1: Movie Recommendations
Brace yourselves, again. A couple more great movies to
watch:
Nomadland – a beautiful, slow, and calming movie that
captures the timeless and transcendental wisdom of living in a moving
van – a moving home. The Nomads live amongst the nature, amidst its beauties
and its harshness, uncomplainingly while truly appreciating the importance of human
connections. A life where no one says the ‘last goodbye’; you just say, ‘see
you down the road’.
The Trial of Chicago 7 (Netflix) – 7 patriotic and peace-championing
people, coming from three distinct groups, with a common revolutionary aim of putting
an end to the Vietnam war. An amazing retelling of the Chicago riots of the
1967 and the 1968 trial, this movie reveals why stepping up against evil is not
only important but even historic. And you do not have to be a person in power
to do it, anyone from a young student, to comedian, to people of color, and anyone
ordinary can do it – as long as you put the end result before yourself and your
viewpoints.
2: This Week’s Articles
How to be a Patriarch (@aeon) – a straightforward, practical,
stark, even if a little too conventionalist, this article is about who to marry, how
to raise children, and most of all, how to be patriarchic husband and father. An
absolute must read!
How to find the One (@aeon) – a comprehensive, wise, and
timely relevant article that rejects the quest of finding the one as ‘unrealistic’,
and instead explains to the readers who ‘the one’ is for everyone and how ‘finding
the one’ is not only possible but achievable. We just need to know and adjust
our expectations.
Smoking with Friends (@aeon) – a beautiful, and almost
novelistic, article that investigates male friendships and how smoking brings
the men together – to be themselves in their own company.
3: What I And Listening
I have been watching a 1990s drama based on the life of the great Urdu poet, Mirza Ghalib. While the drama is great, what is even more amazing is that the Music is
from Jagjit Singh. So this past week, after a deep discussion about language,
poetry, philosophy, and music with my flat-mates, I found the inspiration to listen to Jagjit, once again, singing in his heart-reaching voice the great ghazals of Ghalib. And I’ve
been listening to this particular ghazal on repeat: ‘Aah to chahiye ek umr asarhoney tak’
4: A Poem from movie Nomadland
Thou art more lovely and more temperate.
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer's lease hath all too short a date;
And often is his gold complexion dimm'd.
And every fair from fair sometimes declines,
By chance or nature's changing course undimm'd;
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st;
Nor shall death brag thou walk'st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st:
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.”
5: This Week’s Quote
‘Some people never trust themselves; but isn’t that just trust
in the mistrust of themselves?’
-d.a (Mirror has four Faces)