freedom – SKR Web

Tag: <span>freedom</span>

Poetry

Hamster and Himalayan Cat of my life!

February 3, 2023February 3, 2023
by Sameera Khan Rehmani

A fat hamster and his Himalayan cat

Sat on our table, getting mentally fat!

They’re introduced by my son’s origami flips.

Trying to make them stand on their feet.

As each roll from one side to the other

The gravity of it now makes me shudder.

The winter outside contradicts the heat inside

Warming my hands together, I let my pen decide

The blue walls, mustard trees, patterned leaves

Imprints of jungle life and mystic leopard prints

I can see the people; hear their buzzing sound

My turmoil feels pressure from bloody hounds.

They make me sometimes hate everything and all.

At other times love the presence like a ping-pong ball

And it seems so funny that the board game in front,

Is glaring at my face with a force that almost burned

Making me almost pity the nine-year-old playing alone

In a group of four, yet realising, we all are on our own.

A glass full of coffee, cookie, and other savouries besides

I cannot quench that hunger that I need to so severely hide

A desperation to somehow straighten and find my feet

Have that independence that’s for you, for me to greet

Just like you, I too need that feeling to belong and rise

Taste the authentic taste, for it is a nut hard to crack!

We are on our own but need to answer many

Desire not to get hurt and earn all that penny

Need of strength that makes me stand like that pole

Supporting so many swings and twinkle lights as a whole

Bringing in love with open arms rolled in pure respect

So, I can lay in my bed and smile at the promise I made!

As I come back to the hamster and Himalayan cat,

Still sitting on the table getting mentally fat

I realise my son has introduced me to his world

Where he tries to make them stand and swirl

However, it is me again that looks at both and puts,

pressure on him like it’s on me to get up and stand!

Poetry

That Sunny Day in my Weeks!

August 11, 2022August 11, 2022
by Sameera Khan Rehmani

Waking up this morning, it occurred to me

I am three days away from what I can see

The day when perhaps I can put down those

Multi-coloured pens of life to relax and doze

Closing my eyes, I listen to the shadow of nightingales

Wishing this time, perhaps I can embrace this Sunday?

Suddenly I remembered, there is another pen to pick

So many different letters, yet pending on my nib

Long letters for all of them, letters not only for me

Letters floating in my head, topics at night that I see

As I close my eyes listening to the shadow of nightingales

I wish, perhaps this time I can embrace this Sunday?

As I ready myself for tonight’s dinner of sushi in a bento

I longed for homemade lunches and warm impromptus

Where we used to sit closer, snuggle, and fight for so long

We still had the time of our lives, listening to tuneless songs

Now I close my eyes and listen to the shadow of nightingales

I wish so hard, perhaps this time I can embrace this Sunday.

It is Summer now, but I remember it was Summer then too

What I am now is so different as I question, ‘that was who?’

It is just like the time that clock showed the same back then

Yet changing, in essence, its existence with every moment

And when I close my eyes listening to the shadow of nightingales

I still wish perhaps this time I can really embrace this Sunday.

Another day has gone, and so many more will pass by

I remind myself I have even stopped saying simple Hi!

Even when I embrace everything and everyone to the ‘T’

Amidst all, I seem to recall, I end up losing what I call ‘me’

As I try to close my eyes listening to the shadow of nightingales

I wish perhaps this time I will be able to embrace this Sunday.

This sand of ‘tick-tock’ is slipping fast from fingers

That margin of error each day is reduced further

We need to make choices for we are left with very little

It will probably leave you and me at the end so brittle

Why not try to close our eyes and listen to nightingales?

Perhaps this time we all really can embrace our Sundays

Opinion Shack

How do we Question Freedom?

February 7, 2022February 9, 2022
by Sameera Khan Rehmani

This morning as I sat on my workstation, my mind went straight into my thoughts. I was gazing out of my window far ahead than my vision could reach. I squinted my eyes at the reluctant sun peeping out of the stubborn clouds that have encroached the sky for the last couple of days. I glared at them unconsciously as if to threaten them to give the sun some respect and space, enough to come out fully. He needs to have his time as well. The sudden realization of my weird mental monologue made me chuckle out loud as I started to wonder what I should write about today. In the background, I could hear Pharrell Williams ‘Freedom’ loud and proud from my laptop. My fidgety fingers paused as I listened to the lyrics with lines. I guess I have found my topic for today. with a smile on my face, I listened to the rhythms and lyrics within.

