Mammooty or Mohanlal?

This is like a chicken or egg question. You many think you are entering into an intellectual exercise to prove your point, but all you do is “waste precious time”, I bet.

My friend, Thambi Aliyan is a self proclaimed hard core Mohanlal fan. But I seriously doubt he has soft corner for Mammooty. Anyway, I have made it a point ever since we met that I should always take the position opposite to him, no matter what. Though we shared all our inner secrets with each other right from school, we always kept this rivalry alive. When we are at peace, he sometimes tells me “I think we became close friends now”. I reply, looking at a distance and as slow as I can “You know what, I think we always were”. Then we go back to take our positions again.

Though I don the lungis of a Mammotty fan before him, I hate this entire fan fair. I feel like kicking their butt when I read about the envoy of Land Cruisers and Limousines on Dubai streets. “Idiots!” That’s how I flush out my anger (jealousy?).

My reason is, the moment you become a fan, you stereotype a talented actor. You only realize the tragedy, when you see the beggars coming your way. If you have a close look at them, your neurons might take you to the pages of "നാനാ”, “വെള്ളിനക്ഷത്രം” or “ചിത്രഭൂമി” stored in the cerebrum of your brain. They were once cheerful “Producers” of these formulaic superstar movies, the names of which even a hard core fan like would prefer to forget.

Recently Mohanlal lamented, when some hooligans vandalized the sets of his movie in Aluva, about the loss it could make to an industry already under crisis. There is a crisis in Malayalam Film industry. I think it is not because of the advent of TV or pirated CDs. It is because of people like Thambi Aliyan, who go to theatres with banners, Peepees and chendas, just for their hero and not for the movie.

It appears to be harmless fun. But I disagree, not because Thambi Aliyan is on the other side (may be, that's the primary reason). This human nature, to see things at its periphery without going deep inside, is the root cause of all major problems that we face today, for example Communalism, familial tensions, individual stress…..

That's why I tell it is neither Mammooty nor Mohanlal we should celebrate, it is the characters they play. We should go deeper inside.In life, it is not the body that we should always think about for joy, we should have a little deeper insight. Our body is just a periphery, the real lasting joy comes from our soul.

Though he might need some digestive pills to take this philosophy in, I hope Thambi Aliyan will agree with me. After all, we have always been friends, real close friends!

Love Jihad and some serious thoughts about religion

Today, I had a chat with my old colleague, a young girl who speaks in Valluvanadan vernacular. She told me “I made a mess of my life, etta.”

When a young girl calls you “etta” innocently, how can’t you be her responsible big bro? So I lend both my ears to her as sincerely as I could.

She had known a guy since she was in 2nd std (Grade), who naturally became her best friend, until he proposed to her. She had no second choice, but to accept it at cloud nine.

Like any typical Indian Love story, after a dozen of melodious duets, the climax is set for tragedy (I hope there will be an anti climax, where they both join together at some airport). She is a Hindu and he is a Muslim – A perfect setting for Love Jihad!

Though her parents stood by her choice, his parents disagreed. They could accept her only as a Muslim.

She asked me for advice. I had nothing to give, but to hide an aching heart.

She said "I am good at silent weeping, but my tears vehemently defy to stay where it should be". (I wish I could recollect her words for you, it was more poetic than what I put here.)

I bid farewell to her with a kind of pain in throat with which one comes out of theatres after watching a tragic love flick.

For some time, I thought about her tears, about her pain, about love and religions.

Why do Muslims insist on marrying only Muslims?

After all, who is a Muslim?

The Arabic word “Muslim” means the one who consciously surrendered his free will before the Absolute God. It is just like the sun, the earth, the moon, the stars and galaxies, which surrender to the laws of motion set by God, the human beings surrender his life to the will of God. Ultimately every thought, every action of human beings should become God-centric, that is what the word "Muslim" mean.

Every major religion insists that he highest plain of human thought is the belief in Absolute God (Monotheism). According to Hindu belief, this is the highest rank a person can achieve, as stated by Dr. S. Radhakrishnan, the great philosopher and India’s first Vice President, in his book “The Hindu view of life”. He writes:

“Hindu thoughts believe in the evolution of our knowledge of God... the bewildering polytheism of the masses and the uncompromising monotheism of the classes are for the Hindu the expressions of one and the same force at different levels. Hinduism insists on our working steadily upwards and improving our knowledge of God. 'The worshippers of the Absolute are the highest in rank; second to them are worshippers of personal gods; then come the worshippers of the incarnations like Rama, Krishna, Budha; below them are those who worship ancestors, deities and sages and lowest of all are the worshippers of the petty forces and spirits'”

And while addressing the Worshippers of the Absolute, The Quran says “You are the Best of peoples evolved for mankind - enjoining what is right and forbidding what is wrong”.

If you look at it, the God is ONE for the entire human kind and, all religions talk about the same God.

But are the Muslims we see around us “True Muslims” (ie, those who surrendered their will to ONE God of entire humanity and universe)? I believe not. Muslims and Hindus failed here miserably to scale up to the highest spiritual level. They have surrendered their will before bodily desires, worldly pleasures, and in the fight for the survival of the fittest. Where are the highest ranking human beings? Where are the best of peoples?

In a God-centric world it makes sense for people to associate with the highest ranks or the best of peoples. But how do we qualify for this position? Every act of us, every thought of us, leave us among the lowest (even lower than animals).

In a self-centred world, what is the point in people of one sect considering themselves as highest ranking or best of peoples and looking out for the people of the same sect alone for marriage? Aren't they all following the same path of materialism? What does it leave behind, but echoes of silent weeping and drops of tears shed by innocent lovers?

I wish I could advise my Valluvanadan friend. But I dare not tell her something when I find myself lacking. I will have to climb up from my self-centered world to that highest plain of God-centric life before I could give her some advice. Till then I will have no advice for those who ask.

Loneliness

Remember, we tread this path many a night?
Night after night, we had tales to tell.
Tales about us, repeated hundreds of times.
But every time, we broke the stillness with our laughter
The nervous stillness of the gloomy earth,
Awaiting the golden kiss of its lover moon;
That tender touch which made every tip of grass
To rise up in delight like hairs on our skin.

Now, when I walk alone, I remember those nights.
And I wish I could laugh the way we did.
Or I wish there be a storm that blows out your thoughts from me
Like the desert storm that purges the past.
New dunes to be formed, and new footprints to emerge,
Burying the ones that it bore before.
Then I feel, despite the pain it gives, let your thoughts stay in me
For I become lonely, when even thoughts desert me….

The Magic Dancer

The Magic Dancer came on stage
With a whitened face, and a glittering golden sleeveless attire.
Making stiff moves to the Jhankar beats,
He showed the crowd many a trick in as many moves.

To the dancing tune, he held up his hand
And brought it down with a flower at its tip.
He stretched the flower to turn it a stick
And with every twirl he doubled the stick.

“Magic Dancer……” cried the crowd.
It is the glitter in their eyes that makes him move.
For lack of confidence could dampen his drive
And a moment of distraction could ruin his show.

Many more tricks he showed his crowd
Without failing his dancing steps.
Some watched his feat with utmost awe,
While others thought it’s no big show.

Cruelest indeed are those eyes; which fail
To see the years he toiled to perfect his act.
Those eyes haunt him when he leaves the stage
But he moves on till the last glitter fades….