Sep 24, 2011

Love has a constructive purpose

Love is a strange feeling. Some are overtaken by the belief that beauty, charm, and attraction of a man/woman grasp the attention of another man/woman and thus yields in love relation. But this is just a belief. mistaken. In fact, Love ask for no condition and there is no criterion for it. Sometime we see that a woman of exemplary beauty lose her heart to a man of ordinary complexions, and sometime, a handsome, young man arrests himself in the love of a woman of little charm. Actually, this testify the maxim "beauty is in the eyes of beholder."



Love is scattered everywhere in our society. . . . in every society. In streets, on roads, where the hatred for one another could easily be witnessed, love, too, prevails side by side there. Somewhere, people do not hesitate to shed other's blood for political, religious or racial reasons. Somewhere, killings happened due to lust for wealth or out of prejudiced and biased behaviors. Somewhere, a suicide bomber explodes himself along with scores other just for reserving a seat in heaven for him. On one side, all these ugly things seems prevailing in society with their heads erected and arisen. But on the other side, love, too, seems doing its business in streets, parks, corners, markets and on the roofs etc.
In west, the concept of love is incomplete without sex, probably, now sex and love are same for westerners. "Pure love" is limited only to the eastern services. However, strange examples could easily be found in every society, every culture and in every era.
Today I narrate a story of a person who was brought up in western ways, who spent most of his life in Arab but he loved purely in eastern way. The story is unique because there is a constructive element in it.For a moment, let suppose that this person is named as Sohail. He says:
" I saw her on Valentine's day. On her first sight, my heart seems to miss its beats. She was not extremely beautiful or was she a fairy. She was a common girl with ordinary complexions but she attracted me towards her with so much intensity that I thought I would die if I couldn't get her. Perhaps, it was the effect of that special day tat I was dominated by passionate feelings of love. I noticed that no one, except me, was beholding her with eyes full of love. I went to her and somehow, got her introduction. I gazed into her eyes and found myself in a changed world. I was surprised to see that she had, for me, that love, that thirst, that request and that passion which I had for her in my heart. She sloped into her youth not far in the past but presently. I was, too, a young student then so there was more intensity in our love for each other.
But alas! our intense relation did not help us. Our love story arrived at a point where we had to break up. Between us, there was a wide gulf color, race and religion. Rather there were many gulfs in that one single gulf. We could not even cross the one and, at last, we broke up. But that young, naive, and inexperienced girl gave me a great lesson for life, showed me a lightened path. In our last moments, she told me, "Do not ake the failure of this love an indisposition of your heart. Do not astray yourself in addiction of alcohol or any other intoxication to seek escape like a spiritless and coward person. Love is a strong passion. Utilize this strength of love in some constructive purpose. You would soon forget this failure of love slowly and gradually."
I am surprised that how come a girl, so naive, could utter the words. Today I am married and have two kids. My wife knows my love story, but she does not pass any satirical comments, she only smiles at it. She is very sensible. She knows that I had acted upon the advice of that long lost innocent girl. I am a doctor, a surgeon. I have dedicated my services for war hospitals. Besides that I voluntarily join those delegations who try to discuss peace matters among the war waging countries.. My soul get a kind of serenity and feel pleasure when my patients get well after surgeries, and when peace prevails as a result of dialogues. I think that I lost my destination but achieved another better and elevated destination. On every Valentine's day, my heart recall her memories but now the wounds of my that lost love does not pinch me. When I medicate the wounds of other people, it feels like someone has console my wounded heart and those wounds are now, gradually, healing.

Jun 18, 2011

Romanticism as a Revolt

It must be pointed out that romanticism is a thoroughly controversial term and to define it is as hopeless a task as ever. F.L. Lucas enumerated almost about 11,396 definitions of romanticism in "The Decline and Fall of the Romantic Ideal." Some of the more authentic definitions are being presented here for the convenience of readers. Walter Peter defined it as an addition of the strangeness to the beauty. Herford took it as the extraordinary development of imaginative sensibility.

Romantic Movement was not only an English phenomenon but also a European. many was perhaps the first country which came under its influence and thus a marked change in its philosophical thought was witnessed. In the beginning of nineteenth century, England started receiving its direct influence. Romanticism means different things in different countries and places. A critics thus recommended the use of "romanticisms" instead of "romanticism" due to the variety of its features. Whatever be the interpretation of the term Romanticism, t is crystal clear that it was essentially of the nature of a reaction. In England the romantic movement implies the reaction against the school of Dryden, Pope, and Johnson. All the poets of this movement indisputably reacted against the set conventions and rules of poetry formulated and traditionalised over the decades by the poets of the neo-classical school. It was at the same time also a revolt against social authority. Schlegal for the first time defined the romanticism as the "liberalism in literature."

William J. Long has rightly remarked: "The romantic movement was marked, and is always marked, by a strong reaction and protest against the bondage of rule and custom which in science and theology as well as literature, generally tend to fetter tge free human spirit." The neo classical poets glorified the nature and reason but the romantics believed in a kind of transcendentalism, intuition or mysticism. They term poetry as the breath and finer spirit of all knowledge. Philosophy and reason were represented by them as clipping the wings of love and they turned more towards anti-intellectualism.

