Mind Matters

The clock's ticking it's way towards 1.00 of the new day now, but in spite of a BET morning class (albeit at 9) tomorrow, i feel like writing this down. In fact just as I was all set to go to sleep, I restarted my computer to write this down. The reason? Eric Milligan. This may seem mysterious to any not familiar with the cast of my favourite TV show, 'Bones'. Mr Millegan is Dr Zach Addy on the show-the genius kid, in the middle of two doctorates (one in forensic anthropology and one in applied engineering), but who can't even understand sarcasm. Anyway, I adore Zach on the show: he provides much of the comedy. In actual fact, he is adorable; in spite of (one might say because of) his utter incomprehension when faced with a perfectly normal social situation. When he was cut out of the show, after Season 3, most people seem to have shared my reaction of"NO!You CAN'T do that!!". Well, they could. Anyway, the fact is, this guy made people love him in spite of the fact that he's openly gay. No matter how liberal people think they are in the US, there's always homophobia. This (the 'openly' part) is the smart thing to do, I suppose: if you're out of the closet to begin with, people really can't make snide comments or assumptions about you. Well, anyway, no one seems to talk about his sexuality in a negative way at all.



That was just the intro. The shocking/ distressing part is here. He really is one of the stereotypical artistic types(he sings, um....splendidly..;)...) with the creative talent, homosexuality...and the mental illness. Even while he was creating Zach's character on screen, Eric(sort of feels weird saying that! It's not like he's my friend!) was battling bipolar disorder. Now from all my mum's told me(she's a psychiatrist), I can't for the life of me imagine one of her patients as a successful TV star. Ok, it's true they're often crazy! It just seems impossible, though, that one can carry on acting regularly, week after week; in spite of the enforced mood swings. Now the reason I know this is because he came out with a video on YouTube in which he describes his experience dealing with his mental illness. And after seeing that, i realise again why people would love him. He's just so open. The way he says things (especially in that overgrown kid style) makes you want to cry and hug him, especially when you feel so sorry for him. His story is just truly real. He articulates it wonderfully, the way he puts his emotions into words actually puts me into that situation, makes me look at the world through his eyes. The best storytellers and writers do do that. He could easily be one. It was touching with a capital T. Or maybe all caps. TOUCHING, then. I can't imagine how anyone could go out and work while going through BD. It's the scariest thing I could ever imagine happening to me. The mind should be a person's last refuge. When your mind begins to play tricks on you, nothing is safe, the world spins out of control and becomes utter chaos; and I know from real life that it is a heart-rending matter for all involved: for the patient (i feel like saying 'victim'), and for the family and friends, too. The fact that he could go out each day and make his character what it was on screen is truly proof of his courage and determination. Whether he was crying his eyes out before the cameras started rolling, or not; none of it showed. I can tell you that from the bottom of my heart, I feel for him. And I'm inspired too.

The Ultimate End

Death seems like a pretty gloomy topic to write about but it's in the air right now.

• I just finished reading 'The Book thief" Kav's favourite book ,which is narrated by it. Did I just write 'it'?? That sounded strange! TO rephrase, it was narrated by a personified figure, Death.(Not like the Discworld figure, with the scythe, skeleton and cloak: it was a more vague figure, actually, I don't recall even a single description of his appearance. But this is completely irrelevant. Moving on)

• Our play yesterday for the easter program was all about it, about how death finds everyone. (It went off great! And it was an original Manipal EU production, that's enough.)

• Also, there was an accident on Saturday. A boy from Section H drowned off St Mary's Island. His name was Rahul Ranjan. I haven't talked to him, nor did I even know he existed. It's jolting, though. It's the third accidental death in college in two months(the other two being road accidents). The point is, though, that this makes me see that death is not exclusively the prerogative of old people. This probably sounds rather heartless, but when I hear of Appacha and Ammachi's friends passing on, it doesn't really touch me. I do feel sad, in a way, of course, but it just seems normal somehow. I don't think I've even seen a dead body up close, not since Appacha's death when I was seven. And I can't remember that. I haven't even been to a funeral since then. As young people, we just don't stop to think, do we? But I really can die tomorrow, if it's in God's plan for me. Death makes everyone so serious somehow. I'm thinking of the memorial service in the quadrangle in break today as an example. It makes you sad. And pardon the self centredness, but it does make you think of what would happen if you died too.Hmm....this is becomin gloooomy. Let's move onto a better topic.

• Easter Week. Sounds like the gloomiest bit of all. It's not though. The great thing about Good Friday and Easter is that it's good. We celebrate! The saddest death of all turns about to be the best news ever.

And that just about wraps up the entire thing about death for me.

Gloom to Gladness

Let's staart

This blog's been lying empty and wasted for a while now, so i thought i would start writing a little now. And what better time to do it than the day before my second sessionals start, right? All my creative outbursts seem to occur at precisely these times, anyhow. My sketchbook, for one thing, saw unusual activity during February and March last year. This can be just another reason to allow your mind to be diverted from the far more tiring business of laying down the foundations for a career. On the other hand, if that's what it takes to produce good art or music, should one really stop the flow of creativity to do such tiring work? I put it to you..

Anyway, my prinicipal objection to writing on this blog was just that the entire world could read it if they wanted, and I tend to not like people reading the things I write unless I'm sure that it's not nonsense! Now, though, I see that to read someone's blog takes a lot of effort anyway, and I wonder just how much effort I myself would take to read someone else's blog. Ha! Well, whether I'm writing for myself or for the entire world(99.999% of whch has not the slightest idea that i even exist), I'm just going to go on writing from now on!
Ta then..
Till next time..
WHAT's the English portion for tomorrow????