one pulse. one life. one god. one love.

we are but a blip on the vast canvass of life.

i am tired of distracting myself. it never seems to end..

there is a part of me, that cannot be touched even by death. that is immortal. now, who is that me?

-------------

just as important as it is to open my eyes, its also important to close them sometimes.

-------------

as i was going to type these in, a close friend walked in and gave a fiery speech saying: "stop trying".

Nallathor Veenai



Nallathor veenai seidhe - adhai
nalangeda puzhudhiyil erivadhundo?
Nallathor veenai seidhe - adhai
nalangeda puzhudhiyil erivadhundo?

solladi sivashakthi - enaich
chudarmigum arivudan padaithuvittai
solladi sivashakthi - enaich
chudarmigum arivudan padaithuvittai

vallamai thaaraayo vallamai thaaraayo - indha
maanilam payanura vaazhvadharke
vallamai thaaraayo - indha
maanilam payanura vaazhvadharke

solladi sivashakthi - nilach
chumaiyena vaazhndhidap puriguvaiyo

Nallathor veenai seidhe - adhai
nalangeda puzhudhiyil erivadhundo?

thasaiyinaith theechudinum - siva
sakthiyaip paadum nall agam kaettaen
nasaiyaru manam kaettaen - niththam
navamenach chudar tharum uyir kaettaen,
asaivuru madhi kaettaen - ivai
arulvadhil unakkedhum thadaiyuladho?

ivai arulvadhil unakkedhum thadaiyuladho?

Nallathor veenai seidhe - adhai
nalangeda puzhudhiyil erivadhundo?
Nallathor veenai seidhe - adhai
nalangeda puzhudhiyil erivadhundo?

----------

What an honour to have walked the same earth as this man.

Odi polama!? :-)

This civilisation suffers from deep arrogance. It thinks it has all the answers. And its filled with so much noise. Any culture that does not value silence is bound to collapse. For only in silence do we hear God's voice. Sense its beauty, and feel touched by its grace. But we are so lost. Everybody from out parents, teachers and priests are so thoroughly lost. How can the rest be any different.

This is a culture under crisis. How are we going to ever learn some humility. to bow down. quieten down. Surrender. Profoundly surrender and wash the feet of god. Can there be any hope otherwise? Is there sense in any other form of action?

We are very much on the self-destructive mode, and need to learn some mindfulness soon. Awareness and Awakening is the only salvation. Unless we become very alert and alive, and open and light and yet agile and sharp and warm and kind and supple, and responsible and uncompromising, there is no way out. And all these cannot come without true devotion. without coming face to face with God, and be completely silenced by its presence. Silenced and yet brought alive, humbled and yet blessed. lost and also found.

Can humanity make it? Have we suffered enough to let go off our arrogance. or is there more misery and strife waiting? how many more do we have to kill before it hits us. How many more children? Fathers and brothers and sisters? How many more rivers do we have to pollute, fish destroyed, Forests cleared? how many more wars, recessions, lay-offs and bailouts. would this treadmill of madness ever stop? will there ever be sanity again? not to ask of peace and brotherhood.

What will we do with the blood dripping from our hands? deny it? Explain it off - Theorizing about the nature of man. Yet again for the billionth time. Shrug our shoulders with cynicism and continue to be the cowards we have been. look away and be selfish?

How are we ever going to answer our conscience? How do we even sleep in the night?

love,

The only way i feel i can truly engage with this rotten civilisation, is to completely disconnect from it psychologically.

The show has begun, and its Heavy Metal

This is it.

Like it or Not,

This is it.

Believe it or Not,

This is it.

No point Escaping,

Grow up and Face it.

The stage is waiting,

for the Actor to Arrive.

With an evil gleam

and a content heart

he wears his grease paint and mask,

to shatter himself against the rocks 

and split life wide open.

So the dove can finally soar, soar and soar

"God, please remind me again and again that I am nothing. Strip me of the consolations of my complacent spirituality. Plunge me into the darkness where I cannot rely on any of my old tricks for maintaining my separation. Let me give up on trying to convince myself that my own spiritual deeds are bound to be pleasing to you. Take all my juicy spiritual feelings, Master, and dry them up, and then please light them on fire. Take my lofty spiritual concepts and plunge them into darkness, and then burn them. Let me only love you, Lord. Let me quietly and with unutterable simplicity just love you. "

- Adapted from The Dark Night of the Soul

"Open doors as I walk inside
Swallow me so the pain subsides
And I shake as I take this in
Let the show begin



The higher you are
The farther you fall
The longer the walk
The farther you crawl
My body my temple
This temple it tells
Yes I am I am I am (.. the house that jack built).. "

Payback Time

Have you ever let your breath control you?

