The 2-D limit

Of words on paper, a life in the pages,
A book, outside it all; its shell, bustling.
Beneath, a world so flat, wages,
The life, in all it's flat splendor rages.
So free, yet confined,
So opinionated, yet submissive,
Multi-dimensional, yet living in just two.


When you start spending too much time with books, you know it. You just get to know it. How, you ask? When your jokes start to sound like a physicist on drugs, you know you're in way too deep. Broadly classifying people from this perspective, we can define the distinction of the clique that DO things, and then there are those who DO books. Yes, i hate books. Books. In all their "knowledge" and "views", somehow bring about a whole new idea of an end. Of being limited while promising the limitless. Nah, i don't hate books. Books are just a means to distract us from OUR life, OUR problems. No better than RGV movies screening in halls are a cheap excuse for sly couples making-out in the dark corners. No, books are not bad. Their idea though, is a whole different issue! I just don't enjoy the concept of there being an end to something so boundless. Putting a period on the world that the last 400 odd pages bulit.

If an escape is the search, O' voracious one,
Why, does one lead to the other,
Forever in look, words come, pages go,
Yet elude doth, still looking are you?

Books can make you laugh, cry, sick, and lost. Books evoke, you fuel. What more solace can 400 odd pages offer you that you cannot yourself? What excitement or entertainment can those words provide that watching a fat kid fall off a sofa cannot? Bah.. I hate books, i really do. They are long, boring, have too many words, big words, and more often than not, they END. Those two words that ever evoke more emotion than any of the other 10 thousand in the book, THE END. Everything you were in the last dozen hours snaps, as you face that ugly bunch of homework/office-work that was slyly tucked away behind the puppy-eyed jacket that you hold. A book is not your escape, you are. It's what you percieve. Perception is your escape. One man's bore is what another adores.

Spill forth the lines, break the confines,
Beyond any end, limits that never expend.
Burst forth from the page, life's firey rage,
This, friend; is your creation,
... devoid of an end and it's stagnation.

I just hate books, sorry.

~Kharashe~

“Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high 
Where knowledge is free…”

The human mind manifests many a secret. How this complex architecture works, is a mystery to all its owners. When utilized, it can produce results that stand to amaze even time. Yet every coin has two sides. The dark side of human emotions. A force just as capable as the good side. Misdirected energy that causes harm and leaves only destruction as its tell-tale. There is the Nanhi Kali Foundation, and there are the likes of Moninder Singh Pandher.
The newspapers have a dedicated section for recent rapes, honour-killing, religious-riots, and all such HOT TOPICS. It makes for excellent eye popping material. Makes an excellent USP. A play i recently saw, titled Kharashe, showed a beautiful scene of a Bengali household. The wife slowly slit the body of the fish for the day’s lunch, its limp body, its mouth slightly open as if trying to say something. Trying to call for help? Mercy? While the husband read the paper that showed how another helpless girl had been raped and murdered, the picture showing her limp, lifeless body, and her mouth slightly open… as if trying to say something.
Human beings adapt to situations and environments very well. It is something that we learnt as students in an early class. If there is one pit-fall for the human mind, it is at time of crisis. The human mind is the sanctum-sanctorum of faith. There comes a time in every human’s life when the mind fights itself over faith. And this is the situation hundreds are stuck in every day. Not knowing whom to trust, the very foundation of relationships crumble in the minds of victims. Once the foundation has fallen, it is only natural for all logic and reason to collapse, and people rush into rash decisions. We all wonder what it is that pushes the extremists and rebels to jump into this mad suicidal idea of justice that their front bears. Some think, they are “born that way”. But that never is the case. Many of the rebels who happened in the past riots, were BORN in earlier riots. Watching their family, best friends, belongings being slaughtered by people in the name of religion or land, embeds those ideals deep within them. After that its as simple as a 9th class Science Textbook: “Every Action Has an Equal and Opposite Reaction”.

“…Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way 
Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit…”

I reiterate, not all take up swords when slashed. Sometimes a moment of chaos brings out the true side of humanity. If there were one heaven on earth, it would be one such moment. As the aforementioned play brought out, two strangers scrambling for their lives come together in the most unfortunate of scenarios. Within that moment they forgot all caste, creed and religion and despite discovering that each was from an opposite party involved in the dispute, they mingle to form a bond that would live even through their death. Its funny how we realize the true worth of something only when it is taken away from us. We realize the true worth of a human life only when its been taken away.
It is pretty sad to note that a lot of friends and juniors alike are unaware of incidents like Ayodhya. While the media did an overly ambitious attempt to blow up the issue, it is not something that can be treated with nonchalance. The Ayodhya issue was kind of a wakeup call to all orthodox religious groups. With the extensive destruction and all the tension and suffering that followed, the concept of secularism itself was sent into a tizzy. Ayodhya lived in peace for years after Babur first established the controversial mosque amongst the many temples. This order was brought to unrest by a certain clique in the name of religious righteousness. This clique functions under the motto “Dharmo rakṣati rakṣitaḥ” or “Dharma protects its protector”. Apparently their Dharma (which in actuality constitutes ideas of Vedic ritual, ethical conduct, caste rules, and civil and criminal law) was to kill anyone who opposed their thinking. This, i brought up to highlight how little knowledge is very very dangerous. These “leaders” with their little and misconceived knowledge of Dharma, go around propounding their screwed up notions and hence screw up a hundred other lives.
Unbiased opinions. Thinking before doing. Gaining an entire idea of a concept before imbibing it. Eliminating all preconceived prejudices. These are only a few ways to achieve freedom of the mind, and wake up to a newspaper that would read “Another Indian girl makes it to the space station, nation watches in pride” rather than “Another girl raped and murdered, as people watch helplessly”.

“…Where the mind is led forward by thee 
Into ever-widening thought and action
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.”