Saturday, July 24, 2010

The Pandora's box...

" Hope is a good thing,
  maybe the best of things,
  and no good thing ever dies. "

Aeons ago when Pandora fettered Hope in the confines of the artifact, its fate looked grim.
Would it ever survive the aeons of captivity ?
Would it ever be unchained to warm the hearts of men ?

The world of mortals was still not ready to give up on Hope.
The man who had sunk the 'Titanic' to infinite leagues under the sea, descended further below.
This time to free Hope from the bottom of the Pandora's Box.
James Cameron revealed Pandora in an incandescent light that the world had never experienced before.
Pandora, a macrocosm in the Alpha Centauri star system, populated by Na'vi, a remarkable kin of the sapient humanoids.

'Avatar' is the beacon of Hope that Man will constantly endeavour to achieve the impossible.
'Avatar' is more than just a movie. It is an experience that would outlast a lifetime.
An experience that redefined the art of watching movies.
An experience where while watching a movie, you felt that you could pluck the flowers of the Hometree and embrace the portents from Ewya, the Mother Goddess.
An experience that seemed hyper real but still believable...

Besides the brilliant 3D images and the spellbinding visual effects, 'Avatar' also conveys a very strong message - 'Tomorrow is Another Day'.
There may come a time when Man might cease to be the cynosure of eyes in the cyclopean environ of the cosmos.
He might cease to be the omnipotent on earth.
A message of love would ensure the co-existence of Man with his brethren.
He would survive.
Hope has survived as well.  
What else could have been more important...

Monday, July 12, 2010

The eighth wonder...

" The best way to predict the future is to create it. "

As the curtains descend from the African skies on the greatest spectacle on Earth, the eyes are transfixed on a cephalopod with eight limbs, each seemingly more potent that the 'Hand of God'.

'Octopus Paul' not just predicted the outcome of Germany's matches or the winner of the World Cup, it also revealed an innate human nature - 'The eagerness to see the future before it happens'.
And as the time machine remains an unfulfilled dream, our choice of soothsayers keeps getting arcane by the day.

Whatever be the oracular skills that the octopus might be endowed with, I somehow see a greater prophetic ability on part of its keeper.
The octopus never knew that it was being used to predict the outcome of the World Cup matches. The keeper did. 
The fact that the box from which the mussel was devoured indicated the winner of the match was also an interpretation of the keeper. I always thought that it is the losers that get gobbled up, but this time around the symbolism was different.
The keeper also seemed to know from before-hand that the group matches would yield a result. Uncanny, since a draw would have been an equally likely event as a win or a loss. 
So what to Paul was actually food, seemed to have become fodder for a chimera that unveiled the future.

Whatever be the human urge to learn about the future, and whatever be the contrivances to unearth it, I believe that the present has enough conundrums that deserve a solution before the vision for the future can be enlightened.
And let us not strive to take a glimpse of the future without trying to create it ourselves.
For us and our posterity...

And as long as 'Octopus Paul' is engaged to predict Spain as the winner of the World Cup, it is not much of an ado.
I only hope that its soothsayer skills are not honed to predict a solution to Spain's economic turmoil...

Tuesday, July 6, 2010

Give me some sunshine...

" Sunshine on my shoulders makes me happy
  Sunshine in my eyes can make me cry
  Sunshine on the water looks so lovely
  Sunshine almost always makes me high "

 What could have inspired Denver to pen such beautiful lyrics ?
Was the song meant to be an allegory where the sun was Lady Justice upholding whatever you did ?
How would you ever bathe in sunshine without meeting the sun in the eye ?
Would the moist eyes never desire to illuminate the countenance with an unparalleled light ? 

Perhaps the cascade would be able to answer...

The cascade rambled down the craggy stones
Dislodging the pebbles in its hasty dash,
And silenced the trees deafening groans
As they were uprooted like a brutal knife’s slash.

And the rocks on which it thundered down
Bore the grunt of the fall passively,
Like soldiers in their armoured gowns
Would impale the hearts of the not guilty.

And the waters splashed and left a mark on all
And crippled some and left some lame,
For it had been assured by the mighty fall
That things would never again be the same.

And the cascade was being backed in its infernal cause
By the sun behind it, shining bright,
As calm and serene as she always was
And smiling as if it was the fall’s birthright.