Am a Leaf

“Am a leaf, floating lonely in the river,

No dreams of delight, no perils to quiver,

No desires or unrequited love to bother,

But an eternal morose on my mother.”

So whispered the lanky Sacred Knight,

In the graveyard, on a monsoon night,

And gazed he at the star spangled sky,

As if to tell the meteors passing by,

A story by no means he told in the past,

All of a sudden decided to tell at last.

Then when he told his tearful tale,

All those listened grew sad and pale,

The deceased souls, the desolate night,

All felt grief on poor Knight’s blight.

They asked why thus far he failed to tell,

And chose to squander chances to quell,

Woeful memories besmirched with pain,

And paved paths for loneliness to reign.

To that question he answered thus,

In a rueful sound, yet with no fuss.

“To tell I had often longed and longed,

And did tell some women who thronged,

But they, in their days of youthful thrill,

Didn’t fathom why I am weeping shrill,

And never reckoned my emotive grace,

Left me orphaned in absolute disgrace.

Albeit sombre, I am still firm and brave,

Hence never choose to rant or rave,

Cold winters don’t make me shiver,

Am a leaf, floating lonely in the river."

(This is my first rhyming poem. Dedicated to my father who would have been extremely pleased to read this one.)

Proudly Sharing My Birthday with William Butler Yeats

On the same day that I emerged into this world, but one hundred and seventeen years back, was born one of English literature’s greatest exponents, William Butler Yeats. He is considered as one of the greatest poets of the 20th century and was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in the year 1923. He was also an Irish nationalist, dramatist, prose writer and a believer in eastern mysticism. It was with great amusement that I found out, of late, that my most favourite poet was born exactly on the same date as I.

William Butler Yeats was born on 13th June, 1865 in Dublin, Ireland. His father, John Butler Yeats was a well known painter and his mother Susan Mary Pollexfen came from a rich Anglo-Irish family in Sligo. In 1885, Yeats’ first set of poems was published in Dublin University Review. It was in 1889 that WB Yeats met Maud Gonne, a young heiress who had dedicated her life to Irish nationalist movement. Yeats developed an infatuation and a great love towards Maud Gonne and he proposed her, but she refused as she thought Yeats to be a lesser revolutionary than what she was. As is the case with many poets, Yeats also gained a lot of ‘inspiration’, if you can call it so, from his lost love. There onwards this incident had a great impact on his poems and the world should be grateful to Maud Gonne for refusing Yeats’ proposal because if she had not done that we would have never got such great poems from this great Irishman.

To all those people who have been in love for a long time but haven’t got it reciprocated from the other side, Yeats gave his advice thus,

O do not love too long, Or you will grow out of fashion, Like an old song.

Yeats was so much upset with his lost love that in almost all his poems we can see a glimpse of his disappointment. In what is considered as one of the greatest love poems ever written in the English language, “He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven”, Yeats said,

I, being poor, have only my dreams;

I have spread my dreams under your feet;

Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.

WB Yeats believed that his love for Maud Gonne was a very sincere one. But in the latter part of his life he had the conviction that Maud Gonne had never taken his love seriously. He came to understand that though his love for Ms. Gonne was a sincere one, she never had the same feeling for him. As a reply to, what he considered as her infidelity, Yeats later wrote,

She bid me take love easy, as the leaves grow on the tree;

But I, being young and foolish, With her did not agree.

She bid me take life easy, as the grass grows on the weirs;

But I was young and foolish, And now am full of tears.

Though he was rather passionate about the beauty of Maud Gonne in his youthful days, he became more aware of the futility of beauty in his old age. In his poem “A Prayer for my Daughter” he brought out his scepticism about extreme beauty, as he believed that if someone is extremely beautiful, there is a chance for that person to get obsessed with beauty and lose his/her natural kindness. He said,

Being made beautiful overmuch,

Consider beauty a sufficient end,

Lose natural kindness and maybe

The heart-revealing intimacy

That chooses right, and never find a friend.

