here i'm back again to the blog..not because i was lazy for past few months...but just that i did not want to write when i was not upto it...as usual I do things when I REALLLLLLY want to do it...
solitude teaches u a lot..it comforts, introspects u a lot..filters through the innermost desires, dreams..and gives u the gist..which is still holding you through the ups and downs of the life...and suddenly on the journey to the "filtered self"...you realize those many things which u dreamt of, thought of...when u were young(i guess i'm young still)...hmm..i'm taking abt when we were young enough to dream anything and everything without even thinking of the how, why, when, where of it...(i guess that was really lonnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnng back)
i'm talking of those many things we really longed for, we really really wanted to do...or we really really wanted to be...such as I wanted to be an artist...alwayes cuddled in paints...brushes,...sketches...or sometimes had storng desire to sit near a sea shore or on high mountain and breathe in fresh air...
this reminds me of how many times we put off our passions,our tiny desires to slog through the daily routine and keep on meeting the dead deadlines of the mechanical world...these desires can be as small as going for a art class..or guitar lessons or..simply visiting a garden to get fresh air...
and the excuses for all the same are.."i cant follow that coz i need money"..."no time for this bcoz i'm working hard for elevation..higher responsibilites"..."how can i even think about it when all i'm responsible for it abc number targets".....and in all the statistics of life we miss...and realize when its too late....
most of my friends are well settled in life and are successful in meeting most of the criterias set out for being successful..some of them are haapliy married, even some are proud parents too..most of them own luxurious cars...and big big houses/flats...but still when we get to interact we feel a vaccum in our lives..vaccum which is undefinable...and surprisingly the most common things amongst all of us are now that we are tired of the routine life...we miss the "life" in this life...
we miss running after the kites, when we can afford to fly higher in aircrafts with fancy stewards/ess.....we miss playing cricket in sunshine, when we can get into a stadium to watch India- Australia play..we miss sitting in a shady restaurant and ordering the least priced item from the menue...when we spend most of our weekends in the best hotels/pubs/discs in the town...we miss, we miss and we miss but hardly ever we decide to do what we miss...i bet most of you will agree about those "Missing old days" mails taking infinite rounds with different words/activites but the same gist and we all nostalagically agreeing to the contents of them...and sighly saying..."kya din the vo"....
what is missing in our lives grossly is "life" itself..we all are running in the rat race and no surprise we all are rats whatever ahead or behind we are...
I remember a TV commercial of Amul Dairy Milk, which said "kuch khaas hai hum sabhi me...kuch baat hai jindagi me"...and the visual which comes in my mind is a crazy girl encroaching in a cricket stadium dancing...or a girl with mehndi clad hands trying to eat chocolate...how many of us can shed the designation/responsiblities/seriousness of our jobs and do the same...most of us cant...we will be fearing..what if somebody sees...what they will think...we are from XYZ org..etc etc etc...
But little do we realise, we may soon enough land in a state where we are incapable of doing such things or fulfilling those dreams....we sure cant get back to past but we can make a better today by doing what makes us happy...fulfilled...satisfied.... life can be quite unpredictable , and you never know what happens tomorrow.So I have decided, the next time my dreams heave a long sigh inside my heart or i really want to do something...i'm not going to put it off and say i cant bcoz...x.y..z.., I'm sure going to listen to it.
tell me...what's that one dream you've been putting off, and what's the excuse you are giving yourself today?
Monday, February 11, 2008
Thursday, February 7, 2008
The Last Ride Together.........
Going by the title....post is not going to be about an incident but a short poem by "Robert Browning" which has been my favorite....and carries such a deep meaning that every time i read it..i start liking it even more...
just to give u a brief about it...the poem is about a rejected lover who as a last wish asked his beloved to have a last ride with him so that he can cherish the ride together.. the poem is a monologue and is narrated by the lover...some of the heart touching lines of the poem, i cant resist pasting here( i dont know if i'm violating any copyright/patent act etc...but i really wanted to share this)
"Since now at length my fate I know,
Since nothing all my love avails,
Since all, my life seemed meant for, fails,
Since this was written and needs must be--
My whole heart rises up to bless
Your name in pride and thankfulness!
Take back the hope you gave--I claim
Only a memory of the same,
--And this beside, if you will not blame,
Your leave for one more last ride with me.
Look, how beautifully he spiritualises his love and the generosity with which he accepts the situation....
"Had I said that, had I done this,
So might I gain, so might I miss. . . . . . .
Might she have loved me? just as well
She might have hated, who can tell!
Where had I been now if the worst befell?
And here we are riding, she and I."
