chaotic order

Jottings - Slice of life - 122 ( Devdas - the conundrum of love) Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay was seventeen years old when he wrote “Devdas”, and it was eventually published in 1917 . Never before ,and possibly never after, has a triangular love affair captivated the Indian Hearts and minds as much as that between the tormented, tragic and finely etched characters of Devdas, Paro and Chandramukhi. It was Sarat chandra’s crown jewel, a work that catapulted him to fame, and established his name as a literary genius. With over twenty novels and many shorts stories during his active literary life, his fertile brain, facile pen and sensitive heart captured the essence of an Individual caught in the web of feudalistic society, which was slowly but painfully , emerging out its chrysalis to modernity in the early twentieth century. Emotional and psychological emancipation of women largely figured in his works, and it is through them he voiced his opinions and ideas. Heroines were his princi

Jottings - Slice of life - 121 ( My love affair with a writer) The most difficult choice I have to make while preparing for travel is the book I must carry to read on flight and hotel stay thereafter. Its a decision I postpone to the very last moment, and just before my cab arrives to pick me up, out of sheer educated instinct, I walk to my book shelves and draw out few books and drop it into my back pack. if I were to consciously think and make a choice, it would be a maddening exercise. Literally hundreds of books neatly shelved ( as much as possible) and many more stacked all-round my home - near the sofa, on the stair case, near the bed - on different topics, and all of them equally craving for my attention. I have read almost all of them, but books like good friends needs constant re-acquaintance and nourishing. And flight time is ideal to revisit books which have lingered in my mind and heart long after I have initially read them. The choice I made for last week’s travel made

Jottings - Slice of life - 120 ( beyond Good and evil - Nietzsche's Overman) After after work-out yesterday, our group - the self consecrated “intellectual circle” - met at the customary Juice store to ramble upon some philosophic questions. I dont know why we meet each week to discuss these issues, but we unfailingly do so; I guess, out of a sense of curiosity and the need to think deeply about human existence and share thoughts with like minded people. Its always easy to talk philosophy with people who understand where its coming from. Otherwise it can be easily construed as snobbery or “talking from a moral high ground”. For some weeks, I have been unusually quiet in the discussions, and that did not go unnoticed. We have been discussing Nietzsche idea of “overman”, not “superman” - which is a dilution of his original thought. The problem of good versus evil, demon versus God, right versus wrong - has plagued philosophy for ages. Existentially, Man finds himself torn betwe

Jottings - Slice of life - 119 ( “Dear Zindagi” - Alia’s brilliance ) In one of the most arresting observations in metaphysical literature Friedrich Hegel, german philosopher and author of the “Phenomenology of spirit “ writes “..The bud disappears when the blossom breaks through, and we might say that the former is refuted by the latter; in the same way when the fruit comes, the blossom may be explained to be a false form of the plant’s existence…” Somehow, I was reminded of this statement when I watched Alia Bhatt’s brilliant performance in her 2016 film “Dear Zindagi” yesterday night. For an young actor, whose career began just few years ago, her transformation into one of the most accomplished and complete performers is incredible. To be honest, I stopped watching “Student of the year” midway ( Her first full length movie in 2012) because the movie was a calamity worth forgetting. Even in that wasted effort, I did notice Alia's freshness, vivacity and strikingly originality

Jottings - Slice of life - 118 ( World Book day - April 23rd) In 1995, UNESCO declared 23rd of April as “World book day”, a day to commemorate the simple yet powerful act of reading, a day to glorify and acknowledge the miracle of the written word, a day to remember with awe the tremendous debt we owe to codified knowledge and culture in books that have appeared in various sizes, shapes and forms over thousands of years across civilizations; enriching, creating and maintaining an unbroken continuity, making us unique species with the ability to document, interpret and develop a life of mind and consciousness. What and where would we be without the written word? Its hard to imagine. There was a time, when books were rare to find, print and distribute. But the thirst to read was there. Common man desperately wished to possess the written word. He wanted to hold the deep mysterious meanings words could invoke in his bare hands , read it with reverential awe in the flickering lamps o

Jottings - slice of life - 117 ( The marathon in Boston..) A typical Greek legend mentions how in 490 BC, the Greek soldier Pheidippides ran the entire distance between battle field of Marathon to Athens to report the momentous victory of Greeks over long standing enemy - the Persians. It is also recorded in breathless prose by Herodotus in his history of Greco-Persian wars that Pheidippides not only ran without pausing for breath, but dramatically and tragically dropped dead in sheer exhaustion after conveying his one-word message of victory to stunned Athenian senate. It is in his honor Marathon was instituted as an event during the 1896 Olympic games. In 1897, an year after the first marathon, the city of Boston organized their own run on Patriots day, the third Monday of April. Today, 17th of April was the 121st run of this glorious American event of physical endurance, communal participation and unity. Yesterday night, when I checked into my Hotel in Westborough, the lobby w

Jottings - Slice of life- 116 ( Virginia Woolf - a biography by Quentin bell) I just finished reading Quentin bell’s beautiful and intimate portrait of his Aunt Virginia Woolf. Its a two volume work. Each covers a specific period of Virginia’s growth into intelligent, good looking girl with increasing signs of spasmodic madness - which was to haunt and consume Virginia throughout her life - and concomitantly her emerging genius as a novelist, thinker and writer of sublime prose with keen eye for human frailty, vulnerability and inner strength. These two irreconcilable conditions - difficult childhood and overflowing genius - often find their intersection in few chosen artists in all ages, and the task of any committed biographer is to capture these shifting landscapes of hell and heaven and present to their readers the intense personal agony, pulsating creativity, demonic energy which possesses such lives. A biography is not a matter of simply documenting facts. It is something w