Yeats also had other shades to his personality. He was a revolutionary and stood for Irish nationalism and had been appointed in the Irish Senate in the year 1922. In his poem named “The Second Coming” he represents the political condition of his times in the words,

Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,

The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere

The ceremony of innocence is drowned;

The best lack all conviction, while the worst

Are full of passionate intensity.

Yeats died on 28 January, 1939 and his tomb is at Drumcliffe, County Sligo, Ireland. I would consider this to be a small introduction to the poetry of WB Yeats and to all those poem enthusiasts out there, I would recommend to read Yeats. Anyways I am extremely proud and feel privileged to share my birthday with William Butler Yeats. Two other great men who share the same birthday are the Communist intellectual EMS and one of the greatest Malayalam satirist-writer, Mannikoth Ramunni Nair a.k.a. Sanjayan.

(Republished from Vox SEO, the SEO writing forum in Calpine Technologies)

Come on Pinarayi; Face it in the Court Man

The SFI chaps and the DYFI blokes were having a very bad and boring time for quite some time, in fact for the last three years. And it is always so when the LDF is ruling the state of Kerala, as there will be no government actions to become offended about, no government policy to feel hurt about or no government initiative to be angry upon. Their government, their policies and hence a life without boisterous onslaughts on public property or hostile slogans on the “irresponsible” government; certainly a boring and dull life for the young comrades. But suddenly everything changed; the Governor gave CBI the approval to prosecute Pinarayi Vijayan, their greatest leader, on the SNC Lavalin Case. And this was a sort of opportunity that they were looking for. Cometh the hour, cometh the brave comrades.

One of the questions that is in the mind of us Malayalees is that if Pinarayi is really innocent, why are the party and himself so much keen on avoiding going to the court. Even if we accept that this case is a politically motivated one where the Congress Government in the centre used the CBI to come up with such a case, is it not the responsibility of the CPI (M) to prove such a conspiracy? And there are some good reasons for us to believe that the Congress government at the centre has used its leverage on the CBI for putting up cases against their political opponents. But this is not something new and is a clear truth of our system. Whoever comes to government will use governmental machineries against their rivals.

The CPI (M) now argues that the Governor has no right to decline the opinion of the cabinet ministers and therefore his decision to approve prosecution against Pinarayi is unconstitutional. This is because the cabinet ministers, after getting advice from the Advocate General, gave their suggestion to the Governor that there is no prima facie case against Pinarayi and hence there is no need to prosecute him. One just can’t miss the irony here. A cabinet headed by CPI (M) ministers deciding whether to prosecute their own party secretary or not. This is as if the accused himself making judgement whether he is the culprit or not. Can we expect any other suggestion than the one that was given by the cabinet ministers? And they say that they made the decision based on the advice given by the Advocate General and that they haven’t decided by themselves. Come on men, just think about the accusation you throw against your opposition before coming up with such a foolish proposition. You argue that the Congress government at the centre influenced the CBI for concocting a case against Pinarayi. So if we go by that argument, if the Government at centre can influence an organisation like CBI, can’t the state government headed by the CPI (M) members influence the Advocate General to come up with an opinion that suits it? That means there is no steam in that argument and hence we Malayalees who are more intelligent that what you politicians think we are and want us to be, reject the argument and jettison it completely.

Now the rule that you need the approval of the Governor for giving charge sheet to a minister or ex-minister is in itself a stupid rule. The governor is supposed to act based on the advice of the council of ministers and if the council of ministers is from the party of the person in question, the advice of the cabinet will certainly be in line with what happened in this case. So until and unless you have a set of politicians who think and behave in a more moral way, which is anyways not the case in our society, corruption cases on ministers and ex-ministers will have the same fate as that of this case.

For some time I want to be on the side of Mr. Pinarayi and want to reassure him and want to tell him that there is no need for him to worry. He should not worry about going to the court and then if found guilty, go to the jail as there has never been an instance in India where a politician got to the jail on account of corruption. Because our judicial system is so slow and malleable that it has always found it impossible to prove any politician guilty of corruption. So Pinarayi should have no qualms about going to the court. And again as you and your party men claim, you have been a brave comrade all your life with no fear of even walking through the dark streets in Kannur where there had been knife wielding opponents lurking in the dark. And secondly, even if the court declares that you are guilty, you can still make your party agitate against the judiciary, as has been the case always whenever there had been some judgements against the wishes of the party.

