Editorial



Pressing the wrong way 


A synoptic on modern day news purveyors 

One among the many achievements of the new breed of politically backed corrupt capitalists in our country is their extensive and seamless take-over of ‘free press’ and its substitution with the modern day ‘24/7 News entertainment industry’. 


The polygamous spawn of raunchy, scandalous, depraved, dramatic, meaningless two-bit yellow-journalism, it can be observed perfectly playing-out everyday none elsewhere than in our own ‘Gods own country’ (Still by far, better than their North-Indian counterparts), with every prominent political party, having a complementary M.M.M (Mass Misleading Media) partner to glorify their idiocies and spread their propaganda. 


Albeit, the complete picture of this predicament (the fall of free press) is not without its own breed of satire, an institution that once was the embodiment of courage, transparency and incorruptibility, that fought hard and strived selflessly to bring out ‘The Truth’, this once glorious watch dog of society, now a mere leashed mongrel subsisting on the convenient regurgitations of capitalistic/corporate political pimps in turn defecating the same into the trusting minds of its blunt viewers. 


No longer, the conscience of humanity, the seekers who were once charged the vigil of justice in our society, now mere providers of perverted projections from the heart of a hypocrite society. 

The only truth about the Information Age is misinformation. 



Ameet Anand Unnithan 




A comment on Modi's G20 speech



“Delink terror from religion, isolate those who back it”

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s speech at the G20 summit was surely a message to the century and not just a few; imploring terrorism to abstain from using a religious address to act upon and sustain itself. There is nothing more to comment on this request extended by our PM, but just so much that it is high time our PM saw with eyes wide open what is happening under his nose. It is time that the lamp sees the darkness at its own feet, it is time that he saw not just the world but also where he belongs to and what is happening in his own nation.

Borrowing the well-noted comment Kerala High Court passed upon an issue a few weeks earlier - “Caesar’s wife must be above all suspicion”.

If Modi understands and stands true to his own words at the summit, then probably half of India must face the threat of being isolated - more than enough to form another Hindustan!

So much for a sane saint’s dream a century ago :


Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high

Where knowledge is free;

Where the world has not been broken up into

Fragments by narrow domestic walls;

Where words come out from the depth of truths;

Where tireless striving stretches hands towards perfection;

Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way

Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit;

Where the mind is led forward by thee into ever

Widening thought and action-

Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.



- Gayathri Jayakumar



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Requiem for Poetry 


“I decided that it was not wisdom that enabled poets to write their poetry, but a kind of instinct or inspiration, such as you find in seers and prophets who deliver all their sublime messages without knowing in the least what they mean.”

- Socrates 

As a person with great passion for poetry, I have often sincerely tried to make my close friends venture into the beautiful world of poetry too; I have gifted them anthologies,forwarded them good pieces of poetry that I come across and among many other of my conspiracies,even tried to recite poems to them in the hope that they would miraculously take a sudden liking, have a revelation, to the subtle magnificence of poetry, needless to say that I met with such elemental resistance from their part every single time, that it could only be put on par with the earnestness of my schemes, ‘it’s too intense!’, ‘I couldn’t understand it!’, ‘this is all Greek to me’, ‘this is way beyond me!’, being some of the most common responses from their part.

