Shadows

You learn to see tricks of the night
With shadows of time.
Shadows appear, shadows disappear
They run, you chase
They hide, you seek
They grow, you bask
They shrink, you mourn.
They lure you to move another step forward
Move with them, your shadows
They are there but, they are not.

An era of Mass hypnosis

Adolf Hitler once said "By the skillful and sustained use of propaganda, one can make a person see even heaven as hell or an extremely wretched life as paradise. Make the lie big, make it simple, keep saying it, and eventually they will believe it. "Public ignorance is certainly bliss for politicians and businessmen. Media adds fire to this fuel. From highly publicized unnecessary products to hyped frivolous political issues, propaganda is the flu that spares only a few.

Where on one hand media has been a catalyst to development and awareness, on the other it has given birth to a mad race; a race that leads to nowhere. People run because others are running. More is less here. Consumers are becoming less and less consumers and more and more buyers. Necessity is no more the mother of invention but, promotion and consumer manipulation have become the pastors of need.



An ignorant consumer wouldn't even realize the effect of repetitive threatening statements made by the advertisers of life insurance policy.LIC cash on people's fear. It is one of the most successful business models because it exploits the biggest inherent fear in an individual: The fear of death or of physical in capabilities. Many other advertisers manipulate consumers by displaying certain products as status symbol. Because the followed icon on tv uses a particular commodity, having that commodity gives consumer an inferential link to that celebrity. All that glitters is essentially gold in the new definition.



Human Subconscious brain keeps collecting both necessary and unnecessary information for future, irrespective of their utility. When a person comes across a brand ten times in a day it settles in his subconscious mind. Brain works like a thesaurus, automatically suggesting all related events and names in need. So, the next time this person goes to grocery store that brand will automatically pop out.



A collective rut planned to trap common man's pocket. The other day I read an article that says "imagine the plight of a man who has to drop his son to school every day in the same car" and "imagine the plight of a mother who does not earn much to give for her son to attend a disco party". These plights are really hard to imagine. Are we so well settled that our plights have become limited to extended luxuries?



Housewives and children being the softest target are easily caught. Maximum commodities are planned to influence women. Recently I saw a research report on the differing behavioral learning capacities of men and monkeys. The results shown were astonishing. Similar set of tasks were given to a group of 10 to 13 year old children and 1-2 year old monkeys. In the first stage a painted box filled with chocolates was given to each of them. To open it, a front seal had to be torn off and then chocolates could be pulled out by using a small scale. This process was shown to monkeys and children and, each one of them were asked to take the chocolates from that box. All repeated the tasks as shown. In the next stage the box was kept open from one side and chocolates could be taken out without taking the seal and using the scale. But this was not shown to any of them. Each child repeated all three steps shown to him earlier whereas none of the monkeys used those unnecessary steps. They simply took those chocolates out. One year old monkey exceeds in reasoning to a 13 year old child.



Following a mob simply gives most people a sense of surety of purpose. A feeling of belonging to the right aim; because so many people are running in one direction, the destination must be correct. Each person is unique here. And each has separate aspirations, visions and need. In such a case only the ones who know their goal while running will achieve it. Following peers without reasoning can certainly leave others astray.

As a child, I had always hated getting up early in the morning and going to school.....Now that I have grown up, I see for a school that enhances  and not subdues smiles, imparts knowledge through being and not books and treats children like promising individuals not inferior assemblage....Most importantly, a school that is run by psychologically fit competent teachers who are happy with themselves and take teaching as a preferred carrier and not as a handy choice...

Ahh!Those Bones

Genie is a good dog. My canine loves me more than any other living creature on this planet. Besides constant pursuing, she flings herself to lick faces, loves walking, pulling, fetching ball and racing around finally curling around the nearest lap at nights. But, here is A NOTE OF CAUTION: Genie is not the same with her tiny little bone. In a flick of moment she turns into the scariest creature I have ever known. A dog that runs around the house in the open confines herself to the corner of that closed flimsy store room where she carefully guards her bone. And here is her base where she furiously barks and growls at the intruder unless she turns them away.

I do not usually go to bed unless I cuddle my little dog for a while and just in case I forget to do so,in the falling tensed shadows of the day, she invariably remembers to droop by my side. Surprisingly, last night when I walked up to her reaching my hands out, she snarled bumping forth in bitterness. I stepped back in awe locating the bone by her side. It sounds strange how animals change their sides with food in their vicinity. To my relief, she was back to normal this morning. Her eaten bone did magic to her as she sat peacefully by my bedside wagging her tiny tail. Relieved, I prepared coffee and settled myself in the balcony chair and watched my neighbor wash the array of cars he had collected for himself. Ever since we shifted to this bungalow, I have loved noticing him around. Every morning he gets up at five to check and tend his cars for a while.  And while he does so, he watches every passerby in incertitude. His eyes squeeze as he walks around his loved cars a couple of times to check a sign of tinker. And when he is done with them, he would relax and smile back on strollers. 

