Monday 22 July 2024

Series

Dear Friends,

I bring to you this new series of quips and quotes. 
Have a long, leisurely, summery reading :-)


Man - a being in search of meaning. -- Plato (Greek philosopher)

I hear, I know. I see, I remember. I do, I understand. -  Confucius

Clarity often comes from paying attention, not seeking it. -  Utkarsh Amitabh

I seriously say to you that business or job as an engineer is not the thing for me. It is totally foreign to my nature and radically opposed to my temperament and opinions. Physics is my line. I know I shall do great things here. For, each man can do best and excel in only that thing of which he is passionately fond, in which he believes, as I do, that he has the ability to do it, that he is in fact born and destined to do it … I am burning with a desire to do physics. I will and must do it sometime. It is my only ambition. I have no desire to be a "successful" man or the head of a big firm. There are intelligent people who like that and let them do it. … It is no use saying to Beethoven "You must be a scientist for it is great thing" when he did not care two hoots for science; or to Socrates "Be an engineer; it is work of intelligent man". It is not in the nature of things. -  Homi Jehangir Bhabha

Everyone thinks it’s a problem to be married to someone doing a similar kind of work, but on the contrary, it’s a great help. We each understand the needs of the other. We spend our days in the same house two floors apart. She’s on the top floor, and I’m on the bottom floor of our brownstone in Brooklyn. We don’t talk during the day … We get together afterwards in the late afternoon or early evening and start living like a normal couple. During the day, silence reigns in the house. -  Paul Auster

Siri is not just a good writer but a genius. I think Siri is the most intelligent, brilliant person I’ve ever known. She has an incredible talent for thinking and absorbing new information, taking on new subjects, going through vast mazes of knowledge, and she has an omnivorous mind. How exciting it’s been for me to watch what she’s been doing all these years we’ve been together. -  Paul Auster (on his wife Siri Hustvedt)

We are so smug. We have such feelings of superiority to the rest of the world. Even the stupidest things we do are considered good because they’re American, underlined six times. -  Paul Auster

 I am a very small and ordinary person with no special qualities.  I am responsible for what I speak, and I am not responsible for what others understand. -  Annu Kapoor

I do not watch movies, TV, OTT, news channels, or read newspapers, so if you wish, you can call me foolish. Being foolish is not a crime. -  Annu Kapoor

Whenever I see my reels or posts go viral, I switch off the notifications. I know there are some who will spew venom for no reason at all. -  Shivam

As an artiste, you always encounter situations when you’re just not ready to go forward with work, but you have to. Sometimes you may be working on a happy song, but your state of mind could be very sad. Sometimes, you could be very happy, but you have to compose a song about sorrow. You need to compartmentalise your mind and work towards finishing the task at hand. -  A. R. Rahman

You need to be prepared psychologically, physically, mentally, emotionally and economically to be an actor. I have suffered depression twice in 11 years. Unless you are not psychologically, economically and mentally healthy, please don’t come in the acting field. I am being brutally honest about it. -  Durgesh Kumar

The teachings from my parents helped me maintain my sanity through high-pressure jobs and challenges. My father's saying that life is an incline, and my mother's emphasis on being a giver, guided me. -  Kiran Bedi

When the media asks questions, understand that they need sensational content for current affairs, which they got from my straightforwardness. I have no relation to politics or religion, and because I have no connection to religion, I have no connection to irreligion either. -  Annu Kapoor

I am the wrong person to give relationship advice. I have always dated wrong people. Please don’t ask me because I will give a very stupid and bad answer. -  Neena Gupta

It is not the audience who rejects us; it is the people in the industry who believe that once you are married you are not desirable to the audience. I think I proved them wrong. -  Dimple Kapadia

In earlier times, you'd be eager to find out if the girl will like you, now we wonder if she is a girl. -  Anon

It is difficult to say what is impossible, for the dream of yesterday is the hope of today and the reality of tomorrow. -  Robert H. Goddard

Each day is the scholar of yesterday.  -  Publilius Syrus

Social media is now the air kids breathe. -  Michael Rich (Pediatrics professor at Harvard Medical School)

It seems like a lot of kids use social media to promote a facade. And it’s really sad. Because social media is telling them how they should be and how they should look. It’s gotten to a point where everyone wants to look the same instead of being themselves. -  Gabriela Durham