Even though the language and word-play of the poems that I tried to acquaint them to were pretty common place, and also with most of my potential ‘preys’ being self-proclaimedserious readers, well fed on an appetite of the works of the new age intellectual writers like Chetan Bhagat, I understood that their aversion to poetry was something more basic and fundamental. I was so intrigued by this relatively trending pattern in so many of them and others, that I decided to delve deeper into this phenomenon (Metro-phobia).
Poetry has been a part of humanity, a part of the human consciousness and experience from time immemorial, being a vital part of our existence, an equally inevitable expression of our spirit as is music, dance and art. Contrary to the belief, Poetry, far from its perceived pompous and intricate nature, is rather the deconstruction of human arrogance, misguidance and hypocrisy; it is born from the womb of awareness of one’s self and one’s existential responsibility, albeit adorned in the drapes of beautifully winding words, it is the most basic manifestation of one’s being. 
The root cause if this unfair and prejudiced outlook toward Poetry lies partially in an implanted thought pattern, conditioned into students throughout schools at a very young age itself,that poems are a rather serious and difficult branch of creative Literature intended only for the intellectual heavy-weights to decipher and understand. There by, presenting a poem as a maze of words and ideologies wherein young naïve minds are easily lost and misled.Studies and surveys have shown that there has been a serious decline in the appreciation and reach of poetry in current times. Most of the modern-day ‘serious readers’ do not prefer creative writings that demand cognitive exertion from their side, creations that leave mystical avenues, waiting to be explored and completed by the readers involvement, instead they are contend with meaningless contemporarynovels and soulless runes that just  reconceptualise age-old plots, they revel in the intellectual comfort assured by the platitudes of such scripts. 
Not only have the true admirers of poetry diminished, but so also has the quality and scope of the present day poetic creations. The realm of contemporary poetry pales pathetically in comparison to its colossal heritage, where once the words of its forbearers would open new worlds just upon the sight of sun-kissed daffodils, inspire with grace and even bestow a blush upon the tender cheeks of dreams for the sheer audacity of it could conjure, we are now offered hollow shells of words that echo with its own emptiness, shrivelled convictions of book-worms and half-baked dreams that makes a meaningless reality seem more appealing, not doing itself any favours in holding back its dwindling readers.
Poetry has been the reflection of man-kind, it has always risen against injustice, intolerance, oppression and exploitation, it has fuelled the passions of men and awakened the fires of righteous revolutions, it has always reminded us the beauty of nature and reinforced the bonds between man and earth, it has spoken of brotherhood and peace, of utopias and dreams, it has always been the voice of human conscience, and indeed much is to be feared of that age when man has truly forgotten this voice.
Let us hope that man-kind will once again rediscover their soul and all its divinity through poetry, and that out of this age of slumber, the art of the Gods shall arise once again with all its glory, and that the golden age of poetry is not a bygone memory but a vision yet to materialise. 




-Ameet Anand Unnithan




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Election Thoughts...We are watching!






Election fever is on and once again this reminds me strangely of the awakening of Kumbhkarna- a hell lot of commotion on the streets and after a big belly full of votes, goes back into that deep slumber until the next election wave strikes. The impeccably dressed candidates with a plastic smile and twinkling eyes, always so sure that our vote is for them, enquiring about our family members and children oblivious to our name or marital status and their entourage of party members with handfuls of notices- I ‘m happy about this as i always get one-sided papers enough for my rough work until the next season. 


It is true, I am definitely one among you, who doesn’t belong to any political party and sit home, pulled back on the couch, listening to the newsreaders cum debate moderators on TV passing judgemental comments on the fate of the State. It feels as if the Day of Judgement is to arrive and that God himself will come down to decide the fate of the nation. How ironic that we see them all as jokers and finally vote for them to rule us, always so confident of oneself that “if it was me, I’d have showed them how to rule”. Well, then why don’t you? Every citizen has the right to contest the elections, be candidates, canvas for oneself, and if won, the opportunity to adorn a post...then why not? Ok, if political parties are death traps and pointless hierarchies- a dictatorial system within a dictatorial system- then you can definitely stand as an independent candidate...we definitely do have provisions for that as well. 


Right, You have a family to look after! 


Does that mean the politicians don’t? 


What? That politics is too dangerous? Oh! Thats right you got to have guts.



Why? Don’t you have one??


Ah ok, so no one holds high a politician and it is meaningless being one.


Then why did you cower and put in a “oh I’m such a big fan” face when that guy said he is of the ruling party? And who arranged that admission for your kid?

We unanimously agree that politics is a dangerous field and takes a lot to survive a battle in that arena. Try observing a strict four day fasting for your neighbour’s son- who was denied admission at a leading institution because he was of a lower caste- to win the tussle. Not possible? Sounds irrational? Oh please, these politicians do it every time; you know stubbornly sitting through hot and cold backing up the struggles of some unfamiliar women group fighting for their rights or people trying to protect their land, or protesting against certain policies... Then why don’t you do so much for you dear neighbour’s son if you think you can do a far better job as a politician?

