Category Archives: Life

Dante’s Inferno or my Hell-licious

October 27, 2013 jcisnowjs 4 Comments

Hell-licious

Dante’s Hell or Dante‘s Inferno. Hell glorified or shall I say Hell demystified. Reason why I came to know of it, is obviously my new read – Dan Brown‘s Inferno.

Inferno means Hell in Italian. Dante’s poem “Divine Comedy” popularly knows as Dante’s Inferno, showcases the journey of Dante along with poet Virgil, through the Hell.

Its one of the classic and masterpieces of poetry in terms of its elaborate and horrendous depiction of the underworld. Journey is depicted through nine layers of hell, where each circle denotes a dissimilar nature of punishment for every sin. The greedy have to push heavy weighed bags of money with their chest and the adulterous blown away with heavy storms.

Concept of hell is in itself quite mesmerizing and to think of it structured through various layers, each guarded by fallen angels and mystic figures like Cerberus the “great worm“, is quite stirring.

Most contradicting thing that I have noticed is, Satan shown as a mere prey of his own hell, receiving punishment for his deeds (Personal treachery against God). He is a beast in captivity, having no control of surroundings. This is bizarre as mostly Satan is shown the creator and regulator of Hell, controlling every life/death around it.

I must say that the words in poem puts a very horrifying picture of hell and the punishment for sins. But, I have no recent plans to enjoy that experience, so why talk about it.

Coming out of it, I remembered how we were told in our childhood that the Hell is just down below the earth. So if you dug up the earth and go at the opposite end, you will land in the Hell. To my amazement, I have heard so many times that, since America is directly below where we are (India), so technically America is hell. Interesting J

It was also called “Pataal Lok” in Hindi, meaning the land of ghosts or dead souls.

I am not a child anymore ( maybe from the heart, still ) and now when I am writing this, I am laughing in my mind. What the Hell we used to think?

Now, I am sitting in this Pataal Lok – America, and smiling.

If this is hell, I would say it’s hell-licious. I would definitely not mind much, if after death I would be awarded hell for all the sins that I have done (Confession – I have not done any single one of them, and I will go to heaven for sure. But, just in case J )

It’s a long wait till then…. will sure update you, from heaven or from The Inferno.

Life

Alison Gertz: Lady who was once a girl

October 25, 2013 jcisnowjs 3 Comments

Today I read about Alison Gertz (Wikipedia random, its a good way to learn new and random stuff).

I goggled more about her and got to know of a movie made on her life story. To quench my thirst of curiosity I watched “Fatal Love” the movie.

How precious life is? This question we never ask our self until and unless we are faced with the dilemma of losing it. Who could have thought that a mistake that you did when you were sixteen, could lead you to the arms of death. Death which should not come to a twenty six year old girl.

Alison Gertz, was diagnosed with HIV in 1988. She was a girl with full of hope, love and dreams, and all it took was one bad decision, one bad night for her to contrive this deadly disease. What has made her death apart from all the others is the fact that she did not hide herself and her illness. She took it into her stride and told the world about it, educated them. That was worth a million years that she could have lived. She was also awarded with Woman of the Year award by Esquire magazine.

Strange thing with us is that we do not discuss death, we do not discuss sickness. We want to avoid such conversations. We actually want to avoid the person who is sick. Does it matter? Yes, it does. It does matter when we lose someone dear to a chronic illness. But, we never think about it, as if it does not exist.

Time is changing and so are we with time. But, still I have seen so many people who does not want to talk about HIV. I am pretty sure, If they will know a person who has contracted this disease, they will never talk to him/her again. Nevertheless, ignoring something or someone has never ever helped in any situation (unless you are ignoring really really dumb people J ).

About the movie, Fatal Love, I love the way story is portrayed, without much of drama or blame game. Moll Ringwald who has played the part of Ali in the movie is quite extra ordinary in the role. She has done restrained acting, very thoughtful. I really like the scene when her father cried seeing a small girl coming out of elevator talking with her father, or the scene when she saw her boyfriend in the shower cleaning himself rigorously after having sex, and the scene when she asked her mother “What did I do?”.

What we can do? We can certainly open up. Talk about everything just everything, live a healthy life and live our life. Live it to the fullest. 🙂

Life

My Kinds of People

October 17, 2013 jcisnowjs 11 Comments

Photo Credit: Word Porn Facebook Page

Today when I saw this photo on my friends Facebook page (Yeah I do lot of facebooking), the first thought that came to my mind was, are we really original or just copies of each other. This thought lingered in my mind for some time and the reason that I am writing about it, is that it makes me think about me. The kind of people I have met in life and their influence on me. My family, my friends, my enemies (yeah I have lots of them) and some strangers whom I have met but never got the chance to know.

What is interesting in all this thought process is, that I have heard everyone say that they are not like the rest. All of us think that we are different from others and are unique in our own way. Have you ever heard someone say that I am like others? I am pretty common. I am not unique.

Now if you think about it when you talk about others you must have said that X is similar to Y, They are just the same. They are just like each other. Ohhh X you are just like my friend Y, and so on…

Strange right, when we talk about ourselves we say we are unique but when we talk about others we kind of compare them and always presumed some similarities.

So Confusing…..

Ok, so I was talking about the impact of people who surrounds us. On a personal experience I can say that every person that I have known has given me something, an experience. Some persons give you a positive experience and enrich your life with positivity, but in most of the cases I have found them spreading more negativity. One very clear difference that you can make out between the two is, a positive person is always moving ahead, always growing. He is always learning new things doing something new. He would be the one who is laughing wholeheartedly unaware of his surroundings. He will be the one who will be encouraging you to take risks in life and not holding back. Embrace him/her. Don’t ever lose such people, no matter what is the cost, just hold onto them.

Coming to the negativity, they are those who are always bitching, bitching about life, about neighbors, about office, bosses, friends, relatives, mailman, government…. Everything and everyone in the world. They do blame God also (Yup they do, a lot). They’d say God is always unfair to them, why God has given them pain… etc. They will print a dull picture of life in front of you, they will point out everything that’s bad in you, like you have a big nose, to why are you going to the gym or you are too stubborn or too soft. They will say what you are reading is not worth, what you are wearing is not appropriate, what you are spending is too much, what you are saving is too little, what you are doing with your life is not good enough.

Don’t hold these kind of people in your life, but don’t even lose them intentionally. The key is to let them be where they are. Just don’t promote them in your life. They will leave you eventually if you keep on holding onto your positive side (No promises though). I am not telling you to lose them because some negativity is also important to realize what is at the other end in case you decided to change direction ever. Listen to them and think what are they saying and why are they saying it? Most of the time it’s in their nature that’s why they are pointing out something wrong in you, but do analyze before discarding them as you need to have some critics also J

There are two more kinds of people, somewhat a mix of above.

One who is always negative about others but keep on praising you. They will give you undue importance, will cheer you always, your every move, and your every decision. They show themselves as your true well-wisher. My advice – Stay away from such people. They are fake, real fake. Just keep in mind, if this person is always talking ill of others, he/she will be saying bad things about you also when in the company of others.

Second type who appears sometimes positive but other times they seem to be unsure of their life and surroundings and appear dull or negative. Remember such people are going through a phase and they may need your support. They need your help to sail through the rough phases of life. Do help them, they will always remember you and cherish you.

I know you must be either laughing right now or be confused by seeing such categorization. But this is my current approach of handling the incoming and outgoing tray of people in my life.

This may or may not change in the near future, but I’ll do update this blog in case I met someone whom I am not able to fill in these categories. Till then … keep reading and keep meeting. 🙂