Childhood Inspiration

Be a Paradox. Deliberately. Like Shakespeare's clowns.
The fools will take you for a fool,
And the wise will see wisdom.
But Who really are you? As always: A Paradox.

There is no innocence in this poem

What enlightenment!?
Always keep me a child that
with fresh eyes your creation sees,
and jumps with joy at the prospect
of candy treats!

Vijnana Bhairava

You reach Bhairava, through pure grace. No amount of dharana or yukti can get you there. Awareness is a gift from God, that comes from surrender. It cannot be consciously "raised". If at all, 'The Ascent' happens through descent.

the arrogance of the ones that think they've "gotten it", is more dangerous than the ignorance of the ones who think they haven't.

so if you are reading this blog, watch out!

The mind that has died to itself, knows no Great Masters.
It only knows itself.

Deer Park Library/Cease to Be

It is there, when i am not there.
how can i ever know it?
maybe i should drop all pretense
There is no way for me to grasp it.
And when it is, there is peace.
Not that i know it as peace,
for where am i when there is peace.
The I is an eternal disturbance,
a distortion and diversion.
From the birdsong and warm light,
the silence and the smile.
Prayer flags in the wind, Majestic mountains
and their snow caps, quiet plants in the sunlight.
This is now and ever.

find god. reach god.

Please be in silence, and choicelessly watch. it's probably the greatest service you can offer :)

happy birthday! :)

Take Back Your Coins

Take back your coins, King's Councillor. I am of those women you
sent to the forest shrine to decoy the young ascetic who had never
seen a women. I failed in your bidding.
Dimly day was breaking when the hermit boy came to bathe in
the stream, his tawny locks crowded on his shoulders, like a
cluster of morning clouds, and his limbs shining like a streak of
sunbeam. We laughed and sang as we rowed in our boat; we jumped
into the river in a mad frolic, and danced around him, when the sun
rose staring at us from the water's edge in a flush of divine
anger.
Like a child-god, the boy opened his eyes and watched our
movements, the wonder deepening till his eyes shone like morning
stars. He lifted his clasped hands and chanted a hymn of praise in
his bird-like young voice, thrilling every leaf of the forest.
Never such words were sung to a mortal woman before; they were like
the silent hymn to the dawn which rises from the hushed hills. THe
women hid their mouths with their hands, their bodies swaying with
laughter, and a spasm of doubt ran across his face. Quickly came
I to his side, sorely pained, and, bowing to his feet, I said,
"Lord, accept my service."
I led him to the grassy bank, wiped his body with the end of
my silken mantle, and, kneeling on the ground, I dried his feet
with my trailing hair. When I raised my face and looked into his
eyes, I thought I felt the world's first kiss to the first woman,
-Blessed am I, blessed is God, who made me a woman. I heard him say
to me, "What God unknown are you? YOur touch is the touch of the
Immortal, your eyes have the mystery of the midnight."
Ah, no, not that smile, King's Councillor, -the dust of
worldly wisdom has covered your sight, old man. But this boy's
innocence pierced the mist and saw the shining truth, the woman
divine....
The women clapped their hands, and laughed their obscene
laugh, and with veils dragged on the dust and hair hanging loose
they began to pelt him with flowers.
Alas, my spotless sun, could not my shame weave fiery mist to
cover you in its folds? I fell at his feet and cried, "Forgive me.
" I fled like a stricken deer through shade and sun, and cried as
I fled, " Forgive me. " The women's foul laughter pressed me like
a cracking fire, but the words ever rang in my ears, " What God
unknown are you?"

- Rabindranath Tagore

Chithiram Pesiyadhadi

phew!! thanks for holding on.
and Thanks for surviving the storm.
i was so worried. Now so relieved.

Guess i can move on now.. :)

Wow.

Bulla ki jaana main kaun :)

Thus Far..

You want me to hold you,
And i offer no consolation.
You feel rejected.
I feel pressured.
We fight, we make up.
We fight, we make up.
But in offering no consolation,
i hold you in ways, you don't even imagine.
And in being patient with my harshness,
you teach me love, that i do not easily know.

Now at the dawn of a New Sunrise,
Thank you.

Free Thought?

Practice is a rotten word!

