Catalysts and reaction

The squirrel watches from the twig of the tree.

I can no more stand the sight of him

Staring at you,

As you indulge carelessly on some spree.

Those colorful tulips don't belong here.

As you pass by

They vigorously smell the aroma of your body

That you leave behind in the air.

The herd of sheep graze calmly on the green meadow.

I resent them daydreaming about you,

As you watch the beautiful horizon beyond the land

Sitting by the window.

The nightingale sings in his melodious voice.

Lost in erotic fantasy with you,

Watches your limbs and bosoms

As you move around in rejoice.

*** *** ***

"No! No more I can stand it. No more."

The smile in my face is the reflection of your glowing beauty.

The silence in your presence is the meditation.

And the hue of my heart is the painful yearning of you.

I admit it: "I love you."

Kill the faces

Faces-
Faces colored with joy
Conceal the pain.
The inside is shattered with turmoil
But outside looks so calm and plain.
Who taught you to go behind the walls;
Hide inside those coverings that baffle humanity?
Faces are fake.

Faces- dark, wodden masks,
Shadowing your self.
Who are you?
Why are you afraid to show you true self?
Why do you want to look like others?
Faces are evil.

Kill the face
Can you?
And show me you true self,
Let me see the turmoil in you.
Please, be brave!
Kill that ugly face.

My heart wept...

My heart wept-

Like a child missing his mother,

Like a young lad left by his lover,

Like a old dying man forced to say goodbye to his life.

In this plain land lying across like a carpet,

I remembered the mountains that I'd left,

I remembered the paddy fields where I had slept.

The flowing blue rivers, the dark green forests,

The narrow streets, where I had ran,

The old artistic houses,

The temple besides the river,

The monastery on the top of the hill,

My acquaintances, my love-

All I left to achieve something that now seems so vain.

I wait to the day, when I shall be back

To embrace my beautiful land,

Then my heart shall be happy.

The Crucible

When the knowledge is blinded by prejudice and superstitions disastrous accidents happen. The knowledge we have evolves as the time passes by and our efforts to learn more. When we fail learn and root them in our minds we make some mistakes that haunts us till the end of our civilization. "The Crucible", movie based on famous play "The Crucible" by Arthur Miller recounts such mistake made by our predecessors. The movie depicts the cruel "witch hunting" episode of 1692 in Salem, Masachussets. The 1996 Fox Production that took away Best Screenplay at the Oscars is directed by Nicholas Hytner (Great job!).

As the movie begins, a minister finds a bunch of erotic girls dancing, some even naked, with his daughter Betty and niece Abigail together. (Sexual repression caused by religious forbiddance) Betty pretends to be unconscious afraid of her father while the other minister suspects the probability of witch. A pastor John Hale, who is known for witch tracing, is summoned to investigate. Girls suffer from mass hysteria as the investigation is going on and the ministers call it act of devil. (Bad luck! Freud was not born.) The girls claim to have seen the devil and blame innocent people of having pact with devil as the afraid maid, who led the dance, confesses. Judge Thomas arrives to investigate furthur and punish the accused, who are later hung if didn't confess that evil act. Meanwhile, Abigail, sly and cunning, plans to have vengence with Elizabeth, who had fired her from job for having affair with her husband John Proctor. When John refuses to have relationship, she accuses Elizabeth to be witch. John is also accused of being devil (He claims "God is dead!"), in his dismal and desperate effort to free his innocent wife. He is given a chance to confess to save his life but refuses. At least 19 people are hung for having pact with devil.

The great story is powered by some superb performances. You hate sly Abigail (Winoa Ryder). You pity helpless John(Daniel Day-Lewis). You love forgiving Elizabeth(Joan Allen, who won Oscar nomination for the role) and laugh at well educated but prejuidiced Judge Thomas (Paul Scofield). The dialogues are good but subtexts takes the breathe away. The other striking part of the movie is its background score (by George Fenton) that thrills and takes us to the 17th century. The location of picturization and the costumes used portray the society vividly but are sometimes monotonous.

