India's lost cult films.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/features/business-of-bollywood/indias-lost-cult-films/articleshow/3067501.cms

Spring 1996- A student paper on Dostoevsky- Jennifer Cleary

I don't know where you are Jennifer.. Wherever that is, I wish I could tell you how much I love this!



Dreams, Devils, and Dominion: A Study of Pride and Guilt in Dostoevsky

A Case of Identity: Ernest Hemingway

The full article.

"I saw a moving sight the other morning before breakfast in a little hotel where I slept in the dusty fields. The young man of the house had shot a little wolf called coyote in the early morning. The heroic little animal lay on the ground, with his big furry ears, and his clean white teeth, and his jolly cheerful little body, but his brave little life was gone. It made me think how brave all these living things are. Here little coyote was, without any clothes or house or books or anything, with nothing but his own naked self to pay his way with, and risking his life so cheerfully - and losing it - just to see if he could pick up a meal near the hotel. He was doing his coyote-business like a hero, and you must do your boy-business, and I my man-business bravely, too, or else we won't be worth as much as a little coyote." (The Letters of William James, ed. Henry James, Little, Brown and Co.: Boston 1926.) 
(The Letters of William James, ed. Henry James, Little, Brown and Co.:Boston 1926.)

So long.. Steve!

Do not therefore consider this life as an object of any moment. Look back on the immense gulf of time already past; and forwards, to that infinite duration yet to come, and you will find how trifling the difference is between a life of three days and of three ages.

Let us then employ properly this moment of time allotted us by fate, and leave the world contentedly; like a ripe olive dropping from its stalk, speaking well of the soil that produced it, and of the tree that bore it.

-Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

Hear

Sylvia -Lady Lazarus

I have done it again.
One year in every ten
I manage it----

That words have meaning is just the difficulty. That is why the poet has to turn and twist them in metre and verse, so that the meaning can be held somewhat in check, and the feeling allowed a chance to express itself.

Rabindranath Tagore, My life in my own words, pg 85.

Love possesses not nor will it be possessed, for love is sufficient unto love.
Khalil Gibran


Finally with the help of a dear friend P, got this translated into Malayalam !
പ്രണയം  ആരെയും  സ്വന്തമാക്കുന്നില്ല,
ആരാലും  സ്വന്തമാക്കപ്പെടുന്നുമില്ല ..
പ്രണയത്തിനു പര്യാപ്തം  പ്രണയം  മാത്രം. 

I can't seem to find the exact quote anywhere now but I remember it vaguely as this.
"Love is two souls lingering on eachother's solitude and protecting them." -Rilke

Leaning into the afternoons..

Leaning into the afternoons I cast my sad nets
towards your oceanic eyes.
There in the highest blaze my solitude lengthens
and flames,
its arms turning like a drowning man's.
I send out red signals across your absent eyes
that smell like the sea or the beach by a
lighthouse.
You keep only darkness, my distant female,
from your regard sometimes the coast of dread
emerges.
Leaning into the afternoons I fling my sad nets
to that sea that is thrashed by your oceanic
eyes.
The birds of night peck at the first stars
that flash like my soul when I love you.
The night gallops on its shadowy mare
shedding blue tassels over the land.

Pablo Neruda

Trailer for "I Am" (a documentary by Sonali Gulati)

The final lines of the poem Requiem written by writer Kurt Vonnegut. The poem forms the closing lines of his last book.

REQUIEM

When the last living thing
has died on account of us,
how poetical it would be
if Earth could say,
in a voice floating up
perhaps
from the floor
of the Grand Canyon,
"It is done."
People did not like it here.

-- Kurt Vonnegut, A Man Without a
Country

Imagine there is no heaven..

It's easy if you try.. goes the song.

Here is the link to author Salman Rushdie's letter "to the six billionth person born on the face of our planet" that appeared in Guardian almost a decade ago..

"Our generation is realistic for we have come to know a man as he really is. After all, man isthat being who has invented the gas chambers of Auschwitz; however, he is also that being who has entered those gas chambers upright, with the Lord's Prayer or the Shema Yisrael on his lips."

The closing lines from the book "Man's search for meaning" by Dr. Victor E. Frankl.

kahin kisi roz yun bhi hota
hamari halat tumhari hoti
jo raat hum ne guzaari mar ke
woh raat tum ne guzaari hoti

badi wafa se nibhayi tum ne,
hamaari thodi si
bewafai

hazaar raahein mud ke dekhein,
kahin se koi
sada na aai

Heard this in the morning.. 33 thousand feet above sea-level.Not sure which movie or album this is from.. The lyrics struck a chord.

Today, something dawned on me: I am not cut out for any group. I find it futile, this constant checking and correcting of your thoughts, words, cravings, so that you are in unison with the rest of them. How silly and hypocritical!

Ok, the above mentioned group falls under the "buddies" list where you're not required to bringforth anything to the table. You know, where you just sit back and chill and show an interest to watch the same movie, on the same evening and eat the same thing, at the same time as everybody else or stand a good chance of being the official "killjoy".

Well, this is about another group.

As for the argument that groups provide a safe haven for like-minded spirits who need support, most groups I have been to, are far from this. Neither do I understand the fabric of groupism nor do I want to mug it up.

For starters, you cannot make a group your therapist. If there are issues that need attention, seek professional help. If there's anything that's been eating you from inside, confide in a friend you trust or a close family member. I know how finding that little vent can be suffocating at times but do look around, there should be somebody capable of lending you support.

Speaking your heart out on your past exploits and secret fantasies to a group can often prove counter-productive. Especially, if they too are a bunch of clueless souls like you. People can be very rash with eachother's secrets. So beware who you are baring it all to.

Finally, a group is only as good as its weakest link. So, if you are in with someone who wouldn't hesitate to intimidate, stalk or sensationalize things to have their way, please do know, you have it coming!

I have been receiving mails from a recent group that I have been to and each one of it amazes me for the level to which educated, presumably sane and decent human beings are capable of falling.

These are basically a bunch of women who have been eachother's flames in the past, girlfriends, ex-girlfriends, acquaintances and ONS- well, you get the picture! And, ever since something went wrong somewhere, these charming ladies have been at eachother's throats, violating every code of friendship, shamelessly publicizing eachother's confidings to the whole group.

I have been to the group meeting only once for a few hours, well, even I get to read the details! And, I feel disgusted.

Sensibility and decency are qualities that you either have or you don't have. You cannot shove some random "guidelines to the group" down the throats of people and expect them to be, Presto!, civilized!

At the end of the day, people who really get you and like you will stick around no matter what. So why not just let the others go? This is not to say, go lock yourself in and be anti-social. But shouldn't we be a little careful about the people we let around us?

Why move like sheep in a group and tear eachother's heads off at the slightest provocation? Wasn't he saying the truth that someone who said- Travel light and you will cover long!

"If You Could Read My Mind" by Gordon Lightfoot