Namaste India


“I believe that there are days in our lives when we feel defeated in our efforts but not in our intention.

I believe that there can be no bigger God than the One within Us.

I believe there can be no bigger Buddha than that of Universal Peace.

Join in my good karma and welcome to my blog !!!”

Healing

Healing
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Tuesday, November 10, 2009

......................... Winter's Spell




And I arise after the Sun set;
Oh Children of Dawn!
Won't you welcome me, the Maiden of Rest.

The Water stones and the Crystals flow.
The Streams breathe again, the Wind bellows.
The Forest shivers and lets down the White Snow,
The Cherry Blossoms sing as I grace the floor.

And I arise after the Sun set;
Oh Children of Dawn!
Won't you welcome me, Your Maiden's home.

Thorny white bushes where the Hedgehog hides.
The Squirrels are ready to slumber tonight.
The Bird of the dark opens its eyes;
The Fox digs it den, The Moon shines.

And so I arise after the Sun set;
It's my Awakening,
The Winter's spell dribbles on every creature,
My Haven stars its release.


..............................Naintara

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

My Last Duchess ......



My Last Duchess written by Robert Browning is a dramatic monologue based during the time of Renaissance. It is an amalgamation lined with puns and several other artistic elements which reveal the mindset of the people living during the early 16th century.

Setting of the poem:- The era consisted of the Monarchial rule where the society was limited into the Royal Family and the common folk.
The Noble borns were status oriented and self dignified. The male personalities especially of the Royalty had a very autocratic way of thinking.
They were self-distinguished to such limits that a chauvistic attitude can be seen which is reflected in the personality of the Duke.

The speaker of the poem i.e. Duke of Ferrara is having a conversation with the Envoy of the Count of Tynol. He begins the poem by expressing his admiration regarding the portrait of his deceased wife. He refers to his wife as 'his and the painting as "My Last Duchess" hence revealing his possessive nature. This also reveals the self-dignified, egoistic side of his personality.
Describes the painting to be so beautiful, so craftfully created that it seems as though it were alive, that the duchess herself were real.(a simile used in this line)
It can be seen that he refers to the Duchess as an object of his control, a possession that belongs just to him.

It is believed that the painting was a creation of "Fra Pandolf" who infact is an imaginative character. It was merely in "one" day that he completed the painting.
From this again we see the possessive side of the Duke. He alloted just a day to the painter to study the Duchess.

He asks his visitor to sit down and look carefully at the painting. Many a times people would want to know the reason for that particular expression of the Duchess,
the passionate glaze and the blush of joy on her face. People wanted to know the reason for that look but only few dared to ask and if asked, only from "him"(this again reveals the possessive nature of the Duke, his like for controlling the duchess).

He tells the reason for the blush. According to him it wasn't just because of him that that 'spot of joy' would appear. He makes an assumption here and says that maybe Fra Pandolf made a comment like "Your coat covers your arms" or maybe he complimented the duchess by telling her that no artist could reproduce a replica of the real beauty which lay within her.

Thereafter he expresses the various "misconducts" of the duchess.
He is unable to understand how 'easily impressed and pleased' the duchess would get by trivial compliments.
He says she had a "roving eye", that she had become an infidel.
Anything gifted to her held equal amount of importance and brought equal amount of happiness.
From the expensive gift he gave her to the sunset in the west, both were equally valued by her.
If a worker from the palace broke a cherry branch and gifted that for her, she would become happy. Even riding the donkey brought joy to this woman.
Whenever she would express her gratitude to the men, this conduct seemed approving but only to certain limits. Here we can see the suspicious nature of the Duke.
He didnt trust his duchess and felt that she showed more than just gratitude to those men.

After that he says she never valued the gift he had given to her. His gift of "a nine hundred year old name", the royal title bestowed upon her after she became "his" wife again reveal the domineering,self obsessed, possessive, autocrative mindset of the Duke.
Although he reveals that he wasn't good at expressing his feelings, that conversation was absent in their relationship, he says he would never stoop so low to correct her mistake. He felt it beneath his dignity to point out the Duchess's indecent behavior.
And because his wife never listened or showed any signs of changing herself, "He commands" and all the smiles ceased.. This either means that the Duke gave commands for his wife's assasination or it was through something he said that his wife no longer lived.

