An Old Lady at the Crossing

When we are studying in school we have been repeatedly told to help the elders who are unable to cross the road by them during the busy flow of traffic. Even our moral science class had illustrations of aged old lady standing at the edge of road trying to make an attempt to cross but unable to do. In the next picture a school boy wearing uniform took her hand and navigates to the other side through never ending traffic at the zebra crossing.

But I had my astonishment when I saw a poem by Mary Dow Brine” Somebody’s mother”. The entire story that was illustrated as a cartoon in Moral science classroom was told in the poem by her. I came across the poem in the web site Almanac

And the woman's feet were aged and slow.
She stood at the crossing and waited long,
Alone, uncared for, amid the throng
Of human beings who passed her by
Nor heeded the glance of her anxious eye.


Read the full poem

The Kite Runner

I am skeptical of reading books by non-English speaking authors. Very few authors only impressed me. R.K.Narayan is a giant among them all. Arundhati Roy’s The God of Small Things is an exceptionally good novel. It touched my heart beyond comparision. The setting up of God’s own country as a back drop for the novel, the intelligent mixing of native Malayali characters with their rich culture, the double crossing politicians and the final act of forbidden sex made the novel interesting read to the end.

Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner is another novel that mesmerized me. Though it got rave reviews I resisted reading it for a long time. Finally when no other book took my attention The Kite Runner invited me from The Eloor Library shelf and I took a risk. When I was in to the second chapter I was completely drawn into it. If any book fails to hold my attention with in first ten pages I would eventually abandon it. Set in Afghanistan the story depicts the country from their monarch days to Soviet invasion till and subsequent talibanisation through the eyes of protagonist. The brutalization of the society after the Taliban took over sends shock waves when you read it.


However towards the end the story revert back to ordinary melodramatic novel with predictable situations. The inner conflict the protagonist undergoes when he witnessed the crime done to his childhood friend and his subsequent inaction torments him through out his life. That conflict and his hunger for redemption alone set the novel apart till the end.

Very good read after a long time.

In ''The Kite Runner,'' Khaled Hosseini gives us a vivid and engaging story that reminds us how long his people have been struggling to triumph over the forces of violence -- forces that continue to threaten them even today.—New York Times

Emotions

Writer of Home Alone Dead

I read a blog tribute about John Hughes who died on Augest 6 . I know John Hughes only as writer of most successful film Home Alone. I came to know he has also written the screenplay for Baby’s Day Out. Indian Kids hugely liked both the films. My children thoroughly enjoyed the film when they were kids. I don’t have much knowledge about other films directed by him.

A Blogger has written her experience as a pen pal of him. It’s touching and brings about the human side of the director much above the glamorous side.

Things going to be obsolete soon

I read an interesting list about 100 things your kids don’t know about in future. Most of the things have not yet become vanished. But would definitely in future. Already in India Camera film rolls disappeared in photo Studios. VHS have completely disappeared. AUDIO Cassettes slowly disappear. If you go to Music World stores only very few cassettes are on display. Among the youngsters email became popular form of correspondences. Most of the things mentioned in the list would surly disappear even in India.

Quotations

Don't let the fear of the time it will take to accomplish something stand in the way of your doing it. The time will pass anyway; we might just as well put that passing time to the best possible use. – Earl Nightingale

Happiness is that state of consciousness which proceeds from the achievement of one’s values. Learn to value yourself, which means: to fight for your happiness. – Ayn Rand

The only difference between where you are today, and where you'll be a year from today, are the books you read and the people you meet. – Charlie ‘Tremendous’ Jones

A very important aspect of motivation is the willingness to stop and look at things that no one else has bothered to look at. The simple process of focusing on things normally taken for granted is a powerful source of creativity. – Edward de Bono

You can make more friends in two
months by becoming interested in other
people than you can in two years by
trying to get other people
interested in you. – Dale Carnegie

If your imagination leads you to understand how quickly people grant your requests when those requests appeal to their self-interest, you can have practically anything you go after. – Napoleon Hill

You know you're in love when you can't
fall asleep because reality is finally
better than your dreams. – Dr. Seuss

The Beauty and the Ugly

When I read William words worth’s poem A Few Lines Written On West Minister Bridge I stumbled upon a beautiful but dark poem by William Blake on London.

Wordsworth poem was written about the beauty of the morning of London city viewed from the Bridge. It was written on the year 1802.

Earth has not anything to show more fair:
Dull would he be of soul who could pass by
A sight so touching in its majesty:
This City now doth, like a garment, wear
The beauty of the morning; silent, bare,
Ships, towers, domes, theatres, and temples lie
Open unto the fields, and to the sky;
All bright and glittering in the smokeless air.
Never did sun more beautifully steep
In his first splendour, valley, rock, or hill;
Ne'er saw I, never felt, a calm so deep!
The river glideth at his own sweet will:
Dear God! the very houses seem asleep;
And all that mighty heart is lying still!

But another poem written 10 years earlier caught me completely off balance. The dark descriptions of chimney sweeping boy, pathetic state of common soldiers serving the king and apocalyptic woes of harlot women who pass on their curse(venereal decease) to next generations spoke volumes about conditions prevailed upon the society then. It gave a different picture from that of words worth ‘s London.



I wander thro’ each charter’d street,
Near where the charter’d Thames does flow,
And mark in every face I meet
Marks of weakness, marks of woe.

In every cry of every Man,
In every Infant’s cry of fear,
In every voice, in every ban,
The mind-forg’d manacles I hear.

How the Chimney-sweeper’s cry
Every black'ning Church appalls;
And the hapless Soldier’s sigh
Runs in blood down Palace walls.

But most thro’ midnight streets I hear
How the youthful Harlot’s curse
Blasts the new-born Infant’s tear
And blights with plagues the Marriage hearse.

Read the Aanalysis of the poem