Closing remarks...

And another year comes to a close. 

Lots of fun and excitement ahead of us as we leave the past and look forward to the future.

Retrospection of 2012 leaves us with a mixed bag of emotions. Lots of bad and some good in the kitty. Looking at the picture on a larger scale - it is still the same. I had a tough year. My friend did warn me about the same and it did come true. He is a numerologist.  We celebrated a lot of good things and our head did hang in shame for all the misdemeanour's that we went through. The world has changed as we know it from bad to worse. It makes me wonder, why has the Avatar that comes once in 1000 years not come? Is he yet to arrive? I think the arrival has been delayed as there are still good people left in the world. Looks like the gods still have faith in the goodness of humanity. There is a problem of negativity in the world altogether. People feed on negativity. The media highlights negativity more as the circulation / viewer ship increases on sympathy and tears. Yes, there has been movement against negativity on the whole. The younger generation has started to stand up and fight against it as a single unit. Anna Hazare, Arvind Kejriwal & Kiran Bedi have stood up for truth, justice and for change that is required so badly to the country right now. The people who are in power are not interested in making a change. It is time that the overhauling is badly required from the top to the bottom. Glad to know that the wind of change has started to swing against negativity.

• Why do people take things for granted?
• Why do people fade away? 
• What makes one think that the other person will accept whatever we dish out?
• Why are we so judgemental?
• Why can’t we take things as they are, accepting it and move on?
• Why are we not optimistic?
• Why can’t the newspapers print something positive on their front page, so that the world wakes up into positivity?
• Why can’t people take religion as it is meant to be?
• Why are people so greedy?
• Why are people so dumb?

Hope is the quintessential part of our existence. The knowledge of tomorrow being a better place makes us want to move on instead of putting a full stop in our track. It is this thought that makes good people put up a brave fight knowing very well that eventually good will come out supreme. 

Thank you for all the people who took out time to read my blog(s). Please donot hesitate to comment [good/bad] Its the comments that make blogger like me improve. Nobody can keep the sun from shinning.

Trust you will have a better new-year and hope it will be prosperous and peaceful.

Argument...

A boy once asked his father, "Dad, how do wars begin?”

 "Well, take the First World War," said his father. "That got started when Germany invaded Belgium."

Immediately his wife interrupted him, "Tell the boy the truth! It began because somebody was assassinated

The husband drew himself up with an air of superiority and snapped back, "Are you answering the question or am I?" Turning her back upon him in a huff, the wife stormed out the room and slammed the door as hard as she could! When the dishes stopped rattling in the cupboard an uneasy silence followed, broken at length by the boy: 

"Daddy, you don't have to tell me how wars begin; I KNOW now!"

We all do it sometimes! We all know what it is to walk away from an argument with the mouth dry, tummy in a knot, head hot and spinning, and heart sick--wishing that it had never happened, deeply regretting the unkind words that were said!

Believe it or not, more homes are destroyed by arguments than by fires or funerals.

We all know that arguing for the sake of arguing is a pointless waste of time.We have absolutely NOTHING to gain instead  we loose our time, energy and friendship is  LOST! It is said that the only people who really LISTEN to an argument are the neighbours. So darn true. Some people love to argue, and will do anything to prove their point! They'd rather lose a friend than an argument. For others, arguing has become a HABIT, an automatic reaction of saying something contradictory to whatever is being said.

One compulsive arguer was the early American statesman, philosopher and author, Benjamin Franklin. As a youth he loved nothing more than a good argument until a close friend took him aside and said, 

"Ben, you are impossible! Your opinions have a slap in them for everyone who differs with you! Your friends enjoy themselves better when you are not around! You think you KNOW so much that no one can TELL you anything. Indeed, no one is going to try, for the effort would only lead to discomfort and hard work! So you are not likely ever to know any more than you do now which is actually very LITTLE!" Ben Franklin was BIG enough and WISE enough to accept these stinging truths, and to realize that he was headed for failure and social disaster! So he immediately began to change his bigoted, argumentative ways! He became one of the best loved, wisest and most diplomatic men in American history, and was actually remembered for saying:

"If you argue and rankle and contradict, you may achieve a victory sometimes. But it will be an empty victory, because you will never get your opponent's good will!"