These days CPI (M) is hell bent to put all blame for its fiasco on the media. The party is saying that there is some media syndicate that is working to reduce the party to a thing of the past; saying that behind all these issues, there is the hand of the United States and other colonialist forces. In spite of all these doubts, the party has not been able to prove any if these things with ample proof. So it seems that the whole party is facing a sort of psychological problem called paranoia, where they feel that no one could be trusted and everyone around them are trying to kill them, kill the party. Or if it is not this disorder, then the party leaders in Kerala think that they are on par with great socialist leaders like Fidel Castro and Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara and hence the United States is after them and trying to finish them off.

Now coming back to the SFI kids, or say men. I had been the member of the SFI in University College and had participated in the so called “agitations against injustice.” And for that matter, everyone in the college was an SFI member, because party memberships were imposed on anyone and everyone with a nominal fee of Re.1. Of course it never mattered whether you have given the fee or not, the big hearted leaders of the party never asked for the nominal fee. Anyways being an ex member of the SFI, I am pretty happy to know that my new comrades have got a great opportunity to get to the streets and do whatever they like.

Priorities for the New Government

Most of us have voted in the recently concluded general elections and did our bit of the democratic duty. Some others, who were disillusioned with the type of politics being practiced in India, didn’t vote as they had already lost their belief in the system. Whether you belong to the former category or the latter, one thing is sure; the policies and actions of the new government are going to have an effect on your life. So it is always good to have an idea about the priorities that the new government must make, or probably will make. During the week that followed the 60th Independence day of India in 2007, I had posted an article called 'Setting Priorities on the 60th Birthday.' This post is similar to that one, the only difference being that this one is for the new government that has taken charge at the centre where as the previous one was for the whole country. The following is the list of things that the new government would be having in its mind in the various sectors.

1. Agricultural Production and Distribution – The agricultural sector or the primary sector is perhaps the most important sector in a country. If the monsoon fails and the agricultural production diminishes, that invariably results in slow economic growth and sometimes inflation in an economy as inflation is “too much money chasing too few goods.” So the new government needs to make decisions to improve the agricultural production in the economy, make sure that farmers are getting good prices for their crops, remove middlemen from the system, find direct market for the farmers, create irrigational facilities and develop robust and efficient logistic and infrastructure systems for the betterment of the agricultural sector. We in India are now facing the irony of ‘scarcity amidst plenty.’ We have overflowing granaries of wheat, but still have about 20% people living in poverty and hunger. The new government needs to find a solution for this state of affairs. The public distribution system in the country needs to be perfected to overcome this impediment.
2. The Social Sector – Even when India is considered as an emerging super power, a majority in this country lives in poverty and lack of social amenities. The new government needs to bring some revolutionary changes to improve this pathetic situation. The government needs to tackle malnutrition, pass the right to education bill, give importance to skill development among the young population, take steps to increase literacy, strengthen NREGA scheme, give emphasis in improving the living conditions of the urban poor, give more importance in bringing e-governance and implement actions to improve the social infrastructure system of the country.
   
3. Internal Security – A nation just can’t develop if its people are insecure about their lives and future. That would mean that the new government should take steps to make sure that another 26/11 will not happen in the future. The internal security system of the country must be made robust so that terrorists from outside the country and from inside would find it to be impregnable. Intelligence agencies like RAW and IB should be modernised, investigative agencies like the CBI should be made more efficient and accountable, should dramatically increase the number in the police force and bring in police reforms, make action plans to tackle terrorism and look afresh at the Naxalite issue.
   
