On Beauty ( by Sanghamitra Nath)

It is human limitation only that tries to understand and analyse it's limitations, shortcomings,etc.etc.

( Meaning: we cannot analyse anything correctly or truly from a limited point of view. )
What we see, believe and perceive , everything...that we are seeing .. as a person or as an observer...that person, that " I" , that observer itself is unknown of its capabilities of observing...he, himself is limited by his limited knowledge and wisdom...so what shall he judge ?

The judgement or observation itself will be flawed...For example, when a girl says that she is not beautiful like other beautiful girls. That girl does not know the idea of true beauty and is thinking and acting from the idea of beauty constructed and fed to her by the society.

To know true beauty, the girl has to first examine how false beauty is termed as true beauty by the society.
Secondly, she has to understand how subjective or relative beauty is.
Thirdly, she has to discover that the very 'idea' of beauty  does not exist.That it is all created by the society to fulfill its ego and desires. Only love exists, love for all things exits, beautiful or not.

This process of three fold  examination is very difficult because one can go through the first and second stage of examination with some effort but to understand the third stage is very hard.

To go through the third stage, one has to have a different kind of consciousness, a consciousness or state of mind which is very pure and unaffected by social norms, influences and definition.

For instance, a child loves his mom no matter how ugly she looks (ugliness as defined by society). That child does not love or choose a beautiful woman over his mom. This is what is called a pure and uninfluenced mind.

Ghost from the past ( by Sanghamitra Nath)

 

My association with my grandparents was for a very brief period of time as they left this world before I could grow up to tell  ALL of their stories. All I remember about those days is specifically about my grandfather who was very gentle, humble and used to give us his childhood books to read. He was very quiet almost in a mystical way. Since we lived far away from both our grandparents, we used to visit them only once a year that too for a few days and all that came to an end very quickly as they passed away too soon. 

My childhood days were  painted by the colorful antics of my elderly aunt. She  replayed the role of  my  beloved grandparents-in fact, she in a way  carried their legacy. I remember about my grandma's house, in which my aunt used to live after grandma's death...I recall the deep brown ceramic mugs (now lost forever, don't know where they are...), the deep green wooden reading/ writing  table , the colors started peeling off much before I could even begin to describe how it looks like...and of course the embroidered cushion covers, the crochet work...the backyard garden with lemon plants, big trees bearing local fruits...and the "family well".   The well from which we used to draw water...for bathing,  cooking, washing etc. etc. as there was no other source of water in those times... ( The well is called  "Kua" in our native language)

In that house, the smell that lingered  was that of the raw green mango pickles in bottles filled with mustard oil left for drying in the sun.

My aunt was influenced by Mahatma Gandhi and used to quote him often.

So many years have passed by since then...now our entire family has changed...they no longer follow the quotes of Mahatma Gandhi. Perhaps, with the death of my grandpa, grandma and now, with  the days remaining in the lives of my ailing aunty, an era has come to an end, an era that signified innocence and simplicity, truth and love.

An End of Innocence, perhaps.

I am not sure whether we can give as much love as they gave  or go through as much hardships as they went through...maybe it is simply not in us or is it because we have become too harsh with the changing times while dealing with life's brutalities ?

I do not know yet I know this much that an entire lifetime of memories will still linger in my mind....perhaps these memories, this attempt of looking into the past will force me to embrace that old, simple life into the folds of my new life until I feel satisfied that I have done enough.

Perhaps nobody will listen to the echoes of the ghosts from the past but they are still there if we care to listen ...so much love and wisdom is buried in these memories, if we care to find.