"Beautiful!"

When we look at the sun setting behind the mountains, the colours of dusk splashed across the sky, a child laughing or a stunning woman with laughter in her eyes; it is so natural to go "beautiful". And yet beauty has no definition, no criteria. Just the emotion that it evokes in everyone of us. A feeling that you should look up to something with awe and admiration. It is wonderful that when different people sometimes look at some things they all undergo the same feeling. It is what binds us together.

Dictionary's definition: The quality present in a thing or person that gives intense pleasure or deep satisfaction to the mind, whether arising from sensory manifestations (as shape, color, sound, etc.), a meaningful design or pattern, or something else (as a personality in which high spiritual qualities are manifest).

And yet I wonder how we managed to create definitions of beauty too. We have managed to create stereotypes of what should and should not be considered beautiful. I'm not sure how we did that but its something like moral values. As the society grows and matures as one we develop common values that we consider right or wrong. And yes we make mistakes along the way as all masses are likely to. But its the only way we can function.

(I really don't see any other way. Yes sometimes we pay the price of individuals and I hate that too but I don't see a way around it!! :( )

(I got distracted there I think.)

(I'm not sure if the society is always becoming more mature but what I meant is sophisticated which I think we are.)

And that is what happens with beauty. As you grow the concept of beauty is ingrained in you without you being aware of it. Before you know you are calling sunsets, Katrina Kaif, yachts on the sea, waterfalls, flowers against the backdrop of a garden, butterflies twittering(I just wanted to use the word. :D And ya I do think butterflies twitter!!) dolphins smiling and somersaulting and so many other things beautiful. Yes probably they evoke the same feeling in you that beauty is supposed to without being brainwashed (I certainly hope so) but are we sure? Then societies wouldn't have the same opinion about what beauty is. Or would they??

Maybe that is the beauty of beauty. That it excites that same feeling in you across boundaries and cultures, across ages and genders.

Ithaca.....

Life is a long journey. However hackneyed the expression may be, it is nonetheless very true. All of us have different destinations but our lives intersect at some points. It is only this journey where you can travel together and yet have different destinations. Many mark their own destinies while others let someone else decide where they should be going. In either case success is measured by where you reach and how you reach. How do people manage to forget the long years spent in pursuit success? The friends, the beauties, the riches and moments of bliss that the beautiful journey has given you. If success was measured by the destination then what is the destination of all our lives???

This is one of the most beautiful and thought-provoking poems I have come across. :D

Ithaca

When you start on your journey to Ithaca,
then pray that the road is long,
full of adventure, full of knowledge.
Do not fear the Lestrygonians
and the Cyclopes and the angry Poseidon.
You will never meet such as these on your path,
if your thoughts remain lofty, if a fine
emotion touches your body and your spirit.
You will never meet the Lestrygonians,
the Cyclopes and the fierce Poseidon,
if you do not carry them within your soul,
if your soul does not raise them up before you.

Then pray that the road is long.
That the summer mornings are many,
that you will enter ports seen for the first time
with such pleasure, with such joy!
Stop at Phoenician markets,
and purchase fine merchandise,
mother-of-pearl and corals, amber and ebony,
and pleasurable perfumes of all kinds,
buy as many pleasurable perfumes as you can;
visit hosts of Egyptian cities,
to learn and learn from those who have knowledge.

Always keep Ithaca fixed in your mind.
To arrive there is your ultimate goal.
But do not hurry the voyage at all.
It is better to let it last for long years;
and even to anchor at the isle when you are old,
rich with all that you have gained on the way,
not expecting that Ithaca will offer you riches.

Ithaca has given you the beautiful voyage.
Without her you would never have taken the road.
But she has nothing more to give you.

And if you find her poor, Ithaca has not defrauded you.
With the great wisdom you have gained, with so much experience,
you must surely have understood by then what Ithacas mean.

-K. P. Kavafis (C. P. Cavafy), translation by Rae Dalven

Hope...

"Hope" is the thing with feathers--
That perches in the soul--
And sings the song without the words--
And never stops--at all--

And sweetest--in the Gale--is heard--
And sore must be the storm--
That could abash the little Bird--
That kept so many warm--

I've heard it in the chillest land--
And on the strangest sea--
Yet, never, in Extremity,
It asked a crumb--of Me.

-Emily Dickinson

Serial killers

Every crime has a reason and a purpose. While to most of us the reasons are not justified to a selected few they are. How can a murder be ever justified for it is the violation of the sanctity of life? There is no mercy, no sympathy for a killer.

But then again how do you define guilt? Is a child guilty of kicking if he does it while sleeping? Its natural to him though it may hurt the person next to him. Just the same way in the contorted world of the killer he might just be sleeping unaware of his own actions. Is it fair or even just to punish someone for something that he might have no control over? He doesnt have to be punished but helped and treated to understand the world as we do. To know and recognise the morals that we have. He is definitely harmful to the society but punishment is not the solution though isolation is justified.

Now that was presuming that the killer is mentally deranged and goes about killing people. But what is he understands the extent of his deeds and the consequences? What if he is a cold-blooded killer who kills for the fun of it? Would'nt it be insane if i call him sane? Is'nt he more so becasuse despite the fact that he knows and understands he does something? Its not a choice but an obsession. An obsession over which he has no control because he is gripped. If anything he needs more help. And what's more possibly there is no help for him. There is no getting him out of this contorted reality. The obsession is an ailment over which he has no control so how can we punish him for that? He just happened to be different. And we might have to pay a price for that which is unfair. Everyone has choices that we make in life. But is it fair to punish someone who does not have the mental faculties to make the right choice? Is putting him in a prison going to help? Technically it will remove this person from our lives making the world safer. But at the price of justice?

Now I can't come with anything more. My rambling skills are exhausted!!!! :D

This leads to a conclusion that probably all serial killers should not be punished but I have no comments about that!!

The way I look at it

The sun rises in the same direction everyday, the birds wake up like today is no different from yesterday and the world goes on like it always has been. Nothing ever stops and yet today and tomorrow are soooooo different. People, events and you, everything is different. While yesterday could have been dark today is just a new day. Its so surprising that what matters so much today does not the very next day. Maybe its the perspective that changes or people. An optimist would say that the we grow and learn to face the music and a pessimist would say it never mattered much in the first place. Well I am not sure if i was clear but I don't really care about being clear. Life is beautiful. The dark colurs and the bright ones make this canvas what it is. But not surprisingly, you need to be on the brighter side to be able to appreciate that.

I'm sure someone has said all this before. Everything about the colurs of autumn and spring but somehow I feel like writing about it. Its like a movie. Even if u know all about it you have watch it yourself to be able ot appreciate it! In the cosmic sense maybe today isn't different but at a micro level it is bloody different. And I am different and I feel different. Damn!!!!!! the damn is not for different but coz i dunno what to write.

Right now I am sitting at mah desk blogging and looking at the world outside. In some weird way I am related to every person that passes on this road by the road. Something like intersecting lines. Our lives intersect at this road. Everyone has a different life and different worries and concerns. Some maybe happy and some sad. But despite the fact we are just some metres away our lives are so entirely different that it doesnt affect either. Because the distance is not that of a few metres but a life. The distance between known and unknown. And this distance is an unbridgable(i jus coined the word) gulf. And this gulf also exists between people you might know also. hmmm..... A lot might be said still but I am not upto writing anymore. So ill leave it abruptly at this!!!!