smoking

26 Friday Aug 2011

Posted by in borrowed bark

≈ 3 Comments

To the Princess, it was an enigma why anyone would smoke, yet the answer seems simple enough when we station ourselves at that profound interface of nature and culture formed when people take something from the natural world and incorporate into their bodies.
Three of the four elements are shared by all creatures, but fire was a gift to humans alone. Smoking cigarettes is as intimate as we can become with fire without immediate excruciation. Every smoker is an embodiment of Promethus, stealing fire from the Gods and bringing it on back home. We smoke to capture the power of the Sun, to pacify Hell, to identify with the primodial spark, to feed on the marrow of the volcano. It’s not the tobacco we’re after but the fire. When we smoke, we are performing a version of the fire dance, a ritual as ancient as lightening.
The lung of the smoker is a naked virgin thrown as a sacrifice into the godfire.

-Tom Robbins

A tree without leaves

25 Thursday Aug 2011

Posted by in bark!

≈ 2 Comments

Shiv Sir’s Challenge to try making this old topic as interesting as possible.

A tree without leaves. It can be seen as a symbol.
A symbol of age,
of battle,
of withering,
of getting worn-out.
A symbol of change.
A symbol of infertility.

Does it make a ‘gushing’ sound when the winds blow by?

Does it have a voice different from the tree with leaves?

Does it have a literal stereotyped meaning?

Does the smell of its ripening-with-age wood have a different effect on a person? Does it smell of a nostalgia of something completely different? Does it smell of isolation?

Does it feel different in touch when we feel it with our eyes open or the eye closed? If it does – (it can, for, when you touch the bark of a tree knowing it’s barren, the feelings would be different than if it’s full of leaves).
Then if our eyes define what we feel, is vision the stronger of the two senses? If we believe that our vision define our thoughts which the other senses refine, is vision the stronger of all the senses?

Finally, what is the utility of a tree without leaves? Is it better off as a commodity for wood? It does not shade, it does not allow for the cool breeze, et al.
Or, can it be stretched as far as the symbol of hope. Like what we did in LOTR.

Echoes

22 Monday Aug 2011

Posted by in bark!

≈ 4 Comments

Our life, at this point of time, is like paper soaked in water. We have to wait, for the dust to settle. We have to wait, for the dryness to begin. We have to keep waiting. Till the last drops have evaporated. Till the dangers of getting torn apart are lifted. Till the spirit becomes a little harder. Till we are stronger than the thin gullible part we used to be.

We all commit errors. But in the society we live in today, making amends of our mistakes isn’t allowed without repercussions. The game of throne is the game of thorns. To achieve the fabled finale, of whatever you wish to achieve, you have to tread through disappointments, for, a perfect story may have a faulty ending, if not a not so perfect beginning.

I stand on another shore, at the pinnacle of winning a battle in exchange of losing another. The path to the other side is full of pathos of our guilty conscience. The key lies in a hunger to engage in another battle.
So my friend. It’s all a cliche-ed game, let’s just play to enjoy the journey. For we fall to fight again.

-Daaku.

a democratic facade

21 Sunday Aug 2011

Posted by in bark!

≈ 4 Comments

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India.

The land which used to be called “sone ki chidiya” and the land which still holds the above if you are willing to blindfold your conscience.

The land which is inhabited by a very intelligent race and the land which holds the maximum number of people living below the poverty line.

The land where everyone has an opinion and the land where we comfortably run away from our responsibilities.

The land where poking your nose where it doesn’t belong is a norm and the land where we avert our eyes where it requires us to clearly see.

For we have grown a lot over the past half a century?

For we have progressed more than anyone gave a thought?

For we have the worlds’ largest democracy?

For we have the educated janta which hardly votes?

For the first time in the last five years, I didn’t go for the flag hoisting on our Independence Day. It was not anger, it was not some misguided sense of judgement. I just asked myself a simple question.

Indian and proud. why?