© Nalini Hebbar/openmind/2009 - all rights reserved
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Sunday, August 29, 2010
Man
Man, as in the male variety of the Homo Sapiens, has to take blame for most of the atrocities man has perpetrated against the Earth and her children. At a later date, women, the female variety of Homo Sapiens, too joined the party and are now equally to be blamed.
Are we intelligent? Just claiming so doesn't make it true. Which of our deeds on earth have been Earth-Friendly, Life-Friendly? The only thing we do with exceptional acumen is - KILL and DESTROY!
Are we intelligent? Just claiming so doesn't make it true. Which of our deeds on earth have been Earth-Friendly, Life-Friendly? The only thing we do with exceptional acumen is - KILL and DESTROY!
Claim if you may,
that man is supreme,
that no being created
as unique as he,
To what use is intellect
if employed to stem,
mind and nature
woman and the poor?
Claim if you may
that man rules the world,
but what’s to a king
whose subjects rueful.
To what use is intellect
if used to maim
innocent children
and onlookers passive?
Claim if you may
that we own the world,
inherited by war
on man and beast.
To what use is intellect
if her you violate,
the very mother
that gave all of us life?
Claim! Claim! Claim!
Assert and demand!
The more you say it,
believable it gets!
For who would want
the Universe to know,
we have been digging,
centuries of graves.
© Nalini Hebbar/openmind/2009 - all rights reserved
Friday, August 27, 2010
Pat - Haiku 146
sunset blues-
words, tears spill on and on
her tail pats on and on
© Nalini Hebbar/openmind/2009 - all rights reserved
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
Angle Beams - Haiku 143
angel beams on
stained glass mural-
rainbow dances on the palm
© Nalini Hebbar/openmind/2009 - all rights reserved
Monday, August 23, 2010
Happy Onam!
Welcome to you!
Oh Demon King Mahabali!
To Gods Own Country, Kerala!
Year after year on this Onam day!
Every house welcomes, decorated
With a design at the threshold
Made of flowers of many colours,
And around it dance the women
Clapping hands and singing songs.
The parade is here for the king!
On this beautiful Onam welcome,
Elephants walk regally in a line,
Held above are silk parasols of,
Red yellow blue green magenta,
With dangling gold coins bright!
Reflects the sun so glittering,
Ornate gold plates of fine patterns,
That they adorn on their foreheads,
Right down to the tip of the trunk.
Flutters lightly in the breeze,
Their rich satin robes so vivid.
White creepers painted on their legs
Contrasting grandly with the grey.
Men dressed up painted like tigers,
Bodies yellow with black and red,
They dance chasing the hunted goat,
Men dance after them hunting them,
All to the beat of the pulsating drums.
Kathakali* dancers royally float,
Blown up skirts and grand headgear,
Dazzle to wind right into our hearts.
Then the fireworks light up the skies,
Rockets spraying coloured diamonds,
With a noise that wakes up the Gods!
Come join us for a fabulous sadhya*,
Of *Avial and Kalan and Erricherry,
Thoran and Theeyal and Injipuli,
Neychoor and Paalada payasam,
Crisp pappadums* and banana chips,
Served on a freshly cut banana leaf,
Disposable, Biodegradable, Eco-friendly!
Onam: The annual harvest festival is a ten-day long celebration of colourful processions, snake-boat races, pulikali(tigerdance) , floral-rangoli(designs) , feasting, singing and dancing.
Mahabali: A legend of King Mahabali, a mythical ruler of Kerala lends added colour. The rule of the demon king was a golden era. The Gods got jealous; sent down Vishnu in the form of a dwarf who asked Mahabali for 3 paces of land. As soon as he agreed, the dwarf grew very tall. With the first step he claimed the heavens, with the second the netherworlds. He would have destroyed the earth with his third step but Mahabali offered his head as the last step to save Kerala and her people. He was then appointed the king of the netherworld with a promise that he will be allowed to visit his people once a year on Onam.
Sadhya: feast of special vegetarian cuisine served on a banana leaf. Each item has its assigned place on the leaf. The names of the dishes evoke nostalgic memories in all Keralites living away from home.
Kathakali: the famous dance art of Kerala that is the toughest dance to learn on earth.
© Nalini Hebbar/openmind/2009 - all rights reserved
Friday, August 20, 2010
Season - Haiku 152
seasons warp-
baby laughter
empty house
© Nalini Hebbar/openmind/2009 - all rights reserved
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
Read me - Haiku 151
between two books-
lizard eyes
read me
© Nalini Hebbar/openmind/2009 - all rights reserved
Monday, August 16, 2010
No Half Measures
Life is full of choices and compromises. It is, however, very important to accept that you can't walk alone always. There are moments when you need to hold hands with the people you love and who love you. The rest of the time is yours to live fully. The definition of a full life? There are as many as there are stars in the sky!
Life had a dream for us
but has she her promise kept?
Her path strewn with thorns
and she has failed us so.
I’d rather die than live a life
of efforts of half measure,
But is it for us to pick and choose
a life of lucid dreams?
Another life, another time
that’s the promise given,
but how can I trust and comply
when this too precious to set free?