Spiritualism at its best, when the lover says most of the times in our live we keep saying "had i done this, i would have...." "had i done that, it would have...." but we never think these IFs and HADs are going to be there forever...instead of dwelling in these thoughts, we should embrace the present as it comes and be thankful that it happened...
"Fail I alone, in words and deeds?
Why, all men strive and who succeeds?"
"Who knows what's fit for us? Had fate . . . . . .
Proposed bliss here should sublimate
My being--had I signed the bond--
Still one must lead some life beyond,
Have a bliss to die with, dim-descried.
This foot once planted on the goal,
This glory-garland round my soul,
Could I descry such? Try and test!
I sink back shuddering from the quest.
Earth being so good, would heaven seem best?
Now, heaven and she are beyond this ride."
"What if we still ride on, we two
With life for ever old yet new,
Changed not in kind but in degree,
The instant made eternity--
And heaven just prove that I and she
Ride, ride together, forever ride?"
in the last ride with his beloved he finds every thing, all the pleasures that had been long expected. And he finds these through the channel of spirit, based on deep philosophy. The narrator rather a great philosopher, eternises his platonic kind of love and makes the riding a lifetime experience.
Spiritual love to eternise time comes foremost in this literary art. The lover eternises the moment of riding which is very short in duration. Here he loves the moment , the partial time and finds heaven in it; the thing is to note here, that the small time has taken the place of a time of very big duration, meaning his life time. Thus the narrator measures time not in quantity but in importance,pleasure of that moment and proves 'Time is the chrysalis of eternity' (Richter)
"Look at the end of work, contrast
The petty done, the undone vast,"
Life defined in above two lines...at the end of life, when you look back...you will find that even after best of your efforts put in...the things you could do/make impact on are very less and the undone stands tall......
When i start concluding this post..i find i have done almost an analysis of the poem...but believe me this is one of the simplest and most thoughtful piece of English Literature..Browning is a favorite for this...................
just to give u a brief about it...the poem is about a rejected lover who as a last wish asked his beloved to have a last ride with him so that he can cherish the ride together.. the poem is a monologue and is narrated by the lover...some of the heart touching lines of the poem, i cant resist pasting here( i dont know if i'm violating any copyright/patent act etc...but i really wanted to share this)
"Since now at length my fate I know,
Since nothing all my love avails,
Since all, my life seemed meant for, fails,
Since this was written and needs must be--
My whole heart rises up to bless
Your name in pride and thankfulness!
Take back the hope you gave--I claim
Only a memory of the same,
--And this beside, if you will not blame,
Your leave for one more last ride with me.
Look, how beautifully he spiritualises his love and the generosity with which he accepts the situation....
"Had I said that, had I done this,
So might I gain, so might I miss. . . . . . .
Might she have loved me? just as well
She might have hated, who can tell!
Where had I been now if the worst befell?
And here we are riding, she and I."
Spiritualism at its best, when the lover says most of the times in our live we keep saying "had i done this, i would have...." "had i done that, it would have...." but we never think these IFs and HADs are going to be there forever...instead of dwelling in these thoughts, we should embrace the present as it comes and be thankful that it happened...
"Fail I alone, in words and deeds?
Why, all men strive and who succeeds?"
"Who knows what's fit for us? Had fate . . . . . .
Proposed bliss here should sublimate
My being--had I signed the bond--
Still one must lead some life beyond,
Have a bliss to die with, dim-descried.
This foot once planted on the goal,
This glory-garland round my soul,
Could I descry such? Try and test!
I sink back shuddering from the quest.
Earth being so good, would heaven seem best?
Now, heaven and she are beyond this ride."
"What if we still ride on, we two
With life for ever old yet new,
Changed not in kind but in degree,
The instant made eternity--
And heaven just prove that I and she
Ride, ride together, forever ride?"
in the last ride with his beloved he finds every thing, all the pleasures that had been long expected. And he finds these through the channel of spirit, based on deep philosophy. The narrator rather a great philosopher, eternises his platonic kind of love and makes the riding a lifetime experience.
Spiritual love to eternise time comes foremost in this literary art. The lover eternises the moment of riding which is very short in duration. Here he loves the moment , the partial time and finds heaven in it; the thing is to note here, that the small time has taken the place of a time of very big duration, meaning his life time. Thus the narrator measures time not in quantity but in importance,pleasure of that moment and proves 'Time is the chrysalis of eternity' (Richter)
"Look at the end of work, contrast
The petty done, the undone vast,"
Life defined in above two lines...at the end of life, when you look back...you will find that even after best of your efforts put in...the things you could do/make impact on are very less and the undone stands tall......
When i start concluding this post..i find i have done almost an analysis of the poem...but believe me this is one of the simplest and most thoughtful piece of English Literature..Browning is a favorite for this...................
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