The fact is, everyone wants to be the King, but no one is ready to head a war to protect one’s land or plunge into the affairs of the state and completely forget to live. It is always easy to lay back and criticize and imagine how we could have excelled if were in their stead. It is almost like watching a cricket match and saying “It should have been me, i’d have hit six upon six” and the man can barely walk ten paces before he breathlessly pants to death. It is only true that we won’t step up to SAVE OUR DEMOCRACY from corruption and scam. Then all that is left to do is either revolt, or else endure. Now revolting is a taxing endeavour; it’s not meant for the corporate and internet-feeding “oh-so-fragile” techies and “new gens” of the century. So the only practical solution is to shut up and endure and let them feed on whatever they find and whatever you throw to them. Anyways... Happy voting... stay safe and vote for a thought rather than the sake of getting a black streak on the index finger to be clicked and uploaded into the “ever-so-important” digital social circles. I hope that we either get good winners this time or that the one who wins have a change of heart to work for the lazy people around them who votes and retreats into their safe havens and cocoons. After all, what more can we do than to simply vote, we have our own businesses to mind after that. 

Good luck candidates taking up the burden of the world... oh and don’t whimper if the work load is too much for you and don’t even think of taking a bit more than allotted cash. We are watching you know ( please don’t remember that we are “only” watching, and that we are watching TV’s and what the media hikes up about you guys...It’s more fun you know...watching them tear you apart and humiliate you ) So beware... We are watching!






-Gayathri Jayakumar




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Cultural Silence?? Culpable Silence!!!




“Silence becomes cowardice when occasion demands speaking out the whole truth and acting accordingly.”


― Mahatma Gandhi

                     
                          Is there a concept called the culture of silence? If so, what does this silence stand for? Is it protest, cowardice or confusion upon how to act?
History reinforces throughout, that Writers, Artist and free thinkers have always been the soul of a society; Literature has always made its powerful impact upon the society, reflecting not only the creative ideas of an individual but has also always functioned as a platform to give voice to the suppressed ones, dreams to the downtrodden and hope to the devastated. They have been ever charged with the responsibility to remind the collective mind of the whispers of the human spirit and the importance of free thought and expression. A good reader of literature grasps the idea of human life and conflict through the words of a writer. So, when a writer or any artist mutes or blinds himself to the atrocities around him, it can never be justified.
In any modern society, its Writers, Thinkers and Artists have a great lineage to live up to and an inheritance of utmost courageous character to look up to. They enjoy a legacy, passed down into their care by the great torch-bearers who have walked before them, men who upheld justice and expressed their ideologies at the cost of their lives, men whose words had inspired revolutions and whose thoughts shook the very foundations of corrupt regimes and exploitive institutions.
And if ever, this silence be reasoned as an ethical crossroad, a moral dilemma incarnate for our modern ‘creativists’, then in their hour of darkness, in their hour of doubt, they need only look back and reflect upon the actions and words of their noble predecessors, to once again righteously set ablaze those slumbering embers within them, and in its light and warmth, to rediscover the true essence of a free and creative spirit.

“By the same token, a writer’s role is not free from difficult duties. By definition he cannot put himself today in the service of those who make history: he is at the service of those who suffer it. Otherwise, he will be alone and deprived of his art. Not all the armies of tyranny with their millions of men will free him from his isolation, even and particularly if he falls in step with them. But the silence of an unknown prisoner abandoned to humiliations at the other end of the world, is enough to draw the writer out of his exile, at least whenever, in the midst of the privileges of freedom, he manages, he manages not to forget that silence, and to transmit it in order to make it resound by means of his art.”
-Albert Camus
 (Noble prize acceptance speech)




-Nada Rajan







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Emily Dickinson (1830–86)



Part One: Life. LXXXIX :




A WORD is dead

When it is said,

Some say.

I say it just

Begins to live

That day.


             Neither is the promotion of the literary word a novel thought, nor is the idea of online publishing. But yet, the power and satisfaction rendered by the written word and its embedded beauty and thought can never be overlooked. A word, once uttered, needs to be taken along a path of criticisms and discussions to bring out all its shades and textures.


The magic of literature can be brought forth only when its readers and contributors converge, joining minds and spirits for a greater cause. Through this platform,in fact, we offer you a wider arena, where you can see, read and hear, thereby achieving a perfect and complete comprehension of your creative yearnings.


‘Jasmine Groves’ is to function as a rendezvous or a secure meeting place where we convene frequently to discuss our works, to exhibit our art and to regain the assurance that, “Yes, these words were meant to be born out of my pen!”


Let us rejoice within this platform, where every enthusiast of literature is free to bounce upon each other’s creative endeavours and gain access to new and fascinating thoughts of kindred spirits…Let this be a beginning, paving the way to a greater dream, a greater community, that lives, breathes and delivers art, reveling in the shoreless, vast ocean of creativity…




- Nada Rajan 

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