PXylem

I can’t forget those days when I was absolutely crazy for Michael. Those days were silent, intimate days of my adolescence. When I first saw little Michael singing as a member of the Jackson 5 in a show telecasted by MTV, he seemed to me a precocious performer. I was enchanted by his black loveliness and elegant smile. My fondness gradually took the shape of strong fascination for Michael thereafter when I saw more of his earliest videos of solo performance. Then a time came when my young adolescent heart started yearning for his nearness. I cried for him, I dreamt him, screamed to be with him practically. I felt for some time, I am in love; so deep, profound, endless but it all halted when I met another crazy young heart equally in love, in fact more, with this inimitable icon. I consoled my broken heart that I am just a fan.

I was shocked when I got the news of his demise. My heart broke and felt wayward to believe the truth. How early he left us, all crazy fans who still hoped to see more of him, his wild performance and his sweet pleasing presence in this mortal world.

Michael was my first attraction who inspired my emotions to unfold its wings. He was the first fascination who introduced me to the world of western music. I will be his crazy fan forever. I loved you Michael.


By Pranatiy Saikia

Alas! Jade Goody bade farewell to all of us, who loved her and also who despised her and left the world forever. The deadly clutches of Cancer didn’t spare her life and sent her to doom on last Sunday. The news of her demise shocked me and saddened me equally. I really moved by her untimely death. I saw the pictures of her last days in the newspaper, when she was suffering with pain due to the disease. Yet the smile on her face was so alive and moving. I was looking at her picture attentively as I was shocked and I could sense the grief concealed with it. I was deeply touched when I read the news that she left two little sons behind her and to provide them bright future, she even signed up lucrative deals with TV networks to permit them to film her last days.

Why the news of her death saddened me? Why it affected me so much that I took my pen to write few lines on her? I don’t know anything about Goody as a person! I know her only through news related to the episode of her nasty race row with her ex- housemate Shilpa Shetty in Big Brother in 2007. 

When it happened in 2007, I was working in a newspaper and for me it was just one of the ordinary news. It didn’t bother me much, though the issue became a burning topic of discussion and controversy. It also made Goody a controversial figure and a subject of criticism. She was hated by most of us for her ill treatment to Shilpa. 

She was despised for her racial remarks. But neither I hated Goody for her unscrupulousness nor I moved by the tears of Shilpa, who is one of my favourite actresses (her smile n figure cast spell on me). Of course, her triumph made me delighted.

Nevertheless, I would say the news of Goody’s death touched my human heart and a woman’s psyche. I am sad for her mother who lost her young daughter. I am remorseful for those two little sons who lost their mother so young. I am thankful to that man who married her lately to support her sons and give her solace in her last days.

I believe, in the last moments of her life, it might have become apparent to Goody that we all are equal before Death! Death is the equalizer and it doesn’t differentiate people on any trivial basis. Nature is above all.

I pay my tribute to her and pray God to give peace to the departed soul. 

As the story is humanistic, it also explores human relationships in a broader perspective and throws light on the changing facets of these relationships which are fragile and ruled by capricious emotions. It reveals some of the bitter truths of human society based on shallow ideals and false beliefs by placing the characters in the extreme conditions of life. Hosseini has maintained the significance of humanity, love and inner strength in a war torn society like Afghanistan where human life has no value and blood relations are fragile under hostile conditions. In such society, humanity and love ultimately reigns and upholds human values and protect lives.

‘A thousand splendid Suns’ is set in the backdrop of constant political and civil strife in Afghanistan. It begins with the story of melancholy life of Mariam, an illegitimate daughter of a rich man Jalil and a housemaid. She lives with her cynical mother in a hut away from the society on the outskirts of Herat. Mariam’s isolated life has nothing to be happy about except her father Jalil’s weekly visits on every Thursday. Jalil would bring gifts for Mariam. His visits bring happiness and smiles for her. But Mariam’s embittered mother dislikes Jalil’s visits. For her, these visits are not out of genuine love for Mariam but his idea of penance for his shameful deed he committed. Despite her mother’s spiteful remarks and accusations, Mariam loves Jalil. His concern gives her a hope of happy life in future.

Jalil is one of the richest men of Herat. He owns a cinema hall, a clothing shop, three carpet stores and lands in Karokh and Farah. He has three wives and ten children. But Mariam has no familiarity with his legitimate family.

