Skip to main content

New World


Source: here

“... I felt a deep joy.  This, I thought, is how great visionaries and poets see everything – as if for the first time.  Each morning they see a new world before their eyes, they do not really see it, they create it.”

The quote is from one of my favourite books, Zorba the Greek, by Nikos Kazantzakis.  To be able to wake up each morning and look at the world as if I were seeing it for the first time, with the wonder of a child taken to a new place, is the blessing I’m now looking forward to.

Each day used to be a delight.  Each morning used to break with promises of new experiences, new challenges and conquests, new learning...  Work was not work but sheer delight. 

Certain things change and turn our world topsy-turvy.  Inevitable, I guess, particularly in times of rapid changes.  Fight, flight, or adapt – one can toy with the classical options for some time.  The decision has to be taken.

I’m trying to be that child on the mountain, looking at a new world, looking at the world in a new way...

It will work, my heart tells me. 



Comments

  1. Yes indeed, Sir.
    Very positive outlook! May we all be blessed!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I follow the same philosophy...at least I try. Each day is a new beginning , a new hope blooming... :-)

    Haven't read the book " Zorba the Greek" ...as it is your favourite...must be a good one..will check it out..

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Zorba is a wonderful novel. You'll love it, I'm pretty certain.

      Delete
  3. It will work, if your heart tells you. All the very best. This is the first thing I read this morning.. And feeling like I did the best thing. :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. When I was taught in childhood that faith can move mountains, I was extremely sceptical. Now I know its meaning.

      Delete
  4. A morning that starts with such a positive thought (post) has to be be great :) I haven't read the novel you mention, will definitely do so now.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Glad I could get your day started on a good note. Do for Zorba; it's a book I read and reread many times.

      Delete
  5. excellent motivational post sir, I wanted to share a pic with you which portrays something along this line. But looks like I cant over here. So I am sharing the pic which I had posted in quora here. If you still cant view that, may be I will find someother way to send you.

    http://www.quora.com/Cartoons/What-are-the-most-philosophical-cartoons/answer/Niranjan-Goru

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, Niranjan, your picture conveys the same idea that I've put forward in the post. Thanks for the pic.

      Delete
  6. Wow...you said it! I always feel the same and I keep repeating this to my daughter as well. Be positive :)

    ReplyDelete
  7. Be Positive, Believe & stand for your choices :-)
    Thanks for this wonderful Post.
    Good wishes

    ReplyDelete
  8. Happiness changes our outlook towards life.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. No doubt, Purba. But sometimes despair too can change outlooks. For the change wrought by despair to be good, the person has to have a deeper understanding of self and reality.

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Ayodhya: Kingdom of Sorrows

T he Sarayu carried more tears than water. Ayodhya was a sad kingdom. Dasaratha was a good king. He upheld dharma – justice and morality – as best as he could. The citizens were apparently happy. Then, one day, it all changed. One person is enough to change the destiny of a whole kingdom. Who was that one person? Some say it was Kaikeyi, one of the three official wives of Dasaratha. Some others say it was Manthara, Kaikeyi’s chief maid. Manthara was a hunchback. She was the caretaker of Kaikeyi right from the latter’s childhood; foster mother, so to say, because Kaikeyi had no mother. The absence of maternal influence can distort a girl child’s personality. With a foster mother like Manthara, the distortion can be really bad. Manthara was cunning, selfish, and morally ambiguous. A severe physical deformity can make one worse than all that. Manthara was as devious and manipulative as a woman could be in a men’s world. Add to that all the jealousy and ambition that insecure peo...

Lucifer and some reflections

Let me start with a disclaimer: this is not a review of the Malayalam movie, Lucifer . These are some thoughts that came to my mind as I watched the movie today. However, just to give an idea about the movie: it’s a good entertainer with an engaging plot, Bollywood style settings, superman type violence in which the hero decimates the villains with pomp and show, and a spicy dance that is neatly tucked into the terribly orgasmic climax of the plot. The theme is highly relevant and that is what engaged me more. The role of certain mafia gangs in political governance is a theme that deserves to be examined in a good movie. In the movie, the mafia-politician nexus is busted and, like in our great myths, virtue triumphs over vice. Such a triumph is an artistic requirement. Real life, however, follows the principle of entropy: chaos flourishes with vengeance. Lucifer is the real winner in real life. The title of the movie as well as a final dialogue from the eponymous hero sugg...

Abdullah’s Religion

O Abdulla Renowned Malayalam movie actor Mohanlal recently offered special prayers for Mammootty, another equally renowned actor of Kerala. The ritual was performed at Sabarimala temple, one of the supreme Hindu pilgrimage centres in Kerala. No one in Kerala found anything wrong in Mohanlal, a Hindu, praying for Mammootty, a Muslim, to a Hindu deity. Malayalis were concerned about Mammootty’s wellbeing and were relieved to know that the actor wasn’t suffering from anything as serious as it appeared. Except O Abdulla. Who is this Abdulla? I had never heard of him until he created an unsavoury controversy about a Hindu praying for a Muslim. This man’s Facebook profile describes him as: “Former Professor Islahiaya, Media Critic, Ex-Interpreter of Indian Ambassador, Founder Member MADHYAMAM.” He has 108K followers on FB. As I was reading Malayalam weekly this morning, I came to know that this Abdulla is a former member of Jamaat-e-Islami Hind Kerala , a fundamentalist organisation. ...

Empuraan and Ramayana

Maggie and I will be watching the Malayalam movie Empuraan tomorrow. The tickets are booked. The movie has created a lot of controversy in Kerala and the director has decided to impose no less than 17 censors on it himself. I want to watch it before the jingoistic scissors find its way to the movie. It is surprising that the people of Kerala took such exception to this movie when the same people had no problem with the utterly malicious and mendacious movie The Kerala Story (2023). [My post on that movie, which I didn’t watch, is here .] Empuraan is based partly on the Gujarat riots of 2002. The riots were real and the BJP’s role in it (Mr Modi’s, in fact) is well-known. So, Empuraan isn’t giving the audience any falsehood as The Kerala Story did. Moreover, The Kerala Story maligned the people of Kerala while Empuraan is about something that happened in the faraway Gujarat quite long ago. Why are the people of Kerala then upset with Empuraan ? Because it tells the truth, M...

Empuraan – Review

Revenge is an ancient theme in human narratives. Give a moral rationale for the revenge and make the antagonist look monstrously evil, then you have the material for a good work of art. Add to that some spices from contemporary politics and the recipe is quite right for a hit movie. This is what you get in the Malayalam movie, Empuraan , which is running full houses now despite the trenchant opposition to it from the emergent Hindutva forces in the state. First of all, I fail to understand why so much brouhaha was hollered by the Hindutvans [let me coin that word for sheer convenience] who managed to get some 3 minutes censored from the 3-hour movie. The movie doesn’t make any explicit mention of any of the existing Hindutva political parties or other organisations. On the other hand, Allahu Akbar is shouted menacingly by Islamic terrorists, albeit towards the end. True, the movie begins with an implicit reference to what happened in Gujarat in 2002 after the Godhra train burnin...