Showing posts with label faith. Show all posts
Showing posts with label faith. Show all posts

Friday, 18 April 2014

P... is for Papillion(ed)

A Post from 23/08/2010

On Friday evenings, the parking lot and the place where the buses are parked are a battle zone. People, having put in more hours of work during the week than they’d like to, are always rushing pell-mell as if this is the last weekend they’ll ever get to live. It is almost amusing, how they barely glance at the people to who they wave goodbye every other day of the week.

Everyone’s got something else or the other on their minds. Last Friday, however, a very faith-filled thing happened. There was a man walking towards the buses in front of me. I didn’t notice him until he slowed down, veered off-course and stooped to pick something up.

It was a dying butterfly, the symbol of frailty. It was a tiny quivering mass in his large palm. The man then proceeded to slowly meander through the umpteen people, diagonally cutting through the parking lot (yes, I followed him) and placed the butterfly on the rain-drenched grass under a white-flowered tree. Fitting, I’d say, for something so beautiful. No one else noticed, no one stopped to save a dying butterfly from being trampled upon.

We have become too busy these days. But that butterfly did well to be found by him, and he was made a better man by that act. I get to hold on to faith. Kudos to the butterfly-man!
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This is the sixteenth post for the April A-to-Z Blogging Challenge 2014.
Previously, Archaism, British literature, Critical Analysis, Drama, Edinburgh, Faust, Gothic Fiction, Humour, Interpretation, Journalling, Keats, Language, Metaphysical Poetry, Narration, Ode

Thursday, 11 April 2013

J... is for John o' Groats!

Again, this post comes at a strange time, for it will have to be updated next week!
John o' Groats is famous famous, as being the northernmost point on the UK mainland. It is not. That glory belongs to Dunnet Head, a peninsula that is close by and that actually is the northernmost point! This weekend, I'm going on a trip to hopefully both these places.
John o' Groats is only 2,200 miles (3,500 km) from The North Pole, a thought that is celebratory and humbling at the same time. It is named after Jan de Groote, a Dutchman who obtained a grant for the ferry from the Scottish mainland to Orkney, recently acquired from Norway, from James IV, King of Scots, in 1496.
There is nothing much to do there, what does one want to do at such a place, I wonder. The sheer feeling of being there, of being so far far away from everything else, everyone else must be so overwhelming. Anyway, as I said, wait for the update :)


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This post is part of the ongoing A-to-Z Challenge. Previously, Aye, Berwick, Cramond, Disability, Edinburgh, Forth Bridge, Glasgow, Hamish, Isle of Skye.


Saturday, 21 April 2012

S

S is for ‘Scarlett’.
What a girl, what a woman! She is the epitome of womanhood. A match of strength for every Rhett, a match of folly for every Ashley… This O’Hara is beautiful, brave, cruel, and brilliant. So what if Rhett left her (I do not think that the sequel to Gone with the Wind counts); she was no left weak. No when he played with her, not when he loved her. Bonnie’s death was Rhett’s fault. Period.
Scarlett needed a different man, she didn’t need a charmer, she didn’t need a fool. She was ahead of her times and men just couldn’t catch up with her. Ever since I’ve read the book five years ago, her words have given me strength on many a hopeless day. Whenever faced with trials and tribulations, judgment, loss, and despair; she always believed:
"After all... tomorrow is another day!"


Vivian Leigh as Scarlett O'Hara



I'm writing every day of April for the A-to-Z April Blogging Challenge 2012. I'm writing of characters of fiction that are immortal and touch hundreds of lives everyday...

Wednesday, 18 April 2012

P

P is for 'Piyali'.
This girl is the heroine of The Hungry Tide, she studies cetaceans. An American of Indian origin, she comes to the Sundarbans to study them Irrawady dolphins. In a haunting tale of love, high and low tides, and shtrrange relationships that follows, the reader is led through a brilliant travelogue. The writer, Amitav Ghosh, has made a brilliant tale out of this one. The novel is well-researched. And the relationship of Piya and Fokir, her boatman, trancends time and space.
Love that has no words, love that has no name or meaning, perhaps it is not even love but a curious feeling that can exist only in the Gangetic swamps... This is the only contemporary Indian author I have true respect for. The way darkness and light have come together is beautiful, yet disturbing, a highly recommended read. I have written more about it here.

Irrawady Dolphin

Saturday, 7 April 2012

G


G is for ‘Gandalf’.
What a man! What a glorious wizard… I loved his character best in LOTR. Grey beard, flowing white robes, and a whole lot of wisdom. What I like best about him is that he is practical; he knows when exactly when he has to run! J I won’t say much about him because honestly, I read the book a long time ago and I don’t remember much of the finer details.

Der Berggeist, said to be Tolkein's inspiration for Gandalf (from Wikipedia)


G is also for Grandpa.
He is my hero and my inspiration. Today, it’s been a whole year since he was diagnosed with an inoperable tumour on his pancreas. Since then, he has had two major surgeries and countless minor procedures. He’s lost 40 kilos and needs help with his daily needs. And now he has good days and bad. His spirit is undaunted. He still keeps track of every minor event at my workplace and never fails to wish me luck. He will probably never be the same again physically, but to me, he represents the greatest wizard of all time!

Grandpa and I, 1991