The Darkest Rhyme

"Yet each man kills the thing he loves, By each let this be heard, Some do it with a bitter look, Some with a flattering word, The coward does it with a kiss, The brave man does it with a sword!" In his engaging and riveting work, The Merchant of Venice , William Shakespeare through his character Bassanio asks a very chilling question to his readers - "Do all men kill the things they do not love?" Conversely another question that can be asked as well is and more relevant to our time, Do all men kill the things they love as well? At a glance we may be tempted to dismiss it by saying a instinctive No! Afterall, In our times and time immemorial, relations are forged and broken "peacefully" infact some with chauvinistic tinge would say amicably and there has been hardly any violence. But is violence only bloodshed and not intentional mental tickering? Is violence not devouring physical intimacy by decieving vulnerable hearts on pretext of false pro...

(The cover of Despite The State: Why India lets it's people down and how they cope) Book Review - Despite The State: Why India lets it's people down and how they cope M.Rajshekhar.  Westland Publication. Couple of months ago I read a book which is essentially reality destined to be interwined with good ground reporting comprising of hard brutal truths which are otherwise mostly ignored. This book, Despite the state, written by journalist M. Rajashekhar comprises 6 chapters which are necessarily ground reports anthologized with observations and explanations by author. Before beginning to review the book, I would like to quote what two eminent scholars had to say about this book - 1."This is a book that I saw develop ever since Rajshekhar began his project and asked me what to look for in the ability of state governments to deliver. In fact, I ended up learning much more from it than I could advise on. While state government priorities, their administrative capa...

"I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead; I lift my lids and all is born again. (I think I made you up inside my head.)" (Sylvia Plath) It's all in our head. The world arises and so does collapses and again araises. Pleasure is mental phenomenon as much as ideals, ethics, lust, love and purpose. Even physical pain is a mental phenomenon partly. If everything's within than any curious mind would ask why people are in rat race for attainments of outside world. Are they mad or Am I? One of the most troubling questions that again & again have come across me are: What's sanity? When does a person turn insane? Do people "turn" insane or the society percieves or classifies certain people as insane? And many such. Normally, I always brush these questions neatly under the carpet lest I should be accused of turning insane, of being "abnormal", of not being normal person in a normal society. But sometimes the judge sitting in corner of...