Walk along with me,
stay close and hold my hand,
Let us wander among the star
our paths littered with stardust.
But on earth this life must live
till we have enough in time,
Measures of joy and sorrow
our cups burst forth to spill.
Stay and smile, grin and bear
stay close and hold my hand
Our promise is for good
for only in death do we part.
Friends-Do read the post and keep the discussion going
© Nalini Hebbar/openmind/2009 - all rights reserved
Saturday, August 14, 2010
My Fight against ‘Gender-Stereotypes'
I wish it were as simple as calling a spade a spade.
It is not.
It has a history that has proved difficult to rewrite. I think is started in the cave of the early man where muscle and stamina decided the fate of a tribe. A pregnant woman couldn’t hunt, nor could a mother carry her newborn into the battle field. Blessed with a leak-proof and uninflatable body, man took over as an ever-ready protector of an unfortunate vulnerable species called ‘woman’.
Centuries of stereotyping
Has set in concrete minds
Reinforced by the need
To get the menial jobs done,
Created a species alien to man
Ruled and used and wooed to comply.
Stereotyping! Who’s to be blamed?
I think women are more to be blamed for the image that is in vogue today! I bet she gained more from it than she would like to admit. And did it make her timid and afraid to try new things? I think it did.
Most women I see around me, have resigned to the fact that they are inferior. Women, who see domestic violence as natural and accept it as a way of life, may be on the decline, but they still do not recognize emotional blackmailing as an offence. That’s were societal stereotyping plays a role. Step out of the line of accepted behaviour, and you are branded. The same behaviour in men is warranted ‘macho’, and (accepted by women too) as a biological right.
Branded she is in everything she does
GOSSIP she does while men just communicate
SCHEAMER she is while men strategize
She NAGS on and on while he just insists
Mask in place she is DUPLICITOUS but world-wise he is
if the mask were his
SHREWISH she is while men just shrewd and clever
Progress makes her NYMPHOLEPTIC
but he is but a go-getter
Lateness gets her the LOOSE WOMAN tag while man
relax and bond late into the night
Are there women who have braved the onslaught of verbal abuse directed at them by the protectors of societal virtue?
Kamala Das comes to mind. Branded an ‘iconoclast’ for her description of female sexual desires very candidly, unfettered by society’s notions of right and wrong. She simply embraced the role of a very honest woman, very unlike any regular Indian woman poet. She had the guts to say, "I always wanted love, and if one doesn't get it within ones home, one strays a little."
Women everywhere are rewriting rules
Labels flying as new domains open
Retaining her name and meeting him halfway
The revolution is here with wheels spinning faster
Get off the brand-wagon and join in the fun.
Remember she does the cooking
‘coz you don’t know how.
‘coz you don’t know how.
So what is being the opposite of a stereotypical woman? If she is not submissive, then she is arrogant. If she has no time for small talk, she is proud. The list is never-ending.
Can you be polite, sensitive, elegant, well dressed, nonprofane uttering smart go getter and still be known as a proud, my-way-or-the-highway type.
Working women are hard pressed for time and the burden of the stereotypic ‘domestic labour’ falls on her shoulder. She ends up doing both with aplomb. As I have said in my poem, “Remember she does the cooking ‘coz you don’t know how.” And it is time for men to “Get off the brand (male-stereotype)-wagon and join in the fun”.
With 3 men in the house, I went on a 4 day spoon-down some10 years ago. I neither cooked nor fetched, picked-up-after nor laid the table. I ate what they brought home from the Hotels. I slept, after the TV was switched off, on top of discarded towels and clothes. No morning alarms and no time keeping. Chaos reigned. My home sweet home, looked like Laila had come visiting. After the 4 day strike and after some earnest finger-pointing, there was dialogue. Lines were drawn and redrawn, till we were all exhausted.
I think it is all about being ‘assertive’. Woman has to stop being an ever-so-overused- foot-mat and unfurl to assert herself. Set limits for foot-mattishness. Get the family involved by assigning duties and make each one of them accountable for those. It could be a Mahabharat at home during the initiation but steer the boat through those choppy waters with humour!
The change starts at home. Fight for what you want. Be the change you want to see. The world would be a happier place if there were no inequalities, so would a family.
Give the woman her due.
Friday, August 13, 2010
Puppy - Haiku 150
first rain-
wet puppy’s
first shake off
© Nalini Hebbar/openmind/2009 - all rights reserved
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
Good Morning - Haiku 149
moon’s lacy shadows-
sun somewhere west
says good morning
© Nalini Hebbar/openmind/2009 - all rights reserved
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
Waiting - Haiku 148
she waits at the window -
eyes beyond falling
leaves and flowers
leaves and flowers
© Nalini Hebbar/openmind/2009 - all rights reserved
Sunday, August 8, 2010
Woman Paused
A midlife crisis is experienced between the ages of 40 and 60. It was first identified by the psychologist Carl Jung and is a normal part of the maturing process. Most people will experience some form of emotional transition during that time of life. A transition that might cause you to take stock in where you are in life and make some needed adjustments to the way you live your life. Most seem to come through the process smoothly without making major life changes.
