A century ago, T S Eliot wrote about the hollowness of his countrymen in a poem titled The Hollow Men . The World War I had led to a lot of disillusionment with the collapse of powerful empires and the savagery of the war itself which unleashed barbaric slaughter. The generation that survived was known as the “Lost Generation.” Before the war, Western civilisation was sustained by certain values and principles given by religion, the Enlightenment, and Victorian morality. The war showed that science and technology, which could improve life, had actually produced machine guns, gas warfare, and mass death. Religion became hollow. People became hollow. “We are the hollow men,” Eliot’s poem began. The civilisation looked sophisticated from outside, but it was empty inside. There is a lot of religion today in the world. My country has allegedly become so religious that it decides what you will eat, wear, which god you will pray to, and even the language for communication. The ultimat...
Yes.. this new year is to make mistakes and learn from it. :)
ReplyDeleteNice one :)
Only those who don't try anything new can save themselves from mistakes.
Delete"Falling into new traps and ditches.... Writing new stories, Discovering new voices"
ReplyDeleteso true Sir .. will stay away from new traps and ditches,but by the year end the traps will turn out as lost opportunities and the welcoming garden as ditches ! But then let's leave it for the next new year :)
Traps and ditches are inevitable to some extent. They can be seen as opportunities, however.
DeleteHappy new year.
How do you do that Sir? 'Language too renews itself like the proverbial phoenix' - and the ashes of meanings lost, re-interpreted, twisted create a fire in which it will burn and will be re-born.
ReplyDeleteI don't do it, Sunaina. It happens - that's the plain truth. Elsewhere you mentioned the dedication of my book to RSSB. I dedicated the book to them just because it is they who made me write those stories - most of them, at least. It is they who changed my way of looking at life. It is they who killed my old language and made me create the new language.
DeleteOur experiences can be tremendously transforming forces. RSSB transformed me so much that I had no choice but reinvent my language, the narrative of my life....
A beautiful poem :)
ReplyDeleteThank you.
DeleteFalling in ditches, learning from our mistakes and then committing new one... That's what proves that we are still alive. When we are dead, we don't commit anymore mistakes.
ReplyDeleteSo very apt, sir! Wish you a very prosperous New Year! :)
Exactly, Rakesh. When we are really alive, when we venture out in new ways, mistakes are bound to happen. Sometimes other people too will dig ditches for us, especially if we are on the path of success...
Deletehappy new year pictures 2016
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