Miracle on 34th Street- Christmas Movie

"I'm not just a whimsical figure who wears a charming suit and affects a jolly demeanor. You know, I I I'm a symbol. I'm a symbol of the human ability to be able to suppress the selfish and hateful tendencies that rule the major part of our lives. If you can't believe, if you can't accept anything on faith, then you're doomed for a life dominated by doubt."

are the lines which Kris or Santa Claus tells to the doubtful woman in this lovely Christmas movie.  I especially loved the scene of Santa communicating with deaf and dumb girl in sign language.

The URL for the scene (from YouTube) is santa signs to deaf girl

I would like to write about some ideas which I observed in this movie. The movie seems to have themes of New Age Spirituality in addition to the Christianity:

1. The little girl when asked by Santa what she wants for  Christmas , gives him a paper which is actually a sort of vision board which shows her wishes clearly and visually- so a sort of hinting towards Santa as symbolic  representation of the Universe.
2. Moreover, in the very endearing scene of the deaf and dumb little girl who goes to see Santa in the store with her mother just to see him and not to ask anything for Christmas, we do see that in the end when wishes of all others are fulfilled by Santa, she is not shown anywhere, because she never "ASKED" for anything in the first place. This again  alludes to the idea of "ask and you shall receive from the Universe"

3. The idea of reincarnation exists in this movie.  We see that Santa Claus who claims he is the real Santa, but he is walking this earth and goes through the earthly trials and troubles such as being punished for a fake crime.  So clearly Kris is the incarnation of St. Nicholas who we call as Santa Claus.
4. When asked if Santa could make the reindeer fly, when being tried in the  court for a so-called felony, he replies , " I cannot make the reindeer fly, they  only fly on Christmas Eve ." These words seem to contain a hidden message which is that miracles happen on Christmas and perhaps it is not Santa who really makes the reindeers fly on his sledge, but in fact it is the reindeers who fly in faith all by their own.

American Mary- Movie Review

I recently watched a movie, intrigued by its title and the story line. After watching any movie, I tend to google the critical reviews of the plot and summaries to understand the interpretations. And I  like to write about my own interpretations which I believe are novel and not written before. 

It is one of those rare movies which is both sad and inspiring at the same time but the feminine power outshines the sadness which it harbors. As one of the online movie reviews says,  Mary was a "sculptor with a scalpel".  Themes of male domination and male abuse are rampant in the movie. The evil and immoral nature of male has been pitted against the good and innocent nature of Mary. The movie also mocks at a sad truth which exists in many medical schools in which there are stories of medical female students resorting to sex trade in order to pay their medical college high debts.

The surgical scene of the nipple being removed and the vaginal opening being stitched shut surgically , appear to be a harbinger of closure of what defines the true femininity and womanhood. In a way, that forewarns the closing of the feminine energy which is nourishing and stimulating.  And in fact, we do see that after this Mary is brutally raped under the effect of a spiked drink by none other than her teacher at the medical school, and then she transforms herself into a revenge-seeking body who becomes  a channel for doling out revenge at its gravest, and also enhancing her under-appreciated talents of surgical skill. 

What was sad was that she faced failure in her professional life and personal life which went together throughout the film, hence, at the end I do feel sorry for the downfall and abrupt twist in the plot which leads to murder of Mary. Personal trauma included financial crunch, shock of  underworld surgery and brutal molestation.  That was followed by quitting her medical school when she almost was destined for success as a surgeon so a professional fiasco. The scenes in which she discovers that Billy also could not be trusted as a potential lover, she is shown heartbroken and resorts to the sharp scalpel. The scene showing death of her only personal relationship which was of help- her Nana (grandmother, I suppose) and the scene showing her deleting her name from the contact list was very appealing and subtle.Her transformation as a  sort of single handed super surgeon who miraculously performs intense surgeries all by herself speak well of her intelligence and inherent talent. This is reiterated in the last scene when she has been stabbed and  is shown holding two surgical scissors and suturing her own wound , but, sadly  she dies.  This scene is the culmination of what a real artist or a surgeon can be. I believe in this scene Mary transcended her medical expertise to go on to achieve status of a real artist. As one of the actors remarks to Mary in one of the scenes," you are truly an artist"

