meethapani

  At a Crossroads One of the positive impacts of the Covid 19 lockdowns has been what is called, the Great Human Pause. On the one hand, as human movement became limited, nature was able to breathe again, wild animals explored empty urban spaces, air quality improved.   Environmentalists have renewed their efforts to find an equitable balance between the needs of people and nature. Another, more unexpected, consequence has been the opportunity for people forced to stay indoors, to reexamine their own lives, values, and social relationships. Since it has affected all the nations of the world rather than just an obscure part of the world,    it allows a unique opportunity to decide on what fundamental changes can be made in a post-covid world.   The world is at a crossroads. It is easy to empathise with Robert Frost’s poem “The Road Not taken” . He comes upon   “Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,/And sorry I could not travel both. He takes “the one le...

  When Words Fail There are seven universally recognized facial expressions   - Surprise, Fear, Disgust, Anger, Happiness, Sadness, and Contempt or Hate. We would not be wrong in assuming it is easy to communicate and understand each other, regardless of our cultural variations, age and gender differences or educational levels. We all know this is far from the truth. There is far more misunderstanding than understanding, more misrepresentation than representation. From wars to divorces, miscommunication is often the root cause. Approximately 6,500 languages are spoken in the world today. Nearly 130 million books have been published just in the modern era .   Dictionaries are compiled and revised, as we try to improve our understanding and communication.   And yet words fail us.   Vedic, Greek, Chinese, Islamic and modern scholars have extensively theorized human behavior.   Face reading, phrenology, psychology, astrology and all their variations, atte...

  The Art of Story Telling There is always someone in the family or one’s circle of friends who becomes the designated story teller. who possesses   the art of taking ordinary facts and enthralling the audience with suspense, humour or high drama.   As the old saying goes “ the truth is in the telling”. The ravi, the raconteur , the dastan goh were the centre of all social gatherings. A bazaar in Peshawer   is named after The Q issa Khwans   of Peshawar, who entertained travelers in cafes with stories.   Abd al-Nabi Fakhr al-Zamani’s The T̤irāz al-ak̲h̲bār , was a manual for storytellers. The Daastaan e Amir Hamza has been told and retold in several versions including the   illustrated Hamzanama of Emperor Akbar.   Ghalib Lakhnawi   wrote in 1855 a “There are four things,in this dastan: battle, courtly assemblies, enchanted worlds and trickery (razm bazm t̤ilism aur ‘ayyārī ). Story telling is the oldest form of transmission of knowledge....

  The Truth Lies in the Telling There is always someone in the family or one’s circle of friends who becomes the designated story teller. They possess the art of taking ordinary facts and enthralling their audience with suspense, humour or high drama.   Story telling is the oldest form of transmission of knowledge.   Visual story telling from cave paintings, Egyptian and Assyrian reliefs, to contemporary narrative painting, photography and cinema. Oral histories and religious beliefs, moral fables and fairy tales and poetry were gradually preserved in written form. However, even in the written form, the voice of the narrator is always present. For every story there is a story teller, whether a scientific paper, an account of historical events or fiction writing, And where there is a story teller,   there is inevitably a point of view   determined by the context   of time, social values, and intention. Narration aims to influence the readers or listeners...

  Awakening the Senses Our perception of the physical world is dependent on our sense of touch, sight, sound, taste, and smell Neurosurgeon, Don Katz,   proposes that in effect they are all one sense,   as the impressions gathered simultaneously combine in the brain to help us understand what is before us.   Not only do they combine, but often different senses cross over. For example, we can hear what we see - when we see   a photograph of   waves crashing on the beach, we also hear it in our imagination. Artists have always used this ability in the viewer to awaken many senses at the same time.   We can imagine the smell of the flowers in a painting, feel the texture of a rough piece of wood, visualize the galloping of horses in a musical composition. While sense of touch is an obvious aspect of a sculpture,   a two dimensional painting can also present an impression of texture by breaking up a flat surface with   brush strokes or  ...

  The Science of Elegance The city is noise, chaos. Speeding   cars, buses, motorbikes and rickshas weave through any available gap, determined to be   faster than everyone else, until slowed down by double and triple parked cars outside shops and schools.   Pedestrians navigate the city, avoiding open manholes and random rubbish heaps. And then the absolute stillness of bored shop keepers sitting behind counters, fruit and vegetable sellers waiting for customers as they flick flies off with a rag nailed to a piece of wood. A roadside tyre shop advertises its presence by slinging a couple of tyre tubes on a mangled branch of a mangled tree.   Its all expediency – clothes are functional, the city scape is functional, even parks are functional. There is not the slightest effort to view the city as an aesthetic or pleasing experience.   Step outside the city into a remote village in a desert or high up in the mountains and feel the harmony between people a...

    The Benefits of Fear John Lennon said “There are two basic motivating forces: fear and love. When we are afraid, we pull back from life. When we are in love, we open to all that life has to offer” The usual perception of   fear is that it leads to inaction – the pulling back from life that Lennon speaks of. Psychologists and self-help experts have filled pages to help us overcome fear   Fear is one of our most primal instincts. It is caused by a part of our brain called the amygdala and is our foremost self-preservation tool. If we did not fear we would not survive. What we call fearlessness is not the absence of fear, but the channeling of fears into action   One can propose that all development of human society springs from fear.   Fear of mortality lead to the invention of vaccines, cures, development of medical equipment. Fear of loss of property and life led to the architecture of castles, walled cities and houses. Banking systems protect...