What are you doing with your energy? Blowing it off?

or Bringing it all into the now?

get a life. drop the label.

How could we organize something so vast, and immense, and all-pervading.

It organises us!

Whatever be the question, Love is the answer.

is there a place beyond all experience? the pure source of all that is..

Silence

He kissed her on the forehead, And she kissed him on the cheek. They knew it was love.

At sunset, on the river bank, Krishna
Loved her for the last time and left...

That night in her husband's arms, Radha felt
So dead that he asked, What is wrong,
Do you mind my kisses, love? And she said,
No, not at all, but thought, What is
It to the corpse if the maggots nip?

-The Maggots, Kamala Das

There is no Relationship. Only Relating.

Sadhana Forest

God is,
And we are not.
The problem is,
we think;
We are,
And God is not!

Yes, its as simple as that. flip it and its game over.

Do you not see
that you and I
Are as the branches of one tree?
With your rejoicing
Comes my laughter;
With your sadness
Start my tears.
Love,
Could love be otherwise
With you and me?

-TSU YEH, Tsin dynasty, AD 265-316

Creating Space to Dance Together

"When we feel lonely we keep looking for a person or persons who can take our loneliness away. Our lonely hearts cry out, “Please hold me, touch me, speak to me, pay attention to me.” But soon we discover that the person we expect to take our loneliness away cannot give us what we ask for. Often that person feels oppressed by our demands and runs away, leaving us in despair. As long as we approach another person from our loneliness, no mature human relationship can develop. Clinging to one another in loneliness is suffocating and eventually becomes destructive. For love to be possible we need the courage to create space between us and to trust that this space allows us to dance together."

- Henri Nouwen, Bread for the Journey

As the great plague of hurryness and busyness engulfs us, Man desperately screams for some silence.

"An assertion is Zen only when it is itself an act and does not refer to anything that is asserted in it."

Those eyes..

there are no Tools. only Grace.

Truth truly is a pathless land..

Heart and Earth are anagrams! :)

i hold you in my love. what more could you possibly want from me?

kaaka kaaka

eyes closed, i cling to you like a scared child onto its parent.
when the eyes open, i know you are always nearby. but keep me from straying please.

the work that i want to do, is the life that i want to live..

"I ought to know, by now, that God uses everything that happens as a means to lead me into solitude. Every creature that enters my life, every instant of my days, will be designed to wound me with the realisation of the world's insufficiency, until I become so detached that I will be able to find God alone in everything. Only then will all things bring me joy."

-Thomas Merton

i know not yet, that which i ought to.

God is the most effortless part of us. No resistance, only acceptance :)

as we are, who we are, where we are - There we are.

Here.

What speaks is the Buddham,
What it speaks is the Dhammam,
And To whom it speaks is the Sangham.

one of parul's now famous status messages :p

"Sometimes you put walls up not to keep people out, but to see who cares enough to break them down."

Naalai en nanban thirumbum naal. Ini puthiathor sarithiram padaipom, sathiyamadi kannam.

there is no right or wrong. only consequences.

the ground beneath my feet crumbles, even as i reach for the stars

the cathedral is right inside you.

God is. I am

if Birth is beautiful, then Death is divine :)

i think there are only two kinds of people in this world:
Those who start out with the premise: "We have to live"
And those that start with: "We have to love"

Margazhi

i seem to have lost interest in everything. Yes. existence is a bore. and a pain. There is a loss of meaning. Am tired. No motivation. I feel lonely. God has forsaken me. His silence is deafening. My faith is tenuous. Am disappointed and dejected. There is a terrible inertia. Everything is vague. words feel so hollow. commitments are easily given and hardly kept. i don't care. Am scared ill put my family in danger. my mom esp. Most of my friends live shallow lives as well. i think of dying often. Not suicide, but some kind of a glorious death that would give it all meaning. Abhimanyu and Rang De Basanti style. At times am way too radical, and at other times way too arrogant. So, either way people like to stay away. Am uncompromising in my judgments. defiantly so. All the hypocrisy and inequality i see freeze me. i feel too stuck to do anything. sometimes i punch concrete walls in the middle of the night unable to sleep. it doesn't hurt. Her betrayal should have been the last nail. But its amazing i've come out battling. with a lot of help ofcourse.

A faint winter light shines through. There is more than a flicker of hope now :)

Last week, one cousin died struggling to make 800 rupees a month and keep his family fed. Even as another honey-mooned in singapore. i paid three times as much in telephone bills.

