Mundane

It is the person, not the day,
So, what is the hoopla about Birthday?
Feelings reduced to symbolism!
That is not what you deserve.
So, I will not offer:
Mundane, gift-wrapped in the wishes of special day.

I will celebrate you every day.

-Pulastya

To a first time poet

Advance thanks sir. I look forward to reading your book of poetry. I, without a doubt, am going to enjoy it.  For,

A poem is born when head serves heart...
When skill with words bows to the ability to feel..
Like a midwife, to a mother to be...
(Merely assisting when the other is bringing a piece of her self in to the world...)
The day belongs to the one bearing the labour pangs (feelings), not to the one who relieves them (words)...

And, like all babies are beautiful, all poems are classic...
And like babies, poems elevate the writer and the reader, to best version of themselves...
There is nothing else that separates humans from animal but ability to appreciate a poem...
And poet is still one notch higher- a being between god and man..
Who, like god sees what no one else does.....

(Who sees a flower bloom and weeps is a poet...how fleeting is glory and how near is the end...
Who sees an infant die and laughs is a poet...all see end, not a new beginning..
Who hears a stone moan and kisses it is a poet...what beats in others is your own heart...
Who cuddles a thundering ocean like a lover is a poet... heart doesn’t suffer from fears of eyes)

Please accept a ting of my envy as a token of my appreciation on your elevation to poethood...this is one limbo reserved as a reward for only best among the men..a purgatory for truly blessed...

Send your bundle of joy to me...
I will keep it to my heart like my own...

-Pulastya

Quantum

When no one is looking I am many persons, the moment someone looks I become the person he or she wants me to be.

Quantum mechanics says that very act of observation affects the out come, precipitating randomly one of the many possible outcomes.

Like electron in the orbit, behavioural inclination of humans are random and probabilistic, linked to moment,opportunity, and history of behavioural training (intentional or incidental)and they culminate into expressed behaviour depending upon who is watching...so the test you propose may be befitting gods (though mythology doesn’t support even that, for God’s fall to all kind of temptations more readily, ha ha..man created his gods in his own image, but let’s say just based on that it is clear what is expected behaviour from them), but it’s cruel to impose this on humans. Humans are nothing beyond their instincts, specially when no one is watching.

These kind of tests are typically used by religion to generate guilt among people, for business of religion is remedy for guilt and for fear of death...it creates its own plague and then goes out to sell the medicine at the price of conformity, compliance, labour, and also cash...

-Pulastya

Happiness

Desire for its permanence is the biggest corruption of happiness...

-Pulastya

Book Review

Part of review of a poetry book, I am working on:

Restraint is enemy of a poem. Restraint means poet is responding to the audience out of fear. Emotion, which are only true guide to take poet where no one has gone before are being navigated by an external force. Not being led by poet’s perceptions and longings for the world that poet wants to create, but by a world which already exists- the real world. This world subtly (not so infrequently violently too) nudges and manoeuvres poet to create her world in its own image. It pleases the real world if artist mimics it, a validation it seeks to justify status-quo. In the process turning a creator in to a copyist, stealing the powers of God from artist and turning her in to a human craftsman, who can cast only mannequins, forging beautiful bodies without souls, art that only follows the structure. The degree of art is the degree of rebellion that it leads against status quo.
All important act of creation is a mere game for the unworthy audiences,  just entertainment. Therefore, audience from true art’s point of view is of no value. It’s the other way round. Creation speaks to select audience through art, but only if they are worthy. Artist is the chosen medium. Artist listens only to divine instructions, not to audience. Also, medium doesn’t choose what and how much flows through it; she has been selected by a far far higher wisdom for a reason, and lets go herself without any restraint. Artist is not guided by level of intellect or rules of morality of her audience. Artist is accountable only to divine and her responsibility is expression of divine inspiration in her art form to best of her abilities. It is on the audience to rise upto the level of art she produces. If otherwise, then whole purpose and meaning of art is lost, and pornography will rule the roost (sadly, it does), because that’s what average joe of the world wants..

-Pulastya

Evil

Some people are like black holes, full of darkness, light is lost in them for ever. But, they have  this amazing gravitational pull. You approach them too close and they suck you in. Their charm is irresistible. So when you are feeling charmed  by gravitas of someone always be wary that it may be an evil darkness seducing you. This charm is what makes life worth living, though. Whatever is not for senses is not for living. And, whatever doesn’t prey on you doesn’t make you feel alive. There is nothing more to living but the view, the taste, the sound, the song, and the touch. All of them are nothing without a touch of evil in them. Evil is what adds that pinch of danger that gives them their flavour. And evil has the best variety of them too- nothing better to see than the sight of your paramour, nothing tastes better than his / her forbidden kisses, nothing sweeter than her secret whisper, her satisfied humming after a bout of passion is what tranquility of universe is made of, and touch of her skin on my fingers is what brought fire to the earth.  Root of every tree knows that the nourishment for  living always has to be sucked from the darkness. Avoid darkness you avoid living. All I am advising is that jump into it fully aware that the darkness and regret never go together, they, together, are poison for living.

