Monday, January 7, 2008

Bacon's essay "of truth"- a review

"Of Truth" is an ssay by Bacon. In this essay bacon reaches out to his readers by telling us what is the significance of truth. What i have understood from this stratling essay is that we all are aware of the vitality of truth, but the application is sometimes tacky and ironic. For instance, in the case of complementing one another, if we are blatant and truthful it might hurt the person. So sometimes even if we talk too much about being truthful we cannot adhere to it all the time. Traders cannot be truthful in their business at times. So we take it for granted that not being truthful to others sometimes is excusable.
Sometimes what we humans do is inexcusable. Even without listening to the entire Truth we start giving our opinions and judgements. This sometimes, rather most of the times proves fatal. Like Bacon mentionn in his essay about justice pilate, who without even listening to the truth passed his judgement on Jesus Christ. This example is a perfect one to understand the vivacity of the word truth. We humans forget to understand the depth of the word truth. It's rightly said that one truth is better than a hundred lies put together. But still we fail to make animpression of this statement on our minds. We invariably fall into the pit of sham, pretense, lies.
It's understandable that sometimes we have to avoid being truthful, in the case of complementing one another, because here the question arises, are we hurting someone's feelings here? this can be brutal so to avoid this emotional scene we have to make the person happy by praising him fallaciously. We have to take help of lies to make people happy. This can also be for a selfish reason. It's natural for us humans to be in the good books of one and sundry, therefore we often hold on to lies to make people happy and give a better opinion of our selves.These are the true facts of life.

Sunday, January 6, 2008

Should euthanasia be made legal in India?

The oxford dictionary describes the term euthanasia as painless killing,especially of someone with a terminal illness. Euthanasia is self-imposed killing; it is a mercy killing, when there is not a slightest chance of endurance. Particularly, in India, where poverty is extensive, people do not much care about spending a lot in, incurable
disease, where there is really no hope of survival without pain. Hence,
from this perspective, keeping a patient under torment and unnecessary
pain seems pointless. Therefore, in this case euthanasia is the most
practical cure, and this is possible only if euthanasia is made legal
in India.

Also, the patients affected by terminal illness find themselves
under duress for being a burden on family and friends; this can be one
of the main reasons for legalizing euthanasia in India. When these
patients want to give up their lives, they know deep within them that
they are living on false hopes of survival and that there is not even a
small ray of hope for further improvement. The family cannot really say
directly that it is a mere waste of money and it does not really make
sense to keep the patient under distress when the pain crosses all
boundaries, also when there is not even a bare minimal chance of
living. It is then that the need of euthanasia to be legal in India
arises.

Ethically, this may sound improbable, but considering the sufferings
and miseries of an ill person, it is always better to relieve him/her
under all improbabilities. I feel this is humane, than to leave a
person in anguish day after day without much optimism, anyway.
Therefore, I see a compulsive need to make euthanasia legal in India.

Fleeting Time

Living in the frenzy of time
Reckoning every thought in the mind,
Realizing the inevitable recurring of uninhibited thoughts being too strindent,
And the time skimming away,
Leaving no space for the thoughts to sway.
No time even to grasp, as the time is like a winged chariot, it waits for none.
If only the chord was struck once,
The thoughts, could be in harmony with the tripping time.
Besides, it is too late to even ponder
And it makes no sense to flounder.
Accepting the truth will leave no space to doubt
Postponing the reformation of thoughts for the next suitable lifetime
And letting the time take over,
Closing my eyes,
I slip away with the time forever.

Life is like that

Life is a mystery, a package full of intricate surprises and coincidences- this may sound like a cliche- but it is left to us to unravel thses with profound braveness. We are often let down by the complexity and perplexities of the nature of Life and seldom accept life with alacrity.Like the famous sating goes- "One is never satisfied with what one has"- we are never satiated with what life has to offer. This is the satire of life. This greed of wanting more out of life make us volatile and we succumb to that level of trance where one becomes self-effacing and a sadist. We should not go against and become obstinate towards what life has instored for us. We might deviate for sometime. Savouring what we have, our lives, will only help us to save what we have and protect what is not our's.Rendering this deed to ourselves will help us to comprehend our lives diligently and respect for what our lives has to substantiate and offer us.

Read more on....

http://www.shvoong.com/books/poetry/1740432-fleeting-time
www.chillifreeze.com

Wednesday, January 2, 2008

The Chrysanthemums- by John Steinbeck

The story is about aspirations. The story is a clash between reality and appearance. Elisa the protagonist in the story is desperate to come out of her frail and womanly appearance to live in a man's world. For instance she takes immense enthusiasm at the chance of helping in the orchard, but her husband undervalues her. The tinker also assumes that because of Elisa's appearance she would not be able to sharpen scissors or fix pots. But little did they know that she could grow apple orchards and could excel in pot-fixing.
The Chrysanthemums represents Elisa's feelings of sexuality, passion, her feminity. Chrysanthemums are unchanging, the same all year round, and it is not enough for Elisa anymore. The fence around Chrysanthemums protects Elisa from the outside world and even from her husband. It is ironic that it is open for the shabbily dressed tinker who brings in a fresh breeze of change. Elisa's hair is tied under a man's hat, and she wishes to be free; to sleep in the open air under the stars and the urge to touch the stranger. She finds a light at the end of the tunnel. But eventually she shudders at the thought of freedom and tries to scrub off these thoughts, she realizes her strength.
This story also tries to provoke a sense of frustration pent up in the author's mind, and a feeling of feminism. Both the time Elisa is rebuffed by her husband's lack of encouragement of her abilities and the tinker's misjudgment of her capabilities. She nurtures the Chrysanthemums as if it were her babies. This indicates her craving for motherhood. Chrysanthemums can also mean Elisa's creativity. The story is an exploration of pent-up creativity, of the frustrations of the writer. It is an outcry for freedom.
by swati singhania