THE THREE ANTS

Three ants met on the nose of a man who was lying asleep in the sun. And after they had saluted one another, each according to the custom of his tribe, they stood there conversing.
The first and said, "These hills and plains are the most barren I have known. I have searched all day for a grain of some sort, and there is none to be found."
Said the second ant, "I too have found nothing, though I have visited every nook and glade. This is, I believe, what my people call the soft, moving land where nothing grows."
Then the third ant raised his head and said, "My friends, we are standing now on the nose of the Supreme Ant, the mighty and infinate Ant, whose body is so great that we cannot see it, whose shadow is so vast that we cannot trace it, whose voice is so loud that we cannot hear it; and He is omnipresent."
When the third ant spoke thus the other ants looked at each other and laughed.
At that moment the man moved and in his sleep raised his hand and scratched his nose, and the three ants were crushed.

- Khalil Gibran in the Madman

The Passion of Christ. (as i understand it)

Angry Mob: "Who are you sorcerer!? What evil chicanery do you play on us!?"

Him: "I am the Son of Man. And the King of Kings. I am the chosen one - your Messiah.

Now, are you going to be foolish and crucify me for speaking so, or are you going to listen to your heart and wake up to the truth?"

(Probably one of the boldest pitches ever made. The death of one brought alive a countless many. What a man!)

We need to awaken to our place in this sea of life.

i am what i do, not what i say.

great philosophies need great people to live them out.

Local is the way to go.

Silence just as important as action.

go slow.

we are living through a profound crisis of meaning today.

cynicism and dejection rent the air. as do apathy and ennui.

a new vision is required. And we are the ones to dream it.

The Heart is a very powerful thing. Its not just a pump :)

we need each other.

We are small, yet so very big.

do i love life so much, that i could die for it? :)

A genuine relationship can only be between equals. People who stand on their own feet. and speak their own truths.

Bhaja Govindam

this world is amazing, thr are actually people who came up with pictures for this song , syncd it perfectly with the words, added subtitles and then put it up for free on youtube for everybody to share. the goodness in this world rocks!

A Marathon Spell

Not much to say for now, coz it hasn't sunk in yet. For somebody who takes a lot his metaphors from the Cricket field, this man has been an inspiration for ever since i can remember. The quiet determination and resolve with which he tirelessly ran in, over after over thudding into the batsmen's pads, has been an enduring image for the last two decades. More of a personal ideal than just an image. The dignity and integrity with which he carried himself as well. Thanks for standing so tall.

thanks, but no thanks :)

in 1744, the collected chiefs of the Indian Nations met to discuss a letter from the College of William & Mary suggesting that they “send twelve of their young men to the college, that they might be taught to read and write.” The chiefs sent the following reply:

"Sirs,

We know that you highly esteem the kind of learning taught in Colleges, and that the maintenance of our young men, while with you, would be very expensive to you. We are convinc’d, therefore, that you mean to do us good by your proposal; and we thank you heartily. But you, who are wise, must know that different Nations have different conceptions of things; and you will therefore not take it amiss, if our ideas of this kind of Education happen not to be the same with yours. We have some experience of it. Several of our young people were formerly brought up at the colleges of the Northern Provinces; they were instructed in all your sciences; but, when they came back to us they were bad runners, ignorant of every means of living in the woods, unable to bear either cold or hunger, knew neither how to build a cabin, take a deer, or kill an enemy, spoke our language imperfectly, were therefore neither fit for hunters, warriors, nor counsellors; they were totally good for nothing. We are, however, not the less oblig’d by your kind offer, tho’ we decline accepting it; and, to show our grateful sense of it, if the Gentlemen of Virginia will send us a dozen of their sons, we will take care of their Education; instruct them in all we know, and make men of them."

am on a movie watching spree these days,

and loving every bit of it :)

a beautiful poem on ankur's blog:

The Guilty One (Pablo Neruda, from 'The Hands of Day') 

I declare myself guilty of never having
fashioned, with these hands I was given,
a broom.

Why did I not make a broom?

Why was I given hands at all?

What purpose did they serve
if I saw only the rumor of the grain,
if I had ears only for the wind
and did not gather the thread
of the broom,
still green on the earth,
and did not lay the tender stalks out to dry
and was not able to unite them
in a golden bundle
or attach a wooden cane
to the yellow skirt
so I had a broom to sweep the paths.

So it was:
I do not know how
I lived m life
without learning, without seeing,
without gathering and uniting
those elements.

