At The Edge

‘From the reed-flute hear what tale it tells; What plaint it makes of absence’ ills: “From jungle-bed since me they tore, Men’s, women’s eyes have wept right sore. My breast I tear and rend in twain, To give, through sighs, vent to my pain. Who’s from his home snatched far away, Longs to return some future day. I sob and sigh in each retreat, Be’t joy or grief for which men meet. They fancy they can read my heart; Grief’s secrets I to none impart. My throes and moans form but one chain, Men’s eyes and ears catch not their train. Though soul and body be as one, Sight of his soul hath no man won.’ --Translated by James W. Redhouse. From "The Mesnevi of Mevl’n’ Jel’lu'd-din Muhammed er-Rumi. Book the First" (London, 1881). Complete version of this and Other versions of “The Song of the Reed” are available at dar-al-masnavi

Recently, an Indian News channel carried reports of sighting of a Ball Lightning Apparently, the ball lightning was observed by some airborne plane. The whole story took me back to a TinTin comic that i read long long ago - The seven crystal Balls. Are we going to see an Indian twist to these age old stories of UFOs , aliens, strange creatures from space, from the deep sea, from the empty closet... et al ? Aren't Indian politicians strange enough for these news channels. Do we have to see addition of Indian Hocus Pocus to the western Mumbo Jumbo. Interestingly, even that Tin Tin story had an Indian touch to it.

In an interview on being asked the question, “There was much speculation about your religious beliefs in the '80s. Did that unduly bother you?” Van Morrison replied: Well, what happened is that people would take things I at face value and say, "Oh, he's being a dilettante". What it's really about is that, if you study knowledge, then you really have to study knowledge. You don't just study one thing. You can't just say, "OK, I'm going, to study Hinduism:' If you're going to study knowledge then you have to study the whole field. You need to get an overview and you have to look at the whole picture. That's what people are getting at when they say that my music was about the mystical or that it was about searching for something. That's how it's been interpreted. But, when one studies knowledge, one gets influenced by things. Again, the songs come out of things that you are being influenced by at the time you're studying.