Then unfortunate strikes her happiness. When she turns fifteen, her doting father betrays her trust and doesn’t keep his promise of taking her to his cinema hall with her siblings together. Out of distress, Mariam leaves for Herat to meet Jalil in spite of her mother’s striken condition but she returns back emotionally wounded as Jalil hide himself inside the house and deny seeing her.

Consequently, when Mariam comes back, she finds her mother commits suicide.

Now, Mariam is desolate. On one of his wives suggestion, Jalil marries her off to a shoemaker Rasheed who is a widower and 30 years older to her. Rasheed is a rogue kind of man, annoyed by his own past. He says it embarrasses him, ‘to see a man who has lost control of his wife’ and claims her to wear burqa. Mariam’s conjugal life further deprived her of dignity when she suffers miscarriages one after another. Gradually, Rasheed treats her with contempt, subjecting her to scorn, ridicule, and insults, even ‘walking past her like she was nothing but a house cat.’ Mariam lives in fear of ‘his shifting moods, his volatile temperament, his insistence on steering mundane exchanges down a confrontational path that, on occasion, he would resolve with punches, slaps, kicks, and sometimes try to make amends for with polluted apologies and sometimes not.’

The life of Hosseini’s other heroine Laila, begins after two decades in the war torn climate of Kabul. Laila is born to loving and educated parents. Her doting father wants her to go to university for higher education. Laila has a very protective boyfriend Tariq who has lost one of his legs in a landmine.

Laila’s mother, once an affectionate woman in her good days, suffers acute depression when her two sons were sent to fight the Soviets. As time passes on, children grow up and the Soviets are vanquished by the Mujahideen. Subsequently, Kabul soon turns into a war zone as the infighting between the warlords begins. Under such hostile conditions, Laila turns fifteen. Suddenly her life shatters when a rocket lobbed by one of the warlord factions attacks her house and kills her parents. Her boyfriend has already migrated to Pakistan with his parents to save their lives. Now Laila’s has no one to rely. Her life has ruined.

But the story takes a twist. This tragedy forces Laila to become a part of her neighbors, Mariam and Rasheed. When she discovers that she is pregnant with Tariq’s child, she agrees to the marriage proposal given by Rasheed, now 70 years old. Laila’s assent to Rasheed’s proposal disappoints Mariam and a hostile feeling arises in her against Laila. But Laila’s daughter Aziza’s birth develops a feeling of affection in Mariam. Soon Mariam and Laila become friends, defending one another from Rasheed’s attacks.

The story further follows the lives of these two women. Life becomes a never ending struggle for them against torment and insecurity. But under such drastic conditions, Laila’s lover Tariq emerges as a ray of hope. This hope infuses new strength in them. With this hope they surmount every impossible obstacle with courage.

The story is embedded with so much tragedy one after another that while reading it, I was moved to tears. Even after finished reading it, I was continued feeling some unknown grief inside me by recognizing the fragility of relations and human emotions. But it also mesmerized my inner being by advocating the fact that emotions of love and humanity are forever.

Hosseini’s language is simple with an enchanting flow that grips reader’s attention swiftly. The storyline is humanistic. He has adeptly demonstrated the fact that emotions rule and ruin the lives of people. He has beautifully illustrates the hope and despair of human lives.

To read Pamuk is to delve deep inside many serious things, to sway between fact and fiction, to gain insight and feel more prudent just like a scholar. After reading 'My Name Is Red' one of the brilliant novels by this hardheaded intellectual, I felt exactly the same, witty and wise. The novel takes you to an exotic tour of the realm of art and discusses many important facts of the Islamic Literature. While reading the novel, you will have the feeling of being shifted to sixteenth century Istanbul, Exploring the Ottoman society, its way of life and witnessing its cultural past.

Basically a murder mystery, yet 'My Name Is Red' has however surpasses the conventional limits of the kind. The novel is an excellent blending of fact and fiction. The narratives of all the chapters are long philosophical discussions on the nature of art, the essence of 'Style', relationship between God and the artist, and profound psychological analysis of human emotions of Love, Guilt and Sin.

Pamuk has used wonderful theatrical style in the novel and dexterously presented the story through a series of dramatic monologues. Each character has unraveled different stories to form the conceivable scenarios tangled with confusion and ambiguity. Every character has been given voice, even the picture of a Tree, a Dog, a Horse and a gold coin to put forward opinions, which has made the story more interesting and appealing.

The story is set in the Ottoman Istanbul and the year is 1591. Ulema and the Ottoman traditionalists are agitating against the art of painting, especially in the 'European Style'. Traditionally the whole concept of representational art is regarded with great suspicion in Islam. It is given in the glorious Koran that 'creator' is one of the traits of God. It is Allah who is creative. It is He who brings that which is not into existence. He gives life to the lifeless. No one ought to compete with Him. The painters who claim to be as creative as Him are committing greatest of sins.