In a way , just like the spiked drink, any bit of promise of happiness or love was spiked or poisoned in her own life,  Like when we see that she began to find solace in Billy but then discovers his promiscuous act and she feels stung , and later when Billy talks to her about possibility of driving down to LA for a break and a better place, that hope was cut short by the climax in which we see her abrupt murder at the hands of an unknown person. I thus believe that the  themes of "spike" and the "scalpel" are what appears throughout the movie symbolically. Her fate, just like the real spike showed immense rise and immense fall towards the end too. To summarize the movie in few lines, I'd like to say:

"She did body altering surgeries and in the process every time with the scalpel which she uses on the patient, she cuts out a bit of her own soul each time, all under the spiked influence of revenge"

The boat sculpture

Hi,
I would like to share a beautiful moment. It was when I was in Harborfront Park at Port Jefferson here in Stony Brook. I was taking a  nice walk with a Emily  who is also my neighbour and as we moved past this sculpture, I was bewitched by its beauty.

I was trying to make sense of what I saw when she spoke," Oh, that is a sculpture of a skeleton of a boat and it is carried by four men, probably shipmen."

And as I agreed to what she observed I realized that I interpreted something else in that sculpture.
I began to say to her," Yeah, actually I think that this reminds me of the Hindu tradition when a person dies and four people carry his deceased body on their shoulders, and somehow the body is very much like the boat or the ship which had carried the soul when the person was alive, but now it is more of a skeleton of boat."

And we both smiled at that, myself at my sudden observation and she at the symbolism.

Poem from the hindi movie Paap

Hi,
I would like to share a very beautiful poem which was recited by the actress Udita (playing Kaya) in the Pooja Bhatt-directed movie Paap. The sublime poetry (see below) is in Hindi:

"Kholo kholo apni aankhen

aur gaur se suno ...

dene ko toh bahut kuch hai,

par apna sa kuch dena chahti hoon ...

 

 ek boond suraj ki,

ek qatra aasman ka,

koyal ki aadhi kook

aur kuch jagmagate sapne ...

 

achcha lage toh aur maango ...

dene ko toh bahut kuch hai,

par apna sa kuch dena chahti hoon ...

 

 aasman sa aaina,

ek dibbi titliyon ki,

ek chamach nadi ki dhar,

 aur ek mutthi zindagi ...

achcha lage toh aur maango ...

dene ko toh bahut kuch hai,

par apna sa kuch dena chahti hoon"

-https://www.filmyquotes.com/movies/939

 I have translated it in English for the viewers. Here is the English translation:

"Open, Open your eyes

And listen carefully,

Many things are there which can be given 

But I want to give something personal to you

One drop of the sun,

A fragment of the sky,

Half song of the cuckoo bird,

And some glittering dreams

If that feels good, ask for more

Many things are there which can be given 

But I want to give something personal to you

Sky akin mirror,

A box of butterflies,

A spoon of the river,

And one handful of life

If that feels good, ask for more

Many things are there which can be given 

But I want to give something personal to you"

The power of intention in the universe- through a short film

Hi,

I had watched this great short film, and I would like you to watch it first (URL is My Shoes (2012) dir. Nima Raoofi - MAPS Film School

before I talk about the specific part on which my post is all about.

In the above amazingly inspirational short film, we do see that there is this primary idea of seeing happiness in contentment. But I see that it also contains another hidden idea of role of intentions and its connection to the universe. For example, the poor boy with poor broken shoes is seen sitting under the tree and envisioning the richer boy which he sees on the bench with new appealing shoes, and imagining the new shoes, and then he speaks out his intention to the universe, the words literally are," I want to be like him!".  And there it is, he had indeed made that wish come true but soon he realizes the grim mistake he made as the so-called rich boy with great shoes was actually handicapped.  So, there it is, the truth of making a wrong intention or perhaps, not wording what he wanted properly, made it backfire.