4. Foreign Policy and Diplomacy – The new government will face one of its most difficult challenges in the foreign policy front as India now has a neighbourhood on the boil. We are confronted with a lot of diplomatic challenges in our neighbourhood and in our region. The militant Taliban that is gaining strength in Afghanistan and in the North Western Frontier Province including Swat in Pakistan, humanitarian crisis in the island nation of Sri Lanka involving the Tamils, China’s growing clout in Nepal, a Bangladesh that recently had a military revolt, anti-outsourcing issues with the United States, North Korea’s nuclear ambitions etc. are some of the foreign policy issues that we are facing now. The new government needs to take steps that would force Pakistan to dismantle the terrorist infrastructure in their land, strengthen the pro-India democratic government in Bangladesh, pressurise the Sri Lankan government to address the alienation of the Lankan Tamils, confront China from playing the Nepal card against India, use diplomatic prowess to solve outsourcing issues with the United States and work along with the United Nations to prevent Pyongyang from kick-starting a nuclear arms race in the region.
   
5. The Economy – I saved the most important issue for the last. The most pressing need of the hour is the revival of the economy. It is an acceptable fact that the earlier UPA government was able to protect the Indian economy to some extend from the global economic meltdown. But more need to be done and the new government has got a clear mandate to press ahead with the good work they have been doing. The new government has to implement economic stimulus plan, bring new investment to highways and power sector, re-skill people who have lost their job owing to the economic slowdown and help them find new jobs, take measures that will bring back confidence of the exporters and the small sector, make prudent decisions on diluting the PSU stakes, bring reforms in insurance and banking sector and take steps to bring back global confidence on the Indian IT sector after the Satyam Fiasco.
   

The people of India have given the UPA alliance a clear majority and they will expect a good show by the incumbent government. We, as a country, are going through a very important phase and we need to take some decisive steps to strengthen our economy and our social sector and this is the time to do it. 

(Republished from Vox SEO, the SEO writing forum in Calpine Technologies)

Five AR Rahman Compositions You Mustn’t Miss

Since he got two Oscar awards, it has become some sort of a fad for people to write articles on AR Rahman. Being a Rahmaniac, I always love reading all those articles that celebrate the genius of the master musician. But I am not pursuing that often tread path again and would try to bring your attention to five Rahman compositions that you mustn’t miss. I am not going to speak about his popular numbers like say, Chayya Chayya, or Chinna Chinna Asai, but about those great compositions, that for some strange reasons, didn’t catch the notice of the general public. Make note that like all other Rahman compositions, these would also not attract you at once, but would overwhelm you only after you hear them for a considerable number of times.

1. Luka Chupi from Rang De Basanti – One of the most outstanding songs composed by the master. The song has been made as a conversation between a son, an Air Force Pilot, who got martyred in a war (most probably made with the Kargil war in mind) and his mother. In the song mother asks his son to come back to her as it has become evening, where as the son who is in the other world tells his mother that it is not possible for him to come back to the world where his mother lives. An emotional number that has been efficiently rendered by the great Lata Mangeshkar and Rahman himself. They compliment each other very well and the song has been extremely successful in bringing forward the great affection between a mother and her son and shows the listener how painful the life of a mother is when her son becomes a deceased soul. It is not often that in a duet Lata Mangeshkar get out-sung by her partner, but this certainly is one such occasion. In the latter part of the song, when Rahman starts singing the alaap he follows the style of his favourite singer Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and surprises all Qawwali pundits with his breath taking Hindustani Classical rendition.

2. Oru Poiyavathu Sol Kanne from Jodi – This song comes in a very rare genre in Tamil film music – Ghazal. There are three renditions of the same song in that film by three different singers – Sujatha, Srinivas and Hariharan. But it is the one by Hariharan that makes you understand that this is not yet another ordinary song that you have grown up hearing, but is a rare jewel from the music maestro. It is a love pathos song, made in the Ghazal style, sung by one of the greatest in the Hindustani classical music, Hariharan. The way in which Hariharan gives sound to the emotions of the song is really amazing and the beauty of the music is enhanced by its lyrics. This is a one-of-the-kind song and is a must hear for any music lover.