At this hour I cannot deny
I had the time,
time,
but not the hands,
and so, how could I aspire
with my mind to greatness
and not be capable
of making
a broom,
not one,
one? 

in silence we commune.

pudhu vellai mazhai

when i look back at my life, it has God's grace awash all over it. i didn't do anything other than sulk and crib and drag my feet thru it all..

wow, is it this simple

in devotion, when all role-plays and personalities dissolve

Either there is love for all of existence, or there is no love at all.

Katradhu Tamizh

Phew! what a movie. Haven't seen a more hard-hitting movie in years! i've felt some of the frustration myself that Prabhakar feels, and it's chilling to know insanity might have only been a few steps away.

There are a many reviews on the internet that seem to rationally analyse the story as to whether the director was justified in his veiws, the protagonist with the killings or if happenings such as these are possible at all. i feel there is no point in rational, intellectual arguments over "right" and "wrong" of the specifics. Truth is, alienation in society is growing . There are more and more people falling out onto the streets feeling lonely and lost. It only gets worse if you are soft and idealistic and don't relate to a thing around you. Throw in poverty, inequality and the struggle to survive. Its not very difficult to fall off the edge from there.. And very soon, it might not just be individuals doing so, but entire communities :-(

This is a story we ignore at our own peril.

A question i have too sometimes:

Question: If you only live in the now, what would stop someone who is in a relationship or marriage from resisting the temptation to have sex with anyone who is attractive but who is not his/her partner? After all, if you are in the now and see someone attractive, you want to have sex with them now?

Answer: Does living in the Now mean giving in to every impulse that arises? Then all those people who chase one sexual partner after another must be enlightened.

As long as you want something from another (such as sex), are you present? Or are you seeking to reach some point in the future that promises fulfillment? (And thereby making the present moment as well as the other person into a means to an end.) All wanting implies that the future is more desirable than the present, does it not?

It is inevitable that physical attraction towards another person will sometimes occur. That’s no more than part of nature. When you identify with that impulse, it becomes “you” and turns into wanting. The other person then becomes a means to an end – the end being sex, the attainment of the object of your desire. When you are present, you can observe the attraction or the sexual feeling within yourself, recognize it as natural, accept it, even enjoy it without needing to act it out. After all, it may be totally inappropriate to do so within the totality of the situation. When you recognize yourself as the space of consciousness in which the impulse arises, you don’t become the impulse; you don’t lose yourself in it. Being present is being the space, rather than what happens.

(from 'dear eckhart')

Happy Birthday! :D

Alone and Awake.

the great darkness. its a resoundng silence.

it, neither is, nor isn't.

are Time and Space the figments of our imagination?

the Revolution is already happening. slowly and silently.

i have received so much. but have given so little..

Brida

she: oye!
me: yeah!
she: just wanted to tell you something i fel like saying yeaterday
god is in the word
me: yeah sure..
wow
she: thats all
me: :D
thanks!
she: :)
me: :D
she: gotta go..
bye
me: bye :)

(a reminder i can use..)

What is Love? is probably the most fascinating question that can be asked. There is romance in asking it often in the dead of the night, and falling speechless unable to answer.

The Heart knows not to make any demands.

Did-did-did-did-you see the frightened ones?
Did-did-did-did-you hear the falling bombs?
Did-did-did-did-you ever wonder why we had to run for shelter
When the promise of a brave new world
Unfurled beneath a clear blue sky?

- Good Bye Blue Sky

" When you meet anyone, remember it is a holy encounter. As you see him, you will see yourself. As you treat him, you will treat yourself. As you think of him, you will think of yourself. Never forget this, for in him you will find yourself or lose yourself."

- A Course in Miracles

:)

Change


Be the Love, you want to see in this world.

most of us can't give of ourselves unconditionally. We are just too bloody scared for that :)

and speaking of prayers Vand recently brought to my notice this unusual 'prayer' that had been the cause for much headache and yet some wonderful creative challenge :

"I do my thing and you do your thing.

I am not in this world to live up to your expectations,

And you are not in this world to live up to mine.

You are you, and I am I, and if by chance we find each other, it's beautiful.

If not, it can't be helped."

imagine a relationship where one swears by this, and the other doesn't understand what the fuss is all about! :p

Prayer

The last peice of advice Mr.Balan gave me, before we said goodbye was to '"Sit down and pray everyday", "ask god for his grace and strength". Surprising as it was for our conversations over the years were always rational and intellectual. And his dogged emphasis on faith and devotion that balmy night, only made his unwilling pupil more defiant.

