more on barefoot living...

8 months about to be completed on barefoot 24/7...
had a small injury on left foot, but allowed it to heal naturally and within a week restarted 5km running.
i was worried about being barefoot in summer, as roads and much of artificial construction materials heat up... but looks like my feet have developed enough to withstand the heat.
hope to visit kerala in the month of May and be barefoot all through there as well.

been hearing advice about 'why i shouldn't be doing this barefoot thing'. as i look back at the bunch of advice i have received, what i realize is - the advisers always point out things from THEIR point of view - things which concern THEM the most! even though they are telling ME, what i should do, the reasons are all from their own life - its not connected to me at all.

again and again, i wonder, what makes them give such free advice, right away, whenever they find something different. i dont ask them for advice, i dont tell them to do what i do... as soon as they see or hear about my barefoot style, they start off with...
"why? that's dangerous"... you shouldn't be doing such a thing"... (this is the common starting point --> and my guess is that, "after saying this sentence, they start looking for reasons, why i shouldn't do so".

once, i couldn't stop myself, and i blurted out when someone started telling me, why i shouldn't run barefoot - "i asked the guy, please tell me, which year did you win Olympic gold for running?"... fortunately i was running and he was walking in the opposite direction - so he didn't hear my sarcastic comment properly.

i should work on improving my patience.. that'd be tougher than barefoot living :)

gotta re-write...

Without saying anything how do you piece through
Without doing anything how do exhude enigmatism

Your eyes avoid, wander around, Like a bird on top,
When you try to figure a pattern of its flight on a clear sky

And those lips colored so grey, a shade closer
To darkness than light, like petals on a bud closed up

And her eyes like the wet smoke arising under water
Out of thick purple camouflage, released by an octopus

Her aura like the mist arising in the middle of a night
Which moon forgot, eerie enough to evoke silence

It doesn’t end there, her eyes, like the roll of smoke
Thickly reproducing infinite loops without entangling

Is it a crime to experience aesthetics of a human face
An excuse takes wings, like guilt ridden angel’s plight

She always leaves me stunned with her smouldering look
What would you do when it doesn’t stop even at the end?

6 months of barefoot!

the fall season is here... winter chill has given way to free flowing winds and dry leaves floating down everywhere.
i guess the summer heat would be the real test for any barefooter, but hopefully my feet will have thicker skin by then.

.......one thing which i noticed about my feet is - now my toes seem to have a life of their own. the toes are getting used more, and they seem to revel in this new found freedom. by the end of the 5th month of 24/7 barefoot living, my toes put in more effort while walking, and i seem to feel them wriggling more often.
the 4th toe of my left foot (in hand it will be the ring finger), isthe only problem maker. that 4th toe is not exactly straight, and doesnt fall flat enough.
i had never noticed this till now, because if you are wearing a footwear, i guess it wouldn't matter much.
it feels slightly odd, but my guess is, couple of months more of barefoot walking will make that 4th toe to evolve as well.

.........another observation is, my increased tolerance for pain.. earlier if a thorn pierced my feet, i would be all upset, and feeling sorry for myself for a long period of time.. not now! these days, its just a thorn to be pulled out and then move ahead. and i absolutely had no problems at all, and feel my feet are at their healthiest in years.

anyway, cant give out statements and predictions so early. but so far everything seems cool... barefoot for life!

Hey, let’s be…

Hey, let’s be…
There is an element of attraction
Want to watch you move, smile, hesitate,
Flicker your irises in wonder, joy, jealousy
Anger, and in your private pretensions…

And something more which makes me feel
Protective, helpful, sensitive,
And with shower of appreciations, clean out your
Self doubts, concerns, worries which you pour out
Every now and then, it seems to me…

And another element, which wants to see
You hesitate, perplexed at simple things
When you are like a child, helpless, unsure,
Unexposed and cute and amusing as well…

And then there’s a temptress, voluptuous woman
To caress, to embrace to be lost together
And that crazy friend, to be with
To talk to and to listen to and share
The one to tell, the one to hear, be informed
Be asked questions while taking for granted
That I will know, you will tell and so on..