3. Sonnalum Ketpathillai from Kadhal Virus – The song starts with the use of one of Rahman’s most favorite musical instruments, the flute or the ‘pullanguzhal’. This semi classical soulful romantic number from the album Kadhal Virus is without doubt one of the best songs in the semi classical genre in Indian film music. The Carnatic music training received by both singers, Unnikrishnan and Harini, is very much evident in this great song. The clever use of chorus singers, one trademark quality of Rahman, is also quite apparent in this melodious number.

4. Theme Music of Duet – One of Rahman’s best orchestral numbers, where the song begins with an intriguing lull followed by Rahman’s trade mark humming of the chorus. Then saxophone takes the lead with the soulful rendition of the legendary Kadri Gopalnath in Kalyanavasantham raga. The song starts with silence, then picks up some pace, again silence and then takes some enthralling notes, ending up with the sound of waves crashing against the rocks. To make the composition more interesting, Rahman has added some sounds similar to that of birds in between this composition. The song moves from silence to various levels of Carnatic classical made from this very western-style musical instrument. Once you get the feel of this music after hearing it couple of times, it will take you to another world. Best heard in an environment of silence. A truly great composition that shows the musical genius of the great man.

5. Khwaja Mere Khwaja from Jodhaa Akbar – Another Rahman special, an extremely spiritual song, sung by the great man himself. One of the most amazing things about this song is that it is a “layered” song where by one singer sings the song but the listeners would feel that it has been sung by different singers. Sung in the Qawwali style, this song takes its very peculiar character because of the raw nature of Rahman’s sound. The spirituality in Rahman’s voice is the most striking feature of this song. The vocal of Rahman is being supported by harmonium, strings and hand claps. By singing this song, Rahman has shown that he is not only a great composer but also a skilful singer capable of treading new heights. A master piece and inarguably one of the greatest compositions in Indian filmy and non-filmy music.

These are just five among the umpteen numbers of great compositions by the master, whom the Time Magazine referred to as “The Mozart of Madras”. When you get some time off, don’t forget to listen to these songs as these are some of the greatest musical compositions of all times in any form of music.

(Republished from Vox SEO, the SEO writing forum in Calpine Technologies)

I am Going to Vote This Time; For the First Time

Though I got to the legal age for voting way back in the year 2001, I haven’t voted even once in my whole life. So on voting days I was not at the polling stations but was sleeping, as the “Jaagore” campaign would say. The reason for not voting was simple; there was never a worthy candidate to vote for in my constituency, Thiruvananthapuram. But things have changed this time around and I am going to vote for the first time as one of the candidates in my constituency is Shashi Tharoor, the former Under Secretary General of the United Nations.

Politics in India has become such a quagmire, that young people have started to think about it as a thing that they should have no business with. Lack of integrity and honesty of the politicians and their propensity to indulge in dirty games for votes and money have made young people averse to politics. It means that there is a dire need to bring some integrity and honesty back to Indian politics. People with higher education, professional outlook and an ability to think beyond vote bank politics and money should enter politics. This is the need of the hour and to cater to this very need, it seems that Indian National Congress has fielded Shashi Tharoor as its candidate in Thiruvananthapuram parliament constituency. The former Under Secretary General of the United Nations, Shashi Tharoor is a famous writer and a diplomat par excellence. His candid views and writings about various national and international issues have been a matter of serious discussions in various forums. His supreme intelligence, candid expression of ideas and ability to see things in an independent perspective have been something that has made him a writer of international distinction.

Personal allegations are the most important weapon for all political parties, particularly during elections. There is no dearth of such personal allegations against Shashi Tharoor either. The LDF campaigners are calling him a spy of the United States and Israel. And for that they have discovered some old article of Mr. Tharoor, where he was lauding the intelligence gathering system of Israel and was telling that there are a lot of lessons that India could learn from how Israel is using their system against Palestine. The dumb fools in his opposition either don’t understand the fact from the language he has used in his article (because it was exceptional English which most political leaders don’t have the ability to understand) or are feigning as if they haven’t understood it. Any sane person, with some common sense and minimum ability to comprehend the English language would understand that he was not praising the Israelis for their attack on Palestine, but was praising the competence of their intelligence system and was commenting how we Indians can adopt their intelligence gathering techniques. But the loathsome opposition front, known for their historic intolerance, has decided to attack him by raising trivial and preposterous posers.

