Earthly Musings

Thinking of Him About the film by jpkallikkal [Thinking of Him has been chosen to be the closing film of IFFI 2017 and would have its World Premiere at the Festival] Thinking of Him is a film that transcends boundaries of time and integrates stories of the present with that of the past.  The film cascading between two different chronological periods, one set in the 1920’s and the other, in the present, unveils an intimate yet platonic connection between Argentinian feminine writer and cultural activist Victoria Ocampo and Indian Poet, thinker and Nobel laureate Rabindra Nath Tagore. The central theme of the film revolves round Argentinian feminist writer and cultural activist Victoria Ocampo hosting Rabindra Nath Tagore in Argentina in 1924.  A deep platonic bond develops between the two and thereafter Victoria becomes a distant muse of Tagore which finds reflection in a book that Felix, a Geography teacher stumbles upon at a detention centre.  The book fascina

‘Delhi air quality to be better this Diwali’, screamed out the title of an article dwelling on the effect of SC ban on fireworks in Delhi this year.  Another title read, ‘Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP) to help improve Delhi’s air quality in force from today’ and this day happens to be 17 th of October, 2017 and Diwali is two days away. While I have been constrained and concerned about the quality of air throughout of the year, like many of my friends, the steps going to be taken as per the GRAP surprised me, the most surprising one being multi fold (three fold) increase in parking rates. Other steps being stoppage of use of diesel sets, enhanced bus and metro (with enhanced rates) services and daily media alerts advising citizens about health issues of pollution. It is pertinent to note here that while Judiciary has finally stepped into the domain of citizen’s health and issued strictures that treads over religious sentiments (banning of firecrackers on Diwali) the i

Like freedom, happiness is a reality that entwines with the breath we take in and love we receive and spread out all around us"  jpkallikkal ©2017 Thirty years ago, fresh out of college, three friends that included me thought of options to move on in life. We were advised that Down Under, Australia, was the country we should migrate to in order to give shape to our dreams and aspirations.  Visa rules provided by Australian High Commission revealed that all three of us totalled up exactly the same points that made us eligible to opt for migration to Australia.  However permanent migration was the exact term used for such a move. While my friends immediately chose to migrate, I opted against it.  I chose to remain in the arms of my motherland, India, as I could not think of changing my economic or social status at the cost of changing my Nationality. I am happy, I did. I am free in a country that holds capacity to change the way the world thinks. My heart is free to touch

Do you know your destiny? By J. P. kallikkal India is a land of mystery.  If mysticism and religion developed here over a period of many centuries, pseudo-sciences too developed in various rural pockets independently.   The practice of Palmistry, Numerology, Astrology also developed and branched out with the passage of time.  However, Astrology, which dwells into the realms of human life through a peep into the planetary and heavenly dispositions flourished through intricate following and studies. The predictions of astrologers have been viewed with awe.  Businessmen, politicians and people from every walk of life are influenced by predictions.   To find out what future holds for us is of course an issue, which could delight anyhow, especially if a gains are expected.  Therefore newspapers, magazines, TV channels all keep a section or time for this in their schedules and publications. However major thrust is given to horoscope and birth chart when advises are given.  To

DO YOU PINE FOR…. Do you pine for ….. A place, a person, a moment A tangible object, an intangible feeling! A long walk could be as exhilarating and liberating as a session of serene serenade on the beach of the sea or a session of yoga on a mat. No I am not going to talk of exercise or a work out. I write this after my toe stepped on an innocuous looking object while on a morning walk yesterday. New Delhi is chilly and hazy in winters and seeps into a tormenting pattern of summers soon afterwards. However a few weeks of bliss engulfs the city spliced between these two extremes, the Spring! Long walk across expansive grass turf is bliss in such a season. If the esplanade is dotted with pine trees still better. Shade giving and aromatic, these trees with their distinct foliage provides the much needed succor to a mentally depressed city dweller during times of stress. Belonging to genus Pinus, Pines are conifer trees that has more than 126 species found across the globe. In