‘…Who cares what they know

Your first name is free

Last name is Dom

cause you still believe where we are from.’

It dawned upon me what words to write us a song? My hands started picking on the keyboard and as if in a world of my own I started my journey of the day!

I remember the years when the subject of civics in my school became a matter of political science as I entered my college years. I was so fascinated with the term as if it gave me the power to be an adult. Today when I think about my fascination with the subject, I laugh out loud with ridicule for my ideas and ideals. I remember our family discussions about the political situation around the globe and at the time I felt so proud that I have claimed my right to speak from my subject knowledge. I could not understand at the time during heated arguments about freedom, and equality, when my father in his (un)usual patient voice used to make me understand, ‘you will understand the gravity of these words which you fight for when you grow up.’ And I used to look at him as if he was joking. In my mind, I almost ridiculed the logic. How much more would I need to grow up to understand, I used to wonder at that time. It is now that I realize, I am 40 and still, sometimes I get so confused with the twisted implications and meanings of the word in question.

What does freedom mean to you? Is it social, political, economic, religious-cultural equality to you or is there still more scope to it? What does feeling freedom as an individual mean to you? As a parent, as children, as human, as people belonging to all genders, or even as an individual or a group entity, what is your take on freedom? I know we use this term in one way or the other in our everyday conversations but how grave does its meaning sink for us, any suggestions? Because for my freedom, when I think about it, has travelled a long way that what I used to understand when I was in my younger years. Today when I read the word, I not only think it to be a concept of equality. I feel it to be more like the idea of mutual respect! The definition of freedom as ‘the power or right to act, speak or think as one wants or the state of not being imprisoned or enslaved’ has a small word missing that is respect. You may very well differ from me because it is your freedom but when I think of the word, I find ‘respect’ overshadowing the other synonyms.

This ability to behave to work without barrios may indeed be a core word meaning where everyone has the freedom to perform any activity without force in practical life. But to me, the addition of a sense of respect brings self-accountability towards life in general. It is the idea of respect that makes us realize that we don’t belong to anyone. We are individuals and each needs to respect the other to bring a wholistic sense of freedom. George Michael‘s freedom say the same,

‘…All we have to see

Is that I don’t belong to you

And you don’t belong to me.

When you listen to the accompanying lyrics you realize that it is the sense of respect that people need in their life to feel free. The music that we listen to, the lyrics that we sometimes believe in or relate ourselves with are all part of human emotions. Be it everyday existence, personal or professional relationships, or even Psychological freedom, the need for respect is integral. For you, as readers and for me as a writer I feel we both need this freedom so that we can realize the importance of our co-existence. You may be an individual, you may be a partner, an employer, parent, friend, acquaintance. I may be anyone, a child, any gender, employee, someone important or invisible, but the moment we come across this powerful word of freedom, there needs to be a conscious realization that respect should never be far behind. It should be a give and take of mutual value that we give from one to the other. Freedom is about political, social, economic, religious, gender equality about the choices we make as an entity. But the sense of mutual respect must be the core of this equality. What you feel and believe gives way to the amount of respect that you give to yourself and others in every small and big aspect.

As I am trying to wrap my head around the topic of today I looked up through my glasses. I can see the sun now fully coming out. It is as if it has found the courage to find its respect or perhaps the cloud has finally found its peace with it and gave it its due respect. I am smiling with a wide grin on my contended face. I may sound cliched but to me, at this moment it is the confirmation of my belief that we all can coexist without overpowering each other. We can respect each other to bring that sense of equality. With equality, there comes a sense of responsibility to respect in return. This mutual give and take rightfully justify the idea of real freedom! It is in a way freedom of equality to respect. It may be the same for you or maybe there is more…