And that craving to be with, and the equal amount
Of concern, not to crave, not to bother you...
But let you be free, let it all be objective,
I care too much to tie it or term it all in one
So am gonna just let it fly… Hey let’s be...

reasons for going barefoot

The reasons I started to live barefoot (not using any footwear 24/7, 365 days)

1) Want to live a simpler life, and find out whether footwear is a real need or just a media created demand.

2) Want to reduce my carbon footprint - so I will be using less synthetic, plastic material - as most shoes/footwear uses that, as well as any footwear material for that matter.

3) Reduce brand crazy consumerism and materialism - what you wear defines you or establishes your status kind of attitude adds fuel to human greed and burning up our earth.

4) Work on my own ego aspects - as i had been obsessed about style and type and number of footwear I own as well as what others wear! Been a total sucker for those footwear brands - so, now to be more of what I am as I am...

5) To feel and manage the inhibition of being footwear less person, from both internal (my own) and external reactions... (as well as to perceive how does it feel to be discriminated on the basis of not having a social status symbol in other words).

6) To feel the sensation: To feel the natural objects as my feel comes in contact with them, rather than keeping my foot covered up all the time with some plastic/rubber/synthetic material. How does grass, mud, rock, wood, leaves, asphalt, cement etc feel which we walk over every day?

7) To know whether a person can live without footwear or here. Is it really a basic necessity, is a question I want to answers by live experimentation…

8) To be part of economically disadvantaged people in this world who cannot afford even footwear, and empathize with them till there is more equality in this world, and last but not least...

9) To show that we have to be considerate of other people, and not litter and dirty the earth... And take responsibility to keep our surroundings clean enough for people to walk barefoot anywhere...

I didn't find all these reasons at one go, but i keep finding more such insights through my experiences, reading and observations...

lots of people are asking me reasons... so now i can give them link or google ;)

barefoot living

Towards the last week in the month of August (2011), I felt like not wearing any footwear, and spontaneously I tried it out.

As I live and work in a campus about 50 acres big, it was pretty easy to do away with any kind of footwear just like that. But after initial months, doubts crept in as whether I will be able to make this a life style, but I kept at it even when I traveled outside to cities and even forest areas (supposed to be full of thorns and snakes ;)

Why I should I stop wearing any footwear? I had some answers ready...

It’s a more environmentally friendly life style (I would be reducing use of plastic, non-degradable material used in the footwear I use);

Its a step ahead towards simple living (my future aim is to be able to reduce my possessions to ONE big bag which I can carry).

Its a step towards deconstructing the status image that I have programmed myself through watching innumerable adverts and media (you are the shoe/ footwear that you wear). Actually, shoes/ footwear are something I tend to notice even though I am no way a fashion conscious person... In addition, tended to buy more than one of any kind of footwear that I require.

Its to experience what my feet should otherwise be sensing... I imagined, if I wore rubber gloves whenever I go out, or even I am at home (as some people tend to wear footwear even when inside home), then would I like that?
Would I like to stop feeling any sensation I feel through my hands and fingers?
Would I like to feel rubber soles everywhere I touch for the rest of my life?
Should my feet be free to feel all kinds of material that I have to walk around on?
The choice was clear, I wanted my feet to feel free & sense.

Of course, there were many encouraging and negative comments both; lots and lots of questioning as why I am doing it (I thought of using religion / god's name as the easiest way out, but resisted as didn't want to spread blind-faith). Lots of people projected their fears on to me, but so far, I’ve been braving on, and hope to complete one whole year without any footwear. After that, I will take time to plan future lifestyle about being barefoot throughout.

There were many other things, which kept me to be barefoot all the time. Overcoming the fear that something might happen to my unprotected feet was just another addition (if one exaggerates the argument of footwear for security, one might end up living inside a room all their life ;)

The high point of barefoot living was, when last week I visited Mumbai (one of the biggest baddest metro city as any in the world), and I could easily be there for about 3 days, and even traveled on local trains which should be made into an adventure sport!

Anyway, lots more reasons why I should remain bare-feet keep occurring, and I am finding info. On the internet as well, on bare-feet running and bare-feet living as well.

Whadya think?

Why, Where & How of poems

Why, Where & How...

I would like to say what I feel right now, very pompous… writing about myself, my own poems, my experiences seem like walking on a tightrope on top of narcissistic valley. Maybe I can defy.

