[ I received the news late last night from Counterpunch- one of my favorite columnists- activist, visionary, poet, philosopher, friend of the downtrodden, Andre Vltchek, had slumped into the seat of a taxicab, his wife next to him, while traveling somewhere in Turkey, and never woke up. I truly did not want to believe it- in a worldwide desert terrain[Read More...]
There is a tomato field that is sorrowful to the universe unable to lament though it doesn’t yet know that the farmer is dead. The dust on the field grew wings in the wind and looking for its owner settled down across the river and the mountain valley. The ripe tomatoes that incite the outer reaches of the[Read More...]
The post The tomato field appeared first on Countercurrents.
S P Balasubrahmanyam who had the world record of singing more than 40000 songs in 16 different languages of India represented the idea of ‘India’, very much under attack. The film Industry in Bombay was actually Hindustani and not really Hindi, because I believe it was build mostly by those whose mother tongue was neither Hindi nor is the cities[Read More...]
“Ritwik Ghatak’s stint as Vice-Principal of FTII left something of him in his students. A John Abraham would never have happened were it not for the tutelage of Ghatak. John did what he did because Ghatak validated his angst. Similar was the case with his other protégés, but besides these few men, the legacy of Ghatak seems to have terminated.[Read More...]
Endurance of pain is an idea directly drawn from Christianity. However, in the Indian context, historically, endurance of pain is regarded as un-knowledge, avidya (in Sanskrit an antonym of knowledge, but not ignorance) and nonexistent. It is just not there, here, or anywhere. When the “I, myself” does not exist, who is left to endure pain? This is how the[Read More...]
1. Crackling Aging is like a multitude of doors, closing in back alleys—sunless… (or lit by a lamppost in a film noir script). You think you see a beautiful face—gas-lit, in a secret chamber— hair with a halo around it. You think you know the name of that face…. But… you have forgotten all names. And the face smiles back[Read More...]
The post “Older!” … “Not: Old!” appeared first on Countercurrents.
Ask me How I’m doing What I’m thinking about But Ask me What the future holds Where I’ll be But Ask me About the pain About the sadness But Ask me Why I’m hurting Why I can’t move But Ask me About my parents About my kids But It isn’t like The Weather The Game The Show So You Don’t[Read More...]
The post You Can Ask Me….But appeared first on Countercurrents.
Rabindranath Tagore’s Lyrical Ballad on Freedom and Confinement [Here is a recent performance of this ballad by Lopamudra Mitra and Iman from YouTube: The caged bird was in the gilded cage, the free bird in the wood Perchance, once, the twain met each other, perhaps a quirk in the Maker’s mood. Said the free bird, “Caged bird, dear, come to[Read More...]
(This essay was written in 2015,but remained unpublished. The thing to note is that practically everything it says holds good five years later.) At least three subjects of continuing public interest are on many lips these days – namely, the 40th anniversary this year of the Emergency; the hurried initiatives shown by the Modi government to raise the height of[Read More...]
Rome burnt as Nero* played the fiddle. Fiery flames walk highways, creep into homes, stalking, burning, killing not only coronal heat but hearths. Inflamed by the surreptitious smoke seeping under the smouldering trees, breeze rips incensing fierce fires that unquenched swallow clean air and belch apocalyptic hellish skies. Did Nero build palaces by burning Rome? I[Read More...]