-Pulastya

Quantum

Is flower a dream of butterfly,
Or, butterfly a dream of flower?
Love over cause & effect-
Quantum theory of happiness.

-Pulastya

Nature, Woman

Hi!...Sweet morning to you!

Bright lovely day ahh!...Light appears washed, tender, and pearly. I wonder if dawn was delayed today! Seems sunbeams took their time to get ready before starting off to shine on on the world. Bathed and dressed up in their best transparent gold, looking beautiful as never before, they gently wrap the world in a cool blaze.
It's a source of great comfort to this world, how beauty always does its job of making this world a pleasant place,  despite what it has to go through by the hands of those who, under the influence of reckless desire, want to own it. Only a few understand that nothing nourishes beauty like freedom does.
You have a lovely day too, and like sunbeam, put on your best wrap and shine on on the world, that's is the most important job that you have, any beauty has, for that matter. Isn't it amazing how blessed women are! It's the rain that brings nourishment to the body, the sun to the mind, and woman has the power to be both at the same time-a parallel nature that has not known cruelty of extremes.

-Pulastya

Fascination With Technology

A billion years work of nature is of no avail; silvery expanse of the water, azure diamond of the sky, and the green silk in the backdrop are reduced to nothing, by a phone! Turned invisible by a man made magic trick. Already self obsessed and inward looking, man is being enslaved by the charm of a hand held device pretending to be the world. Finally reality has lost its power on man, for, now, man carries oblivion in his hands. May be, may be not!

Most likely, you have momentarily turned your back to it all to take selfies with beauty surrounding you. Which, of course, is apt. We all attempt to capture beauty; if not to own it, in a vain ‘desire’ to make it last longer in our sight. It’s not in our control actually, on realising that the ‘desire’ is the effect that beauty creates on us, it is difficult to say who captures who, perhaps its beauty who captures us.

Beauty is also a touchstone for senses. That is its only real utility. How deeply a thing of beauty affects us is the measure of our sensitivity. How colours dazzle us; how scents arouse us; how touch burns us! This sensitivity is reflection of human being in us. Sensitivity to beauty is the strength of the barricade that confines and restrains the animal in us that is constantly attacking our human side. An attempt to capture beauty when one sees it, is a sign of senses surging to embrace beauty, even beyond its passing, in an attempt to banish the beast to the farthest recesses of heart and mind. Look at a sleeping baby sometime and be in thrall of purest form of beauty; if you are still able to blink, jungle is the place for you!

But, there could be another reason too. The idea of beauty is a mere notion, a notion based on relativity. It is ranking of things that interact with our senses in the hierarchy of visualised world (a world inside the head, a poet’s world). Naturally, those who feel beautiful have urge to know their own standing. But, because, one can not see self directly to compare, another pair of eyes is required. A job best done by poets, since eternity. When a poet is not around camera may be used. But, camera is a terrible substitute to do the job. Though some may highlight it as neutrality, its fatal disqualification is its indifference to beauty, for it has no heart. And, indifference is plague for beauty.

Impressed by the surrounding beauty, your urge to put the sky, the stream, the green and yourself in one frame through a selfie, to compare, is natural. But, a selfie won’t do. For, for truly finding your pedestal in the world of beauty, you must tickle the heart of a poet; and then, in the poet’s eyes, will you see your standing; if professional poet then, perhaps, in the words too.

So, drop the phone, go and look for a poet. I am sure there are many out there who will make you believe that you deserve the top spot. Believe you them if you wish, for there is no absolute truth in the world of beauty, it is only one opinion that you want to believe that matters.

-Pulastya

Gesture

Gesture is intent wearing a mask,
Something hiding itself,
It is, sometimes, guilt’s show of politeness,
And at others, selfishness dressed well.
Cunning unwillingness  speaks in gestures too....
And, even in its proudest moment,
It is just the last hurrah of debilitating weakness,
Pretending to act courageous.

Good or bad, but never enough to feed the hungry.