I had to struggle to overcome the inhibitions of exhibiting naked details of my experiences. Somewhere I gathered that I don’t have to evaluate or judge self or poems positively or negatively and that helped me to expose.

I look my poems as milestones or photographs of some mental state I have gone through, and the challenge lies in expressing predominant emotions of such a state/s in a language. For me it usually comes out in a flow and I tend to keep them that way.

Thus it’s always been very difficult for me to evaluate my own poems in any sense, because I am not trying to be a professional and try to ignore analyzing them from literary perspective.

So I always like to know how others find them to be, and more as an interviewer who is dispassionate about criticism or praise and am more interested in analytical and interpretive views, and I become like a child who is sharing his new toys with others. I try to maintain an unapologetically casual attitude which keeps me moored as well as lets me fly.

While penning down a poem, the need and process of looking at self & emotions from a 3rd person’s view is something I seem to enjoy indulging in, but have not been able to find out the need to write poems.

Never been good at understanding others poems (even my own after I have finished them), as its always been an intuitive activity for me rather than conscious process. I have tried to emulate some of my friends who genuinely seem to get that ‘kick’ from reading poems, but…

I have heard that exposing the processes behind by a poem/poet is something not to be done (some literary norm?) but I like to fight restrictive thinking, conventions, things repeated blindly by even the ripened heads. But let me take that on... let me defy (again).

As it happens intuitively for me, I have written all this as another attempt to understand. If your impression of a theme/interpretation differs from my point of view then look at it as a fresh creation, as a perspective shift and be cool. I always enjoyed discussing these differences of views.

If you don’t want to experiment in such a way, then don’t read the comments that follow the previous 59 poems i have posted.

59) Whisper

59) Whisper
There is this gal I like,
But not been able to talk
From afar her face
Shows a dawn of a smile,
It’s been the same story all my life.

Dawn can be dusk,
A shade away from black
Eyes also can be a trap
Even innocence filled ones.

She knows...
And her tilting of head teases,
Our eyes meet...
And like clouds,
Breaking patterns, tear apart...

An identified, loved design,
Breaks apart, torn by a concealed hand,
Sometimes merges with others,
Confounding me like self.

When her eyes slant towards me,
Wordless poems flow
From mountain tops,
And know where to go..
But don't know the way......

Streams afloat above,
Seek to merge with river
Etch path.. towards
Everlasting stay..

Don't know how to reach out,
Connect...

58) Will she?

58) Will she?

Unable to cry out,
Exact my feelings and shout,
Silently suffering,
Yet strangely enjoying;

Causes it a lovely lass, unaware
That I am willing to surrender…
Myself, for her presence;
Escape, sense of solitude.

Don’t want to make mistake,
With whole happiness at stake,
To speak the language of heart
Unsure, will she accept?

In everyone of my dream,
She smiles and her eyes gleam,
Every time I wakeup, scared,
In reality, will she understand?

57) Wave

57) Wave
An endless embrace, my flower;
You said it with a smile, a wave,
And I said, goodbye to the
Distance within me,
Love’s language is strange
To everyone its own,
But everywhere incomplete;

Evening breeze in vain
Tries to feel its tenderness,
Sugar drowns in itself in its sweetness,
Even nature succeeds to show
Only miserably, its symbols,
My heart, what can I say.

Winter, summer, rain becomes spring,
Spread mellowed light;
Without any answers stops the search,
And impossible is within reach,
Infinity just a step away,
Lingers on love cloud, Lingers on…

56) War

56) War
His half naked body shivering,
From chin, tear drops falling,
His broken left arm on a sling,
He stood there sobbing,
In front of a thousand snow white crosses,
Planted on top of
Bright green grass,
And buried underneath,
Countless bodies.

A pretty picture,
It makes from far away,
Where you can’t hear him cry.

His cowardice thoughts,
Slowly turn to oath,
To revenge the sleeping martyrs,
And, lends him a purpose to live again.

‘O’ Great War,
I thank thee,
Thou have saved a life.

55) Village temple

55) Village temple
Rain when it came,
Like the priest at the
Village temple,
Bathed the stone deity and
Stone paved pathways,
Constantly with drops of water
With the help of roof tiles,
Who shrank into themselves,
Left gaps in their relations.