The romantic movement was a revolt not only against the concept of poetry held by the neo-classical poets, it was also a revolt against the traditional poetic measures and diction.Commenting on this nature of romantic movement, Legouis observes: "To express their fervent passion they sought a more supple and more lyrical form than that of Pope, a language less dulled by convention, metres unlike the prevailing couplet. They announce the poetic association of the words, and drew upon unusual images and varied verse forms for which they found models in the Renaissance and the old English poetry." Some of these verse forms were the personal inventions of the new poets. They sounded the death-knell of the heroic couplet which had reigned supreme upwards of a century.

Apr 20, 2011

What we call Literature

Literature in its broad sense has been defined as " everything that has been written." Anything found in written form is literature as we got it. But wait, Literature means really something more than printed words.The origin of the word literature lies in the French phrase "belles-lettres" (beautiful literature), so literature refers to something more than printed words, specifically to a great work of art.

Fiction and Non-Fiction are two classes of literature to which we, the students of literature, are very acquainted. In Fiction, an author write out of his imagination. We do find the glimpses of personal experiences, facts and events but the author tactfully deal them in a skilled manner and blend them with imagined situations.Novel, drama, short stories and poetry are the example of fiction writing. Non-Fiction writing is one that deals with real-life situation and they are rather factual writing. Essay, letters, diaries etc ae the example of non-fiction writing.

Why people read literature:
Well, there are many reasons behind reading literature. Pleasure is the one most common reason among the others. They feel bore and turn to read out just to pass time, to enrich their knowledge and to get information. Most of the time people identify themselves to the characters or even they sort out a solution for their own awkward situations and problems. In some cases, rather mostly, literature helps people to build a life views. There are cases where literature is read just for the amusement of the rhyming words and the reader does not know the meaning of the lines he is reciting.

May 23, 2010

Are we terrorists by nature?

The growing panic around us, not only in Pakistan, but also in the whole World leads to kind of agitation and irritation. People, general mass, have no idea what to do? or what to chose? Violence is just one figure that is very common in todays society. As everyday passes, this violence and grief is tremendously increasing. just observe it around yourself, you will be surely going to believe it. People are at the peak of rage. They are becoming intolerant day by day. Their zero tolerance behaviour towards everything is a big Pandora box that is generating panic in society. whatever may be the situation they are not going to show tenderness. They are expressing their grievance along with the rage. Every person from every profession is simply doing this. whether it be the students, labours, workmen or anyone else, they are not showing tolerance even to very trivial things.
Now its the yesterday's event there was a strike in my university for resolution of some basic issues of students. Students from every department got assembled at the central ground and then after the speeches of some leaders they started march towards the blue area, the fabricated departments area. till then it was all right they were practicing their inborn right but suddenly at that moment something happened and students started banging the walls and windows of the departments and they entered the  classrooms and compelled other students to join them in their protest. amid this mess, some students behaved very rudely to the teachers and even to some female teachers. I was standing at the very last corner of the corridor and observing very deeply the whole scenario. And the very first thought that pinch my mind, and that put me at pains, was "are we terrorist by nature"? Al that the students were doing there was nothing but exposing their natures and most of them were even ready to do anything at any cost in order to get those other students involved with them.
Do you have any justification for denying my raised question? Can anybody give arguments in opposition of this very basic question? I would just love to have your arguments and your words. May be You have the better idea of what the nation is doing and where we are leading.

May 16, 2010

Am I struggling for better tomorrow?

I thought and thought in details, but fruitless. I thougt again, for consecutive 2 hours, and then a question raise in my mind. I didn't bother at all because that question seems to be a piece of cake for me. I didn't take it seriously at first, but when I tried dealing it I was shocked and bewildered to see that to answer my own simple question is a herculean task. The most simple question is AM I STRUGGLING FOR BETTER TOMORROW? Yes I know now you are thinking that what the Hell i'm going to say but just pose this question to yourself. I hope it wouldn't be easy for you too.
Well! just like you I carve my mind and explore it for answer but then suddenly a stroke of genius hit my mind. I said to myself, "Well! I am a better human. Whatever I am doing or planning that is for my tomorrow (future)" But the question here is what is the better tomorrow? What I expect out of life for me? DO I really expect anything else or not?

What I need is PEACE. Yeah sure nothing but peace, peace of mind. I want to make this world a better place for you, for me and for our next generation. Where is this peace. For me it became an expensive commodity. I am in search of peace. Will anybody tell me the way that leads to my destination.
Whatever I am doing seems to be a search. Again confusion! search for what? Ok, let it be the search of truth. Nay! it can't be the search for truth because truth is itself on secondary place. Primarily I have to search for myself. Search for myself? What the hell is this? I have to make aquantence to myself. I am forgotten by me and what I have to do is to explore myself. I am on my job, exploring my inner world. What you have to do is to stand by me for the search of truth. Lets decide ourselves what the truth is. Whether it is today or tomorrow. The question of struggling for better tomorrow can only be answered after resolving these vital issues.