What Life is About- A Bullet List

Life is a wonderful thing, once you learn the art of breathing. Let's face it, we are too wrapped up in ourselves to really sit down and think about what a gift we have been given. This is going to be a bullet list of what makes life worth it, according to me-your friendly neighbourhood blogger

1.   Life is about music and not noise. Imagine yourself sitting silently with your earphones plugged in, letting Frank Sinatra croon to you gently, as you remember the first time your father put on Send in the Clowns and told you you'd love it.

2.   Life is about seeing someone crying and reaching out to them to help

3.   Life is about meeting a complete stranger on a metro ride back from a long day at work, only to find upon breaking the ice that the stranger shares your interest in photography. It is about adding a new face to your Instagram

4.   Life is about staying up all night just to see the world become gradually bathed in sunlight

5.   Life is about meeting family members you never knew existed and bonding with them immediately

6.   Life is about going to a cafe hidden in an alley and sitting there sipping lemonade while overhead tiny bulbs come on and you see friendly faces everywhere sitting and laughing. After a while, it gets on to be evening and the cafe is bathed in the glow of the bulbs and the air is reverberating with laughter.

7.   Life is about learning something new and doing it yourself without anyone to help you.

8.   Life is about sitting in a room with new faces all around you, chanting from a book together as one and hearing the echo of the chant bounce off the four walls that confine you

9.   Life is about reading nooks, where you sit at a table with coffee stains all over it, reading a dog eared paperback for the fiftieth time

10.                     Life is about discovering your passion and staying true to it despite hurdles. Problems are milestones showing you that you are doing the thing right.

11.                     Life is about taking the car out at night and driving to your favorite ice cream place just because you want to

12.                     Life is about travelling to a new place, that you have never been to and sitting with the locals, hearing their stories

13.                     Life is about visiting your family's temple and feeling your ancestors watching over you

14.                     Life is about keeping an open mind and trying something new, something that you never thought you would do

15.                     Last but not least, life is about loving yourself and all your imperfections. Nobody's getting out of here alive so you should never apologize for who you are. Be aware of your flaws and strive to be better than you were yesterday

The Bilge Master

Wings

Do you remember Icarus?

His story ended well before this begins

Spiralling down on melted wings

Because of the sun

The bright sun

That heralds a new day

I too wait for it

But I am not Icarus

I am his opposite

Just as the sun can take

It can give

And to me it gives hope

Of recovery and a way back to sanity

I am not Icarus

My wings are made of will

And by the gods

Fly I will

The Bilge Master

Her Heart of Stone

If you treat her right, your night will be nice

Was the slogan that killed her honour every night

They said her bed was the sweetest

Her touch divine

Drunks came to worship her

She was the altar that demanded no sacrifice

She just lay there and bled

Night after night

And the blind singer

Strummed his sitar

As a heart of stone

Began to show cracks

She'd forgotten she was a woman

She'd laid aside her dreams

Her cries for salvation

Were always drowned out

By her faked screams

And one day, her bed grew cold

The witchcraft was gone

For the cracks in her heart of stone

Had bled for the last time

The Bilge Master

The Riding Sage

Back when tigers used to smoke, there was a man. He was more legend than man for very few had encountered him. But those that had could never forget him. He was tall, wore a white cowboy hat, loose fitting jeans and sunglasses. His complexion was dark and he had a reed between his teeth. He rode a white horse, a gelding of sheer beauty. He would ride into your life, impart some meaning and disappear. They called him the Riding Sage. This is how I met him.

It was a Thursday. Things were quiet, perhaps too quiet when a stranger rode into town and stopped at the saloon. He walked in, and I lost sight of him behind the closing saloon doors. A few minutes later, I entered the saloon to find him at the counter talking to the bartender. Something drew me to him so I walked up, arm extended and told him I was Sam. He said his name, but somehow it didn't seem like his real name.

We got to talking and suddenly he asked me why I was stressed. Was it the job I worked he asked. How he came to know that I hated my job at Cricket Farm I will never know. Perhaps it was part of the enigma that surrounded him.