The stone walls,
Smeared with grease and black dust
Of burning lamps on ghee*,
Poured by devotees to cleanse
Their sins; Rise from the
Nearby pond, in semi wet clothes
Lips busily chanting,
Symbolizing piousness externally,
Stare at the deity
With folded hands,
Sometimes along with children,
Who look up frequently,
To time exactly, the period of devotion.

54) Untitled

54) Untitled
Here we are, sitting
With our back to the world
Placid, songs of outcasts
Decaying, hang around.

The orange sun dies,
Along with it,
Extinguished the fire
Of love, in my heart;

Helplessly watch, alienated
Bewildered, why tears fall
When ends the burning, painting
My body like clouds, colorful.

Shared grief, swell up
We await, dark brooding
Night, to cover sorrows
Before arises hopes and morning.

53) Traveler’s tenor

53) Traveler’s tenor
Through the dusty window I noticed,
A magnificent Banyan in
Brown, baked fields,
A green monolith in the midst
Of tiny wandering sheep.

A once forgotten melody
Blending with incessant noise,
Making a strange harmony,
Broken by traveling singers
Who sing for money.

Traveling time and again,
To return from the usual routine,
I looked up to reach,
An unfathomable horizon,
Dotted with trees trying to measure.

Strange signals where I stop,
Ponder on a forlorn thought,
Lights dim and darkness descends,
Occasional whistles pierce through,
Jilting the reflections of night.

52) Trap

52) Trap
Oh! Unapproachable beauty,
Look at you, I only from far away,
I don’t want to come near,
Such ecstasy, I won’t be able to bear.

You move around your friends,
Like a glow in darkness,
Oh! The way you smile,
I can watch it all my life.

But when you walk past me,
Without even looking once,
Can’t hold on any longer,
Do I need to tell any further.

Don’t make me fall on my knees,
Girl, just look at my eyes,
Reflects it a longing unmeasurable..
“No”?? …

Well, but my age being impressionable,
Forgive my (maybe an) infatuation,
Oh, don’t worry, it’s already broken,
And no hard feelings and goodbye;
Hope it works on the next one I try.

51) Teen Love song

51) Teen Love song
Maybe the stars didn’t shine
In my eyes,
May be the bells didn’t ring
In your ears,
When I said it, but it’s true…
So stop fooling around,
Listen to your heart,
Don’t play hard to get,
I’ll not come again to plead,
And say those three words that make
Life a never ending song…

We could be now having fun,
You know it really well,
Together while the moon shine,
All you have to do is me; call,
So baby, don’t think,
Just come along,
Why bother about those three words
When Life’s already a never ending song…

50) Swing

50) Swing
A twinkle in her eyes,
A sweet song in her lips,
Comes she near,
Her footsteps I can hear.

In a white night gown,
Her pale hands reach for me,
Hit by her hips,
My cradle swings,
Her longs chains,
Tickle my chest:
Then, I wake up,
Trying to touch her…
Why do it happen only in dreams,
Why don’t I hear a lullaby,
Which rhyme.

49) Sun or Moon ?

49) Sun or Moon ?
I see her, the full moon,
After long gaps of days, barren;
Between black clouds,
Usually in furtive glances.

Remain she distant, even
In my imagination,
With desperate telepathy,
Insolent stare
And transfixed thoughts,
I follow her.

Rare connections like waves hit,
Take me to a curious height,
And like a plant, I bloom,
Crane towards her; the sun,
a little;
Always a little,
Afraid of getting burnt; End.

Last night in my dream she appeared,
Standing alone in a boat,
In the middle of my river.

Her hair flew with the sail,
Silvery water and moonbeams
Threw spotlights around her,
Pairs of eyes peered,
The wave crests eerily gleamed.

She morphed to silhouette gray,
My incomplete half, the womanhood;
Then anchors broke, boats loosened,
And drove toward her.

She became a vision within a vision,
A philosopher’s gate;
Is she the medium?
Asked the thinker’s statue
And crumpled, from its stone innards,
Veins reached to caress,
In love of that beautiful medium,
But the rational waters drowned it,
Along with discoloring blood;
Ah, flow of passion never ends.