Why I am stressing on this is because, somehow, of late I have come to believe in the idea of attracting what you want in your life by the power of correct intentions and putting it forth exactly as you visualize it.
I am not also saying that if the poor boy would have said something like," I want to have shoes like him", it would have come true necessarily, but I do believe it may have, depending on how strongly he wanted them. It appeared that his desire for good unworn shoes was eclipsed by his desire for wealth and happiness which he misinterpreted from the face of the boy on the bench.

Anyhow, all I want to emphasize is that be mindful of what you ask of the universe, because the majestic universe does conspire to make it happen in ways we might not know then!

Poem- God's smile

Hi,
I'd like to share a small sweet poem I wrote which was inspired from a photograph. Here it goes:

Poem:  God's smile

And then the moon

Waned and waned

Until

it could be illustrated

to the world

that God does

also

smile

once in while

--Shilpi, Aug 18, 2013

Silk - movie and the legendary story

I had watched a very subtle, artistic movie called "Silk".  The movie definitely had great cinematography and style. I want to write about few things from that movie which are still reverberating in my heart, something which I have observed and interpreted.

Such as the hatching of the silkworms from the tiny eggs, that hatching, which is a success sometimes, and unsuccessful the other times, and the metamorphosis into the cocoon and then production of the amazingly shiny and soft material called "silk" are all hidden themes in the movie, or should I put it this way, those numerous thousands of tiny eggs are a silent protagonist of the movie perhaps.  Probably the presence of "silk" as a fabric was related to that of "love" which is as soft and subtle as the silk itself, and when held in hand, it actually tends to slip away, and that was what Herve, the actor represented too in this deeply artistic movie.  He developed a love desire for the enigmatic Japanese woman Sei in the movie, but the eggs of that desire remain unhatched or were spoilt, even if they did try to hatch.

In any sense, we know that even if the worms had spun the cocoon which would become silk later, it would have slipped away, just in case of Herve, symbolizing the mysterious nature of unrequited love or love that never reaches a destination.

Overall, the beautiful scenery of steaming spring waters, juxtaposed with the cold snowy weather was remarkably artistic too and symbolic.

Another beautiful symbolism was of that of the little blue flowers which were shown in the scene in which Herve meets Madame Blanche in the brothel, so that she could translate the Japanese letter for him. I got a feeling that perhaps those blue flowers should symbolize something too, and when I did a bit of google search, I found out that indeed those flowers were extremely symbolic, they were the "forget-me-not" flowers which so fitted in that scene and its emotional hues. The poem like letter which Madam Blanche read out was also indirectly hinting to Herve to not forget the beautiful woman who loved him and who really wrote that poetry. The beautiful poem is of that movie clip is available on this link written out: Letter poem -Silk

Well, this movie actually made me aware of many facts about silkworms and legend of silk itself. It so happened that there is a legend that a Chinese empress accidentally discovered silk, as silk cocoon fell in her tea while she was sitting under mulberry tree. The Chinese were the ones who actually discovered the secret of silk thus.

Also, I read about the method of silk production.   How sad it was to read that the pupa was killed inside the cocoon which was boiled in hot water in order for the workers to generate silk.  This process in any way was putting an end to the already short life of a moth.  In any way, the beauty of flying away and not getting held back or trapped still prevails, if the pupa would have survived in its cocoon, it would have transformed into the beautiful butterfly which flies away in wonder and never can be captured easily- the lissome being as it is.  And if the pupa is killed in cocoon, the threads of cocoon produce the shiny silk, slipping away from the hands again, the colors brought out by artificial means of dyeing silk.

I smiled at the revelation of the symbolism.

Is it really a fall of the meteor?

