Happy Be

Happy be, on the weary sea

     Who hath fled the tempest and won the haven.

Happy whoso has risen, free,

     Above his striving. For strangely graven

Is the art of life that one and another

     In gold and power may outpass his brother.

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But whoever can know,

     As the long days go,

That to Live is happy, hath found his Heaven!

- The Bacchae (Professor Gilbert Murray's Translation)

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The Bacchae is a greek tragedy based on the mythical story of how King Pentheus is punished by god Dionysius because the king refuses to worship the god. The play was originally written by Euripides.

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Young Dennis loves sitting on the porch of the children's home he has been living since the first months of his life. He was a just born baby when his unknown mother threw him on a rail track and ran away. Before the train could crush him to death, a ferocious madman took the baby off the track and started biting his delicate legs. He still has those bite marks on his legs. Somehow a kind man happened to see this gruesome scene, chased away the madman and rescued the baby. The little one finally landed up in this place which, to people of the urban upbringing, would look like a dungeon of sorts. Well, this place is his only haven. While others might yew at their kitchen, flies, stinking toilet and the bugged-beds, he is a happy kid.

A gentle priest named him Dennis, not knowing the name originated from Dionysus, the Greek god of the grape harvest, wine and merriment. While both of their births have parallels, the mortal Dennis would certainly not want his life to be filled with the merriment Dionysus symbolizes. Because deep down, he knows that his mother was a slut in her secret life - and all that he goes through, as a child, is because someday after a wild party his probably unmarried mother possibly got drunk too much and certainly had sex with some stranger who turned out to be his father.

Dennis is 15 years old now. Goes to the government school. A topper, of course. And he very well understands who he is, though the nuns at the home have carefully not taught him to believe that he is an orphan. From the time the old watchman told him of the story of how he came to this orphanage, he is overcome with depressing thoughts and feels extremely bitter for his bastardized life. He would think that it would have been better had he not been born. 'It would have been better had I been destroyed in my promiscuous mother's womb', he weeps in silence.

But he is always happy, when he sits on the porch. What makes him happy? - I wanted to know. He would just smile and his face would gleam - free of all the worries he was getting used to. I noticed he was looking at something. I followed his line of sight and there I saw what made him happy. There was a pair of anthills and hundreds of ants marching up and down in strict order. I struck a conversation with him. He has been observing these ants and their behavior for at least two months. He would not allow anyone to break the colonies the ants have so strivingly built. I listen to all the stories he tells me about these ants. Such innocence in every word, and yes - the boy's heart was bubbling with happiness.

As I returned home, I was wondering how could a little boy with whom life had been so cruel find happiness in simple things. Simple things. Oh yes - SIMPLE THINGS. Ah, there it hammered on me. To find happiness, one need not wait till the rapture and the trumpet sound. We could all find bundles of happiness in the simple things life offers us every single day. We would just have to keep our eyes open to see them. God is so great that he has injected so much happiness into all that surrounds us. Without remorse, we need to just go and inherit them. This realization started to change my life. Now - I have reached a point where I can just sit in front of my computer and smile at all the quirks it makes at me. I have started to look at people in the way they ought to be looked; and have made friends with myself. My mind is in complete sync with my heart. Believe me, there is nothing as peaceful as this. You would just have to hum to life's happy tunes and make some loverly moves. The more you smile, the more life becomes paradise. There truly is no greater secret than this. May you be happy all the time!

"Go to the ant, O sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise."

[Proverbs 6:6]

Friendship, Boys And Girls!

This is a simple attempt at a painful juxtaposition of the lives of many. Well, well well. Whether this is similar to your story, or no - a different one - yet speaks volumes of your neighbors' spicy lives - is up to you to judge. But before I start, I would like to put forward a disclaimer for my own safety. All the characters discussed and the words written here do not directly or remotely refer to you or anyone you know.

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A and B. [ A - guy friend; B - girl who is a friend ]

B's desk:

A comes straight to B every single day, pinches her cheek, caresses her hair, does a cheek-to-cheek touch with her before he starts doing anything of use (if at all there is any). This is 'friendship' - they defended themselves when word spread. Anyone who makes fun of this would be desecrating the divinity that surrounds their relationship. Such was the look this supposedly conservative girl gave at anyone who tried to tease or mock. What divinity would one get by rubbing one's prickly bristled skin against a fair smooth cheek! I keep wondering!!

At home:
A is a family boy. B is very virtuous and will be given in marriage soon. Both know that their families and cultures wouldn't allow for them to be married, so are comfortable remaining this way!

C and D. [ C - the babe in saree; D - the dude in shorts ]

Wedding function:

Lovely night. Celebration. Ethnic clothes. Party. People. Nice food. No alcohol. Lot of fun. After all this, C wanted to go to her friend's place for a girls night out. 9 in the night. She asks me to drop her at a certain G circle on my way home. I drop her at the circle. Interestingly, D was waiting to pick her up from there. I was shocked to see the bas****. She, with a sheepish grin, tells me that she would change at D's place and then go to meet her girl buddies. Oh, was she so shy to go to the girl's PG where her friends were waiting and change there? - I have no answer to this. Next day, both were absent. Ooomph. Oh  no, friendship!