We all have a loyal loving dog inside us that changes sides at the sight of that tiny little bone we see for ourselves. There is a continuous internal struggle within that makes us display and simultaneously guard the treasures we collect.  We hold that bone in our mouth and move cautiously in our own homes and friends. We sit by its side priding and guarding an intruder. And while we do so, our gestures become more apparent. We think we hide our bones underneath the cushion we sit upon but, it moves up and reflects in the distrusting look we give to our guests. It dramatically changes our vision and turns friends into intruders. 

Shakespeare-Jaques Act

All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances;
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages. At first the infant,
Mewling and puking in the nurse's arms;
And then the whining school-boy, with his satchel
And shining morning face, creeping like snail
Unwillingly to school. And then the lover,
Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad
Made to his mistress' eyebrow. Then a soldier,
Full of strange oaths, and bearded like the pard,
Jealous in honour, sudden and quick in quarrel,
Seeking the bubble reputation
Even in the cannon's mouth. And then the justice,
In fair round belly with good capon lin'd,
With eyes severe and beard of formal cut,
Full of wise saws and modern instances;
And so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts
Into the lean and slipper'd pantaloon,
With spectacles on nose and pouch on side;
His youthful hose, well sav'd, a world too wide
For his shrunk shank; and his big manly voice,
Turning again toward childish treble, pipes
And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all,
That ends this strange eventful history,
Is second childishness and mere oblivion;
Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything

Quotes from Ayn Rand

Individual rights are not subject to a public vote; a majority has no right to vote away the rights of a minority; the political function of rights is precisely to protect minorities from oppression by majorities (and the smallest minority on earth is the individual).


I swear, by my life and my love of it, that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine.

Man’s unique reward, however, is that while animals survive by adjusting themselves to their background, man survives by adjusting his background to himself.

Reason is not automatic. Those who deny it cannot be conquered by it. Do not count on them. Leave them alone.

Run for your life from any man who tells you that money is evil. That sentence is the leper’s bell of an approaching looter.

The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren’t enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws.

The question isn’t who is going to let me; it’s who is going to stop me.

There are two sides to every issue: one side is right and the other is wrong, but the middle is always evil.

When I die, I hope to go to Heaven, whatever the Hell that is.

The most depraved type of human being is the man without a purpose.

Learn to value yourself, which means: to fight for your happiness.

         

When the world doesn't seem to understand

Jerry’s mother resented her daughter’s loneliness. Jerry was a quiet and shy child always wanting to make friends but, never knowing how. When the all the other girls were busy playing, chatting and gossiping, she watched butterflies and fed school pool ducks. At times, she tried to join them but somehow neither they nor she understood one another and ,the talks more or less ended up at confused ends: more compassionate ones understood and smiled and, the wicked ones ridiculed. And, Jerry knew she didn’t matter even slightest to them. Her mother seemed to be the only one who she can count on.


One day her mother gave Jerry a bright yellow stone and asked her to present it to the grocer nearby. She walked across the street and forwarded the stone to the Grocer. Without much notice grocer took it from her and, pushed it aside. Following evening Jerry’s mother asked again to go back to the grocer and check if he wanted to keep that stone.

“I could keep it Jerry, but it is not of much use and it is occupying space. You know I am always short of space” said the grocer.

So Jerry brought it back

After a few days her mother asked Jerry to try and sell the stone to the local bead artisan for 10$.

“It looks nice and shiny but, I cannot pay more than 1$ for this” said the artisan.

she bought the stone back with her.

Weeks passed.

One evening on their way back to the market her mother and Jerry stopped by a local Jeweller. Her mother took out the stone from purse and passed it to the Jeweler.

“May I know its price?” She said.

The Jeweler looked through his magnifiers, rotating the gem slowly to the side.

After few minutes of careful study the Jeweller said“It is a fine gem. I have never seen one recently.”
“Well, how much can you pay me for this?” Jerry’s mother asked again.

“Can you sell it for 10,000$?” said the Jeweller looking in Jerry’s mother’s eyes through his lowered glasses.

She kept quiet

“Ok. What about 12,000$?” He said again

Jerry’s mother smiled.”That’s ok. I just needed to know its price."

And, they walked back home.

Her mother held Jerry’s hand gently and said” sometimes the world doesn’t treasure you, because it fails to judge your worth. It can throw a gem considering it a stone. But, that doesn’t make the gem become a stone”

So when the world doesn’t seem to know you, know it lacks the understanding of who you are. Each person is a fine Gem crafted by the greatest artist and only He knows every person’s worth.

ps:Inspired by Osho's parable