A six word story

This is a very famous story in the literary circles - once challenged to use only six words to tell the story of his life, Ernest Hemingway wrote this;

"For sale - Baby shoes, never worn"

It is a masterpiece of talent, much brooded upon by many authors and writers. Hemingway was referring to a personal tragedy that the parents face when a new born/unborn child fails to survive.

To describe an entire story in just a few words is an exercise an advertising copywriter faces everyday. However, describing your whole life in just a few words may be challenging.

Perhaps not in the same league as Hemingway but I have managed to sum up my life into only four words;

"Live life - King size"

The interpretations are left to you.

Samples of my collages

Some of my paper collages

Is honesty the best policy?

I was watching this movie on a long flight – The invention of lying.

Here is a world where everyone is telling the truth and even the word ‘lie’ does not exist. And what can you imagine from a world like that? A perfectly chaotic one at that - everyone tells each other how exactly they feel about each other – blunt, frank and rudely honest. A fat guy is called fat and a loser is plainly told so and sacked from his workplace, couples are fighting because they cannot use an ounce of tact to maintain their relationship – it is almost detrimental.

Remember “liar liar” and Jim Carrey. Well this one was not as funny but the imagination of such a world is bewildering to most of us. Goes to show how far we need to go from the childlike honesty that we are born with to be polite and successful in this world.

Whats in a name?

Its amazing how sensitive people are about the way they are called. Your parents gave you a name, some of us take that very seriously insisting that everyone should call us exactly the way our parents did. Some others like to change it completely and call ourselves by a nick name or a short name or an abbreviated name or a characteristic name re-given to us by our mates, friends or colleagues - Chatur, Silencer, VD, DJ, Rush.

But the biggest issue is the pronunciation of your name...it varies from different countries to different accents to different societies. I have usually been nonchalant about the way my name is often said - anything that starts from R or sometimes even K, U, T... Krishina, Kristine, Usina, Trusina, Reesheena...as long as they get about 3 out of 7 alphabets right i forgive and forget. I attribute all flaws to my very unusual and meaningless name which people after mispronouncing it a few times find very lovely. It is like an artwork, very abstract is very interesting. Or maybe they are making up for saying it wrong innumerable times.

What makes me really laugh is when my daughter Aaliyah who is now 5 and bilingual tells me that she is Aaliyah in English and a very melodious Aleeeya in Swedish. Well, Jacob is Yakub and Jennifer is Yennifer and Nemo is Neamo and Peter is Patter so why not. It is hard to find a name that cannot be changed with such globalisation.

Winnie the Pooh

Pooh is a cuddly, easy going, honey loving, stress free bear that every little child would adore. A character i got introduced to by none other than my daughter.

Thanks to my daughter and of course its creator A.Milne & producer Disney Pictures the entire gang of 'Winne the Pooh' and his friends in the '100 acre wood' also happen to be a member of my family. And I mean this literally - each character with its own very distinct personality can be compared to a member of my family. It is absolutely charming to see how such diverse personalities inhabit together.

I was fascinated to understand the philosophy as described by Benjamin Hoff. Especially the parallels drawn between the personality of Pooh and the preachings of Taoism.The carefree, non egoistic, happy where you are kind of ways. One that goes with the harmony & rhythm of the universe, never challenges anything and yet accomplishes everything and still remains nonchalant about it.

I think it is fantastic - this is also the style of Taoist form of fighting called "T' ai Chi" which is gentle and elegant compared to the harsh & screaming Confucianist fighting "Kung fu".

It is quite difficult to attain Pooh's childlike simplicity and calmness in today's fast paced competitive world but it already feels relaxing just to think about it and i hope my little doll continues to be like her favourite Poo-bear.

You could get a personality check for yourself and check which character in the 100 acre wood you resemble at: http://www.hubpages.com/hub/Personality-Test

Pay it forward

It is a season of giving and sharing and suitably i happened to see this movie on television called 'Pay it forward'. The movie is relatively old with Kevin Spacey brilliant as always, Helen Hunt in a very unusual role and the phenomenal Haley Joel Osment. It is based on a book and the theme was later followed by formation of a philanthropist movement called 'Pay it forward foundation'.

The theme of the movie is a school assignment given by his teacher (Kevin Spacey) to devise and put into action a plan that will change the world for the better. Osment (son of Helen Hunt) takes it up very seriously and brings a homeless man home. He calls his plan "pay it forward", which can be described as a charitable pyramid scheme, based on good deeds. "Paying it forward" means the recipient of a favor does a favor for a third party rather than paying the favor back. So he does three good deeds and each good deed translates into 3 more favours by the recipients and so on to make it a continuous chain reaction.

A movie that is a little to melodramatic and loud to my liking but nevertheless keeps you thinking and that is what i guess it intended to achieve. Although not completely original, I think the movie is a perfect food for thought especially during this season when everybody is in a slightly somber state of mind...worth a watch i would say. Merry Christmas and a happy new year.

The Lost Dan Brown

I have read all of Dan Brown books - and this one is the worse. To begin with the title sucks...what is he really looking for - a symbol, a pyramid, a legend, a masonic secret ? Professor Langdon is sceptical and so are Mr Dan Brown's readers. Goes to show that Mr. Brown is lost and he just drags us with him.

I am beginning to feel that after the success of The Da Vinci Code - this book is his deliberate and forced attempt to put America on the mystery hunt list. In fact India would have been a more suited location to find ancient mysteries. He induces fascination where it does not exist. His fast pace/page turning formula leaves you disappointed chapter after chapter and towards the end you feel both frustrated and cheated.

The only interesting aspect in the whole book is "Noetic Science" - i could not help launching a research to understand more of it. Noetics as i understand is essentially trying to find some scientific explanations (through meta physics and such) in the intangible beliefs of soul, intuition or the inner consciousness.

IONS (Institute of Noetic Sciences) was co-founded by Edgar Mitchell, an astronaut who was part of the Apollo 14 mission. During his journey Mitchell had an epiphany while looking down on the earth that existence of life on earth was not just an accident based on random processes...

Well...the scriptures in India, China or Egypt have a lot to say on this subject - some of the ancient revelations are perhaps forgotten or have been branded as superstitions due to the lack of understanding of modern sciences.

IONS might be able to fill that gap and provide us with some substantial research that confirms that what we read in scriptures is not "bull" and maybe we all have within us super human capabilities which only needs to be unleashed. And then the ancient gods will hold no fascination if we would be able to part seas, travel in time or heal the sufferings in this world.

Marrying the intangible mysteries to logical sciences maybe worthwhile - but this is a deep subject and Browns attempt to capture it in a few hundred pages is a bit ambitious i think.