At home.

C, now, has a husband who is a fool. D is the only son who their parents are fond of. And this friendship continues.

E and F. [ E - mumma to her daughter; F - the boss who is sincerely straight ]

Pub:

E has long been wanting a promotion. And one fine day she was promoted. She takes along a group of close friends for a drinks party. There, after a few shots, she goes high. Screams - 'I'll tell you all one of my stories'. The dirty story of how F tasted her. The reward, her promo. 'Hey hey, do not mistake us - we're good friends now!', she thunders.

At home:

E's parents who think highly of E take care of her daughter. F's parents are searching for a bride. E and F meet quite often if one of them 'gets bored' - or in other words - wants some fun.

G and H. [ G - guy who believes in connections; H - girl who is ugly ]

Chai shop:

G is a very cunning guy. He tells us - in his usual explicit tone - that he loves to f*** whenever he is pissed off. He tells us of all his steamy affairs thinking these things would inspire us. One fine day, he encounters a huge problem and is super pissed. He takes H home. Next day, he smiles a lot. Tells the guys that her special spots were all big-big. After few days, we grill H with questions during one special occasion. She gets pissed off and screams - 'we're best of friends, alright!' This is just not alright, baby!

At home:

G comes from a respectful household. H is a church-goer. She lies at home and stays at G's place every other Friday night.

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There are so many stories like this. For now, I would stop here. Because it gets dirtier as I write. This is how things are turning out to be. With no offense to anyone, friendship has been shamed by many neo-liberals and been made to look like one cauldron of liberated passions and stumbled morality. If this is called friendship - very sorry - the very definition of it needs to be changed by all means. Where is purity of thought! I have heard few friends who start loving each other and then marry. That, now, seems to be an acceptable notion. But this level of psychosis is unheard of. People think the world they live in, is Vegas. Let us drink, make merry, kiss, get wild, sleep, get up, shake hands and be friends. Who the hell are you fooling? This is a serious state of moral impairment. Deep down, you know it. What do I know, you might glibly ask! You know it well that you are scarring your own self! Scar it more, kill your conscience - and you will die in shame.

Do you seriously want to live with such suppressed guilt? How long can you possibly hide it under a fanciful word called 'friendship'? Imagine: years later if you have children and they start walking in your ways - and you instantly know that it has come from you, it would pain you more. Please turn from your ways before this becomes a trait, lest it passes on to your kids and your bloodline thereby defiled. No positive change is too late. Let love set you free.

Haloing Shades

             The abode of the dead, shades. Gradation of darkness, shades it is. Disembodied spirits - in shades you shall find them. Uninterpretable nuances, shades again. Some people think shades are cool because they are perceived to be evil. Few books bearing 'shades' as title have widened its influence to the world of eroticism. Shades of this ilk, certainly, are dangerous when they happen to fall right on us.

Disregarding the worldly definitions - shades, simply, could be seen as a state where not everything is fully revealed. There is something in the hiding. A tiger crouches through the bushes, sets its position right and then paws for its prey. Bands of defense personnel keep vigil in the night so the enemy wouldn't breach the boundaries unawares. There was a small boy who thought babies are formed in the womb when a husband and wife hug each other. Even procreation is kept in the shades. Well, these shades beautify and preserve our lives, don't they? Tigers get to quench their hunger, we sleep peacefully at night and new babies are born. Indeed these are haloing shades.

Most of us are blind because we tend to believe all that our naked eyes could see. We keep forgetting that lives are actually illuminated by things unseen. Busy trying to reason out everything, we miss out the nuances of symbolism that the simplest of life's events brings to the table. Our understanding goes holed and the right thoughts from our mind's clutter drain out in a fizzle, in a twinkle.

Truth alone triumphs - of course yes - but not without 'love', that allows itself to go unnoticed. Truth is always right. It is just and yes, harsh. Arrogant and sometimes, bitter. But love blends it, makes it more humane. There was a couple soon to be married in an arranged marriage setup. The girl had had premarital relationships with multiple men before. But everyone behaves as though nothing of that sort had ever happened. The broker conceals this, the parents prefer not to speak about the affairs of their once-promiscuous daughter, relatives and friends who know of this hush it down their burning bellies. The girl is scarred by her own folly. But for the marriage to happen and last, for her not to fornicate more and become a whore, a dosage of love had been most necessary. Years passed by, they are a happy couple now.

There was a prophet who cried out - 'My people are destroyed because of lack of knowledge'. But people could also be destroyed because they want to know everything - without any tinge of love. Do you not know that forgiveness is an offshoot of both love and truth? Do you not know that, in accordance to our culture, our women intentionally cover their body parts men desire the most? If our intent is to see and know more of whatever is concealed - desire would vanish and on the same note, forgiveness would disappear too. We need to apply love to whatever we have known as truth. I do not mean that you should limit your curiosity to know more of the truth. My only plea is that the more you know, let love exponentially increase. It was not with the pride-monger pharisee that God was pleased, but with the repenting sinner. Not everything in life is black and white. We need the courage to accept that. Only then could we see beauty in those shades that halo our lives with bliss and more bliss.