Introspection

Inspired by someone who is lost but will not listen to a little voice that cares to keep you in the game!

Do you have somewhere to go?
You know there’s a way
if you know how to get there.

Do you want to get there?
You know it isn’t so hard
if you used all your cards.

Do you use all resources?
You know friends can hold on
if not kept waiting too long.

Do you see yourself there?
You know you could
if pursue you would.

Do you imagine you'd pursue?
You know you might
if only you tried.

Do you even mean to try?
You know, NOW, you should
if you care to be understood!

Only a Partial "Rescue"; the Pirate Needs Rescuing Too!

This piece does not aim to undermine the courage or the commitment of the rescuers who put their lives on line to save a fellow human being, Captain Richard Phillips, who will go down in naval history as a model Captain.

A 'rescue' alright;
by snipers and seals so savy!
A brave battle in distant waters
betwixt a lifeboat and a navy!

Saving the innocent
from a dastardly attack
by 'pirates' of a nation -
one fighting for morsels!
A 'rescue' albeit:
of the have from the have not!

A 'rescue' was it?
Tentatively balanced
on a few million dollars.
Hushedly conspired

in powered headquarters.

A 'rescue' no doubt:

one precariously towed-

with a hundred feet of rope;

one fervently prayed for-

on pretty Vermont slopes;

one testily argued -

in Somalian swelter;

one instantly admired -

by American viewers.

A 'rescue' so unique!
Made thinkers to ponder
as to who was captive,
and who the captor...

"What do we, as writers, owe our subjects?" - Sudhir Venkatesh's 'Gang Leader for a Day' Fails to Answer.

I had been meaning to read "Gang Leader for a Day" by Sudhir Venkatesh ever since I read about it in an article by Steven Levitts who authored "Freakonomics", a brilliant piece of non fiction that came out a few years ago.

Venkatesh calls himself a 'rogue sociologist' who tested and often defied all norms of academic research while collecting data for this novel which is set in Robert Taylor Homes, a poor and gang infested neighborhood of Chicago. Venkatesh, a graduate student at University of Chicago, takes up a daunting task to study gangster life from within, little knowing that soon it would cease to be a mere study as it would graduate into a complete immersion of him into a life that he had never imagined! This novel documents an unusual relationship between two people of very dissimilar backgrounds and with completely differing goals and futures. Whereas one of them terms this relationship as a friendship, the other is guilt ridden on how to label this relationship, since he clearly sees it as being one-sided, yet is unable to or incapable of reciprocating.

The novel deals with a subject that has been popular with American writers for the last so many decades. Gangs and gangsters have been depicted often enough in motion pictures and other artistic genres; West Side Story being one of the more popular ones. Venkatesh therefore, was not exploring uncharted territory here, but it is his approach and the fact that he is who he is, that makes this book a trifle unique. Sudhir Venkatesh is a Southern Californian of Indian origin who has attended good schools and had lead a sheltered life until J.T happened to him. J.T on the other hand, the gangster from Chicago who Venkatesh chooses as his subject study, is a product of the projects and has lived the life of a 'have not' until he became a member of the Black King gang in which he steadily rose in rank to eventually become one of its leaders. It is this relationship between Sudhir and J.T, that gives this piece of non-fiction an emotional twist. What starts off as a 'study', a 'research project' spirals into a complex human interaction with some highly charged give-and-takes.

An interesting and captivating read, but toward the end it had me wondering about the writer's motives behind this extensive research; what was the writers objective, and was it achieved? If this were academic research in Sociology, what did it lead to other than instant celebrity status for the writer who is already enjoying the fruits of his unusual and daring research; he is now a chaired professor at Columbia University. I am also told that Dr. Venkatesh is currently busy with another research project involving poverty, but it is in France this time. In the meanwhile, J.T, the Chicago gangster, is simply thankful " as long as I am not behind bars and breathing, every day is a good day."

Who said life is fair or academia clean!

A Human Story

Tears and smiles
do color this life
in hues and shades
that promptly fade.

The fear to tear
so always near.
The need to smile
always takes a while

Tears and smiles-
manifest a call
Casting a vote-
an emotional poll?

Foreclosures both,
do clearly imply
an inadequacy
to live out a lie.

Having said that,
how do I compile -
a human story sans
tears and smiles.

