Monday, May 27, 2013

LIVING


(November 2003)

We talk but we don't talk much about ourselves. Even that which we talk about ourselves is boastful, is to show ourselves to be superior and to show others like us as inferior. Or else, we talk about those things of ours which seem to be events in our lives. Things that take place once in awhile or will take place. Extremely little is said about one's own ordinary, daily existence. Why is it so?

To hide the orindary and common and bring to fore the extraordinary seems to be amongst the basic pillars of hierarchic social formation. Events and the creation of events are the vestiges of those sitting on our heads. In the past, jesters-court-poets-artists used to present the normal as extraordinary, embellishing the ordinary to please the lords. Dreams of immortal creations were seen in the transformation of minor events into mega ones. Today lines of various specialists of different backgrounds have gathered around and within this event-industry. The impact of the network of pyramids made up of heads and shoulders. This is the reason that we talk about ourselves mostly in event-oriented ways.

The reason for our conversations being superficial and shallow seems to be the position of the person in hierarchic social formations. In the present, the person has become so insigificant that a person being or not being seems to be similar. This seems to be a reason for the epidemic of boastfulness about oneself and the downgrading of others.

Our ordinary daily life generally seems too tasteless and boring that it's discussion appears uninteresting to oneself. In these discussions, for the listener often there is 'nothing new'. It seems to us that by going beyond the habit of overlooking the everyday, the ordinary, that we'll come to see that each one's ordinary, daily life is weighed down, boring because of the repetition, the tastlessness. But such discussion will tear away at the beauty of the pillars of hierarchy. And discussion of one's own ordinary, daily life and listening to others ordinary, daiy life will shake the pillars of heads and shoulders.

Even in the small moments we change our clothes, comb our hair, brush our treeth, what all runs through our minds and souls! In this spirit, we attempt to give glimpses of friends' ordinary, daily lives...

In Hindi, May Issue of FMS

Read it here

Friday, April 19, 2013

I'M TRYING TO PAINT A PICTURE


I'm trying to paint a picture
so
real
lies fade to nothing
then people will see me as I am

I'm looking for a canvas
so
pure
filth slides right off of it
then people will see me as I am

I'm searching for a paintbrush
so
strong
walls fall before it
then people will see me as I am

I'm hoping to find colors
so
bright
bruises fade beneath them
then people will see me as I am

my head is hurting
my hands are shaking
apart
my heart is wrung out
my vision's fading
away

I'm trying to paint a picture

Thomas Schilk
AS-0255
Graterford Prison
Pennsylvania, USA

MORE IN HINDI



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Saturday, December 1, 2012