-Pulastya

A Book review

Chattanathan tells his stories of corporate world with almost romantic nostalgia. After decades of successfully operating in an extreme darwinian world, with its bell curves and hierarchy pyramids , Chattanathan still speaks of it in a very tender tone, like a veteran who has returned neither arrogant nor bitter. This tenderness comes because he doesn’t speak of battles, or valour, or weapons (He does, but only to add to the background.), but because he speaks of people, of soldiers as human beings. His stories are not of winning a corporate war at all cost, or of survival in a cut throat world, they are a reminder that even there all participants are human beings, and best way to touch them is to act like one. Being a trained corporate solider himself, he does emphasise on discipline, initiative, and motivation in his stories, but always subservient to the human aspect. His stories are nether of conquest nor of bitterness, they are stories of a journey that he claims is not as brutal as, sometimes, our preparation for the journey makes it out to be (blame parents, and schools, and business schools). And, then, he further claims that these people with their humanness intact turned out to be winners too in corporate world. Which, true or not, is very heartening to hear and to believe in.  Triumph of virtuous in real world. Heroes of our imaginations incarnating.

This book is a must for HR joining kit. Specially for trainees. A little book of poetry (And, there are poems too!) for future corporate soldiers, before they make transition from military school to the regiment and are led into battle. The book will soothe anxious souls of new soldiers heading for a life in a rough world. It will go a long way in keeping them human.

-Pulastya

Some thoughts on photography

In art form a photograph is an independent reality, not a slave of the reality whose image it captures. Its independence is seeded in the fact that it is not a true image, only a perspective in a particular moment. A ‘true image' photograph is an impossibility, because true image can not be separated from its reality either by space or time. In both separations image ceases to be true at the very moment of separation, for their flow into the future takes different paths-their similarity starts diverging. What may come closest to a ‘true image’ is reflection in mirror, and yet, it is also only partial in most cases.

In fact, the moment idea of a picture is conceived the path and destinies of the picture and subject begin to diverge. In conceiving itself factors like camera angle, lens, aperture diameter, exposure time, time of the day (the day itself! Rainy day, sunny day etc!), extra lighting, and focal point all play a transformational role: they change the reality of subject in favour of the reality of picture; and, also, capture only a part of the true (whole) image.

Also, ’True image’ as an idea is oxymoronic. Something that doesn’t exist. Can’t exist. For, there is no reality without a perspective. If it was otherwise then there would have been no distinction of “good photograph” and “bad photograph” of the same subject (reality). How you capture it makes that distinction. ‘How’ is the perspective- a distortion that work as a knife to scrap away the image from reality.

So, then, what is reality? Reality is a hint, a clue, a stimulus, a signal to be sensed with our five senses for arranging our thought. This arranging is important for that creates a semblance of living. Anger, fear, love, hate all are arrangement of thoughts in our head stimulated by hints that we call reality, and our perception of it.

A beautiful photograph is an amalgamation of the view, aesthetics, and emotions. “What” to capture dissolved in to “how” to capture and “why”, these coupled with “how much” to capture and “when” are the decisions to be made, which keeps the mind of photographer in a state of constant reviewing of thoughts evoked by the view in sight. It (this constant reviewing) is like first growing an ‘eye of mind’ to find beauty, and then leading biological eyes through a training where they learn from the ‘eye of mind’; and deepen, broaden, soften their understanding of beauty. The “eye of mind” is the emotional capability of brain which does the emotional referencing of things in sight, giving them a meaning, which biological eyes can not do. An ant carrying a load ten times it body weight and struggling up a wall is not a sight of visual beauty, but makes up for immense emotional beauty-for ant’s will-to-live despite life being so hard on it(from the human perspective of physical labour). So, despite the individual ugliness of the subject (ant, and the carcass of a dead moth perhaps!) it would make for a good picture for its emotional content; if the struggle part is suitably highlighted by capturing the relative size of ant and its load and the height it has covered, along with capturing, possibly, the distance it has yet to go. And, that will decide the “how much” (of what is in sight)to capture part.

-Pulastya

Priorities

Other aspect is that people also are willing to swap planned leaves easily for that sense of importance when boss says, “We won’t be able to do without you.” Prior approved planned leave is difficult for boss to deny, more so when it involves booking etc.- a financial loss on the part of the team member, because it creates an obligation on boss. A good boss ideally should never want to be under obligation, because that hinders fair appraisal. But, in reality it doesn’t take much for bosses to start confusing their own convenience (and team members being handy is largest part of it) with member’s performance. Members too quickly take that hint and start perceiving that offering convenience to boss is very important part of their job. And, cancelling a planned leave on boss’s demand is a big offering of convenience to boss at personal cost. Clearly, done not for fear of reprisal but more for gaining in appraisal. If one chooses appraisal over enjoying life then that’s about his/ her own priority, bosses can not be expected to set someone’s priority right, specially when bosses themselves have grown in the same culture. A few who go extra mile and guide on priorities in life too are of a rare breed of bosses.