Literature in Life

Mowgli of This Jungle Book

January 21, 2022January 21, 2022
by Sameera Khan Rehmani

While looking out of my French Window in the City of London, it occurred to me that the struggle to make it in life has become so intense that this part of my whole has engulfed me with a strength that cannot be easily captured in images. But then I turn around and realise. However, the view outside made me see nothing but buildings, roads, and people on roads going towards buildings again. It was a jungle for me and for anyone struggling to carve a road ahead. The concrete jungle is all but a reality now not only in its physicality but also in its emotional, mental, and existential occurrence. Rudyard Kipling’s ‘Jungle Book’ in 1894 has been an interesting piece of work for me. But it resonates deeper now when I am in my 40s and realise, I am free to interpret the title and characters according to my whims and fancies in my life’s reality. Now I understand that I am not the only one in this muddle. There are so many of you standing in this line with me. Sometimes you may not even be realising yourself, but I find myself in the same race with most of you. I may sound narcissist to many; it may sound false to quite a few but the truth is, the levels may differ, the intensity may vary, but the core remains the same. We are all searching for that piece of peace that seems to erode with the harsh winds of human fatigue and rationality. For me, and for most of us, the Jungle Book is a story that follows the journey of a wild child named Mowgli. A pack of wolves found him as a baby and was raised among them. However, he had his struggles to fit in and survive. The story follows how he was raised among wolves and survived through it all without any human connection. However, I am not here to find a perspective and take on white colonialism or characters representing the involved symbolism. What I want to concentrate on is my journey or anybody else’s as well, who is sailing in a similar boat. This life around all of us and outside our vision is a Story like Rudyard Kipling’s above mentioned Jungle Book, where like its main character, we too are that wild child, who is left alone to fare for his survival. In this life, we find our journey, our story, our jungle book!

Every morning when we wake up, you and I find ourselves in a forest of ambiguity. We try to clear our morning blur because for some it is just a puddle, for others, it is a marshy land. For few, it is a bridge to cross over, but for most, it is a journey across wonderland far and wide; crossing through deep rivers, dragging over deserts with their parched throats. All of us are in a desperate search of a mere glass of cold water to smoothen out our parched souls. As we grow in life, we move ahead on the paths that we have dug for ourselves and with age comes the understanding that in dreams begins our responsibilities! But the Mowgli in all of us is still that frightened little boy who is trying to make it every single day by keeping a brave face. Every day brings a new hurdle and by the end of each evening, he finds a solution to overcome that. He must survive because that is what he was made to learn. His pack taught him what needs to be done. But they have not held his hand and drilled in him how to reach the finish line. Just like Mowgli, all of us are afraid to cross over. The end of the tunnel is dark. None of us knows what dangers lie ahead. There may be many ‘Sher Khan(s)’ along the way, with accompanying conniving hyenas, to lure us to our tragic end. But if we will ponder more, we will never be able to take that leap of faith. There is always that hope that on the brighter side we may along the way, meet a couple of Bagheera(s). These will be our guides to bring us out of our troubles and may pull us by our neck to carry us safely across the barbed wires. The Baloo, Sher Khan, Kaa, King Louie and even the Hyenas inside each one of us need to agree with what the Mowgli said in Kipling’s story; ‘we be of one blood, ye and I’, The moment we realise that we come from one and shall go back to one, we might be able to cut through the thorns of this jungle safely. We can dream to roam free when our actions will speak louder than our words. A little push there, a subtle pull in several positive directions, is enough to emotionally gratify and physically satisfy our individual Mowgli(s) within.

The story of Rudyard Kipling may have a different focus while bringing Jungle Book to life; still, we as individuals can write our own stories. We may make errors along the way but if we are ready to be an editor for each other and proofread the written content in our lives, our Jungle Book will also have a happy ending. We are sure to gain the same freedom and respect that Mowgli felt in his craving to roam about freely, with a sense of belonging to the roots known to him. The concrete jungle outside our homes, visible through our windows is equal in enormity with the jungle within us. We need to get past our racial, religious, gender, social and economic differences to bridge the divide that is our own doing. The differences that we have created for our own and the gap that is wide enough for ourselves to stumble and fall in this never-ending pit. It needs to be pushed close with a consistent effort. We desperately need to recognise the entryway but even more, what is needed is to hold each other’s hands to take us through the dark forest to see that light at the exit. Our story – your and my Jungle book needs to reach its end as well. Our Mowgli(s) need to meet each other and live in this magnificent Jungle of our own making in harmony. We can bring out the Rudyard Kipling in each of us to write many more such wonderfully wild tales!

Poetry

Duality of Visual Pleasures

December 21, 2021December 21, 2021
by Sameera Khan Rehmani

As I react to visual pleasures that lay open

And try to counter reason of their fame

Try to ask question that impartially contain

Cinematic positions with mental narration

But does it cater to male pleasure,

Or do these fantasies lie deep within us?

Are we forgetting about women themselves

Or do we blame the whole on other?

Are we even listening to gaps in response

Where base of text covers what questions we ask

Does it cater only to male pleasure

Or do these fantasies lie deep within us?

