Soliloquy in the Waves, Neruda

Yes, but here I am alone.
A wave
builds up,
perhaps it says its name, I don’t understand,
it mutters, humps in its load
of movement and foam
and withdraws. Who
can I ask what it said to me?
Who among the waves
can I name?
And I wait.
Once again the clearness approached,
the soft numbers
rose in foam
and I didn’t know what to call them.
So they whispered away,
seeped into the mouth of the sand.
Time obliterated all lips
with the patience
of shadow and
the orange kiss
of summer.
I stayed alone,
unable to respond to what the world
was obviously offering me,
listening to
that richness spreading itself,
the mysterious grapes
of salt, love unknown,
and in the fading day
only a rumor remained,
further away each time,
until everything that was able to
changed itself into silence.

P.S. One reason why I really like Neruda is because I share the same love for the Sea with him. This poem describes in the best possible way, the thoughts I have each time I think about the Sea. Sea and Silence, perfect combination! :)

Court Martial: Swadesh Deepak

The India habitat Centre has always been a place that never ceases to bring some food for thought in one form or another. Today, it was the play Court Martial, written by Swadesh Deepak and performed by the famous Asmita Theatre group. The play essentially deals with the social stigma attached to a member of the lower caste who serves In the Indian army who is being tried for murder of a fellow army man. 

Through the course of the trial, the play proves to us that Truth is not what is just visible at face value. Truth is not one sided. Perhaps, unlike a coin truth does not just have two sides, but many. This is brought about beautifully by the end of the play which is extremely well written. Asmita’s enactment of the play was like an icing to the already well written play wherein the intensity of the scenes brought goose pimples to many.

When I am writing about Court Martial, it is essential I mention this fact about it’s much celebrated Sangeet Natak Academi Award winning author Swadesh Deepak, that he has been missing since 2006. Having shown symptoms of Bipolar disorder earlier, it is said that Deepak went for a morning walk in 2006, never to return back home. What touched me at the end of the play was the director Arvind Gaur’s sincere prayer that during one of the performances of the play he is able to hear a voice from the back saying “I am the writer of the play”. Deepak’s relatives go to each of the performances of the play even today.

Lastly, the play Court Martial was performed as a part of the ongoing Summer Theatre festival by the Asmita Theatre group. For those of you who missed this one, you can always catch the various other plays on the weekends till 4^th July at India habitat Centre. Also, Arvind Gaur says “We have free theatre workshops for people every weekend for people. You can just walk in at 9:00 am in India habitat Centre, become a part of the assembled group, work on a short play over the weekend and perform the play on Sunday evening.” Hearing him say that, my mind tells me that it thinks I found a way to spend my vacation weekends doing something worthwhile!

P.S. A poem dedicated to Swadesh Deepak that you might want to read: http://sanitysucks.blogspot.in/2006/12/where-is-swadesh-deepak.html

Invictus

The Invictus, a movie based on the book “Playing the Enemy: Nelson Mandela and the Game That Changed a Nation”, starring Morgan Freeman is a delight to watch. Now, I am not going to write much about it. No reviews here, no comments. Just two things I want to share from the movie:

The thing that touches me most in the movie is the lesson in Forgiveness that is imparted by the subtle action of not repeating the same intolerance and cycle of fear against those who had earlier oppressed the South Africans, the so-called “whites”. In the words of Nelson Mandela from the movie:

“Forgiveness liberates the soul.

It removes fear.

That is why it is such a powerful weapon.”

Perhaps forgiveness is a difficult thing to do, or maybe not. Do we always forgive others for doing wrong to us? Or do we just bury the wrong deep inside somewhere in our mind without really tackling it? So that each time we are faced with the same situation or the same person, the buried ghosts come up to us to haunt us?

Richard Pettinger on www.spiritualnow.com gives an interesting insight when he writes “To be sincere in our forgiveness of others we should not even remember the incident. Sometimes forgiveness can be conditional, we shall tell somebody we have forgiven them, but maybe later we will bring it up to use it against them. This is not real forgiveness. Only when we do not think about the experience have we really forgiven others.”

I beg to differ. Perhaps fprgetting is not the best thing to do. When you forget something, you don’t learn from it. And it is important to learn from each experience, each person that walks into your life, and be careful not to make the same mistake in the future. Perhaps, when we talk about forgiveness, it is important to understand “To err is Human”, and show compassion towards the one who does wrong (sometimes, your own self).

To read more on what Richard Pettinger has to say about forgiveness, you can visit http://www.spiritualnow.com/articles/60/1/The-Meaning-of-Forgiveness/Page1.html

The second thing I want to share is the poem “Invictus”

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll.
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

-          William Ernest Henley