A few hard knocks hence, now i realise he saved his best for the last :)

Apathy

You can hold yourself back from the suffering of the world: this is something you are free to do,... but perhaps precisely this holding back is the only suffering you might be able to avoid.

-Kafka

Dhoom pichak! :)

I

GGF Report.

dear all, my GGF report is finally over after a month of struggling to write it! So if you had been curious about what i was doing bumming in vellore over the last year, then please let me kno and ill forward it.

A PERSONAL RECONNAISSANCE

From Ladakh

Tibet is just a gaze away.

They said: from that black knoll

at Dumtse, it's Tibet.

For the first time, I saw

my country Tibet.

In a hurried hidden trip,

I was there, at the mound.

I sniffed the soil,

scratched the ground,

listened to the dry wind

and the wild old cranes.

I didn't see the border,

I swear there wasn't anything

different, there.

I didn't know,

if I was there or here.

I didn't know,

I was here or there.

They say the kyangs

come here every winter.

They say the kyangs

go there every summer.

-Tenzin Tsundue

who am i?

"maybe we forget, so that we could remember more vividly the next time"

#$Magic%@, the lost word in our oh-so predictable world :p

Amul Anna

last night i got back from madras, and found that Amul anna had died the day before. and it didnt sink in for a while. only on friday had i taken the cycle to him and he had as usual changed the valve tube but refused to take any money. a final act of generosity among many many that am only now acknowledging.. wish i could have said more than just the regular and almost mechanical "Thanks na" before scurrying off.

it was a long relationship. for nearly twelve years, twice a week i've gone to him and exchanged friendly chit chat over the two minutes it took him to fill the tires with air. somehow it never occured to get to know him more. he had looked unhappy of late and the warmth missing.. but life was too busy to stop and enquire.

i had taken him for granted, and now..

its a vaccum that cant be filled so easily.

Soil, Soul and Society

meeting satish kumar, is one of the high points of last year. his eyes exuded so much humilty. this is an interview of him, and from now i hope to contribute to infochange on a more regular basis. (Plz let me kno if you want a longer version of the interview)

in knowing lies the liberation.

She needs. He needs to be needed. Great match. Perfect pathology!

i love you?

considering the stormy time at home of late, am grateful for this touching discourse that "randomly" came my way: (click on image, to read on)

happy birthday :)

Veyil

its Pongal again, and time to kiss the earth with foreheads and say thanks to the giver of all life - Veyil!

"ithu anbaal varugira avasthaigala,
illai un mel varugira aasaigala?"

what a cracking line!

pleasure numbs, as pain does.

we ran away from the rain. we were scared of getting drenched.

we still are.

fools rush in where angels fear to tread. so the new year resolution is to be the fool. a complete ass.

Thanks vinayak :)

In an email from nity:

Parachuting cats into Borneo! A Cautionary Tale.

In the early 1950's, the Dayak people of Borneo suffered a malarial outbreak. The World Health Organisation (WHO) had a solution: to spray large amounts of DDT to kill the mosquitoes that carried the malaria. The mosquitoes died; the malaria declined; so far so good. But there were unexpected side effects. Amongst the first was that the roofs of the people's houses began to fall down on their heads. It seemed that the DDT had also killed a parasitic wasp which had previously controlled thatch-eating caterpillars. Worse, the DDT-poisoned insects were eaten by geckoes, which were eaten by cats. The cats started to die, the rats flourished, and the people were threatened by outbreaks of typhus and plague. To cope with these problems, which it had itself created, the WHO was obliged to parachute 14 000 live cats into Borneo. Operation Cat Drop, now almost forgotten at the WHO, is a graphic illustration of the interconnectedness of life, and of the fact that the root of problems often stems from their purported solutions.

(Quoted in Rachel Wynberg and Christine Jardine, Biotechnology and Biodiversity: Key Policy Issues for South Africa, 2000)

Is being grounded the beginning of stagnation? coz where is the ground in this bottomless depth? the ever breaking waves on the shoreline don't seem to be grounded, and neither do the clouds...

and as if to remind against the celebrating of coming home, this bird flew out of its page:

"To have arrived is death. travelling is eternal"

Finally, it feels so good to be back after such a high intensity trip. to return to the open arms and the dancing eyes and loving smiles, the cycling in the misty morning wind, to mom's cooking, phone calls from friends and to all the surprises and disappointments. i am back home! :)

a big THANK YOU to all who made the last 45days the pilgrimage that it was!