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Wednesday, May 23, 2007

Words -II


The Commencement address by Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple Computer and of Pixar Animation Studios, delivered on June 12, 2005 has remained my favorite for years now. Every time I read it, it inspires me to think how powerful words can be. The language is lucid; the style is simple and unassuming. An abecedarian might even think it is mere stating of facts. But when you are through reading it, you feel immense energy enthused in you.


Jonathan Livingston Seagull , The Alchemist and L’Étranger are a few books which have made a difference to the way I look at life but none exceed even 200 pages in a standard paperback edition. They tell simple tales and you wonder if it could have been simpler than this. Yet, the underlying philosophy is so profound, so intense that you keep thinking about them for days.

Maybe that is why I favor free verse in poetry more. It is not bound by a strict meter or rhyme. You can feel the rhythm when you read it. Pablo Neruda's Love is one such composition that has been a treasure since the beginning of my poem hunting days as a teenager.

As we grow up, our tastes change. The food we eat, the dress we wear. Even the habits we cultivate. Things may change drastically someday. Things I thought I'd never do, might be done. Human emotions are dynamic in nature. You can not predict a second before hand what you might feel and as a consequence how you'd react.

"O painting," says Faure, ".. sublime art, the highest, the most subtle,"
"Music," says Hadow, "rises into such heights of sublimity as no other art can attain."
"The supreme art.. Literature, the perfect expression of life." says Wilde.

For me, I am what I read. So even in all the uncertainty, there are a few things that I'll always like. And I'll strive towards that form of art, which transcends and is independent of the medium used.

Writing, like any other artistic expression- is the outflow of one's feelings. The greatest sin, therefore, is to curb its naturalness which gives it vitality, gives it life. Concrete and imitative or the abstract- whichever art form I use, the perceived object and the observer should become one. And so should the author and the reader.

9 comments:

Animesh Ray said...

A good post. Enjoyed reading it. Though I think free verse can maybe give a better outlet to your feelings, but in the hands of a not-so-expert poet, it makes any sense only to himself.

Aparna Ganguly said...

Want to see how one play with words?

This is a conversation b4 marriage:

He: Yes. At last. It was so hard to wait.
She: Do you want me to leave?
He: NO! Don't even think about it.
She: Do you love me?
He: Of course!
She: Have you ever cheated on me?
He: NO! Why you even asking?
She: Will you kiss me?
He: Yes!
She: Will you hit me?
He: No way! I'm not such kind of person!
She: Can I trust you?
He: Yes.

For the aftermath, read it backwards :D ENJOY

Bhargav Roy said...

Hi Aparna !
This is my first comment-but I've been following your blog since a more than a year or so !Actually ami jantaam na je tume aetou famous Blogger.I was in Ladakh when I received your first mail-sometime in 2005 !You really have got a gift with words-keep it up !Know something?You have inspired me to start a blog of my own!Keep it up !!

Anonymous said...

good one... i truly believe in a free flow of the creative abilities that one has...
btw, calvin and hobbes rock :)
am a die hard fan of it ....

tc...

GajabKhopdi said...

Thanx for introducing me to the real Steve Jobs! :)

Aparna Ganguly said...

@shashank
I can not say if it's the "real" Steve Jobs, as there are many layers to a person. But he definitely is a survivor. And it's his positive attitude towards life that has helped him through the hard times which could have cracked anyone.
Follow the lines when he says,"The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life." after being fired from a company he started!
How many can think like that!

And his being alive in spite of the predicted doom by medical professionals is the victory of his faith and optimism again.

Truly inspiring!

Aparna Ganguly said...

@dj
Die-fard fan of Calvin? * Shakes hands* Me too :) I subscribe to C&H strips, pretend to be Susie Derkins once in a while and think like Calvin most of the times. The miscomprehended child prodigy. And, of course, a rebel. :D

Aparna Ganguly said...

@animesh
U r right. Free verse, like abstract art, can appear abstruse sometimes if the reader/observer is not in sync with the thinking plane of the poet/painter. More so in the initial days of an artist's creativity where it is usually random and disorganized. Later, however, the creativity embraces a pattern. And ordo ab chaos. Out of chaos, comes order

Aparna Ganguly said...

@Bhargav
Thanks :)
It seems like a long time ago. I started blogging in my undergrad days. Don't know if I have a way with words, but they have a way with me. Some might find it weird, but when I feel restless, I start reading a word list. And believe it or not- it calms my senses :)
Some listen to music, some might even read multiplication tables... so I guess it's ok. Everyone has his/her own way of unwinding.