They say laughter is the best medicine, and it’s no surprise that when we laugh, we feel so much lighter at heart.
So here it is, the laughing buddha — my symbol of laughter and good health.
Tag: favourites
The Bearded Bard
The best thing about the Bard: he makes you think. He fills you with wonder, shows possibilities you hadn’t considered, and leaves you in a flurry of amazement.
Shakespeare’s command over the language stuns me. How could one man possess such understanding of the language we hold dear?
Words are sharp, they are powerful. They inspire all kinds of emotions. The good, the bad – they’re all in words. Even those deep feelings we can’t put into words — Shakespeare has his way of bringing them to our mind’s eye.
He makes you feel the word. Is it the wording, or a full stop in place of the overused exclamation mark? A little use of the license, or a negligible grammar violation that makes a tasteful piece of writing?
No one does it as well as the Bearded Bard.
If words be actions, Shakespeare can make you cringe in shame, in such a way that you relive that moment each time you face a mirror. All these, without laying a finger on you.
The sheer thought of such power scares me.
Everything the man ever wrote is wisdom for a society that’s as foolish and as ignorant as ours. There never will come another writer whose works live as long as Shakespeare’s. Five centuries old; still as attractive, as delectable as fresh pie.
Though he largely referred to the Elizabethan society, his works seem tailored for us.
That makes me wonder — why do we have such a society? A society that holds self before anything else, one that judges people on birth, instead of the person they’ve become.
Why are we such Assholes?
It’s all in the marriage of two minds.
Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove.
O no! it is an ever-fixed mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wand’ring bark,
Whose worth’s unknown, although his height be taken.
Love’s not Time’s fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle’s compass come;
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error and upon me prov’d,
I never writ, nor no man ever lov’d.
We are a society that prioritizes the need for a partner. For everything. It begins at school when we look for a lunch buddy, visit the restrooms in pairs, or hang out in groups.
Solitude is taboo. We grow up to that principle. We are so accustomed to the warmth of human companionship that we reach a point where the quality doesn’t matter as much.
We’re happy as long as we have a partner. Perhaps that’s what forces us to rush into relationships, both marital and otherwise.
Perhaps we don’t dedicate thought to the person we commit to spending our time with. Because when we do, we realize the subtleties and positives of the relationship.
If only people’s minds were married instead of the bodies, we would have a whole different populace.
Our attitude toward life would differ. It would be a full, retrospective thought process, where we’d have worthy priorities.
People would marry for true love, they would sacrifice, and do so, knowing the consequences. And everything we do would have clarity. Our society would sincerely respect each other.
Or as the great man says himself, we’d know from experience,
“Love is not love … which alters when it alteration finds,”
Once we realize the truth in those words, nothing would be greater than true love. Love that spreads warmth and compassion across the world.
And that would be a world worth protecting.
It’s Just a Word
People spend so much time time contemplating the meaning of life. Perhaps we need to relax, take a step back, and look at life for what it really is — a four-letter word.
Now that I realize it, I can’t help but wonder why I didn’t see it earlier. It seems obvious now — there’s not a thing or person can alter my perspective on life. It’s whatever I want it to be, and it does differ from one person to another. What others say about my life are just empty words. What really matters to me is what I consider my life as.
But that needs some thought.
The Soul Drink
I love coffee. Nothing soothes me like good coffee. But even I can’t deny the times when coffee falls just short. It’s sad, yes. But there’s always tea.
That awesome English beverage that has enough caffeine to satiate the soul.
I like my coffee in any way: hot, cold, black, sugar-less, freshly ground, without chicory – it rarely matters, as long as it’s there. But tea – there are plenty of conditions. And that’s why it’s so difficult to find the best cuppa. Oh yes, I’m in love with that English term as well.
Perhaps it’s the rarity that makes me crave it. Perhaps it’s also why I can’t refrain from photographing my tea.
I can hardly stop looking at this photo. I fell in love with my own work and Instagram.
Some things in life are minute. It takes an artful look to see through the beauty of miniature. Much like the froth that brims in this cup of tea.
The photo is a moment captured in time. When you look close enough, you’ll see your reflection on the tiny bubbles. To capture such a moment on a lasting frame is a great feeling. And if an amateur like myself can do a decent job of it, I cringe to think what professionals could do.
I’m biased, but I love everything about this photo. The tumbler isn’t perfectly aligned with the dabara (the cup). But that’s what makes it natural. It looks like a cup I’m going to drink from, and not a model for product photography.
The lighting is average. I know nothing about the technical aspects of aperture and lens light. All I know is to point and click.
The bench, its shade,the blurry finish, the reflection of the tree – everything adds a little to the story. And plants improperly aligned – everything says outdoor.
Above all, it’s the reflection of the tree’s branches around the dabara that impresses me. They might be negligible, but it makes the photo all the more likable.
However much I boast about my photo, I can’t deny that none of its tiny, lovable aspects was intentional. It was a happy accident that Instagram highlighted and transformed.
Which makes me wonder about human nature. We don’t look at anything as it is. We constantly sharpen, hone and improve. It’s natural to pay attention to details, obsess over them, to give importance to even the negligible aspects of an object – to make it look better.
And that ability is worth more than anything else. A photo, a sculpture, a portrait, or a piece of writing – every work of art reveals mankind’s scrutiny. And that’s worth more than a thousand words.
Then The Worst Happened
Sometimes, it only takes one small incident to change us. A word of love, or a word in haste, a disaster, a tiny flaw – whatever it is, it changes us. And once that happens, we’re forever free.
The Chaos Within 