Battles in the northern sky

The stars and planets begin to align themselves for an impending showdown...

Hooked!

There are some songs that haunt you, in your moments of solitude they play in your mind, over and over again. Banco de Gaia's "Farewell Ferengistan" is one of those songs. The first time I heard it, I knew this one wasn't going to leave me for some time. It's the kind of song that sets the mood for introspection, the kind of song that makes you wonder about what's been your life and what will, the kind of song that makes you realise that after all life is a journey and through all the ups and downs.................we must sail on.

Red Letter Day

Read this. A news article that really does not seem to have any ramifications for the educated Indian reader. But ramifications there are, as it announces the rebirth of a country fighting hard to shed it's social ills. 60 years of independence and the thorn of caste discrimination still remains. What purportedly started out to be the division of society based on occupation, only served to justify the oppression and humiliation of vast sections of our people. Religion played partner in crime over the centuries, with the creation of exclusive institutions for the upper classes. Practices such as endogamy served to contain the classes within themselves and are adhered to even in this age. Inter-caste marriages receive stiff opposition even in educated urban circles. I would hold the policy makers amongst our ancestors guilty on one single count. The consistent denial of the right to a life of respect, to large sections of the populace throughout history.
Which is why, I wouldn't dismiss this news article as insipid. If our country harbours dreams of becoming a developed nation, merely joining the nuclear kitty club won't do. These slow steps which aim at binding our fractured society address our grass-root problems. Our potential will only be fully recognised if we as a population are able to function as one seamless whole.
The time has come to expedite the undoing of social crimes committed for centuries, that time is now.

King of a stellar war

The conflict has played itself out and battles are waged every day in an invisible realm. Some days there is a lull, but is usually followed by an intense struggle later. It is a conflict of ideologies, a conflict of principles, Odysseus trumpets rationale, Rama espouses compassion. Interestingly the outcome is known ab initio, ..... there can be no victor, this war can be waged for eternity. But we battle on, as if bound by duty. Someday a truce will be realised, ....someday.

And I stand among ruins today, the dust lies thick in the air. Entire settlements have been demolished in the aftermath. Every broken brick here holds a memory, but will be buried in time. She has visited these wreckages, I can feel her, her subtle yet sweet fragrance lingers. A single rain drop crashes on the terra firma and I look to the overcast sky. Before long my surroundings are drenched by the cloudburst, a man remains to comfort a troubled land.