Monday 28 June 2021

 A new morning, time is still.

I let me fly. Your mansion shines
I cannot count its doors.
I would gladly enter through all of these,
but only one door for me at a time.
I shall be born again and again
to feel each door within my heart.
With each entry I shall be rich and richer ever.
It may take as many lives as there are doors; I do not mind;
but tell me God, "What is Your Mind?"
Sushama Karnik (c)

Friday 25 June 2021

And you are always late

 And you are always late for the supper,

My tired moon, my darling moon.
Your place is reserved at the board
and I wait tirelessly, listless to hear
the sound of you entering the hall.
All the stars have come and gone.
I reserved your place and your share
knowing always, you are never in time for the supper..
That is the one recurring reason for the quarrels between us,
we fly into rage, skid the track and forget that it was all about the supper;
and you are always late.

frida kahlo con globo, coyoacán, méxico by manuel álvarez bravo
And the gypsy moves ,
from a camp to another town,
over mountain hills
singing on the harp with a single string
a heart that beats in tune with the harp.


Sojourns, and camps,
that's all  there is
to the ties we form.
Togetherness, love and intimacy,
dreams of a night which melt with the day.
A stopover, we camp for a day and get ready
 to pack our things and move away.

The road still hides in a fog
.We grope our way
 through the unknown traps of destiny.
A bend, a corner, the road takes a turn
and we pause
to think
of those whom we left behind
and those who went ahead
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Sunday 6 June 2021

 The Agony of Power : The World We Are Living In

During 2005, Baudrillard wrote three short pieces and gave a brief magazine interview, all treating similar ideas; following his death in 2007, the four pieces were collected and published posthumously as The Agony of Power, a polemic against power itself.[26] The first piece From Domination to Hegemony contrasts its two subjects, modes of power; domination stands for historical, traditional power relations, while hegemony stands for modern, more sophisticated power relations as realized by states and businesses. Baudrillard decried the "cynicism" with which contemporary businesses openly state their business models. For example, he cited French television channel TF1 executive Patrick Le Lay who stated that his business' job was "to help Coca-Cola sell its products".[27] Baudrillard lamented that such honesty pre-empted and thus robbed the Left of its traditional role of critiquing governments and businesses: "In fact, Le Lay takes away the only power we had left. He steals our denunciation."[28] Consequently, Baudrillard stated that "Power itself must be abolished—and not solely in the refusal to be dominated [...] but also, just as violently, in the refusal to dominate..."[29]
The latter pieces included further analysis of the September 11 terrorist attacks, using the metaphor of the Native American potlatch to describe both American and Muslim societies, specifically the American state versus the hijackers. In the pieces' context, "potlatch" referred not to the gift-giving aspect of the ritual, but rather its wealth-destroying aspect: "The terrorists' potlatch against the West is their own death. Our potlatch is indignity, immodesty, obscenity, degredation and abjection."[30] This criticism of the West carried notes of Baudrillard's simulacrum, the above cynicism of business, and contrast between Muslim and Western societies: "We [the West] throw this indifference and abjection at others like a challenge: the challenge to defile themselves in return, to deny their values, to strip naked, confess, admit—to respond to a nihilism equal to our own."[31]

Note:
Potlatch is an opulent ceremonial feast to celebrate an important event held by tribes of Northwest Indians of North America. A Potlatch is characterized by a ceremony in which possessions are given away, or destroyed, to display wealth, generosity and enhance prestige.