Woods are Lovely Dark and Deep: The Secret of The Woods

Life is intriguing, yet most go through it without casting a second glance. Many amongst us spend a lifetime content enough eking out an existence, dying many a daily death.  Rich or poor, few dare to look beyond livelihoods and wealth accumulation. When one dares to ask questions to oneself about oneself, the quest begins.  Quest  gives meaning to life and questions that arise, on their own slowly reach their answers.

A persistent question, the ‘why’ of people’s behaviour came up in a late evening discussion with two friends, a young couple both achievers, located in San Francisco. The cause and effect notion of life, means with which it gains currency and its short lived utility found home in that discussion.  Weeks later by sheer coincidence, another persistent one ‘purpose of life’ came up for discussion with, a spiritually evolved, material minimalists and unbelievably large hearted couple, our hosts in Tustin, California. It was in one of many such discussions about programming and reprogramming ourselves the ‘secret of the woods’ became clear to me. Let me share that with you.

Most of us are led by narratives fed to us right from our childhood. Slowly, over time as we grow, we absorb these as day-to-day requisites and internalise them as a program that we all become well accustomed to. In effect,  we voluntarily live a life dictated and programmed by others. These countless lines of internal coding that covers almost all areas of our life dictate how we think, perceive and even decide between right and wrong. In fact, it governs everything we do. We seldom dare to deviate.  

The ‘secret of the woods’, I learnt was like that. But something else was revealed that day.  It was not revealed to me during any  meditation session.  It was not passed on to me by any teacher. I just stumbled up on my own version of the secret  in one of these discussions.

A favourite of statesmen like Pt. JL Nehru and Nelson Mandela and very often used for recitation competition, the poem ‘Stopping by the woods on a snowy evening'  by Robert Frost, is a captivating read. The last of the four stanzas, is widely quoted by teachers and elders alike to drill in the need to set goals for life and focus on them as destinations, as we travel forward in life.

“The woods are lovely, dark and deep

But I have promises to keep,

And miles to go before I sleep,

And miles to go before I sleep.”

The wise use these four lines to egg us on to ignore the beautiful deep woods in front of us and get on with life’s goals. In this widely accepted taught and propagated explanation, a sense of immorality and guilt, in the act of watching snow fill up the woods that doesn’t belong to you seems to be inherent. Even the horse seems to sense something "queer" with the poet stopping near the woods on the darkest evening to see the beauty of nature. Such explanations make, mutually exclusive binary choices, the norm, compelling readers to denounce one in favour of the other. That is how we have been programmed.

Is that the only explanation? May be there could be others too.

Poets like other artists tend to be driven by the heart more and less by arithmetic equations. Best of poems come out from intense emotions of love,  won or lost, beauty or  passions.

Look at those lines bit more closely. 

Isn’t the poet portraying immense inner conflict between the urge to stay on watching the beautiful woods and the diktats of society asking him to set and pursue goals? Does the Poet say that he ditched the lovely woods for the ‘promises’ that lie miles away? He leaves us at the cross roads to decide! 

Somehow we are programmed to choose the 'miles ahead' dumping the spectacular show nature has put on for us. We also forget that the beauty being unravelled is fleeting.

While falling snow and the beautiful woods , according to many, are mere temptations that distract us from real goals that lay far ahead, isn't the poet telling us that it is such beauties, though fleeting, in life that make the journey beautiful and despite compulsions, one must stop by.

Sadly, most of us are wired such that we easily  immerse ourselves in pursuit of destinations of the journey, given in to compulsions of an uncertain future casting away the beauty of living in the present. Our actions are often investments for  future little realizing that the road ahead ends only at the pyre or in a casket. The most powerful, resourceful, richest and wisest have all had to shed their power, fortunes and intelligence behind as they were carried out on the final journey.

Life, is all about experiences rather than material accruals. Somehow we seem to hold the two mutually exclusive though they can comfortably coexist. We need things to live and comforts too. But dying to get that forgetting to live?

We are on an one way street with no chance to retrace our steps. Not one man has found a way. Every possible scriptures says so, yet believers and non believers alike have drowned themselves in futile pursuit dumping the beautiful present.

