Precious Pearls

I am seldom attracted to Western music or keep track of it. Even when she was alive, I didn’t keep count of awards and achievements of celebrated British singer and songwriter Amy Winehouse. Her abrupt end has thrown questions, which, perhaps, remained unanswered in her days of glory. ‘Sweetest songs are those that tell of saddest thoughts…’   Her tragic death is an example of how the song of life shouldn't be. Look at Amy’s success. It’s phenomenal. She was all of 27. Alas! This is no age to breathe one’s last. After becoming the first British woman to win five Grammys, Amy never looked back. This gifted singer kept adding feathers to her crown and went on to write a never-to-be-forgotten success story. Sadly, success, money and limelight often have a darker side. Though it’s declared that she met natural death, we know that she invited the death angels herself. After battling with drinks and drugs for years, drug overdose might have put the full-stop to her thriving career. In h

Carefully observe the experience of these 50 odd housewives, who have claimed to having found freshness in life recently. Each of them is representative of a typical Indian lot with suppressed emotions and ambitions and who seldom get to voice their opinions. A well-known psychiatrist conducted a workshop of women depressed with ‘taken for granted feeling’. They were advised to listen to their inner voice, speak what they feel, enjoy life, go out often and most importantly, stop making scarifies for others. Speaking at a subsequent get-together, they narrated their ‘strange encounters’ with their family members and ‘shocking reactions’ of the latter. “Oh mom how did you suddenly start liking movies and shopping?” “Why, is going out so urgent?” “What’s the point in moving out when relatives are coming home?”   “What made you join music class/gym?” “These days, why are you hell-bent on telling what you feel?”   These women were too used to hiding their honest feelings, opinions, likes a

I can tell it on oath. It hurts. You show them the way to do things in style but lo! They cling to the oft-beaten roads leaving you to wonder what stuff they are made of. Well, we don’t expect anything in close relationships. At least, all preachers go hoarse trying to convince us that we shouldn’t. Let’s be human. It’s perfectly okay to expect compatible return gestures and it hurts when they don’t come. We aren’t expected to be Gods or saints always and so, let’s be human. Our expectations are justified when they aren’t outlandish. A few of us know the art of giving sweet surprises to close ones. Especially when it’s all been morose, if not sad, surprises offer succor. Doing so, we show how life can be beautiful. Such people hoard happiness and nice things within and bring them out at right moments. I am talking about people gifted with the knack art making everyone happy on special days. Agreed, not everyone could be like this nor would each person know how to unfold surprises. But

It’s no child’s play to keep a tradition going and if one breaks, it comes as a rude shock. Dramatic closure of Britain ’s 168-year-old tabloid, News of the World, has stunned the world. It hurts even more knowing the reason. Facing allegations of illegal phone hacking of a murdered girl, rape victims, families of dead soldiers, politicians and celebs, the revered British tabloid will print its last edition on Sunday, July 10, free of advertisements, focusing maximum on content. Media baron and owner Rupert Murdoch maintains that given the enormity of scandals and owing to mounting public pressure, closure is the only way out… How does it look? Is it just another incident? I cannot look at it that way. No, not only because it’s concerned to my fraternity. When I look at it from humanitarian point of view, I can see that the entire chain of events has wider, deeper and vaster implications. A lot is happening behind the curtains and when I say this, I am not limiting myself to the incide

Glance at a busy road and you see everyone rushing, a pedestrian to a cyclist to a motorist. Of course, every second person doesn’t definitely have a flight to catch! We don’t know why we are scampering but no one has patience. Forget the rush on the road, look how busy you are. Try to recollect when you could pursue the thing you like. We love so many things but run short of time for it. ‘Who has the time?’ is a refrain we have got used to hearing in the IT age. What we are doing becomes immaterial. Being busy has become a sort of prerequisite, especially of the urban life. With a fierce competition around, many are engrossed in academics and professions. It’s a demanding life where no one is free. Forget students and professionals, housewives and maids, too, are racing against time. Being engrossed in our activities is fine but think; are we really busy or we pretend to be? Busyness has become a parameter of success. We are not quite at ease saying we are free. In some way, we try ha