For some, a midlife crisis is more complicated. It can be an uncomfortable time emotionally which can lead to depression and the need for psychotherapy. Those who have a hard time with this transitional stage might experience a range of feelings such as:
© Nalini Hebbar/openmind/2009 - all rights reserved
For some, a midlife crisis is more complicated. It can be an uncomfortable time emotionally which can lead to depression and the need for psychotherapy. Those who have a hard time with this transitional stage might experience a range of feelings such as:
- Unhappiness with life and the lifestyle that may have provided them with happiness for many years.
- Boredom with people and things that may have been of interest to them before.
- Feeling a need for adventure and change.
- Questioning the choices, they have made in their lives and the validity of decisions they made years before.
- Confusion about who they are and where they are going.
- Anger at their spouse and blame for feeling tied down.
- Unable to make decisions about where they want to go with their life.
- Doubt that they ever loved their spouse and resentment over the marriage.
- A desire for a new and passionate, intimate relationship. Source
A woman past her prime young years
Stares vacuously into vacant space,
At the threshold of an unfolding new chapter
She struggles to rein in and make sense,
Of new feelings rising within her.
The cuckoo’s nest is empty
The last chick about to fly,
The grasslands once green and fertile
Now brown, dried up and futile,
The forest of changing colours
Burnt down by fires of summers,
The lonely desert stretches before her,
Awesome, frightening in its power.
The heydays gone, with it gone
The power of design and birth,
Her desolate womb spurts not
The juice that bestowed the seed,
Loss and pain this cadaver feels, she
Can no longer perform the miracle.
She moans the empty insides within her,
Now like an ancient tree’s hollow interior.
‘Paused’ as she is in her role as creator,
She stops to wonder if she could endure
The frittering away of her lust and desire.
Would she ever feel as she felt in passion
As she felt in her youth of gay abandon?
Would men appreciate the mood swings,
The irritability and edited capacities?
As fate would have it, this word of doom,
Has ‘men’ in its script, O woman ‘paused’!
© Nalini Hebbar/openmind/2009 - all rights reserved
Saturday, August 7, 2010
Cooker - Haiku 147
steam from the cooker-
my thoughts
into another world
© Nalini Hebbar/openmind/2009 - all rights reserved
Thursday, August 5, 2010
Milky Way - Haiku 145
summer power cut-
the milky way
over the city!
© Nalini Hebbar/openmind/2009 - all rights reserved
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
“Why Me, Why To That Saucer?”
I wrote this after watching the serial 'Taken'. I was totally taken by the idea. Are people really taken or are they just imagining things?
Researchers say that it is a sleep disorder in which the person experiences a constriction of the chest with difficulty in breathing. The resultant reduction in oxygen intake makes the brain all foggy. The person then 'sees' a shadowy presence pressing down on his chest. With this kicks starts the hallucinations of aliens and abductions - all built up on stories read and movies watched. This explains why it is more prevalent in educated people who have read sci-fic and are into bio-energetic therapies, past lives, astral projections, tarot cards and so on.
Or are we just fools who believe only what we see? There are aliens, Stephan Hawkins says so! and obviously they don't just show themselves to us- except in sleep!...and I imagine them reading this poem and rolling in the air laughing!!!
I woke up feeling
My life, my room, my bed
“I don’t belong...here!”
My neck, my body, my mind
“Belonged to someone else...they!”
I drag this broken borrowed body
Towards the bathroom, wounded
“Who was in my room last night?”
A flash, a white flash, colours flashed
Against the white, images formed
“Ghost with slant eyes, hollowed”
Yes, seven of them, crowded
On my chest and around my bed.
“What’s that, that so oppressed?”
Through the wall, into the tunnel
Bright light, blinding, hurting
“Just where are they taking me?”
Floating over stream, hill, forest
Ghost hoods flapping, cape blowing
“Why do they hold my hands tight?”
Sudden fear gripping, paralyzing
“Why me, why to that saucer?”
Lights, red yellow purple, flashing
On the meadow, stands the ship
Doorflap open, cavernous sickening.
Head-in-vice, eyes open, clamped limbs
Toadfingers dipped into my brains
Poked rapidheart, checked my dinner.
“What are they doing to me? What!!”
Probes in, probing, hurting my insides
“Take those eggs, take them please!!”
Mechanical claws search, tear, tease.
“Don’t hurt me, take but don’t hurt me!”
Then appear before me...hybrid aliens!
Slim long-necked beautiful females
“Those are men? Those Greek Gods!!”
I, robust superior, I the chosen one
An assault of body, mind and soul?
Painful story but a chilling proud one
“Me!...Abducted by aliens!!”
Swollen ego, story begs to be told,
Yet fearful apprehensive assaulted,
The verdict as final, pronounced
“Hallucination of semi-lucid minds
Visual and auditory hallucinations
Brain and body desynchronizes”
Sleep Paralysis is what it’s called”
“You are kidding, aren’t you?
They were there, they took me!”
The doctor looked sadly at me
‘They are false, created memories,
Product of fertile imaginations
From the depths the subconscious.
False memory syndrome it is called”
© Nalini Hebbar/openmind/2009 - all rights reserved
About Me