To me the secret has been unravelled.

Would you like to take a relook?

 

 

 

 

Is Descent Inevitable after Ascent – Strategy to Stay on Top for Long

Newport in Rhode Island is a beautiful place. Situated by the Atlantic Ocean it offers visitors with frames for perfect pictures. It also houses some stunning mansions.  I had never heard of Newport before, but was the recipient of the large heartedness of Issac Simon, my brother-in-law who not only suggested the trip but even offered to take us on the eighty-five  mile drive to the mansion town. The drive, one of the many such, he graciously hosted so far, was beautiful from the word go with the fall painting the entire route with colours, I had seen never before.

With tickets in hand, we actually walked into a piece of American history. Ahead of its times, each room stood out well appointed carefully planned and exquisitely executed. In fact, everything about the mansion was bathed in audacious opulence and grandeur, all funded by slices from the immense riches the individual had amassed over his lifetime. We spent almost three hours within, what was once, someone’s summer house, admiring each inch of space and every piece on display. To top it all, the Atlantic Ocean right outside the mansion premises gave it a touch of magic. I walked out of the mansion in awe of the owners and headed for the blue expanse of Atlantic ocean.

The wind was picking up and I started feeling cold even through the bright sun. As I gathered my jacket closer, and turned around to look at the grand mansion, a sudden thought occurred to me;  how are their descendants living now? Are they still rich and living like their ancestors ?

One of the first things I did, on my return, was to search for details. I was surprised to find that the wealth they had once amassed, barring few patches of comfort, had all but been either diluted or  squandered away. What a tragedy! What about other rich families of the yore?

I searched for other known rich families across the world. The story wasn’t much different. Almost all of them had their wealth either completely wiped out or they were just pale shadows of their glorious past. It  then occurred to me that it was not just rich families! Great empires, kingdoms and  organisations were no different!

Is descent then the inevitable next, after the ascent?

I recall my elders talking of the four-stage cycle of ‘rags, riches and back'. Depending on the diligence exercised by individuals in the family or those in control, the cycle may gather or lose momentum. However, the cycle, according to the elders, is inevitable. 

Starting from abject poverty, the poor (‘Daridran', in my native language Malayalam) spends his life in misery. His children having seen, experienced and driven by poverty dream of better life.  They, with fire in their bellies, strive with all their might to change their state of existence. They essentially live out their life in hard-work accumulating wealth slowly. They are mostly misers (‘Lubdhan’) and seldom spend anything on themselves.

Having seen what the parents have gone through and inheriting the seed capital and better footing, a lubdhan's  children continue to work hard and soon become rich (Dhanikan). Born into affluence and plenty, children of the dhanikan have no clue of the hard ways the family had come through and therefore have no qualms about splurging and squandering their inheritance. This is the generation of the prodigals (Dhoorthan). 

With floodgates open, wealth flows out of family vaults and soon they fall on hard times completing the cycle. Children of the Dhoorthan inherit empty vaults and debts and soon are divested of anything that is left over. They soon become Daridrans! The cycle is completed.

Despite this universal truth being known by everyone, the cycle continues to play out, day in  and day out across the world. Each stage, however,  could accommodate more than one generation depending on diligence applied.

The same principle applies to emperors, kings and family run institutions. We have learnt of ancient civilizations and their magnificent existence. What happened to them? Why did they vanish? Did this cycle-rule apply to them too?

A close look at our self, our family or even the organization that we work for could reveal the stage we are at in the cycle. It would then be natural to ask; can we  prevent the downward arm of the cycle from befalling upon us and our family?

To my mind, it all depends on how much of our hunger for growth we can pass on to our next generation and how much we have insulated them from realities of life. In the garb of making things easy for our progenies, we tend to insulate them from the rough and tough of life and end up making them unfit and inadequate to face challenges of life. We end up extinguishing the fire within their bellies rather than fuelling  it. Our misplaced love end up depriving them of opportunities to attempt, fail, learn and then relaunch themselves. In other words the current generation has a strong influence in what the next is up to.

