Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Lincoln- 2012

It is not the moment of history being written- when the US House of Representatives passed the 13th amendment to its constitution, abolishing slavery- and forthcoming jubilations in the street that capsize your heartbeat in the film, but the radical republican representative, Thaddeus Stevens’ walking out of the house with the original document from the Speaker, fresh with its winning verdict, straight to his widowed, colored housekeeper Lydia Hamilton Smith that is the most touching moment in the film. "This is for you" he says, upon entering his home, when all other supporting citizens run out jubilant and in chorus into the streets to rejoice. She is the first colored woman to ever hold the document in her hands and read out from it to him, her master of the house and lover. In my opinion, Stevens' silent, yet radical reaction to the emancipation of blacks and their slavery is enough to show what this freedom means to him- it is certainly much more than it meant to Lincoln himself...

Saturday, February 16, 2013

Art of resistance

People's resistance in the face of the country's diminishing democracy has become an art. This comes into being when the law and judiciary, international verdicts (latest being UN Human Right's Commissioner Navy Pillai's accusations) and suppositions and propositions to better the rule is unheard of by the regime. As a result, resistance is developed in various ways, and in creative forms- the latest in the sense of 'Davy Jones' who claims he is attacking Sri Lankan websites because he believes the country's government is corrupt. Having already breached several leading government websites in the past, the latest is the crack into the Sri Lanka High Commission of the Maldives' website...the art of resistance.



Thursday, February 7, 2013

The Artist


There he was, seated on the side-walk bunt,
sketching off cards with a pen,
while thousands walked by.
The side-walk bunt with its groomed flowers,
made an impressive background for the tall, lean figure
seated at ease, with one leg crossed over the other.

Drawn by this unusual charisma,
I approached him and found some beautiful canvas
neatly laid out for sale.
Wish I had the money to buy them all!
Each one distinctively individual,
yet bearing the same tone of line, woman, flower and window…

Being so thoughtful, he had secured each piece
on bristle-board, for the buyer’s convenience.

I bought one masterpiece-
three araliya flowers, amidst a bunch of leaves,
a dark woman in veil and two pictures within the picture,
all magnificently captured to bring out an araliya bride;
my mind’s imagination…

How ironical-
to sit in front of the mega departmental store,
in an almost frozen still,
making a complete contrast to the crowd bustling in and out of its doors.
Many an eye noticed him, but many ignored or were too busy to bother.
Inclined to art myself, my curiosity could hold no more,
and I had to but ask why he would not sell his work to some handicraft store.
Sitting in the midday sun,
like a weather-proof wall,
bearing the temper tantrums of the sun,
he certainly deserved more.

Upon falling into chat, he rose to his feet,
and my heart grieved even more,
to see the remarkable resemblance in figure and tone,
to one professor I knew long before…

Thousands of questions, thousands of answers,
and thousand things other makes me ponder,
while gazing at the picture now hanging on my bedroom wall.