The Perseid meteor show was few days ago here in Long Island and there was so much excitement and unrest among many students who wanted to go and watch it, I guess the avid star gazers must be doing that each year.

I'd like to write about the meteor falling on earth and how scientifically, that only means that it's nothing save the cosmic debris which is falling on earth, something which makes the falling object glow, almost making it appear like a shooting star, brightest to each eye.

But how I wondered to myself, it is such a beautiful feeling and a beautiful thing, perhaps, we as humans should also learn to let go of our cosmic debris on this earth too, something which accumulated inside our consciousness for ages, past burdens, regrets, mistakes, memories, failures, frustrations, and shed it all as we journey through our life and enter a new phase.

We,  by shedding, will thus attain that brightness which will be a spectacle for all the viewers and who will, then wish upon us, knowing that we would then have power and glory to make their wishes come true as we  fade away into light.








Source of photo: http://i.space.com/images/i/000/020/498/original/perseid-meteor-kingham-620.jpg?1375803258

Movie- How to Make an American quilt- poetry lines

Hi,

I would like to share some meaningful quotes and snippets of poetry  from a beautiful movie  "How to make an American Quilt", which I had watched a long time ago.  (Again, I am compensating for my laziness in penning down then by posting it now)

Following are the few deep dialogues and poetry I found in the movie:

1.
 Self expression heals the wounded heart

2.
Young lovers seek perfection,
Old lovers learnt the art of sowing shreds together
 and of seeing beauty in the multiplicity of patches.

3.
You have to choose your combinations carefully
The right choices wont enhance the colors
The wrong choices would dull the colors, hide their original beauty,
There are no rules you can follow, you have to go by instincts
And you have to be brave.
(This one was about making  quilt)

P.S. In all this movie still reverberates in my heart, was indeed very nice

irony of the incident

The following post should have been written long time ago, as I was in Cincinnati at that time studying materials engineering, anyways, read the following incident, which is pre-dated (found in my old notes)

A strange and funny thing happened the other day. I was at the Indian grocery store, which is a few blocks from my apartment. As the Indian lady was billing my items she asked me what I did at school and my stream. I told her that I was in Materials Engineering with a bit of biological focus. Then she began to mention about some brother of hers, who had worked in electronic materials and helped in making and improving pacemakers for the heart.

As I was signing my bill after she had swiped the credit card, she blurted out with a smirk," Oh, but now he is working in a company which make military weapons."

The stark irony of the situation made me chuckle but I was thinking to myself about this a lot.
Strangely, a guy who helped restore hearts sometime ago, later began injuring them with the weapons he built! What a downfall or an achievement should I say?

I was reminded of the story of the Last supper,  somehow, in which the artist was looking for a model to paint Judas, and coincidentally, found the same old guy whom he had painted as Jesus years ago!

Anyways, I think the ways of the world are strange!

The confession of the heart

A Facebook Friend posted this status message,  " I want to confess my love to hopelessness, but what's the use?"

I was prompted to express my reply on it, here it goes:

"The heart which doth get ready to confess love does not dwell on the result of the action or the use of the act. The intensity of pure love itself shall overwhelm the heart and bring it to the cliff of confession. The heart should then, just do.. Because, many a times, there is hope beyond hopelessness, light beyond darkness, words beyond silence"


--------------------------------------------------

The Invisibles

Saw a hawk perched atop the metal fence in the Chapin apartments' childrens playground, a couple of days ago.  Found the piercing gaze of the hawk immensely intriguing, it appeared as though we were competing for who gazes the longest without a blink!, anyhow, that hawk was still calmly poised while I slipped past it, only two meters away from it. Went back and no matter how many times I turn that sight over and over again in my mind, I was curiously driven to "google" for my simple question," What is the symbolism of seeing a hawk right infront of you?"

And there it was, revealed, seeing a hawk symbolizes the messenger of God, so-to-speak the opening up of the soul to higher spiritual powers and being able to have a keen perspective to see things yet being grounded to the earth.