48) Society

48) Society
Hiding my real self,
I conformed to the norms,
But got tired of pretension,
And afraid of an explosion.
Apes everyone their ancestors,
I never understood, why?
And act we indifferent –
To our inner-self all the time?

Why do we wear various masks
And complicate every matter?
Why cling on to a society
Which constricts individuality
And kills creativity?
To find out the answers,
Like the others ahead of me,
Shut I myself in society;
Saw that everybody around me,
Had grown accordingly -
To the proportions of their prisons.

With glee, told they me,
Till the end of sane life,
Will remain you closed in,
Only companionship can console,
So to trap the innocents in,
Suffer with a smile, and
You’ll be a success story.
Still fought I to avoid,
Suffering the pangs of guilt,
And the confinement of those
Who follow us in blind faith.

So tried I to deviate,
And break the archaic walls,
With my fiery ideas,
But failures and complete isolation
Had me finally broken.

Painted I have now in my face,
The smug look of satisfaction;
But carry around I still, hope
And seeds of discontention.

47) slave

South India wave
Hindi movies can be one of the indicators of popular culture, though pan Indian trends are never easy to predict (is there a pan india anyway? How many ppl knew about 92 day blockade in Manipur, how many Indian states an Indian has even travelled?).

But lets get back to south india and hindi movies. Recently 2 movies which heated up the multiplexes are ra.one and mujhse fraaandship karoge, and in ra.one SRK is a southie, and the movie MFK hit song dheaon dheaon has a southie music director and a total southie tilt... what say Macha?

I can remember, some decades ago, in hindi movies, south Indianisms were absolute no no. But i guess now overall attitude of the youngsters is, anything goes, and reduced regionalism. Maybe india itself is getting Indianized (as in globalized), and whatever catches your fancy is ok to take into your coolness quotient seem to be the new mantra.

Its the beginning of such a trend is my take, and many people wont even be aware of something like this happening today. Only time will tell, which way the wind is blowing...

Apart from psycho-babble, MFK rocks yaar... lots of old morals are blown in the air, without even a shrug... suddenly feelings are talking...
End of story one.

..and open up one secret of yours at a time.. its liberating.. let the world know its ok to let go... they can do it too ;)

back to old stuff:
47) Slave
Lead a lonely life,
Inside a cocoon, but in peace.
Called everyone, crazy,
Cared naught for rules or rulers,
Lived my dream;
Only to wake, Painfully realize,
Fighting inside, Many Me’s,
More despicable, more bloody,
And more tightly,
Binding me in slavery.
Mass of bone and muscles,
A storing machine,
Labyrinth of emotions,
Which one is real me?
I’ll have to find out first, To be free.

46) Silence

Like a window's tears,
It transformed,
When her child disappeared
And even the silence of
Aloneness started asking,
Like a suicidal shadow,
“Who are you crying for”?
Its not who, but what …
Said the English teacher,
She switched off the lights,
Trying to extinguish.

Sun rays straightened up,
Reflected on shattered
Glass pieces,
Symbols of yesterday’s dance,
And like an abstract art piece
They formed, to scream,
“Are you crying for lost motherhood”?
She just closed the curtains,
And darkened the faces
Of those glass pieces,
Till they became stained in red.

45 Sermon

decided to mix up a bit. first of all, had a very quiet Diwali in India ;) and visited a rural area, which is the border of 2 states, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh. funny thing is, both these areas are trying to separate and form another state. Telangana part, which may happen soon, and Vidarbha part which is not so well known, and may take time. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vidarbha)

was watching TV about Diwali celebrations from this vidarbha part, on various Marathi language TV channels, and there was almost no news or even mention of anything happening from Vidarbha side at all.

really can't imagine, how vidarbha ppl tolerate this... most dont even seem to be aware of such a partisan treatment.

anyway, back to old style.. here goes..
45) Sermon
Search not for peace of mind,
Sit back and see the world around;
Forget yourself for a while,
Share somebody’s sorrow for a change.

Give sympathy to a wounded heart,
Let a sinner, a new life, start;
Show mercy to a fallen down man,
Aid any unfortunate friend in pain.

Return some kindness to mother nature,
She will rear tomorrow’s children.
Hesitate not, to solemnly promise her,
Rage we won’t ever on her soil, another war.

