The darkest night,
Stars, in all their brilliance,
To bring light, were vainglorious.
Trees loomed higher and highest,
To black transformed,
Looked over the moonlit shadows,
Creeping over the sands, melancholy!
Away in darkness,
A figure fled,
Seeking her soul’s abode,
Through the crimson mires,
The howling winds,
Her tattered attire flowing behind.
Her eyes; panic stricken,
Searched the diabolic night.
With dread and death,
She shivered.
The dark beauty, to her, not enchanting,
No life, only survival.
From there… from where?
The arrows came,
Sharp and fast.
The blood stroked her tears,
Streaked her heart,
Her throbbing heart; pierced, silenced!
The last whimper, ‘why me, why me?’
Yes, why her, why her?
Why us?
For what crime, what sin?
For giving life?
For the love? The nurture?
Or for the devotion we offer?
She was tormented, tortured,
Murdered!
The reason-a woman she was.
Here be, how many shes?
How many with no words, no speech?
Within the walls, bound by duties,
Restricted, constrained, forbidden.
Laughter died out, tears dried away,
Hands tied, legs bound, lips sealed,
Because, only because, she is a ‘she’!
Monday, September 17, 2007
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
Surprises
I stare with disbelief,
At the endless surprises,
Sprinkled with naughty grin,
A touch of joy!
Over the abundant life,
I muse,
The clattering of gifts,
The astonishments so far!
My friends,
They gift me letter pads,
Every year, each birthday!
Simple gesture,
Huge significance.
For my words spoken,
Epistles of friendship!
But surprises?
My friends,
They choke on that!
Too accurate, I predict!
Yawn at surprises,
So anticipated!
Yet, I am surprised,
At every wake of life,
I am surprised!
Surprised at life?
No! Life for me,
An open book!
I read, I learn!
But, people,
They surprise me!
I laugh over shocks,
Smile at surprises!
Laugh at the coldness,
From the warmest, emanating!
Smile at the warmth,
Cocooning the coldest!
Smile at the touch,
Courageous,
From the shy,
Hardly uttering a word!
Laugh at the hypocrisy,
From the preachers!
Smile at the care,
That the frosty offer!
Strength of the quiet,
Cowardice of the mighty!
I smile at endurance,
The living of terrors,
Of those termed fragile!
Yes, people surprise me!
And I hold them tight,
Shelled firm-
In the protection they offer,
Each surprise,
Each shock,
Another chapter!
The Pleasure
Every second $3,075.64 is being spent on pornography, 28,258 Internet users are viewing pornography, 372 Internet users are typing adult search terms into search engines, Every 39 minutes a new pornographic video is being created in the United States.
Pornography, a word that is synonymous with sin in our society. To understand its present relevance, we need to delve into certain aspects of the form, beginning with its meaning. It stems from a Greek word meaning ‘writing about prostitutes’. It originated in Europe in the early 17th century, science taking the tumultuous precedence on religion, with ideas of contraception and conception capturing minds and subversive literature surfacing. In pagan cultures, the beauty of sex was depicted via carvings and paintings. Erotic literature had a place in the mainstream. But, erotica is quite different from pornography. Erotica has an aesthetic purity, while pornography is purely mechanical and commercial.
But today, globalization, the fast track existence, etc have shook the very foundations of the wall separating erotica and pornography, reducing it to a mere thin line susceptible to parallax. According to the 2006 Worldwide Pornography Revenues, around $97.04 billion is its transaction, with China dominating. Though India does not figure at the top, it is one of the major illegal importers of DVDs, VCDs, etc. The porn industry has penetrated all levels of society that we hardly find a movie without a pornographic namesake.
India on a cultural map, is a region where sex and sexuality are open taboos. Porn is laid across as sex. In such a situation, it is no wonder that people lean towards the pleasurable, yet emotionally unattached trend. Thus it deems necessary that we analyse the impact of pornography in our nation.
Evaluating on a social platform, there being major outsourcing of work to India (better cost efficiency), there exists a class who are exploited and violated due to their ignorance or helplessness. A grave question of counting on the future citizens to build a great tomorrow arises. If our nation has something, it is the dignity and integrity it keeps through the tempests of politics, capitalization and commercialization of human life. If lives are broken through such a face of an industry, isn’t it a basic violation of human rights?
Encountering the cultural aspect, we draw a complete blank. Our incapacity to accept sex as a human need, makes us etch the scarlet letters on those who enjoy pornography or indulge in premarital sex, which are primarily no more sins than the unabashed gazes of the passerby who undresses you in his/her mind.
But, pornographic addiction can be quite a problem. Affecting the individual and his/her loved ones; it can lead the person to a crossroad where a world of fading reality and mounting fantasies becomes actuality. The surreality pushes the person into a deep precipice of confusion, a trench of denial and can possibly lead to a dungeon of perverse acts.
