"From Europe I follow the roads of the Roma into the orient: to Armenia and Iran where the Sassanids once ruled, and before them the Achaemenids. From here the road leads to another land where the Indus-river flows to the land where the Kushans once held sway."
The Roads of the Roma, Leksa Manu
the gypsies: the emblem of the disinherited? migrating, home-bereft, no-lands-men?
past and present
what is patriotism? does it beget chauvinism? where does the schizophrenia in anandamath come go? does hate come just from fear, or are there other roots? is there a delicate balance on a nursery playground see-saw between humanity and hatred? am i my brothers keeper?
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Hmm, not easy questions to answer. And, I guess, each of us will answer from personal experience.
ReplyDeleteDoes the name of the blog come from the Leonard Cohen song?
Scrolling down, a line caught my eye: Now that I have a moment, I can let my heart break.
Genius :-)
indeed. and perhaps it is all our personal experiences - first, second and third hand - that come together to make the human collective
ReplyDeleteyes the new blog name is from the Cohen song! you know the song, right?
thank you. i liked that one too. made me smile inspite of myself :D
It's four in the morning
ReplyDeleteThe end of December...
Yes, I know the song :-)
Be warned, I may just steal the line and pass it off as my own ;-)
ha ha. please do.
ReplyDeleteit just is that kind of song isn't it?
it's like a slogan more than a song
but for whom? i would be hard put to define that
:-)
on a not completely related note, i saw him live some time ago. it was so awesome! especially 'thousand kisses deep'
I will attempt to answer all the questions with a single sentence. Its all about the money. That is from where patriotism emanate! Very Radical thought I agree but all lines get blurred with the presence or absence of it.
ReplyDeleteNow what are you patriotic to - The city, the state, the country, the continent or the world? Mostly, to one ownself and thats all where patriotism is from and think abt the latest news that Romanian gypsies being persecuted :)
i think you are right K. it all does boil down top self interest and self preservation. and if not self, then half self - or next of kin.
ReplyDeletebut at a very practical level, there is so much suffering in the world at the moment. yet we carry on in our oblivious little bubbles, worrying about promotions, about cars, about theoretical which we really dont care about.
no the point of patriotism is that look at all the online channels of information and the comments of people from different lands. the layman has so much hatred in him. where does it come from? i was reading a post today and rather i was reading the comments of the millions of people from the allegedly the most peaceful country in the world ... where does this degree of nationalist pride - no, ARROGANCE - come from? it could only come from the most stubborn blindness. and then where does that blindness come from
so you see, there are two quite separate issues here that are my thorns. and maybe in some theoretical horizon they meet, but that is less important here and now.
I'll still stick with experience as my answer - it could be first-hand, personal experience, if you've had one, or borrowed. It's like with the people, on either side, during the Partition - those who suffered, passed on their experiences, and hatred, to their kin.
ReplyDeleteYou watched him LIVE?!! Wow, I am jealous :-)