The main characters of the story belong to the Sultan's workshop. The artists of this workshop have passed their lifetime listening to stories in coffeehouses and studying the work of the great Islamic masters whose illustrations embellish the Persian mythology. They have spent years illuminating old stories with new pictures by following the methods of the old masters and operating on the strict guidelines set by imams who interpret the Koran as tolerating visual art only as an extension of writing.

Now a group of miniaturists have been hired by the master Enishte Effendi to work on a secret manuscript in the ' European Style' who has been commended by the Sultan. One of these miniaturists has been killed mysteriously and dumped in a well. Meanwhile, Black, the hero of the story has returned back to his native land Istanbul after an absence of twelve years. He has been summoned back by his master and maternal Uncle Enishte Effendi. All these years Black had been traveling into far-flung areas of Persia and working as a secretary in the service of the pashas. During these years he was also trying to visualize the vision of his beloved, Shekure, the daughter of Enishte Effendi with whom he fell in love desperately twelve years ago but her hand his Enishte had denied him.

Shekure is ravishingly beautiful yet devious woman and a mother of two young sons, Shevket and Orhan. After his arrival, Black learnt that Shekure has been recently widowed. He also discovered that one of his Enishte's illustrators has been murdered secretively. In his meeting with Enishte, Black has been told that the Sultan has commanded Enishte to complete a special illustrated book. “Our Sultan, refuge of the World, wanted to demonstrate that in the thousandth year of the Muslim calendar He and His state could utilize the styles of the Franks as well as the Franks themselves". So Enishte has been asked to conquer the west by imitating its culture.

But in the eyes of Nusrat Hoja (a cleric at the Bayazid Mosque) and his fundamentalist followers, imitating west will be blasphemy against Allah, against the East. During his meeting with Enishte, Black also met Shekure's youngest son and soon a feeling of restlessness has aroused in him to meet his beloved.

Pamuk has given a deep human touch to the love story of Black and Shekure. Initially Black's frantic love for Shekure seems to be extravagantly romantic at the surface but as the story progresses, it gradually becomes heart rendering and endearing. Then a second murder has been committed and the victim is Enishte Effendi- the mastermind of the secret manuscript. Soon after her father's death, Shekure get married to Black to protect herself and her sons from her ill-fated husband's brother Hasan, who has also fallen in love with her.

Now it has been fallen on Black to find out the murderer who is loitering among other artists. Undoubtedly the murderer is one of the artists who have driven insane by the implications of painting 'like the Venetians'. Black's quest with master Osman to discover the culprit takes the reader through long discussions on philosophies about the true nature of art and real meaning of Style.

The Sultan has granted only three days to Black to find out some clues, which could help in finding out the murderer's identity. Black and master Osman have been taken to the dark room of the treasury to find out some clues of the murderer. The illustrations of the various books on cultural history in the dark room of treasury inside which Black with master Osman were searching clues to identify the murderer is quiet substantial and gripping. The narratives of detection and desire have been magnificently amalgamated to form the rest of the plot. On one hand Pamuk's description of ravishing Shekure quickens the heart and on other hand, his perplexing clues to the identity of the murderer quicken the mind.

Sometimes conversation on various issues between the characters has made the tempo and sometimes expeditions into myth and history has pushed the story forward.

Orhan Pamuk is indisputably one of the greatest writers of Turkey and this masterpiece by him is also undeniably strikingly beautiful, observant and amusing.

Sometimes we feel, life is very beautiful but at the other moment we feel, life is very boring and it doesn’t have any meaning we are just living our life without any Expectations or without any Goal……But have you ever felt anything about the chemicals which secretes in our body during all the Emotional sides??????? No Na….

Ok, have you heard the word “Hormones”??? Definitely yes… Actually Hormone is the Chemical Messenger of the human body between the organs which regulate throughout the Body. Only those Chemical messengers prepare our body in every situation like, when we feel bore or you can say, it affects our moods swings.

But the level of Hormones secretion is different in males and females which detected by many Psychiatrists during their studies.

Apart from all Hormones, here we are just talking about the Hormone which Affect our mood and we feel Good or Bad.

