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

I have read somewhere- how important in life it is,not necessarily to be strong but, to feel strong-Into the wild(Eddie vedder)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jpkeJWXY4ZA&feature=related

A friend is

A sweet pain in your ass

A kick making you fall and laugh

A hug never too tight

An idiot who annoys your girl friends and angers your parents

A grungy singer asking applaud.

A moron who teaches you to be stupid seriously

A shade in the rain and in the sun

A shadow that follows you even in the absence of light

The one you love despite the way he smells without two days of bath

A disaster

A thief who steals your razor blade and spoils your white shirt

A sigh of relief and joy

Roaming shelter away from home.

A bully you love

The one who always keep asking things

The one who cries hopelessly with a loose nose

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The Genius curse

“Throughout the centuries there were men who took first steps down new roads armed with nothing but their own vision. Their goals differed, but they all had this in common: that the step was first, the road new, the vision unborrowed, and the response they received--hatred. The great creators--the thinkers, the artists, the scientists, the inventors--stood alone against the men of their time. Every great new thought was opposed. Every great new invention was denounced. The first motor was considered foolish. The first airplane was considered impossible. The power loom was considered vicious. Anesthesia was considered sinful. But the men of unborrowed vision went ahead. They fought, they suffered and they paid. But they won.”(Ayn Rand)

A genius is born ahead of his lifetime. It is hard or sometimes impossible for contemporaries to understand and relate with him. And incomprehensible has always been a threat to mankind: we are comfortable and secure with conventional consistent and certain. Those who try to cross certainty and predictability lines with conviction become a threat to the established, bringing forth a long and tedious conflict of beliefs and survival.

Galileo Galilei was condemned and punished for proposing the heliocentric view of galaxy: a view contradicting established beliefs of geocentric earth being the centre of universe. It challenged Church and, established astronomers and philosophers. Man has always placed himself highest and this theory questioned his superiority that sun is not moving for us, contrarily we are moving around the sun. Galileo faced a number of trials during his lifetime and was placed under house arrest Pope refused to bury him near his ancestors for vehement suspect of heresy. He was buried in a small room next to novices (Wikipedia)

Vincent Van Gogh was dismissed for “undermining the dignity of priesthood” in his early years. His paintings were rejected for displays because they did not fit in contemporary French impressionist style. Van Gogh could not even sell one painting of his during his lifetime and barely managed to feed himself three days in a week. He committed suicide at the age of 37.

Shakespeare was never revered in his lifetime (Wikipedia). Michelangelo lived in recluse and Newton could not gather to publish his calculus works in early years for the fear of criticism. Aristotle was accused of blasphemy and Einstein was detained from school.

Extraordinary intelligence fosters unparallel understanding, curiosity and conviction to create and nurture life around. But “a vision or a dream is very personal”(Osho) and unique. It shapes the bearer in its own form carving him out slowly from collective rock, making him distinct and separate from the background. And, seeing him distant, the separate background condemns him for his rigidity and aloneness. Vision is a curse for its bearer. It will not let him sleep or settle for less and it will not let him mingle with the crowd: a vision makes visionary insoluble contrasting alone and vulnerable. Almost every thinker, artist, scientist and inventor is condemned and denounced during his lifetime. Seclusion is the price they have to pay for the wealth they embrace inside.