Sunday Brunch (#4)

Welcome to another edition of Sunday Brunch!

If I were to look for a common thread to the things I read last week, it would be pain. Pain is not a word- or an emotion- we are comfortable with. There is an indefinable ugliness inherent in it; it degrades your human experience and robs you of dignity. By tagging you to be something you are not, it reduces you to be much less than you are. Surely there are better solutions to this pain?

Dish #1:

Deepa Duraisamy  is a published writer. From what I see on her blog, she is a sporadic blogger. What she lacks in quantity, she more than makes up in quality. If the final analysis, that’s what matters. Not how widely you spread out but how deep you go under life’s layers. She isn’t just a sensitive writer, she is also a warm- hearted sensitive person. Every post I have ever read on her blog proclaims her to be a seeker who takes the time to look deeper into things- questioning some, celebrating some, declaring war on some. All of which sums up to passion; a passion for good. The post I am sharing today reflects that passion. This is what she says:

I saw a man come under a train. One minute he was there, the next he was not. It was that sudden. He was too far away from me to witness and real carnage, but the realization still formed a huge lump in my throat. Fifty feet away, the train inched along a few yards and then pulled to a complete stop. I remember hordes of blurry shapes running towards the site of the accident. Read more at: A train Accident. A realization. And Nothingness

Dish #2:

Last week someone shared  post titled An Open Goodbye Letter to India. Intrigued by the title, I went to read, wondering who wanted to say goodbye to this beautiful country of mine. And why. Goodbye is such a final word, inflexible and non- negotiable. This is what I read when I got there:

Dear India, From the day I was born, you were the first sight I saw. My first steps were in your soil. I spent a month memorizing your national anthem. Recited it with pride amongst my peers in second grade.Ever year, I celebrated the Republic Day and Independence Day. Watched all of Gandhi’s movies and a few of Bhagat Singh’s.  Learnt of our rich history of the Mughal Empire and the Maurya dynasty. Read more at: An Open Goodbye Letter to India

As I said to the blogger in my comment, can we really afford to let the bigots define India? Can we let the stupid, the crass and the mindless be the representatives of India? Her post reminded me of this quote:

In the name of the best within you, do not sacrifice this world to those who are its worst. In the name of the values that keep you alive, do not let your vision of man be distorted by the ugly, the cowardly, the mindless in those who have never achieved his title.

~ Ayn Rand

Dish #3:

This video made me wonder what kids are using nowadays in place of self- esteem. Whether it is video games, substance abuse or casual promiscuity, surely there is something wrong? Is this all we are able to give to our children? A weak mind and a insubstantial backbone? All of last week I have heard a friend lament that her son doesn’t listen to her at all. A student of class ten, not only has he not attended school regularly but even now, with the exams due next month, he is yet to begin studying. His time is spent with his good-for-nothing friends going to one picnic after another.

The drug he uses isn’t online video games, it is peer approval. He is an approval junkie. Same thing at the core, isn’t it?

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqctG3NnDa0?rel=0%5D

Dish #4:

Better, more effective solutions must surely exist. To find them, paradigms must be changed. I found this video very exciting.

The story of solutions:

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cpkRvc-sOKk?rel=0%5D

Dessert:

And now for the week’s round up of my own posts.

1. Woe Be Unto Me! is a set of three humorous 55fictions sharing some grammar woes.
2. I Could Have Been Me is a personal account of my first major skirmish with The Big C- Cancer.

We forget how truly fragile we are.
Skin. We do so much to it. Burn it. Tattoo it. Rub chemical into its surface. Sometimes we scrape it, pierce it, poke holes through its softness.
Skin holds us together. IT keeps the blood inside. Without it, we die.”
~ Jeyn Roberts, Dark Inside

Day after day, we let ourselves be defined by what we are not. We dance as if the whole world were watching critically; as if their opinion really mattered.  We live as if we will live forever and we’ll be given ample time to do things over again. Despite constant warnings about ignoring the first and being more mindful of the second, we refuse to change. When will we stop fretting the small stuff and take care of the big stuff?

An inverted pyramid is always precarious, isn’t it?