The media has a huge role in catering the right perspective about sex to the people. The Supreme court on December 12, 2006, rejected a plea on a blanket ban on ‘obscenity’ in print media. The rejection came at a time the moral values of the society was on a balance, at least in some minds. But, as the ruling said, ‘will lead to a situation where the newspaper will be publishing material which caters only to children and adolescents and the adults will be deprived of reading their share of their entertainment which can be permissible under the normal norms of decency in any society’. Certification vs censor is a constant debate in the film industry. Again, the rights to expression and entertainment come on the screen.
Of course, the dream child of electronic media, the internet has put across endless possibilities of swimming in the oceans of untiring pornographic pleasure, some extremely deviant from the normal pornography. The anxiety of parents is very much in sync with the reality. Even before the children get proper idea about sex, they are subjected to the dark side of it.
The reality of pornography is thus a cube. On one face, there is the original meaning of it, on another the history, then the economic aspect followed by the moral question, preceding the issue of exploitation and perversion, yet on the last side, there is the query of human will. Like William Osler said, ‘The natural man has only two primal passions, to get and beget!’
Pornography, a word that is synonymous with sin in our society. To understand its present relevance, we need to delve into certain aspects of the form, beginning with its meaning. It stems from a Greek word meaning ‘writing about prostitutes’. It originated in Europe in the early 17th century, science taking the tumultuous precedence on religion, with ideas of contraception and conception capturing minds and subversive literature surfacing. In pagan cultures, the beauty of sex was depicted via carvings and paintings. Erotic literature had a place in the mainstream. But, erotica is quite different from pornography. Erotica has an aesthetic purity, while pornography is purely mechanical and commercial.
But today, globalization, the fast track existence, etc have shook the very foundations of the wall separating erotica and pornography, reducing it to a mere thin line susceptible to parallax. According to the 2006 Worldwide Pornography Revenues, around $97.04 billion is its transaction, with China dominating. Though India does not figure at the top, it is one of the major illegal importers of DVDs, VCDs, etc. The porn industry has penetrated all levels of society that we hardly find a movie without a pornographic namesake.
India on a cultural map, is a region where sex and sexuality are open taboos. Porn is laid across as sex. In such a situation, it is no wonder that people lean towards the pleasurable, yet emotionally unattached trend. Thus it deems necessary that we analyse the impact of pornography in our nation.
Evaluating on a social platform, there being major outsourcing of work to India (better cost efficiency), there exists a class who are exploited and violated due to their ignorance or helplessness. A grave question of counting on the future citizens to build a great tomorrow arises. If our nation has something, it is the dignity and integrity it keeps through the tempests of politics, capitalization and commercialization of human life. If lives are broken through such a face of an industry, isn’t it a basic violation of human rights?
Encountering the cultural aspect, we draw a complete blank. Our incapacity to accept sex as a human need, makes us etch the scarlet letters on those who enjoy pornography or indulge in premarital sex, which are primarily no more sins than the unabashed gazes of the passerby who undresses you in his/her mind.
But, pornographic addiction can be quite a problem. Affecting the individual and his/her loved ones; it can lead the person to a crossroad where a world of fading reality and mounting fantasies becomes actuality. The surreality pushes the person into a deep precipice of confusion, a trench of denial and can possibly lead to a dungeon of perverse acts.
The media has a huge role in catering the right perspective about sex to the people. The Supreme court on December 12, 2006, rejected a plea on a blanket ban on ‘obscenity’ in print media. The rejection came at a time the moral values of the society was on a balance, at least in some minds. But, as the ruling said, ‘will lead to a situation where the newspaper will be publishing material which caters only to children and adolescents and the adults will be deprived of reading their share of their entertainment which can be permissible under the normal norms of decency in any society’. Certification vs censor is a constant debate in the film industry. Again, the rights to expression and entertainment come on the screen.
Of course, the dream child of electronic media, the internet has put across endless possibilities of swimming in the oceans of untiring pornographic pleasure, some extremely deviant from the normal pornography. The anxiety of parents is very much in sync with the reality. Even before the children get proper idea about sex, they are subjected to the dark side of it.
The reality of pornography is thus a cube. On one face, there is the original meaning of it, on another the history, then the economic aspect followed by the moral question, preceding the issue of exploitation and perversion, yet on the last side, there is the query of human will. Like William Osler said, ‘The natural man has only two primal passions, to get and beget!’