As far as an young voter like me is concerned, the candidature of Shashi Tharoor is a welcome break from the often seen and ridiculed old model of politicians who thrive on their sinister ability to manoeuvre thoughts of people by making false claims and insidious comments. The prospect of Shashi Tharoor becoming the MP from Thiruvananthapuram gives us a great hope. A hope that if elected, he will change the way MPs have been functioning all these years, where by they owed allegiance only to their respective political parties and not the people that they represent. A hope that there will be someone in the Indian Parliament, representing us and representing the spirit of change and development. A hope that there will be someone in the Parliament voicing our concerns in English and in Hindi, as Mr. Tharoor has been saying all through his election campaign. A hope that there will be an MP who is well-educated, who has got good diplomatic skills, who has an ability to see things in an independent and constructive way, who has got no political baggage and who has got an enviable level of intelligence and knowledge would stand up tall and speak up for all our development needs.

We are duty bound to utilise our right to vote every time we are presented with that opportunity. But the candidates that we usually get were not people who would enhance our hopes and aspirations. This has certainly made some people, including me, to think that it is not worth our while to go and vote. But by voting Shashi Tharoor in to the Indian parliament we have got a golden opportunity to make immense by electing a worthy candidate who would not be guided by intolerance and petty political considerations. Therefore I am going to vote this time; for the first time.

(Picture courtesy: Shashi Tharoor's official election website www.shashitharoor.in)

Congratulations Rahul Dravid for Breaking the World Record

I would like to congratulate, “The Wall” Rahul Dravid for breaking the world record for the number of catches in Test match cricket. When he helped Zaheer Khan to claim the wicket of the Kiwi opening batsman Tim McIntosh at third slip, he broke the long standing world record of the Australian batting great, Mark Waugh. Rahul Dravid went past Waugh’s 181 catches and now has got 183 catches to his name.

Now Rahul Dravid is well ahead of Ricky Ponting (148 catches) and Jacques Kallis (147 catches) among the current players. In addition to the large number of catches, Rahul Dravid also has 26 test centuries and 56 fifties to his name. Once again I applaud the great man for his achievement.

Moving on to another World

Let me saunter on to another world,
Where men live lives being poverty struck,
With minds bearing hopeless hopes,
Of future, uncertain and bleak,
Yet have an indomitable will to love,
And to be loved, unperturbed by hate,
And ridiculous utterances of contempt,
Of men of our world – wicked and hostile.
And then from that another world,
I would marry a lass, tender minded,
Who would weep, on beholding pain,
Would laugh, on beholding glee,
And see honest affection with esteem,
For it has a flaw in this world,
People scarcely know its worth,
And often with dismaying disdain,
Spew insolent abuses - unkind and callous.
In that another world, I’d live eternally,
With that lass, tender minded and kind,
And with her would craft a model to follow.

Outspokenness – As a virtue and as a vice

One of the rare good things about the otherwise murkier times of crises is that they make people to think out of the box. Things that were taken for granted till then, more often than not, get a re-look. Of late I got an occasion to face a crisis of some sort when one of my acquaintances, who had been a friend till then, accused me of being a person of bad character and discovered that it is the reason why a lot of people “hate” me. Reason for this sudden denunciation was my outspoken revelation of a truth that my ex-friend didn’t want to believe in. So is outspokenness really a virtue or a vice?