NO ONE ever really wins an argument! You can shout and scream and argue until you're blue in the face, but people are not going to believe that you are right unless they WANT to believe it! And even if they would LIKE to agree with you, your tone may have put them so much on the defensive that it would be like an utter humiliation, a defeat on the battlefield, for them to confess you're right or even partly right! And remember, no amount of logic or argument will make anyone change his mind if he doesn't want to! 

Nine times out of ten, an argument ends with each side more firmly convinced than ever that he is absolutely right. You can't win an argument because if you lose it, you lose it! And if you WIN it, you still LOSE it! Well, suppose you triumph over the other person and shoot his argument full of holes and prove that he's an absolute idiot. You'll feel fine, smug and satisfied. Ever thought about the fallen person? You'll have made him feel inferior. You've hurt his pride. He will resent your triumph, Always remember, “A man convinced against his will, is of the same opinion still!"

Haven't you ever thought on why fights or argument starts?“Don't they come from your lusts and desires that battle within you? You want something, but don't get it...so you quarrel and fight.So greediness and selfishness can be one of the root causes of arguing, trying to get the things you selfishly want. Other arguments are caused by PRIDE. Only by PRIDE come quarrels, but wisdom is found in those who take advice. Also, as we've clearly seen, many arguments are caused by SELF-RIGHTEOUSNESS. Pushing your point, thinking that you're so right, putting yourself up and the other person down by contradicting them. And what it all boils down to is a lack of LOVE! Arguing isn't the real problem, that's just a SYMPTOM! A LACK OF LOVE is the REAL problem! 

That's one of the major lessons that God wants us to learn how to LOVE people, how to work with them, how to treat them, how to give the other person the advantage and the benefit of the doubt, how to build them up unselfishly, instead of selfishly tearing them down through contention and argument! All this is a part of LEARNING TO LOVE, to put ourselves in other people's shoes. 

So do unto others as you would have them do unto you!

FOOD FOR THOUGHT...

Madambi...

Strange title given to a write up on a song. I will share the link at the end of the write up. I heard this song yesterday at night and wanted to pen upon it immediately. Unfortunately the sandman had sprinkled a wee bit extra sleep dust in my eyes, so the priority changed. So here I am, completing what was supposed to have been my midnight creativity, now being performed in broad day light. 

The title is MADAMBI is defined as Feudal lord. The song that I am trying to put some light [my 2 cents] is Amma Mazha... I am sure there are many reviews that you have read from various places. Maybe mine will be part of the flow or may stand out. That is for you to decide. Why am I writing on this song? I was moved by it. There are very few songs that has literally brought me to tears. And this is one of it. The first time I ever saw a person cry hearing a song was the hero of this movie in his first home production called His highness Abdulla. In that movie he is drawn into a musical duel by the kings court musician and all the three run into tears because they sang the song with such dedication and purity. Why do people move into tears when they hear good song? The reason is simple. At that one moment they are one with god. There is nothing between the listener and the singer. They become one. That moment is what language feebly tries to encompass in a word called BLISS/NIRVANA. How does one come to understand which song can move us to bliss? Simple, the ones that can connect us to the song on a different plane. Not tapping feet or stuff like that. You stand/sit spell bound. That's the song you are looking out for. The one that connects your soul to the almighty. 

In this particular song, the lyrics are not upto the mark. Its like Kaithapram Damodaran Namboothiri style... devoid of any meaning. However M. Jayachandran the music director, Dr. K.J Yesudas the singer, the photography and the people who acted in it made the song a memorable one. The song is mellifluous and melancholic blended to perfection on the same plane. Rain in the background is a cliche, but a necessary one is what I would say. It gives the song the subtle layers required to portray  his sorrow and it depicts Mohanlal emptying his heart out to his mother KPAC Lalitha, that her husband is dead and has been, for a very long time. He has been bearing on his shoulders the hope and salvation for his mother and the entire family. The other frames depict his mothers transition from a wife to a widow and the lady who used to hate Mohanlal to the one who realises the extent of the burden and sacrifice he has done for the existence of the family. The subtle emotions [for which Mohanlal is lauded for] depicted by the hero has no comparison. He reminds me of Sidney Poitier, the African American actor who could display a spectrum of emotions with his eyes. Its people like them who reminds us that, "The eyes are the windows to the soul." The other frames shows him as a loner who has been fighting all that life has thrown at him, all by himself. All in all... PERFECT!!!