Friday, February 27, 2015

Friday Fables - In Heaven We Feed Each Other

While undertaking research for a work related project, I had the precious privilege of going through several parables. These were extremely short stories which were profound enough to put life into perspective. I decided to stalk a few of them here - the Home of my Thoughts. Henceforth, each Friday, I will try to gather some ageless wisdom, wit or perspectives, which I believe, add more value to life. These could be folk-tables, fables, parables or simply, granny stories.

The first in these series is a Chinese folklore, which is an apt comment of the values of love, care and concern for others, and the fact that we are little beings if we are not able to think of our fellow brethren before us. Why this parable was particularly striking was because it echoed an episode of Star Plus' Mahabharata, where the plot of this tale was a riddle for the Kauravas and Pandavas to solve. Needless to say, Kuntiputra won in this incident, which I am pretty confident, was a later interpolation. 

Anyway. The story. 



There was an Old Chinese Man who knew he would die soon and he desired to know what Heaven and Hell look like. He approached a Wise Man in the village with his request who led him down a strange path, deep into the countryside. 
They came upon a large house where they found men seated around a huge table with scrumptious variety of food laid down. The strange thing was, all the men around the table were thin and hungry, because they held chopsticks which were 12 feet long. Getting such huge chopsticks to feed themselves was impossible! This was a scene of Hell. 
The Old Man and Wise Man then went to a similar house, where people were happy and well-fed, despite having chopsticks 12 feet long. When the puzzled Old Man asked how this was possible, the Wise Man replied, “In Heaven, we feed each other.”

PC - Glogster.com

Thursday, February 26, 2015

Becoming A Rebel - In Verse!

There is a lot happening in life right now. I say this to nearly everyone I meet or talk to. Which I rare these days. Meeting and talking to people at length and peace is something I am scarce able to enjoy - but it is all worth it at the end!

My life has given me many gifts, with costs, of course, but pretty gifts nevertheless. The best gifts, I maintain, are the real moments which people spend on you, share with you, shower on you. That, I have not been able to accomplish. The rest, yes.

Among the super interesting things I am working on right now is a book of poetry, called Lyrical Rebellions, the conceptualization of which I have been involved in since the word go.


Our mind hides a million mutinies, each grappling with an emotion or circumstance unique to a person. To give words to these subdued feelings is not simple, yet poetry attempts to reveal and heal these very conflicts. Lyrical Rebellions is an effort to bright together the choicest of expressions which hide a raw understanding and expectation of life.


This theme, when presented to able and talented young poets, baffled them. Honestly, I was pleased. The first part of creating something new and unique is to shake people out of their comfort zone. Our Editorial Board then issued this explanation for Lyrical Rebellions.

When we say 'Lyrical Rebellions' we are not giving you a topic, we are giving you a premise. We are asking you to initiate a thought rebellion, but we are not specifying who you should rebel against. We're not even close to attempting to title your poem - we're merely asking you to interpret. We're asking you to be beautiful while being cynical.

That said, meet my wonderful team. Each one mentioned on the yellow landscape below is playing an indispensable part in making this literary endeavour see the light of the day. 



And then, there is a very happy-me! It is a privilege to be reading stuff like I am getting to read by the virtue of being the facilitator of this process of finding very expressive rebels in the world around us.



Send us your poems soon at lyricalrebellions@gmail.com
If you cannot send in your poems, just send us your good wishes (and pre-orders for the book!)