Just sacrifice some of your pleasures,
To keep earth livable for coming generations,
Pray not for forgiveness to some God,
Both hell and heaven are here in this world.

To repent all your wrong doings,
And to make your life a huge success,
Send the poet, what you can liberally,
And all your sins will be, forgiven finally.

Street play: Misconceptions about Mental Illnesses

Street play: Misconceptions about Mental Illnesses

(About 6-7 actors are the minimum need, and up to 10 actors can take part as it is flexible.)

Props: about 10 placards. 9 of them needed to be tied at two ends with a thread, or if more elaborate work can be done, then they can be stuck to caps or some head gear. In big lettering they should be written:
1) Pollution,
2) Infection
3) Food poisoning
4) Pickpocket
5) Angry boss
6) Death
7) Typhoid or cancer
8) Mad
9) Recovered mad
10) This will continue

SCENE - 1:
A director is doing his job, setting up a scene of a mental hospital. He is frantically running around, yelling at his actors and actresses to yell out more loudly, attack each other, laugh loudly and cry together, move body more etc. There are a few actors who are trying to look and behave like inmates of a mental hospital from a typical Hindi film. (The attempt is to make the mentally ill people look like they are a mix between insane and intellectually retarded people, who do stupid things, which is supposed to make audience laugh).

The clapboard is closed to indicate the scene has started, and then there is mayhem and chaos. Somebody is crying out loudly and laughing, a doctor is running around giving direct shock from broken wire and hitting people with a big hammer, somebody runs around to attack the audience. Suddenly a guy from outside walks in and the director yells, “cut, cut”.

The guy: (Who just walked in) What’s all this?
Director: We are shooting a mental hospital scene.
Guy: But hey, have you ever been to a mental hospital, seen the inside of a mental hospital?
Director: No, never, I didn’t have to… haha… haha

Guy: Hey, this is not a laughing matter, how can you show all these people about a mental hospital if you have not even bothered to find how it is?, and I don’t understand, even educated people like you (fingering audience) laugh when somebody is insulting your intelligence like this?? (the audience who were having fun till now, quiet down as they realize they had not thought of it earlier).

Director: hey, you got a point there, how does a mental hospital look?
Guy: let’s go to one, and let me show you all.

SCENE - 2:
Scene of a mental hospital as it usually looks in most parts of the world. It is more like any ordinary hospital for physiological diseases. There are a few people going on about their business, some are lost in their own world. Some are doing meaningful work. The doctor is treating people in a humane way. One of the guys is seen as being discharged as he has recovered and moving out. Other inmates wish him luck just in the normal way. The director is walking around observing all this and he claps his hands with other inmates when they clap to give the recovered patient a warm goodbye. Claps and claps.

SCENE - 3:
At the two ends of stage two people are standing. A voice over comes and introduces them. Then guy-1 starts walking forward and is seen walking ahead all the time. Suddenly he closes his nose as if he has neared a smelly place. A person wearing the board pollution runs out to the stage and runs around guy-1 and disappears. Guy-1 gets a bit tired and droops, but within a few seconds straightens up and walks back normally.

Then guy-2 walks ahead, towards him a guy with board of pick-pocket runs and circles and disappears. The guy-2 after few seconds searches and finds his loss and droops for some seconds, then shrugs off and walks back normally. Similarly for guy-1 food poisoning comes and for guy-2 it is firing from his boss, and in the third round, infection through mosquito for guy-1 and death of a close person for guy-2. All three times they recover after momentary affect.

Then in the fourth round for guy-1 all three things come together and dance around him and he falls down, and when the dancers disappear he is wearing a board - typhoid. And for guy-2 all three things dance and he also falls down and is seen wearing a board MAD.

Voice over: when our body is imbalanced it shows symptoms - sometimes they are psychological symptoms and sometimes they are physiological and sometime a mixed effect. The person is not responsible for it totally in either case.

SCENE - 4:
again guy-1 and guy-2 are standing at 2 ends, guy-1 is cared by his family, but guy-2 with MAD as the board on him is kicked out and people are pushing him, laughing at him, kids throw stones at him etc. guy-1 recovers quickly, puts on the board on recovered from typhoid and is welcomed by his colleagues and relatives. Guy-2 is put in mental hospital and recovers slowly alone and is put on the board of recovered MAD.