Most of us, irrespective of where we are in the cycle, believe that we have come up the hard way. We tend to exaggerate our sufferings and discount what we got. Many believe that it is their divine duty to provide their progenies with whatever they were denied or couldn’t afford.  In the process they create the next generation that, might or might not, have an idea of the cost or price of their possessions but they certainly have no clue about its value. Even those in the splurge mode do find ways to lament their lack of avenues and resources.

It is for us to decide weather to accelerate the growth phase or let a freefall occur. But first let us check where we are? That calls for real introspection.

 

A MOVIE : DIARY

  It is often said that a movie is a reflection of the society. The narrative of a movie normally reflects the society’s beliefs, thoughts and practices. Thus the storyteller picks up something from the society and weaves it into a story, the limiting factors being the narrator’s skills and imagination. Each piece of the story, its characters and narrative along with all that is integral to it is picked up from the society. This helps every person at the movie hall, generally relate all characters to someone he or she knows. Those movies set in planes alien to the society were either science fiction movies or horror movies. But normally all movies told stories that were set in contemporary society and could easily be related to.

  

  Movies are great catalysts for change. Trivial or worthy, films played a major role in shaping the opinion of the society. There are films that espoused nationalism and patriotism. There were movies that espoused faith to overcome great challenges and there were films that espoused values and virtues. For the youth movies were trendsetters for fashion. For example, hairstyle of the hero, the styles of diction, the way actors dress up are just few things that youngsters copy from the movie. Movies also told the youth the manner in which a situation is reacted to and whether it is acceptable or not. That is why, there is a school of thought, that cautions storytellers on the method of telling the story. Exaggerating a piece of action, the way the hero reacts to a situation or the general manner in which morality and such other virtues are depicted in the movie often tend to guide or misguide youth. If the popular hero doesn’t mind taking law into his hands to achieve the goal, or the popular heroin doesn’t mind breaking social taboo, the youth generally accepts it as a message. The extend of violence that has come to roost in our society to a large measure can be attributed to the current jaunre of movies and the way stories are told in these. 

 I’m not one to say that they should be no violence in the movie, I’m not the one to say that there should be no breaking of taboos, but I certainly feel that the director has the moral responsibility to remain within the acceptable frames or boundaries rather than eulogising extreme violence or waywardness. As I came out from the movie hall today after seeing a movie, that from the beginning to the end was filled with mindless violence, I was left wondering what we’re up to and the manner in which society is accepting stories. What shocked me most was not the movie but the review about it in the print and electronic media.

  I went to the movie, because someone had told me that the movie was a highly rated one and that the entire cast consisted of newcomers. I was told that everything about the movie was new and path breaking. At the movie, I was left disheartened and shaken. I wanted to leave the movie hall much before half-time but was held back because even if i wanted i couldn't leave as I could not take my car out from the parking. The movie was about a few youngsters in their village in Kerala trying out their hand in doing everything wrong and showing no remorse in attempting violence at the first possible instance. This was not the Kerala I had grown up in, it was not the Kerala that I had dreamt of. 

 If this is the real Kerala now, then it cannot be called God’s on land. Mindless violence and detached silence that sanctions and accepts such fury  are initial signs of social decay. The picture gives a glimpse of what would happen to this beautiful state if things are not set right. The loud music accompanying the drunken brawls and shouts, the manner in which life is auctioned, a scheming lawyer and a supportive policeman who assist the plot to move ahead, send shivers down my spine. If the movie has to be believed, it’s all about eating drinking and killing all willingly and painlessly sanctioned by the society. Oh my God, what’s happened to God’s own land?

  I’m neither a racist nor against female liberation. I have nothing against a girl having a drink. I have nothing against girls having a good time, but the sight of the lead female actor snaking her way home after a party did pain me somehow. Please do not mistake me. I’m not in the business of moral policing.  I’m not one who is here to prescribe, how a man or woman must behave. I’m not here to set norms and guidelines. I just felt bad seeing a beautiful girl walking drunk. You can’t grudge me that.

  What scared me more was the response of the few youths who were in the movie hall. The comments they passed after the movie shocked me. “Adi Poli” in their words, in other words superb. If mindless violence, killing, drunken brawls and meaningless lives were superb, my God where are we headed to?