Everybody likes Happiness in their life even me, When Someone use to call me “Hormone” (Happy Hormone) and I use to call him “Glucose” ….Nice Na …… Ok we were talking about the happy hormones those are Serotonins and Endorphin. Whenever you feel happy only these hormones get secreted and give Positive affect on our mood. Due to Positive affect of Hormones we feel like, LIFE IS VERY BEAUTIFUL AND FULL OF HAPPINESS…

The level of hormones secretion increases when we see our favorite food or someone we love….etc etc. Secretion of Hormone can be enhances by exercising or by doing something favorite which stabilize the production of Hormones.

Do you know behind all the secretion of Hormones there is only one MASTER PIECE …Yes this is our BRAIN which is the powerful unit of our body. Brain decides How we have to react according to the situation and that also affect hormone level.

So try to Feel Good and Happy because only happiness brings positive thoughts and makes our life BEAUTIFUL….


Written By:
Kusum Yadav


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By Kusum Yadav, New Delhi

Do you believe in MAGIC OF COLOURS....??? Yes, I do believe in different shades of colours that brings various emotions in everyone's life.....this must be the answer..Am I right???

This was the same Day, Tuesday, I read another article which was based on "Different Shades of Colours" and the colour therapy. The name of the article was " Colour me Happy!".

It explained the Chromotherapy. Actually Chromotherapy is the therapy which is used for making the balance and regulation of energy in the Human Body by involving number of emotional reactions. They explained the CHAKRAS of the nine different colours - Red, Dark Pink, Pink, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo and Violet. I think these are the main colours which really effect the emotional side of human being.

In ancient time, when the people were very much Spiritual and had faith in God from that time this therapy is working and even now it works. Firstly this therapy was used in Ayurveda. Under Ayurvedic Treatment, Patient with different diseases are made to sit in a particular room and treated in the Sunlight which is reflected from coloured glasses.

This therapy is helping in the treatment of various diseases or Skin problems. So we can conclude that the Science of Colour is really very amazing and effective like....

Red colour can make the Circulary and Nervous System strong.
Dark Pink colour gives Strength to Veins and Arteries.
Pink colour usually activates the System which removes the impurities from Blood stream.
Orange colour provides energy and eliminates Fat.
Yellow colour makes the System active.
Green colour as it is the indicator of Coolness so it makes the nervous system cool.
Blue colour (my favorite) regenerates the muscular cells, makes Nervous and Circulary System strong.
Indigo also acts like Blue colour because it is the supplement colour of Blue.
And Violet indicates the relaxation of nervous system and even lymphatic system also.

So after knowing about all these facts of Colour what are you thinking???

Isn't colours a magic that brings happiness in our life. You know after reading all this I felt very much fresh.....Interesting na!!!!

After reading this article, suddenly I got surprise !!!!!!..... Yessss, now my computer was working and I came back to my table but while doing my work the various aspects of colours were moving into my mind.

Publish Post

So, have you enjoyed in the world of colour??????????

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It was Tuesday morning, I reached office by the office cab and wished everyone HELLO and HIIIII…..and reached my table. After doing "Jay Bhagwan Ji" I switched on the computer and found it was not working and even the server was down. Because of this there was no work, it made everyone in the office busy with gossips and I too was sitting idle in my chair. After few minutes I got an idea to read some thing interesting so I moved towards the magazine table, picked one magazine and came back to my seat. Then I started searching for the topics according to my interest. At last, I found one very interesting article that was basically based on "The Human Health" which was covering the concept of energy. It was about the energy which generates in the Human Body while doing exercise and during muscular movements. The name of topic was "Kinesiology", the concepts were very fine regarding human body.

The article 'Kinesiology' was about the Human Body's Natural Healing Process. According to it, Kinesiology deals in the study of Human Body's movements including body's structural, emotional status and mainly the human body's energy. It specifically defined the flow of energy in the body which generates from muscles and tissues and that energy is used for the therapeutic purpose. By the flow of energy the evaluation can be done by testing muscular functions which maintains the Chemical and Emotional balance in the body. This energy balancing process helps in achieving their goal in any field like in relationships, sports etc etc…

In the whole concept of Kinesiology, which attracted me most is the term "Stress Removing Therapy" . It deals in the removal of negative thoughts, negative feelings etc etc. It also includes the physiological process, exercise physiologic process and many more. The great thing is the widen scope of this therapy, Kinesiology, which helps in the treatment of various diseases in a specific manner. NICE Na!!!!!!!!!

Then I finished my article and had a look at the office environment. But nothing new was there - same condition and same gossiping season. But, I was very happy and content, you know Why????????? Yesss! Because I got time for reading such a nice article and that was my Learning for The Day!!!!!!!!

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