“Language is a nail to which we fasten our inner thoughts.

Language is itself an art…”

Language has dual character as it has two aspects – language as communication and language as culture. It is not just a mode of communication but , it also sustains one’s culture as it mirrors and injects the ideas, history, images and experiences of a particular culture. It gives us an identity.

History is replete with the instances in which the language of the conquered nations was squashed. The example is under our nose only – India where there is diversity in languages; where not even handful of population speaks chaste Hindi that is our tongue but an amalgam of various languages.

Alphonse Daudet’s poignant and heart wrenching story, The Last Lesson, hinges on the pathos the people experience when they have to bid adieu to their own mother tongue. Significance of one’s language has been held on the top of the pedestal; language that defines us and keeps our individuality alive and vivacious….thus brushing us under one shanty.

Life is a Harlem and no one can prophesise what would happen next. So, make hay while the sun shines, for time is a big slut. Don’t shirk work or wait for tomorrow to do things as tomorrow never comes. Enjoy life to the fullest, respect people around you, love your culture, your mother tongue, love your country and take pride in being what you are!

“Tonight I Can Write…” -by Pablo Neruda

Neruda was 20, in the first flush of youth, when he wrote ‘Tonight I Can Write…’. Every word in this poem is a monosyllable, nothing fancy or flowery, yet the sense of loss and solitude is so clear. This reflects how passionate was Neruda for poetry and maybe this passion used to inspire his poetry as well. His way of presenting the emotions, sentiments immediately charms young people, specially those who themselves experience similar emotions and hence, they relate themselves to his love and poetry. Perhaps, this is the reason of his being called the poet of common people!

Woven in simple words, ‘Tonight…Write…’ possesses deep meanings. Throughout the poem, the poet is in a state of inner tension and both him and his love are on a roller coaster of emotions. The readers find paradoxical emotions of love in the entire poetry. The poet loses his beloved to someone so he pens down his sorrow in the hope that it will lessen his pain and lonliness. It seems writing the thoughts is a therapy to him. He still misses her but pretends as if he hates her. Actually, he himself is oblivious to the fact that the profuse love for ‘her’ is still lingering in his very heart and soul. Had he not loved her so much, he would not have written a poetry partly in remembrance and partly out of seclusion, for her. Also the way he over and over emphaises the fact that “… he no longer loves her” tells us that even till date he has not weeded out her memories from within himself.

Poet’s admiring her ‘still eyes’, her voice, ‘bright body’…give us an idea that his wounds are still fresh. He is in a dilemma and not ready to accept that he loves her intensely even now.

What makes the poem particularly no less beautiful and interesting is Pablo Neruda’s deliberate juxtaposition of emotions that compels us to believe that is the pain that has enunciated the poem. “My heart searches for her,” “ she is not with me”- these lines bring an added poignancy to the piece.

The poem opens with a recalling mood. Neruda reminisces the past events and memories with his beloved. “I held her in my arms,” “sometimes she loved me too” etc. are the phrases that reveal poet’s retrospection. The fragrance of his love is spread in the entire poem.

So, we conclude the poem by dishing out that the poet’s life is an unfulfilled one. He is hapless. His love could not reciprocate his love which he desired.

To drench yourself in the beauty of the poem, visit the link given below. 
Have a nice read....

http://www.fsgworkinprogress.com/2014/04/tonight-i-can-write/

Lament for GOP

It is not a fallacious argument that there is a steep degradation in the Congress party from its Nehruvian heyday. The credentials of this ‘Grand Old Party’ are now into question.

Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru did lend his big hands in the development of the nation after the independence which was not a low hanging fruit. He had his critics too but his errs were bleak before his contribution in India’s soaring development at that time.

After his demise, Lal Bahadur Shastri emerged as a new leader. But to our dismay, he expired much earlier than his tenure. Following him, the ‘Iron Lady’ ( Indira Gandhi ) took the reins of Congress and Prime Minister’s seat.

The current scenario: strong, charismatic, grand – to hunt these words in Congress’s dictionary is no cake walk!

The destiny is running hard on Congress. After its downgraded performance in the recent elections, the dynastic party has trampled its reputation by its own ‘evil’ hands which manifest itself in its dwindled and thinned popularity among people. The reason is that it has frittered away its idealism and glorious legacy of the past. It could not uphold the principles of liberalism, plurality and concern for the downtrodden which used to be its cherished ideals.

WHO IS BACKWARD?

The incidents like the death of 19-year-old Nido from Arunachal Pradesh in January 2014 and the attack on two Manipuri girls at Kotla the following day often bring the plight of north-east Indians in Delhi into spotlight.

Racial discrimination is the term coined by some TV news channel. We often count the eastern states among the backward regions but as a matter of fact, we Delhiites who deem ourselves to be forward, are actually backward as we still practice prejudice against our own blood; against our own comrades!

As far as the backwardness of East is concerned, my ideas are still vague. Theirs is a women dominated society; matriarchal system exists there. Men are often seen puffing ‘bidis’ , making clouds out of it, squatting on trails; whereas women go out and fetch money. The ‘fair-sex’ is generally the head of the family.

This highlights how empowered women are in the eastern society!

Have you ever heard about the Asia’s Cleanest Village? I doubt if your mind is conjuring the images of Singapore or Japan! It’s Mawlynnong (India) which has got the ‘clean tag’. One gets stumped to see this spotless clean village near Shillong. Having soaked the beauty of the village, my friend says, “Living my entire life in the urban jungle, I just loved to stay at the village for a night which was the cherry on the cake.”

Children as young as four learn to keep their surroundings spick and span. Each and every household has a TOILET and proper public toilets as well that too clean and fresh, not stinking. I emphasized the word toilet because in Delhi, there had been a lot hue and cry over public toilets. In our so-called forward society, unabashed people draining their bladders on roads are a common sight. And ironic, we call ourselves as the developed ones!

There is this ‘Weaver’s Village’ on the outskirts of Guwahati. People residing there have elegant taste buds. Their elegance reflects in their houses, furniture, crockery, clothing and speech. They are so very down-to-earth that the simplest and the most decent family of Delhi with a tag of the most down-to-earth ones seem to abuse every sense of the word.

Their traditional occupation is weaving and they have preserved it till date. People make handsome money out of it; not even a single house is sans a car (not like Maruti or Alto). But the situation juxtaposes in Delhi where even a decent Swift Desire owner stays in high spirits; s/he flies in air looking contemptuously at others.

So here comes the moot question…who is backward??