Reading-Writing
Years ago, when I wasn’t as aware of my reading style, I’d pick up books that others recommended. I’d move along with different types of literature, figuring out what resonated with me. I’d often start reading with passion – bestsellers and such, only to lose interest midway. For a long time, I thought reading wasn’t for me. Over time, I realized that maybe writers are inherently speakers or listeners. Speakers have the vocabulary and storyline designed before they lift a pen. Listeners wait for the right words to be revealed to them, and then these words tell them the stories that want to be told.
I am more of a listener than a speaker,
Perhaps because
I had to wait as well
to listen to my style of words
words that craft stories
words that speak life to your soul
words that give you content
yet so fill you with longing
mysteries of the said and the unsaid
and right there in the in-between
you hear your rhythm
and find your alignment!
Here I collect some words that have resonated with me
- Solidarity is a verb, Unknown
The Road to Mecca, Muhammad Asad
- “We allow ourselves to be blown by the winds because we do know what we want: our hearts know it,
even if our thoughts are sometimes slow to follow- but in the end, they do catch up with our hearts
and then we think we have made a decision.”
- “Whatever beauty man may be able to create with his hands, it will be only conceit to deem it worthy
of God; therefore, the simplest that man can conceive is the greatest that he can do to express the glory of God.”
Women Who Run With the Wolves, Clarissa Pinkola Estés
- “The doors to the world of the wild Self are few but precious. If you have a deep scar, that is a door,
if you have an old, old story, that is a door. If you love the sky and the water so much you almost cannot bear it,
that is a door. If you yearn for a deeper life, a full life, a sane life, that is a door.”
- “We all begin the process before we are ready, before we are strong enough, before we know enough;
we begin a dialogue with thoughts and feelings that both tickle and thunder within us.
We respond before we know how to speak the language, before we know all the answers, and before we know
exactly to whom we are speaking.”
Crime and Punishment, Fyodor Dostoyevsky
- “We sometimes encounter people, even perfect strangers, who begin to interest us at first sight,
somehow suddenly, all at once, before a word has been spoken.”
The Secret Life of Bees, Sue Monk Kidd
- “I have noticed that if you look carefully at people’s eyes the first five seconds they look at you, the truth of their feelings will shine through for just an instant before it flickers away.”
- “You know, some things don’t matter that much…Like the color of a house. How big is that in the overall
scheme of life? But lifting a person’s heart - now, that matters.”
Einstein’s Dreams, Alan Lightman
- “Time can be measured by things other than clocks: by the changes in heavenly bodies… by heartbeats…
the duration of loneliness.”
Kafka on the Shore, Haruki Murakami
- “Silence, I discover, is something you can actually hear.”
My Name Is Red, Orhan Pamuk
- “I don’t want to be a tree; I want to be its meaning.”
Orientalism, Edward W. Said
- “Every single empire in its official discourse has said that it is not like all the others,
that its circumstances are special, that it has a mission to enlighten, civilize, bring order and
democracy, and that it uses force only as a last resort. And, sadder still, there always is a chorus of
willing intellectuals to say calming words about benign or altruistic empires, as if one shouldn’t trust
the evidence of one’s eyes watching the destruction and the misery and death brought by the latest
mission civilisatrice.”
The Prophet, On Self-Knowledge, Khalil Gibran
- “And it is well you should.
The hidden well-spring of your soul must needs rise and run murmuring to the sea;
And the treasure of your infinite depths would be revealed to your eyes.
But let there be no scales to weigh your unknown treasure;
And seek not the depths of your knowledge with staff or sounding line.
For self is a sea boundless and measureless.”
Full poem is available here
Kashmiri literature
I love reading literature and poems from my homeland Kashmir. They often draw from metaphors of nature and theme spirituality,
patriotism, love of the land, and solidarity. Below I share some.
vwolo ha baagwaano, Ghulam Ahmad Mahjoor
- “hakoomat maalo dolat naazo nemat bèyi shahanshaähi
yi soruy chhuy tsé nish paanas tsu amichee zaan paädaa kar
vwolo haa baagvaano navbahaaruk shaan paadaa kar phwolan gul gath karan bulbul tithee saamaan paadaa kar
//
Wealth and pride and comfort, luxury and authority, Kingship and governance – all these are yours! Wake up, sleeper, and know these as yours!
Arise O, gardener ! Create the glory of new spring! Make flowers bloom and bulbuls sing – create such haunts!”
An excerpt from a poem by Lal Ded (a 14th century poet)
- “When my mind was cleansed of impurities,
like a mirror of its dust and dirt,
I recognized the Self in me:
When I saw Him dwelling in me,
I realized that He was the Everything
and I was nothing.”