Of Fireworks and Lamps

Fireworks. Light up the night skies in shimmering patterns of gold, greens, reds and blues. Now stars, now flowers and now a shower of glitters. Amazing things these firecrackers do. And rightfully are they part of celebrations across boundaries and peoples. On 4th of July, many people in US travel great distances to view the best fireworks displays - on riverfronts, beaches, memorial grounds and so on. And in India there's Diwali, and weddings and wins over Pakistan (in Cricket) - all reasons for whoever can afford to light up the skies in moments of magical beauty.

Lamps. Tubelights. Bulbs. Or Simply old-fashioned oil lamps. Boring. Functional. Mostly, inexpensive. Nothing special, doesn't ever bring joy or pleasure.

So, which is it that you would bring home? For life?
Of course, this is a rhetoric question. The real question is, "who" is it that you really want to bring home.................... as partner in life? Bursts of joy, moments of unforgettable beauty? Or plain, boring but stable, predictable, dependability?

When one picks a partner, is one ready to make the tryst?

When someone chooses the fireworks, is he ready for the moments of darkness that follow the scintillations? Does he know that things can go wrong and burn his own hand sometimes? Is he ready to share the light of his life with many for most of the time? Can he live with the uncertainty of not knowing when when the firework will be brilliant, when it will fail, and when it can burst in his backyard? Most important, does he understand that after all this, the world will be captivated by the gorgeousness and envy me him happiness that probably doesn't exist?

On the other side, if one chooses the lamp, can one commit, with a hand on the heart, that one will be content with the dim but steady light? That without any beauty to attract, he will still love and cherish and give attention to the one that sustains him? That, though, this is truly only functional, he will still cherish it? Most importantly, he will not let fireworks tug at his heart strings and bring a sigh to his lips, wishing that he had at least SOME moments of beauty?

So, yes, who would YOU pick? Which of these ARE you? And if you had a choice, which would you BE?



P.S. -I finally, really, blogged. Yahooooooooo !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My N-th First Post

It's amazing how I've never gotten beyond my first post. It’s kinda like smokers who quit smoking, every now and then.

While the blog rage has been sweeping the world and attacked almost anyone with the slightest connection to the “www world”, I've managed to stay strangely unaffected by it, in spite of spending the most of my time in a connected (to internet) state.

Well, there have been a few mild infections, when my otherwise immune system has given in and allowed the virus some leeway. Inspired by the blogger community whose scintillating posts make inroads into your life through forwarded links or e-mails, I've opened an account and put out a tentative first post- “This is my first post. I welcome myself to the world of blogging”, and of course “I will try to continue going forward”. More than once.

But my system has been strong, and has, quickly sprung back to the immunity stage and obliterated all memory of the blog(s) and its(their) whereabouts, time and again, consistently.

So that’s the background. This time around, I’m enlightened. I realize I underestimated the power of my system, the amount of resistance it can give. So I dare myself otherwise. Dare I continue!