In a general sense, outspokenness can be of two types – outspoken words and outspoken deeds. Honest outspokenness is quite a dangerous proposition as it is the least expected virtue in this world where people, who are politically correct, in their actions and words, are considered quintessential by the majority. But those who are honest and sincere reject any drive towards being always politically correct as they believe that a life that is not capable of outspoken expression of one’s mind is a life that is as disgraceful as disgraceful can be. In that sense, my ex-friend, by discovering that I’ve a bad character because of my outspokenness, has given me a great compliment. It is because it is a known fact that we, human beings, are not able to live a life by making everyone around us happy. And if there is someone who has been successful in leading such a life, it means that he/she has never spoken his/her mind and has always led a life shying away from speaking out the hard truth out of sheer pusillanimity. And friends, make no mistake, that is a dishonourable life. It is a life that is as dishonourable a life as that of a politician who is never free to speak up his mind and always has to agree to the decision of the party to which he/she owes allegiance to, irrespective of whether he/she personally believes in that or not. And if this argument appeals to you, then you have to accept that outspokenness is definitely a virtue. So by saying that some people hate me, my ex-friend has declared to this world that I have been living a courageous life, speaking hard truths, by declining to get bogged down by this society’s call for being always politically correct.

Outspokenness in deeds finds its most perceptible expression in affection and sincerity in relationships. Times have become so rude that pure and outspoken expression of affection is being treated as a dreadful thing. Emergence of nuclear family has made personal spaces of people quite narrow and hence they have time only for their immediate family. Therefore any expression of outspoken affection by people, other than the immediate family, is being considered as an annoying intrusion and as a vice that need to be defeated by hook or by crook. Gone are days where affection of candid nature has been widely appreciated and now what people and the society expect is, what I call, “restricted sincerity” that is superficial and superfluous. And it is not for those who believe that outspokenness is a virtue, but is for those who believe in the virtuousness of tact and political correctness. So the society and its people have started seeing people with outspoken affection in a way Satan sees the holy cross. To drive affectionate folks away, people will avoid them, hurt them, humiliate them and will ostracise them from their vicinity as if he/she is an outcast deserving nothing but scorn, contempt and absolute disdain. Here, for the person who shows candid affection, outspokenness is a virtue while for the person who believes in the supremacy of tact, outspokenness is a ludicrous vice. 

So a sensible conclusion to which we can arrive is that outspokenness can be a virtue or a vice based on the intention with which it is practised. If you are being outspoken with the sole intention of doing good to someone or to express an ultimate truth, though rude it may sound, then you are practising something that is virtuous. At the same time if you are outspoken with malevolence in your mind, then your outspokenness is a vice that should be curtailed if you wish to live a life of self esteem. And now a spare of thought for my ex-friend who has given me an occasion to meander in thoughts through which I have never before travelled. Hopefully he/she will continue to live in denial to the outspoken truth that I’ve expressed, because if at any time that person would discover the truth himself/herself, he/she would feel profound grief to have lived on for a lot of days on false beliefs and mistaken convictions. 

To all those people who have been travelling the less travelled path of outspokenness, I would like to remind you that there are not many roses in your path. You are swimming against the tide, challenging a world that would consider you as a moron, destined to doom; moving against so called “worthy” practices of tact, restricted sincerity and superficial affection with which this world is rather obsessed with. So appreciations are not going to come your way, but spears of vilifications, diatribes and denunciations. And again, those who stir up a hornet’s nest can hardly complain about being stung, isn’t it?

(Republished from Vox SEO, the SEO writing forum in Calpine Technologies)

The Master Bags the Oscar, That Too Twice

The Mozart of Madras, the Master music director has brought two Oscars to India. He won the Academy Award for best song and for best original score. From here onwards AR Rahman is “the Academy Award Winner – AR Rahman.” The man known for his musical genius and humility has answered all his critics not with his words, but with his music and achievement. People who criticise him are either reckless or haven’t heard all his styles of music. The man is known for his ability to make songs utilising different types of music, where he brings together Carnatic music, Hindustani music and other international varieties of pop, rap, jazz, samba and many other varieties of music. We, Rahmaniacs are left speechless with this great achievement of our great hero – RAHMAN JAI HO!!!!!!

A word of appreciation to Resul Pookutty too for bringing Oscar glory to Kerala.

(AR Rahman's Greatest Five - My Personal Choice)