A little fact about me. I have a working sixth sense. I can sometimes read the spiritual energy coming out of people. But with this stranger, I got nothing at all. It was almost as if I was talking to someone whose spiritual presence was nonexistent. Maybe it was too strong for my sense to latch onto, but it was almost as if the stranger was in front of me but at the same time wasn't.

We had started talking about my job dissatisfactions and I had told him how I sometimes felt like it wasn't worth it working there. I had mouths to feed and measly though the pay was, it got me by. He then surprised me again by guessing my mother had arthritis. At this point I had two choices-I could have gotten up and walked away or I could have sat in that chair and listened to what the stranger said. I chose to do the latter.

He was telling me that I had guilt in me, because I could not provide for my family properly. He told me that all of us can suffer guilt. My father could suffer it, my friends and mother could also suffer it but what was important was that we learn to put those bags full of guilt down and move on from them. They were toxic he said and they did nothing but pull a person down into the dark places he never wants to visit.

By this time it was late afternoon and the stranger leaned back in his chair and lit a pipe. He took a few drags and then told me something I will never forget. He told me it's okay to feel sad, but we shouldn't let that sadness define who we are. Our time on this planet is very limited and if we don't spend it laughing and sharing laughter with others, we aren't living.

I nodded at that and told him that nobody had said those things to me until now. The stranger replied that he was there for that purpose. He said he believed a lot in destiny and how it brought people together. People of different castes, creeds, religion and gender all meeting at some point in their lives and becoming known to one another. He had a twinkle in his eyes and he stood up suddenly and invited me outside. He then told me a chant. Four words. I repeat that chant to this day.

Then, just as I was to invite him to spend the night with me and ride out tomorrow he said he had to get moving. He got on his horse, doffed his hat to me and rode off into the sunset.

Why am I writing this you ask? I am writing this because one day destiny might make the Riding Sage cross paths with you. When and if it does, remember these words. Remember to tell me he has come. Remember his words. They can change your life.

The Bilge Master

Why Black Panther is a Good Movie-A Guest Post by Sujayendra Krishna Nellore

The post below is written by my friend Sujayendra. He is working for Zomato, likes gaming a LOT, reads too and is currently burning calories like an arsonist pouring accelerant. Please welcome him to the blog people!

The Bilge Master

Do you want to know why Black Panther is a good movie?

It introduces African mysticism into the mainstream Hollywood spotlight without being subjected to the exotic touristy bullshit this particular industry portrays any non-white country. I mean, look at Danny Boyle's vision of Mumbai.

Hell, look at Windtalkers, a movie from 2002 that was supposed to be about Native American Codetalkers from the Second World War, but instead, it is mostly centred around Nicholas Cage's problems. This industry cannot even do right by their own people, let alone some country across the world. To this day, there are no proper movies about Codetalkers, men who turned the tide of war for the Americans against the Japanese. They weren't even offered citizenship to their own lands until 1920, and their contributions to the war were only recognised after Obama came to power. A full 60 or so years after the war.

Black Panther explored previously uncharted territories in movies, by letting Coogler go wild with the influences he wanted to use. It's no coincidence that this movie's depiction of the people of Africa--and mind you, I'm specifically talking about the people here, is unlike any other movie done before. And this is not because they are Wakandans--the movie uses a real language for its people, the clothes and accessories are very much a part of their cultural heritage.

There are very few movies like it, and even fewer--perhaps this might be the only one, that has been as honest to the people it represents. The fact that it is still part of the MCU is an afterthought, an overarching plot that is there. But the issues in it are very real, and still present. That alone makes it worth the nomination.

Does it deserve to win? I'm not rooting for it, despite how much I enjoyed it. There have been better movies this year, but that is my subjective opinion. I've no illusions about the minimal chances it has against a movie like BlacKKKlansman. But that won't stop Raju Moviebuff, and Chomu 'I say the N word ironically' Pandey from claiming that the movie is 'objectively' bad, without a shred of irony or a sense of what the movie represents.

Obviously, we should all listen to the astute opinions of the people it doesn't represent. After all, if a movie they didn't like gets nominated, it's infuriating, but with this, it's only because the Oscars would be called racists, of course. There is no other reason, apparently.

You couldn't be more transparent if you exchanged bodies with a jellyfish.