When guy-2 returns home, a small kid runs to welcome him, but other older members restrain her and tells him to get lost, and that once MAD means always MAD. Onlookers also nod their heads to agree and laugh at the recovered mad guy-2 and push him away, kids throw stones at him, and everyone dance madly around him. When they go back, the guy-2 is put the board of MAD and he is lying down on the floor in pain.

Voice over: “discrimination done between a physiological and a mental disease is due to ignorance, nobody can change the chemical changes that happens in their brain just like nobody can kill cancer cells on their own. Both are diseases and these people need help and co-operation from outside world”.

SCENE - 5:
One guy comes in front and tells the audience that to help people in distress and improve our society we need unity, if we stand together we can overcome problems. Another actor then walks in and says we need mass education, and that knowledge is the key for a better future. The first guy is looking in astonishment when a third actor comes and says we need sympathy for others and peace in our heart and the world will become a paradise.

The two others push the third away and a fourth comes and says we need to have faith and belief, and only God can help us sinners, and fifth and sixth one come together and start saying technological advances are what we need to concentrate and sixth one yells justice and equality should be enforced and their is a pushing match and these people start yelling and hitting each other and mayhem and chaos reigns. One guy with a big placard written, “THIS WILL CONTINUE”, walks around the fighting people as the curtain falls. (To signify, good intentions also require team work and systematic efforts to reach fruitful stage, this is the punch line or twist at the end).

[This street-play won 2nd prize in Bombay Univ. annual fest. in ’97. Written and directed by Venky Iyer, Actors: Shashank, Deepa, Vidya, Indrayani, Atish, Venky (MA Psycho) & Abhijit and Samir]

mental health care ?

...mental health remains a neglected area world over, and more so in undeveloped countries... but for me a favorite area. why so? that i am still trying to figure out.

anyway, there are some encouraging happenings at WHO, such as 'no health without mental health', and increased pressure to make mental health aspects part of of global health etc are occurring.

a book "donde no hey doctor", (where there is no doctor), had become a champion of poor/undeveloped parts of the world - for their health/doctor needs - similarly another book, 'where there is no psychiatrist" has come out, which is a promising sign.

though when i see people putting in lots of efforts to achieve / succeed BUT neglect mental health aspects such as not managing their stress and thus dig their own grave, i can't help but feel confused. many such people achieved a lot, but somehow are unable to prioritize their mental health needs appropriately.

a very good example i can think of right now is, students who are slogging to get good marks / grades in their exams. a common complaint they have or their close one's have is - he/she is good student but gets too stressed. but when stress management inputs are given, these students often tend to neglect practicing it... which is very similar to what adults do too - they complain of stress, even have fatal health problems like heart diseases or BP etc... but still start neglecting their mental health within no time of their treatment.

addictions are another aspect of health - and deaddiction (addiction treatment) falls under mental health area. tobacco addiction even though being shown to be a major killer (the biggest stoppable cause of death among humans now) is very neglected thing - and in a very 'cutting-the-branch-you-are-sitting' manner, governments tend to focus on economic benefits (short term) from tobacco industry instead.

maybe 'military intelligence' is not oxymoron, its mental-health care ;)

p.s. managing emotions is taken for granted... because its invisible. managing concrete resources, materials which are visible gets preference and priority... so everyone runs after those management courses... the funny thing is, even when it affects our self, it remains a joke.

a friend told me, 1 million smokers quit every year... (by dying)... there are 1 million (official figure) people committing suicide as well... thus they manage their mental health problem?

23) Inner beauty

23) Inner beauty

 You are a shell, 

yet unopened

 Hiding inside a pearl,

 yet coarsely covered.

 You are a butterfly, 

yet to wake 

Sleeping in a cocoon, 

yet to break. 

Youu are a cloud,

 yet to rain 

Enough to green a desert, 

yet in pain. 

You are a rock, 

yet not dry

 Blemished by nature, 

yet never cry.

 You are a peacock, 

yet never dance 

With thousand eyes, 

yet never given a glance.

 Your are a rainbow, 

yet to form 

Queen of the skies, 

 yet slave to storm. 

Youu are a poem,

 read to the end 

Written from the heart, 

yet never understood.