Thursday, March 01, 2007
Religion and faith
Religion has the ultimate power over a normal human being. Every time the realization strikes me, it is as if I get a slap across my face, not because I forget to acknowledge the full force of the comprehension, but because it is one of those facts which quite powerfully snatch away the balance that you have created for yourself. My uncle once jokingly quipped at his inability to translate the phrases ‘scheduled caste’ and ‘scheduled tribe’ to Russian, since no such division exists in Russia. But, that is not the point here. It is a question that I pose. Am I to lament over the death of homosapien as it is and the birth of civilizations, cultures and races? Or is this question to be perpetually hung like the sword of Damocles, until the thread of sanity breaks, letting it fall on our lives? The truth is that I do not know. The object of this inquisition is not to break all the barriers of religion, thus creating a Utopia, but, it is merely to render my ineffective wonder which in itself seeks for the blunt edge of this sharp weapon worthy of sense.
What is religion? It is simply a faith or an idea which finds a common ground in a group of people. When homosapien began to evolve into the social animal that it is today, there were few disciplines which were needed for survival, faith intruding this list, regretfully, quite early in the stage. Faith, giving itself the fancy labels of different religions, packaged in its grand paraphernalia became the definitive commercialized ideology of all ages. In this era of globalization, we are quite familiar with the reality that something that sells fast is a source of power to the sellers. Faith thus sold, the clergy holding the highest positions of the power pyramid, became the establishment that none questions, extending its clutches from the Stone Age to the Quantum Age.
From the moment a child is born, in every kind of enquiry, be it an application form for the kindergarten or Ph D, the space for the religion stares blankly at the decisiveness of the future. The future entrusted to the people of the same religion or caste, who are willing to do things for the ‘community’. Only, the basis that defines ‘community’ is grossly skewed to favour the needs of those who stick to the rules imposed on them and who acknowledge the supremacy of the ‘protectors of the weak’ and the ‘champions of the cause’.
Religion in the present scenario ceases to be what is was designed to be- something that caters to the alienation of the fundamental ignorance that is inherent in the human being. And yet, being the true animals that we are, we hold on to our faith, not realising the extent which we are being manipulated, all these millennia or era. But, then again, I am not permitted to switch from present continuous to present perfect in the middle of an article, however articulate the idea might be. That is the influence of a rigid conclusive framework –it hardly provides the space for speculations or improvisations of any sort.
Again, we return to the point where nothing but hopes and expectations remain. But, can we expect religion to counter the ruthlessness of such accusations? The truth, I feel, is that it cannot. It has come to a point where, they hack their fellow beings to death, and their entrails become their garlands of glory, the shattered heart of humanity a passive onlooker with no capacity or willingness to stop the gory dance of destruction.
The religious terrorism prevalent in the world of secular today, raises the question of security of life and whether or not human race progressed farther than the labyrinth of superstitions and unquestionable ignorance. But, the more time advances, the more we demonstrate our incapacity to tolerate the firm disciplines of love, care and most importantly, humanity.
What is religion? It is simply a faith or an idea which finds a common ground in a group of people. When homosapien began to evolve into the social animal that it is today, there were few disciplines which were needed for survival, faith intruding this list, regretfully, quite early in the stage. Faith, giving itself the fancy labels of different religions, packaged in its grand paraphernalia became the definitive commercialized ideology of all ages. In this era of globalization, we are quite familiar with the reality that something that sells fast is a source of power to the sellers. Faith thus sold, the clergy holding the highest positions of the power pyramid, became the establishment that none questions, extending its clutches from the Stone Age to the Quantum Age.
From the moment a child is born, in every kind of enquiry, be it an application form for the kindergarten or Ph D, the space for the religion stares blankly at the decisiveness of the future. The future entrusted to the people of the same religion or caste, who are willing to do things for the ‘community’. Only, the basis that defines ‘community’ is grossly skewed to favour the needs of those who stick to the rules imposed on them and who acknowledge the supremacy of the ‘protectors of the weak’ and the ‘champions of the cause’.
Religion in the present scenario ceases to be what is was designed to be- something that caters to the alienation of the fundamental ignorance that is inherent in the human being. And yet, being the true animals that we are, we hold on to our faith, not realising the extent which we are being manipulated, all these millennia or era. But, then again, I am not permitted to switch from present continuous to present perfect in the middle of an article, however articulate the idea might be. That is the influence of a rigid conclusive framework –it hardly provides the space for speculations or improvisations of any sort.
Again, we return to the point where nothing but hopes and expectations remain. But, can we expect religion to counter the ruthlessness of such accusations? The truth, I feel, is that it cannot. It has come to a point where, they hack their fellow beings to death, and their entrails become their garlands of glory, the shattered heart of humanity a passive onlooker with no capacity or willingness to stop the gory dance of destruction.
The religious terrorism prevalent in the world of secular today, raises the question of security of life and whether or not human race progressed farther than the labyrinth of superstitions and unquestionable ignorance. But, the more time advances, the more we demonstrate our incapacity to tolerate the firm disciplines of love, care and most importantly, humanity.
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