between coffee, kulfi and chai

photograph taken by me

so i realize today

that i have this insane, 
intense, delirious, impulse

to play with it 

more often than not.
that just how much 

i do love fire!

the only difference 

this time being

it warmed my heart

and left me burning 

with much longing & desire!

silent noises...

...

The Nazis were obviously wrong to hate the Jews.
But their hating the Jews was not without a cause.
But the cause was not real. The cause was imagined.
The cause was FEAR.

There are all sorts of minorities, blondes for example, but a minority is only thought of as one when it constitutes some kind of threat to the majority. A real threat or an imagined one. And therein lies the FEAR. And, if the minority is somehow invisible...

...the fear is even greater.

And this FEAR is the reason the minority is persecuted.
So, there always is a cause. And the cause is FEAR.
Minorities are just people. People like us.

Fear, after all, is our real enemy.
Fear is taking over our world. 
Fear is being used as a tool of manipulation in our society. 
It’s how politicians peddle policy and how Madison Avenue sells us things that we don’t need. Think about it. 
Fear that we’re going to be attacked,
fear that there are communists lurking around every corner, 
fear that some little Caribbean country that doesn’t believe in our way of life poses a threat to us.
Fear that black culture may take over the world.
Fear of Elvis Presley’s hips.
Well, maybe that one is a real fear.
Fear that our bad breath might ruin our friendships,
Fear of growing old and being alone.
Fear that we’re useless and that no one cares what we have to say. 

...

watched the film "A Single Man" directed by Tom Ford for the second time last week. the above lines from the same film kept rushing back to me 2 days ago.
heart missed a beat and some more when i heard the news. too-familiar-for-comfort feelings of worry, sadness and numbness followed. like they do every time i read on the internet (no, you don't get to read the 'real', 'objective' truth anymore in any of the mainstream national dailies or on the idiot box!) about the atrocities committed all across the nation be it the militancy in Kashmir, farmer suicides in Maharashtra, Gujarat, rape of humans and rich resources in Chhattisgarh, Orissa, the North-east, mass murders of the marginalized sections in the society all across, state capitalism. all this affects me as much as the serial bomb blasts by "the outsiders" (though it is not confirmed yet who did it!) in my own city over the years. in fact much more! i feel more rage and bitterness when "the insiders" - the government and us citizens, cannot care for and take care of our own nation as one unit. or tackle corruption, crimes, inequalities, environmental degradation, etc. within.
religion, patriotism, equality, urbanization, development, globalization, war, terrorism, justice, hatred, revenge, nationalism (hyper!), etc. are big words and have different meanings for different people. i wish the two words "humanity" and "compassion" had the same meaning for all of us.