I thought to myself, for sure it is signaling the beginning of a newer phase in my life, but then I am also convinced that I might have as well then seen innumerable “invisible” hawks up till now in life so far.. :)

P.S. 1. The picture is from internet though,

The humor of the sculpture

My flatmate Xin and I went to the Mill Pond and the Avalon Park which is near the Stony Brook Beach as they call it. Her friend and another guyfriend were there too, total four of us for the trip on a beautiful summer afternoon.
I would like to share something very humorous which came up when we saw the sculpture in the garden.
Look at the sculpture photo ( the one I had clicked was a side shot and would not do justice to what I am about to talk so I am sharing a picture from internet)

As I was gaping in awe at the sculpture, one of our friends remarked, " Look, he lost his ass!"

I totally burst out in uncontrollable laughter at his humorous comment which was true too and rebuked, " Look, yeah, but he also lost his brains".

Clearly, as an afterthought, its not difficult to predict that the first observation was made by a guy (the guy in our group) and the second one by a girl (myself). :)

I hope you understood the deep humor :)

Shimmering light show - nature

Hi,
I could not stop marveling at the wondrous ways of nature. I had a chance to visit the beautiful duck pond in the Avalon Park here at Stony Brook. While I stood watching the humongous number of ducks in the pond, something else caught my eye.
It was the shimmering reflection which moved in a rhythmic pattern on the lush green leaves above. Watch the video to get what I am talking about: (Notice the leaves of the trees closely)

The reason why I write about this small thing which many would not even notice, is, partly because, it is rare to catch a sight like that, and also because I felt that was nature's way of exhibiting its customized light show, similar to the one which a specific marine species named cuttlefish also shows.
Yes, I am referring to the "king of camouflage" as it's often called, the cuttlefish, from the family of cephalopods, also does a light show as if to hypnotize its prey. Check out the following video to understand what I am relating to:

So, it turns out that, I would like to put this as the light show of flora, pitted against the light show of marine fauna, as a way to hypnotize the bystanders in a positive way. :)

Kudos to NATURE, you never stop amazing us!

Poem The Heights of Machu Picchu- Pablo Neruda

Hi all,

I came across a poem piece titled "The Heights of Machu Picchu" by none other than Pablo Neruda (see part of the poem below). The poetry is very beautiful and vivid and the reason I am posting it here is because I had been recently reading about the Inca mummies and their ritual of Capacocha ceremony practised high up in the  Andes mountains and volcanoes, where they would often perform child sacrifice (sounds dreading)

The lovely Andes mountains stand tall, bearing a majestic testimony to the Inca culture (Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/01/80_-_Machu_Picchu_-_Juin_2009_-_edit.2.jpg

More info on Capacoha (gosh, I can't help confusing it with cappuchino coffee) can be found at http://archaeology.about.com/od/caterms/qt/capacocha.htm

Here is the lovely poem: (http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/canto-xii-from-the-heights-of-macchu-picchu/

I come to speak for your dead mouths.

Throughout the earth
let dead lips congregate,
out of the depths spin this long night to me
as if I rode at anchor here with you.

And tell me everything, tell chain by chain,
and link by link, and step by step;
sharpen the knives you kept hidden away,
thrust them into my breast, into my hands,
like a torrent of sunbursts,
an Amazon of buried jaguars,
and leave me cry: hours, days and years,
blind ages, stellar centuries.

And give me silence, give me water, hope.

Give me the struggle, the iron, the volcanoes.

Let bodies cling like magnets to my body.

Come quickly to my veins and to my mouth.

Speak through my speech, and through my blood. 

Pablo Neruda

Successful People?

I thought of sharing a leaf out my book of wisdom, if I may dare call it. :)

"Look, a lot of people have lots of doors they have closed before themselves in past and lots of voids they have left, but it is not about the number of those, it is about how many "dots" you can connect to make a good future.

Successful people do not have an untarnished past,

they have a brighter future!"