When There's Love, Immortal Art Is Born

           
               Jean-Léon Gérôme (French, 1824–1904)
               Pygmalion and Galatea
               ca. 1890

Gandhi’s Top 10 Fundamentals for Changing the World

So lets move on...

1. Change yourself.
2. You are in control.
3. Forgive and let it go.
4. Without action you aren’t going anywhere.
5. Take care of this moment.
6. Everyone is human.
7. Persist.
8. See the good in people and help them.
9. Be congruent, be authentic, be your true self.
10. Continue to grow and evolve.

The Willow Trees

      I saw 'The Boy In The Stripped Pajamas' today and it reminded me again of the horrors of the Holocaust and with that brought back memories of Anne Frank. A sad movie, a sad blemish in the history of the human race. I still find it hard to believe how people can be so cruel. The truth, and what I believe is true too, Humans, Animals and Plants thrive upon a symbiotic relationship that is delicate, that's how we have survive and that is what we should maintain to continue surviving. Somewhere in time we have disturbed this vital balance. We just need to find the missing connection again. 

      I was driving down B.T. Road, back home, with my dad and a friend in our car. My hands were on the steering wheel, dad's eyes were outside watching  the willow trees, ages old, on the other side of the road. He said,"You know looking at those trees makes me so humble, they are so majestic and we are just puny little humans around them."

      I said nothing because I was lost in thought, but the two minutes of silence that followed was golden.

A Tribute to Mason Jennings

As a tribute to Mason Jennings I'm posting this song on my blog.
The simplicity of this song has a childlike beauty which haunts me every time.

Little airplane in the sky
You point up at it
I watch your face as you watch it go by
Everything is perfect

Where would I be right now
If all my dreams had come true
Deep down I know somehow
I'd have never seen your face
This world would be a different place
Darling, there's no way to know
Which way your heart will go

Summer sun on a sandy slide
Silver swingsets shining
How can life feel so alive
And still feel like dying

Where would I be right now
If all my dreams had come true
Deep down I know somehow
I'd have never seen your face
This world would be a different place
Darling, there's no way to know
Which way your heart will go

A stack of books beside our bed
Living out of boxes
Why does the empty space fill with dread
Why does change still shock us

Where would we be right now
If all our dreams had come true
Deep down I know somehow
I'd have never seen your face
This world would be a different place
Darling, there's no way to know
Which way your heart will go 
                                         
~Mason Jennings (Which Way Your Heart Will Go)

My Addiction to Bob Dylan

The first Bob Dylan song I heard was 'Blowing in the Wind' back when I was still in school. My dad brought home a music CD one day and told me, "These are the evergreen classics". I still remember there were 8 tracks in that compilation including 'Imagine', 'Let it Be' and 'Hey Jude' by The Beatles.I listened to 'Blowing in the Wind' again and again and again. I replayed it over and over again trying to figure out the lyrics. I always had this idea that Bob Dylan was a black guy from the 40's till that point. Once I got the lyrics in my head I told myself "this guy is a poet". I started collecting Bob Dylan songs from that day onward. I went to my friends, my cousins and collected from them every single song of Bob Dylan they had in their music collection. Three years later I was addicted to Dylan. I listened to him more than my dad did. I analyzed his lyrics and each time I did I found a new story behind every song. The songs which really pulled me to Dylan was the 'Ballad of Frankie Lee and Judas Priest'. 'Desolation Row' was a clincher too. I was awestruck when I first heard the lines:

Between the windows of the sea
Where lovely mermaids flow
And nobody has to think too much
About Desolation Row.

I still quote this now and then. I don't know why. It just hits me every time and puts a philosophical smile on my face.