Consumers sometimes cross all boundries

melodrama remains the same throughout

desires catering to everyone present

Asks why do we restrict it to only one?

Does it cater to only male pleasures

Or do these fantasies lie deep within us?

When we try to have our afterthoughts

And sleep deeper into that visual conduct

Since we do not have freedom of invisibility

We are far away from enjoying freedom of thought

Questioning whether it really cater to male pleasure

Or do these fantasies really lie deep within us?

How about we merge the mental two

Bring them far away from their differences

Perhaps our questions wouldn’t be judged

becoming answers to the puzzles at hand that,

Does it caters only to male pleasure

Or do these fantasies lie deep within us?

Films

Existentialism of Films

October 13, 2021October 14, 2021
by Sameera Khan Rehmani

When ( Javier Bardem) Anton Chigurh character is projected in the film “No Country for Old Men”, he is shown to be a hitman who was remorseless. However he had a strange concept to perhaps justify his act of killing. That involved his belief in chance and destiny. During the span of whole film, he is shown to decide the fate of his victims by ‘flipping the coin’. The desined flip decides whether the person dies, even if the he is told in the movie by one of his client, “you don’t have to do it.” The movie which is based on the bool of same name, written by Cormac McCarthy, is infact a powerful example that seeps deeper into the psyche of audience and people at large and manages to stay alive long after the show is over.

Those who are in luck to have the capacity to decide, may not use the same for doing good. When we try to talk about the concept of existentialism in any form, we need to make sure that we lay down the basics of the philosophy clearly Then we can apply this idea in any possible field. When and person is free as well as responsible to take care of self-development keeping in mind the point of freedom, choice, individuality, responsibility and consciousness towards self, the boundary of this philosophy is understood to be covered conveniently. This has been forte of thinkers like Soren Kierkegaard and Jean Paul Sartre. Many others have followed the suit and have become a great help to peep into its relationship with other fields.

When we talk about other fields, the one that comes to mind is cinema because it is one medium that is persistent and consistent most of the individuals’ life. One way or the other we all are consuming, and synthesising the ideas, thoughts, beliefs, views depicted via this channel. Philosophy of films agrees with Deleuze that film has power to provoke the thought process Coming of Sartre into it provides an opportunity to explore cinema in a different philosophical context. His idea of existentialism has developed a very productive working boundary while interpreting a film. The early forties and early fifties need to be given visible credit for bringing the idea of existentialism in film upfront. The pallet of shooting these films was majorly in black and white with a rich texture to it, with dark shadows hindered with the neon light dribbling through blinds. The characters were evolved to be hard hitting with deep and hitting dialogues. Their character sketch was drawn to be almost living on edge surrounding with deep sexual tension. This was even termed as ‘film noir’. The genre which even today has the capacity to rise a feeling of emptiness and unrest in the audience watching and experiencing it. Since the budget was low and had its own set of complications while releasing due to the censorship restrictions regarding the deep depressive projection of life. However, despite these drawbacks, the films used to end up profiting and bad backing from the historical and political situations of the times. With the economy of the time being down the drain and people drowning further into the aftermaths of World wars and bombings and emerging and existing racial discrimination, that was the perfect timing for film noir to prevail and thrive over the bodies of broken political and human existence!

Amazon.com: 2001: A Space Odyssey : Douglas Rain, Frank Miller, Keir Dullea, William Sylvester, Gary Lockwood, Daniel Richter, Leonard Rossiter, Margaret Tyzack, Robert Beatty, Sean Sullivan, Stanley Kubrick, Stanley Kubrick, Stanley Kubrick,

Writers, actors and directors like Joel and Ethan Coen, John Turturro, Steven Soderbergh and Woody Allen and many more have credibly taken the idea of existentialism forward in their own very creative formats. These films have made existential not just due to them catering the theme but also because of the prevailing culture all around at the time which have touched not only the elite but in fact even the common man, thus resonating with population at large. So, by concerning the happenings around, the tradition has still the capacity to flourish and become a stable part of cinema to understand the idea of philosophy of ‘existentialism’. Another movie, “2001: A Space Odyssey” (1968) which was an experimental venture of Stanley Kubrick. Herebthe dialogues and the plot of the film takes a back seat because the audience is awestruck by the powerful effects and visuals which dispalys the travel in space and its mysteries that are ready to unfold. For writer Pedro Blas Gonzalez this movie philosophise his idea of an “existential odyssey” Where the character Dr. David Bowman (Keir Dullea) tries to quench his thirst to explore space thus representing the neverending search for knowledge. Such movies may have wierd and sensless endings, however they make the viewers find their own logical meaning to it, justifying the concept of existentialism in a way. These are just few snippets of what the films hold and what is their actual capacity to impart a particular understanding that can enlighten, develop and even challenges the viewers so that they can move further as far as their understanding of different concepts and theories are concerned, even if unconsciously!

