Of Atticus Finch.

"They're certainly entitled to think that, and they're entitled to full respect for their opinions, but before I can live with other folks I've got to live with myself. The one thing that doesn't abide by majority rule is a person's conscience."

So true, Harper Lee, so true.

"This is what happens when you haven't written for years: every moment takes on a startling clarity; small things become the world in microcosm." - Extracted from The Hungry Tide.

Exactly, Amitav Ghosh. Each day that has passed right by me has witnessed my almost physical longing for pen and paper. And yet, when you start to write, it is not words that evolve. It is a concoction of feelings, of experiences, of observations you make while trawling through the mundane.

But then again, isn't that characteristic of, and even exclusive to, people?

(Virginia Woolf - A work by Roger Fry)


"I thought how unpleasant it is to be locked out; and I thought how it is worse, perhaps, to be locked in. "
- Virginia Woolf.

             Because sometimes, you don't need to explain your presence.

And then, there were none.

The Great Gatsby.

"It is invariably saddening to look through new eyes at things upon which you have expended your own powers of adjustment." - Nick Carraway.

The thing I absolutely love about the book is the way I find perfect solidarity in Nick's cynicism.

Open Letter.

Dear Terrorist Organisation/Militant Groups/Religious 'revivalists',

We get it. We do. Your modus operandi is to scare people, in order to change the world. Change it according to how you think it should be changed.
For years now, our entire society is trying to rationalise why and how we are subjected to such mass destruction. When we did finally arrive at a conclusion, it was not all that complex. Dare I say, it was an overly simplified notion. Your activities, riots, bombings, assassinations and the like were an indication of a combined desire to instill, and simultaneously maintain fear in what is a large collectivity.
In keeping with that, it almost seems rational that we bear witness to not only sporadic, but directed, terrorist attacks on a very continuous basis. Every day becomes a testimony to having lived. Every day tells you it wasn't you. Every day is proof that they haven't gotten us. Yet.

If it wasn't enough that the 13th and the 26th of each month were when we felt most anxious about not coming back home (thanks to repeated consecutive attacks on the same dates), we are now being given official and International warnings from the US State Government and Australia to not leave home. New Delhi, after all is a high-target area. Hence, traffic routes are clogged, police forces are installed at the entrances (and entrance only) of various shopping centres and heritage sites and regular information in the form of warning messages are being sent out by the media and it's new media avenues. Nobody knows whether there will be a blast or not. It's better to be safe, right?

So, let's strike a compromise. Give us our life back. We have proven ourselves incompetent at not being afraid of these barbaric acts. Really now, are we to be blamed? It is such a potent and viable threat that you chose to shove into our throats, after all!
What we propose is, since you have been proven right, perhaps it is time to back out from the realm of the business where you scare huge, heterogeneous masses all at once. In return to this, we promise to be scared of such methods, to acknowledge your pertinent presence and to not bracket you under 'terrorist nihilisms'.

This culture of fear that we are forced to live in is all-encompassing in it's omni-presence. Maybe we do have a choice here. Maybe we can refuse to subscribe to this culture. Then again, we are no longer our own masters, are we now?

Thank you,

The Undersigned.

Red.

The Red Fort, New Delhi. Loving India just became easier.

La Nausée.

It is almost as if the child can experience and feel Antoine. I don't know if that is a good thing, twisted as it may sound.

Jean-Paul Sartre would have been proud.