At the end of the poem the Duke shows a bronze piece of art consisting of Neptune taming a sea horse.
This is a pun which implies that the Duke saw women as objects who could be controlled. He felt that women were like the sea-horse, possessions upon whom he could play his control upon.....

Saturday, March 14, 2009

Capital Punishment....



Capital Punishment is a violation against justice

Capital punishment, the death penalty or execution, is the killing of a person by judicial process for vengeance and incapacitation.
It is used today and was used in ancient times to punish a variety of offenses mainly murder of an innocent.

The procedure of capital punishment is such that the culpable is placed in jail while the result of his crime is deliberated by the judicial system over a long period of time.Although it is still carried on in many countries mostly Asian it has also been abolished and termed as “An inhuman act of punishment by the law”.
It has created great controversy over the past few years. One side may agree with the idea of convicts & murderers being sentenced to death while others tend to oppose such an idea which tarnishes human morality.

My opinion about capital punishment is this that it is indeed a wrong, bias and painless means of punishing the guilty.

It is the violation of human rights. Capital punishment might be quoted as the universal punishment for a criminal but then again we are not the one to take away life.We are given a life by God and only He has the power and the right to take that away from us.



We forget one main thing though:-
Criminals are not born but made!

An act of crime may not always be intentional. We as human beings tend to act on our emotions. What if a person kills another due to provocation, in the spur of the moment, should such a person receive death sentence. What if he too has a family, is it right to allow revenge and hatred to take such control over us that we see justice as a means of satisfying one’s revenge. If that is so then it is not justice but plain malice.

Justice is based upon the principle of righting a wrong, of improving a person who has done wrong, of taking that 1% chance of making a criminal into a better person. If a man commits 15 murders that too intentional; he will be punished with death sentence. Killing him will definitely not get our loved ones back. This death penalty which we think is so effective will be redemption, means of escape for the crimes this killer has committed.



It is understandable that forgiveness is not easy but revenge won’t bring peace to one’s mind either.
“Love thy neighbor as u love yourself”. Don’t fill up your life with hatred and revenge. Be the better man, the better human being. Making the guilty suffer through years of imprisonment, making him realize his mistake, turning a criminal into a better human being is just.



In those countries where death penalty is legal, the crime level has not decreased. We think killing a man will lessen the no. of murderers out there in the world then we are wrong! It will only lead to more hatred towards humanity which will result in innocents being killed all the more.

As Gandhiji rightfully said “An eye for an eye makes the world blind



He takes a life, you take his life and this cycle goes on forever until there is no one left. Intentional murderers, psychotic killers, such people cannot be treated through death, keeping them away from the rest of the population, making them work, giving them lessons which are not sugar coated but the plain truth along with real life stories can change the personality of criminals.

One criminal made good can change an entire generation of people. We might not know this but years in prison is torture not comfort for a prisoner.There are prisoners out there who beg for death. To make them suffer, repent over their actions is the best means of justice and not capital punishment.


Take for example freedom fighters Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev and Raj Guru (India’s true patriots). They were given capital punishment by the British. Their cause was meant for the freedom of their country yet they were punished. Fighting for your country can never be wrong, we achieved freedom that too through nonviolence but we lost 3 noble men. Was it justice? I think not. If capital punishment had not been given to him; he would have lived his life and embraced death at God’s call.

At the end I would like to conclude Life is not an object which you can give or take. Dieing must not be taken as a means of escape from one’s mistakes. Learning and improving is what is important. Like I quoted before “Criminals are not born but made”…. We can make them into better beings.
Only then can justice be served on the people…..


Sunday, February 15, 2009

Every friend in life is the most beautiful gift of God



"Tell me what company thou keepst, and I'll tell thee what thou art."





I walked along the ocean,
my head bowed low in sorrow,
I hardly handled today,
how do I cope with tomorrow?

The day was like every other;
the pain, the grief inside.
My strength was running out,
I could no longer hide.

The pain was immense that day,
It had never been that bad!
But all of a sudden, out of the blue,
I didn't feel so sad.

Something happened that day,
The weight became like a feather,
It'll never be entirely gone though,
The memories are there forever.

Although I still look back and cry,
I had a friend to confide,
One who means the whole world to me,
One who helped me reach the stronger side.






........Naintara Gurung