist: So what, you missed the whole point. I was never running after the reward. I was running after self-satisfaction

Pessimist had no answer.

Nowhere

A hazy blurred sight.
A distant blinding light.
Scared and dazzled eyes.
Some anxious pants and sighs.
 And a stumble in dark groping here n there!
You know you are going nowhere...

A hurried scuttle to get back..
A search for something you lack.
No wishes come true.
And nothing,nothing you can do.


A long lonely look at the skies,
No answers He even tries.
A casual worried glance around.
A sound drowns the noise of crowd.
Some strangers stop and stare.
You know you are  going nowhere...

Where is 'Common’s wealth’ going? Rubbish! More importantly, Where are we commonly going?

Indians, games and the disease of procrastinating….

As am scribbling this down, the most awaited event for India is just a ‘September’ away. The capital, meanwhile, combats against the tag team of scams, deadlines, star-back outs, potholes, seeping out ceilings, foreign sport bodies, media vilification, and opposition charges. But hey no-this isn’t an article which will harp on about cliched topics like “Why London is ready and Delhi is not?” or something like “Boycotting games!” All these can be elaborated fastidiously by our eminent Indian writers at the helm of Indian paper media. This article touches ‘macro-intricacies’. I strongly feel India, as a country, needs a holistic political revamp. This will usher new blood in the system and jettison the lax dispensation. The slack event handling is one thing, slack system is another. This ‘disease’ is contagious, and yes-it is definitely not new-fangled! The games plight is a mere micro sample of national predicament. For years, we have been culprit of this sluggish attitude-not only as a nation, but as an individual. Accept it or not-we (and yes me too) are suffering from an Indian disease of procrastination. We love to put off everything from snoozing an alarm to holding CWG. Moreover, we, startlingly, swank it.” Hey, I studied for 2 days and pulled off 75%. Howzzat? Observed my dexterousness? “. It insinuates hollow claim of managing a task that could have been made immaculate. The games, am sure, will be thrown in oblivion a fortnight after media gets a brand new spiced up stuff. Delhi CWG will be hailed as an achievement of Indian sports. Everything else will be subdued. The disease of procrastination, meanwhile, will be passed on in new veins.

We are born fearless, but gradually shun the virtue

The idea of this post was planted in my mind around two-three years ago when I was watching a show on ' Discovery' .The show did a demonstration about how infants understand the 'fear' of depth. To start with, they made an infant crawl on a glass floor with half surface over plain area and the other half over a deep area. The glass created a mirage as if the half line of glass surface was really an edge and as if you would fall tripping the half. Initially, the little infant crawled all over the surface, without understanding the meaning of depth and what it entails. He walked with the same speed on both halves. Then, the scientists threw objects down the deep half by removing the lid. They made sure the baby observed it and re-covered the lid. Gradually , baby started to understand what the depth factor can lead it. In a week or so(don't remember the time), the infant stopped on reaching the half line and preferred not to crawl on other half!!!

So, what my point is that the fear of depth was injected in baby. Naturally, he was born to face the world fearlessly. That's what we learn in life-to not confront fear , rather evade it!!

Isn’t Ambition same as greed??

 ‘Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.’ A line of thought that did rounds in 2011 centered around the death of iconic Steve Jobs. Quite a fillip for the ambitious crowd! But another line of thought, a rather spiritual one, has always focussed on contentment. To stay satisfied with what you have and bask in its happiness. As I write now, the fine line that separates ambition and contentment remains the perplexing issue.

If being content is suppressing ambition, not wanting more-then contentment is futile. And if contentment is mere suppression of greed, the question that arises is- how are the two entities AMBITIOUS and GREEDY different. Just that the former is seen in good light and the latter is an evil cousin? Or that being ambitious is having bigger aims and having greed is having bigger fantasies? I see no difference. The literal sense only obfuscates the issue. Both are quite synonymous with their intents- attaining A GOAL.


So, What one  should be? Content? Ambitious?For me, one can’t be both content and ambitious at once. If you are content with the present scenario, you will never be that hungry (read: ambitious) for your future goals. As the whole world propagates to strike a balance between the two, I am skeptic if such a state exists.

Its a tough call to pick one. Its infeasible to pick both.
Dilemma remains.

My 'Click' Theory

You can't probably give the whole credit of this philosophical derivation to me, but am sure that i have thought of this as one of the most important word in a person's life-CLICK!!

Perplexed ? I'll analyze that. Lets not make this start as a philosophy lecture. I'll kick off with a real-life example. Recently I watched a Soccer match involving Spain and Switzerland. Spain, Euro Cup winner, star studded squad was up against 24th rank not-so-mighty Swiss. Match started, as expected-Spain looked dangerous, hardly giving the ball to opposition. First half read 0-0 with Spain kept hungry for debut goal in Africa. The match turned on its head in 52', when Fernandes of Swiss sneaked a goal , taking 1-0, sadly for Spain they never equalized.Vicente del Bosque's team predictably dominated possession but were hit on the break seven minutes into the second half as the Swiss recorded a first win over Spain in 19 attempts.Neither the veteran Villa, nor Torres clicked but a 23-year old boy from St.Etienne did click-and now he has a story to tell his grandchildren 50 years later! A look at table below says it all:

left column stats--spain

right column stats-swiss

Match Stats

Spain

Switzerland

25(5)	Shots (on Goal)	9(2)
9	Fouls	19
12	Corner Kicks	3
2	Offsides	1
74%	Time of Possession	26%
0	Yellow Cards	4
0	Red Cards	0
1	Saves	5

So, what i want to say is simple: Though Spain worked hard, they never clicked!!On the other hand, Swiss clicked when it mattered, on a world cup day, against the champs. They rose to the occasion and delivered!!

I can relate to this theory too. I always finished in the top three in my class all my life till 11th standard. The big stage was ready. the 12th and entrance exams mattered. What was needed was a click from me and couldn't click:(. Many colleagues of mine, who clicked at the right time-got better colleges.In short, all my 11 years of invincibility was drained by a single flaw...

Over the years following this failure, i realized about this click theory-it doesn't matter whether you click or not all life, you got to click when the moment arrives!

In Cricket, my favorite game, what separates the good batsmen from the great ones is that great batsmen always deliver when their team needs them!