No metaphors work against an armed soldier. No poetry can save you from a tank. -  Halyna Kruk

Time is precious, use it wisely. -  Aamir Khan

A greater feeling of control over life can explain about 75% of the association between money and happiness. So I think a big part of what’s happening is that, when people have more money, they have more control over their lives. More freedom to live the life they want to live. -  Matt Killingsworth

The biggest climate issue is a bunch of egotistical men who refuse to change. The polluters know their choices are killing our planet and our people, so there are really no excuses for them not to change. -  Dia Mirza

I was worried for my daughter not having a father while growing up. It was later that I realised that you can have a happy family only when you are mentally happy. It's not a good upbringing for your child to be in a dysfunctional family. If two people can't co-exist, it is better to part ways. -  Shweta Tiwari

There are so many things about my own life that I don’t understand. My actions over the years. Why did I do that? Why that impulse? People spend years in analysis trying to figure out the answers. I’ve never done that so I’ve been more or less on my own, trying to figure things out, and I honestly have to report that I don’t think I’ve made a lot of progress. -  Paul Auster

Our views keep changing and evolving as we go through various stages and phases of living. -  Aparna Chatterjee

I used to want to seize the day – now I just want to embrace the day. -  Jon Bon Jovi

I think all my life’s story is condensed in my face. It is neither innocent nor coy. It speaks volumes. -  Dimple Kapadia

My biggest lesson has been that where you are born is one of the most defining factors in how your life will play out. I feel huge gratitude to live as a European. Although it’s far from perfect, life here is incredibly easy, which is something I never take for granted anymore. -  Fiona Burke

Love is the highest and most powerful vibration of all times. That is why it feels so good to love and to be loved. The human spirit yearns to find and give love. So the most effective way to raise your vibrations is to love. When you vibrate at a higher level, you find true happiness, peace, joy, healing, great health, and you can manifest and attract. Today, give someone your love. Make it unconditional and without expecting anything in return. It could be your partner, kid, parent or friend. Love with all your heart, in whatever way you like to...touch, a warm embrace, a conversation, making something special, a hug or kiss. Love is life...Be blessed!! -  Arup Ganguly

To have lived long enough depends neither upon our years nor upon our days, but upon our minds. -  Seneca

In the journey of life, the final destination is where there are no desires left, all desires have ended and one becomes truly desireless. -  Aparna Chatterjee

Listening

She listening
To me.
I reading
To her.

What greater
Pleasure can
I have, than
This I already
Have :-)



(Our daughter is with us during her summer holidays. Often when she has her meals, she sits near me. I read to her nice poems, articles and quotes. We discuss. It's a lot of fun :) When she leaves, thanking me, I tell her the pleasure is mutual.)


Tuesday 25 June 2024

England

Looking forward
To a cool and
Pleasant summer?

Don't stay
In the south.

Come up north.

You'll savour a
Soothing summer.



(I wrote this after seeing that the whole of England is going thru a heatwave except the North-East where we live.)



Saturday 15 June 2024

Stay

Stay away

From obnoxious

People, they don't

Know how to live in

Peace.....and they'll

Ensure you lose your

Peace.


© Aparna Chatterjee

Friday 7 June 2024

Kishore

Morning,
Evening
And night
Kishore comes
Crooning into my
Ears, even though
He's out of sight.

With a song for
Every mood and
Moment, he comes
Humming into my
Ears, be it daylight,
Twilight or moonlight.
Hearing him is
Such a delight!

Even in the
Depths of
Despair and
Darkness, his
Legacy is like
An eternal candle
Burning bright.

His soothing
Voice fills my
Ears and over
The years, has
Always been
A source of rapid
Relief and respite.

I remain eternally
Grateful to him, thanks
To all his numerous songs
Serenading me, every
Morning, evening and night.



[Dedicated to Abhas Kumar Ganguly known to the world as Kishore Kumar]

[My psyche has a huge stock of his countless songs that often are on auto-play mode. I've grown up on his songs and so I remember many of them. One by one, his songs keep taking turns, flooding my mind with nostalgic memories.]



Wednesday 5 June 2024

Tired

You get tired

Of life, still you

Keep trudging.


You don't want to

Take your own life,

So you keep trudging.


© Aparna Chatterjee

Bush

I don't like
Beating about
the bush.

If I love you,
I'll tell you.

If I don't
I won't.


© Aparna Chatterjee