Teacher - the revolutionary ( Part 1)

Human Being's recent post, "I'm not a Thief..." compelled me to revisit and re post this three-part essay on ' the teacher and the taught' that I posted a few years ago:

I came across this interesting article by A. Dee Williams titled 'Teaching as an Act of Love:Towards a Revolutionary Vision of Teacher Quality'. The article talks about what it takes to be a teacher. The author lays out a three fold relationship between teacher and student that makes for real learning. Here's the first fold:

"A teacher is a revolutionary. A revolution is a change in the way things are organized. As we teach we create revolution because we change patterns of thought. Cognitive psychology and developmental psychology tell us that the adolescent locks in on the first possible solution to a problem and once equipped with this possible solution, will not explore new possibilities. (Myers, 1999) The role of a teacher is to re-open the evaluation process and have the students begin to practice exploring different options, and when faced with different viable alternative solutions, use critical analysis and reflection to choose the direction of their life. As William Ayres writes, a teacher calls students to look beyond the reality of the moment "you can change your life. Whoever you are, wherever you have been, whatever you have done, [I] invite you to a second chance, another round, perhaps a different conclusion. [I] posit possibility, openness, and alternative; [I] point to what could be, but is not yet. [I] beckon you to change your path"."
.... to be continued

...Teacher - the activist ( Part 2)

A teacher is an activist, and has to lead by example. Students have to see you fight injustice around you, even if it's about dealing with the structural inequities of the school itself, especially ones that relate to the students. They must see you take on their cause and fight for it. If the students can see you fighting for them, they will better be able to address the inequities and injustice in their own lives. Furthermore it also makes them cognizant of your love for them. A teacher is in fact an advocate of love; not the feeling , but the love that manifests itself in action.

Bell Hooks talks about love as "the will to extend oneself for the purpose of nurturing one’s own or another’s spiritual growth." The ways in which the teacher opens the curriculum up to a student or a group of students is the first way that she can express her love to a student. As a teacher, she can empower the student to leave his comfort zone and venture into areas thus far challenging or even unexplored. Then, by encouraging the student to 'feel comfortable being uncomfortable' the teacher plants and fosters risk taking abilities in the student. A skill that'll forever come handy to the student when going down untrodden paths or etching out new ones!
...to be continued

...Teacher - a friend ( Part 3)

A teacher is a friend. "a friend of my mind...the pieces I am. She gathers them and gives them back to me in all the right order"(Toni Morrison). As Ayers says this bond of 'friendship does not end the last day of school' because 'a teacher affects eternity, he never knows when his influence stops'(Mitch Albom). Lessons learned and shared with a teacher can come back years later to help make important decisions, not very different from a best friend who is forever there when you need him. A teacher can be a lifelong friend from whom you have nothing to hide because he's been with you through the thick and thins of your early years. Much like a revolutionary , a teacher has the courage to hold up a mirror to your world and you, have the patience to listen to your endless excuses, have the resilience of an activist to be by you in your numerous failed ventures, and finally, much like a true friend, she has a unique love for you which always translates into meaningful action that'll always take up your cause in some way or the other.
If one day, one of my students looks back and remembers something they learned while in my presence, if they hear my voice when confronting a problem, if their thought patterns are forever evolving to adapt to a newer reality, then I will have left a footprint. I will have been a teacher.

Pedro Almodovar's "Hable Con Ella" or "Talk to Her"

Communicating with another being alleviates loneliness; that is a well known fact, but if the other being happens to be comatose...what then? Pedro Almodovar's movie "Talk to Her" addresses this 'what then' situation in a plot that flits between the past and the present; yet, has the audience flowing along with the fluidity and ease of a participant.

Two men nursing two comatose women; both claim to love the woman they are nursing , but their ways of caring are vastly different. There is one who 'talks' to his beloved constantly and keeps her current on all that interests her in the outside world: the movies/ the musicals she loves and which he watches only to give her a feedback on them. He is a selfless caregiver who worships his lovers body by tending to it as a mother would. On the other hand we have the other man, a writer, caring for his bull fighter beloved with a distant and stoic silence that isolates him from the audience and perhaps also from his comatose beloved; something he has to be made aware of. Both men face the harsh reality that their beloved may never regain consciousness, and yet they continue to be there in the medical facility with their loved one every waking moment. The two men meet while at the facility and establish a unique bond that outlasts their roles as care givers.

The two comatose women are just as disparate as are their circumstances and basically serve to bring out some strong emotions from the men who love them. The women come across as predefined characters who are very physical and hardly develop during the course of the movie. It is the two men with their loyalty and passion that make for the pace of the movie. Almodovar in and through this movie seems to be seeking an answer to a primal question about whether love is really a need, and whether loyalty is in fact what is labeled as love. In finding his answers Almodovar creates a tragedy that has at its center a character who we can't sympathize with, yet, we come out of the movie hall with a complete understanding of why he did what he did. There is a repugnance for the act he commits, yet there is empathy for the rationale behind the act. A movie maker who can tear the soul of his audience so, has to be master artist, and Almodovar certainly is.

There are sexually explicit scenes in the movie that might shock and even drive away a conservative viewer. In this Spanish movie (has English subtitles), Almodovar explores the boundaries of physicality almost to the verge of near absurdity, but the scenes have an artistic ethos about them, as they raise philosophical questions such as whether love is but lust in genial disguise, and whether loyalty is neediness camouflaged. Admittedly, both my brain and my heart were on overdrive throughout the movie, and I'm still not certain I was entertained as much as I was challenged by Almodovar's creation.

"Hable Con Ella" is a movie that entertains as it intrigues, and it is not for an audience with predefined sensibilities.