Literature in Life

The Serpent and her Dark Jungle

September 21, 2021September 21, 2021
by Sameera Khan Rehmani

Sorry son if I have borrowed your story book title! I know it is your personal literature, but the moment I read it I knew that serpent is me and the jungle is mine. I claim it totally because I need to. I cannot do without this jungle. It is a big solace for me! I can hide like a deer; I can be the lion here. The monkey inside me can swing freely in its boundaries. And that long lost hyena can for sure bare its teeth for grasping the dead meat of my being. Many unsaid animals are raring to jump out of me the moment I think of entering this dark territory. Thank you for inspiring me without knowing. As I sit by my window in the fake warmth of my cosy home, I look at the red light over the construction buildings. I wait and I wonder where has this life gone? Was this the turn we as women are supposed to take every few years? Every one of us who try to pick up the pieces of their life, what are we actually thinking? What is the real reality of our existence? And I am not talking about those who have touched their pinnacle of self-satisfaction. Kudos! you all have done it. I am conversing about those who have not. The supporters, the nurturers, the lovers – So many tags are associated with to become part or whole of our identity. The identity that perhaps many of us do not even want. Still, we chug it down our throat of acceptance and revel in the title of being a real woman! When I talk to my maid, I see her perception of life quite like mine. We both need to take it all in! She has no other choice and I have made this as my choice. Big difference! When everything is fine and When I have a freedom of my speech, still there is a continuous feeling of something being just not right. The road below my apartment slithers and run to its pre-decided destination. I am that road that has accepted that decision so smoothly and with pride, that I did not even realise when I was falling too deep in the river beside.

I am that serpent which is so smooth to touch that water slips over it and flows away. The serpent that is raring to not feel the sadness and guilt of being not able to do something that satisfies the other. This slick reptile in me desperately wants to go and hide in the hole that is further hidden in the jungle of my freedom and happiness. The morning comes but there is still that darkness in here. Its comforting yet disturbing. It calming yet brings in the feeling of eeriness. I can see the skyrise across my window, I am sitting in one!

But they seem clearer and much higher. The sun there is shining brighter today. I want to be there, don’t everyone? I try to move ahead while the darkness behind me pulls me harder. I can see the cars, trucks, pedestrians crossing the bridge at their pace longingly. I want to do the same, cross the bridge at my pace. But I am running against time. I want to do so many things at one go, I need to do another set of things is a different matter. I can hear the hiss… come to the jungle deeper, faster! Do I listen, do I stay or for once should I stray? Move down the road, cross the barriers and reach there where I can see the light of the gem I have been thirsty for? The green grass up the hill calls out but my dark mossy patch is more comfortable. I know it. I have been here done all. It suits me. But the heart desires something riskier. Something that is far more dangerous that what I am comfortable with. There is a vast difference between what I want to hold on to and hat I should cling to. The comfort of my home is so deep that it becomes almost impossible to move away yet my heart wants more. It longs for what I feel is my due. The sense of respect that my kind deserves but never able to attain lurks like a burning fire deep down. Those around me tell and don’t tell me to go for it. I need to challenge me more then them. It is definitely about me not them but they always end up mattering more to me then myself. The love for universal acceptability it so high that it is almost like an adrenaline rush for me. I need to be them, loved by them, approved by them. Do I really need to? Is my jungle enough for me or do I need my holiday homes as well? I guess I do because it gets very claustrophobic sometimes being in my comfort zones. I need to go out more often and explore further, may be risk a little less a little more as well. Who know I just like it there despite it being a big bad world out there. I just might make it too.

This serpent and her jungle is ready to let go I guess. Slithering and dragging her damaged soul she is finally peeping out and ready to push her body and soul to carve her way ahead to better pastures with all the dangers as part of this package. So, let this serpent move in and out of her jungle at her pace while diminishing the divide on the side. The exclusivity needs to merge with the inclusivity of our mind to see the serpent as less evil and more of standing on the defence land in order to protect its identity. For that very ‘I’ is ‘We’.