INNER VISION Magic of Inner vision Part – I Ambling across in a Mall last weekend, I happened to come across an Electronic outlet displaying a large flat screen TV which had a UHD tag supporting 4k; which in real terms translates as an Ultra High Definition Television with a resolution that can support content having horizontal resolution on the order of 4,000 pixels. My thoughts went across to my own eye, a small human eye that is so conscious to the colour variations that it has a capability of identifying about 10 million colours! Not merely the colours it can view objects in varying light conditions and can perceive distances and depths that makes our overall viewing experience many decades advanced than the existing gadgets and projection systems The same is true of every human organ and here I am not going to explain the technical aspects of the human eye, but its connection with the human brain that makes life so muc

COSMIC TWIN Cosmic twin/jpkallikkal©2015 Mirror is said to show it all Nature still is a stranger’s call Seated in a corner rest Some thoughts put logic to test Destiny takes you to alien places. It also brings one face to face with new situations and makes you meet absolute strangers. Time as fourth dimension trudges on, marking each moment in your life as an event sequenced through the past into the future. I often wonder if destiny and history have some connection or if past has a distinct and common connection to the present or the future. I see mirror as a reflection of a truth you are, yet it also transcends the borders of imagination by crossing the transient to the perpetual. Travelling further, we are confronted with new situations and new people who begin to look familiar after sometime of sharing. Yet, as we settle down permanently at one place or with a person, in some vague moments of weakness, our hearts jump out seeking new places and people, some that fit

TIME Time like efflorescence, are specks of memories that dot our life. It is not a mere reflection of ageing cells or a scalar quantity defining the fourth dimension, it is for us to hold on, value and cherish. We can sail away, once in a while, in a moment or in a warp that oscillates between the past and the future. It energizes our present, wakes us up from the sleep that tends to wrap amnesia over senses during our travel, each day. Ticking away time machines can stop, when we wish them to, letting the bionic speckles of spams that intervene time, heal us. I believe, our hearts can arrest the flow of time, to let it slow down or move fast as per our wishes. There could be times when it hurts. When gross sorrows outweigh the happiness of a moment but during those times, we need to scrape out the efflorescent residues of memories embedded in time to balance or tilt the scales. Time, like true friends, eternal love and blissful God shall be there with us during times of t

Friendships, Rainy days and Sundays Jpkallikkal©2017 Friends are forever, so are friendships that last a lifetime. Trust, Affection, Love and Respect are four pillars on which friendships rest. I have had innumerable friends since my early years. Many faces that came, connected and melted away with time. What is friendship? I guess for each age, friendship has a different meaning. Kindergarten and nursery has friends who are for play. Little bonds that the instant, immediate and centered around games and play. In loses friends are lost and in wins new hearts are won. Teenage and youth bring changes beyond one’s comprehension. One develops liking for unlikeliest faces and a tendency to connect with like minded leaders or followers set pace to striking friendships. Tastes, hobbies, skills, ideologies, social and economic status could determine friendships with exceptions that could have a biological or chemical deviation when looks, styles and mannerisms tilt conditions.

HOME COMING Do you wait for someone in your life to come and change the way you look at yourself? Do you find yourself changed after their visit? Do you have guests? People today are losing the sense of time. Chronometers may display digitized images of numbers or signs and minds may be seized of an urgency reflecting lack of it though! There is no time! To be departing before arrival may sound cryptic but it is exactly what is happening to people around. There is a general lack of interest in a place, person or event which is supposed to be focus point and the person arriving or taking it up is more engrossed with what he is supposed to be doing next after the task in hand gets over. Three decades ago when a close friend who had settled in Paris remarked, ‘Relatives or Friends are supposed to take appointments to visit each other’ there, I did not believe him. Rather, I was flabbergasted. Today, I realize the same is happening to everyone around me. Athithi Devo Bh

Life and Death ©jpkallikkal I have often thought and pondered over a simple connection we make with people, places and events that leave us connected forever. Some believe it is destiny while others term it ‘Karma’ or actions that shape our future.  Is it the present or the past that determines our life or death? The life movie De Javu  We often come across instances that seem to us to have happened before. It could be people who you seem to have met before, it could be places that you are visiting for the first time in this life but seem to be so familiar or events that seem to have happened before. In those times, you are compelled to stretch your imagination back into time, scratching our heads to figure out when it could have happened? The theory of Entropy suggests that the forces of the Universe tend to get more disordered with passage of time. It also means that time moves forward. According to Steven Carlip of the University of California at Davis, Uni