Ode to my Mom

In those fearful, deadly nights
When I walk alone in the darkness;
I see a pair of beautiful gleaming eyes
Of a beautiful lady.
When I look into those black, resolute eyes
Power streams into my veins.
The fear of the darkness vanishes
My will strenthens to find the ray of light.
Her strong and calm face radiates love-
Illuminates my soul.
She then stretches her arms forward;
I want to run towards her and hug her,
And rest my head on her warm bosoms.
But I can't
As I am thousand miles away from her.
Desperately I see in her face;
I can see tears trickling down her cheeks
And I hear her say in her soft tender voice:
"I only showed you the world, Son.
If you want to conquer it
You must do it on your own."

Desdemona

"Desdemona: A play about a handkerchief" by Paula Vozel was presented at Welsbacher theatre from Wednesday to Sunday. The play directed by Adrienne Matzen was based on the tragic play Othello by William Shakespeare. The playwright put a new perspective to the events of Othello.

The play was a good illustration of how vivid imagination of a playwright can make things more interesting. The use of sexuality to show that innocent Desdemona was not actually honest to her husband tries to cut the tragedy of the play but adds a new sensation. The presentation of 21st century Desdemona, who is convinced of her right to choose other options when she is dissatisfied with the relationship, appears interesting. The director certainly had put a lot of effort and imagination to present the play. The director is successful in transforming Desdemona from a frail, innocent to disguised bad woman. The other plus point of the play was excellent performance by the actresses. The amazing acting of the actresses actually persuades the audience to believe the idea of the playwright. The performance was the most valuable part of the play. All the three actresses Kim Liebenberg (Desdemona), Carrie Allen (Emily) and specially Camille Schmierer (Bianca) were fabulous. The technical aspect of the play was good too. The use small stage in such an effective way made the audience feel as if the part of the play. The lights were used effectively to change situations while background of the stage was good too. Costume and make-up were successful in presenting the traits of the characters.

The play was good but there were certain things that could have, if changed, made play even better. The presentation of sexuality was not too convincing. The experiment was good and entertaining but not artistic for sure. The presentation of Desdemona as a woman, who keeps relationship with other to find one, whom she could satisfy with, rather than for money could have been better. It seems as though feminism is taken light-heartedly for mere enjoyment when it could have been used to create artistic and intense in feeling by using a "desperate Desdemona trying to find out a way". The dialogues were pretty confusing because of the use of different accents.

Overall, the 68 minute play was entertaining and worth watching but not as artistic as one expects. It surprised audience- totally different from what one would expect.

Watching 'Singing in the Rain'

We had a movie shown in our 'Art of Theater' class. 'Singing in the Rain' by Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen. It was a musical romantic comedy produced in 1951/2. The stars included Gene Kelly, Donald O'Connor, Debbie Reynolds and Jean Hagan.

The story starts with the premiere of the movie 'The Royal Rascal' in which Don Lockwood(Gene Kelly) and Lima Lamant(Jean Hagan) and Don tells about his struggle to become such a superstar. Don is silent screen star. He is very famous and adored by the fans. One day running away from the fans he meets Kathy Sheldon(Debbie Reynolds) who says that silent movie actors are not real actors. Don is surprised but falls in love with her. They meet again at the after screen party and she runs away. In the meantime, the producer, owner of Monumental pictures introduces the talkie. The first talkie 'The Jazz Singer' is produced and becomes a huge hit. The producer think of making a talkie starring Don and Lima. They produce "The Duelling Cavalier". Many technical problems come and the movie is worst. Then Don, Cosmo Brown(Donald O'Connor) and Kathy plan to turn it into a musical. They put some new songs and dances and Kathy dubs the voice for Lima and the movie turns into a huge success. Lima envies Kathy and tries to take all the praises of the movie herself. But her actual voice is displayed when she tries to make speech and sing. The movie ends with Kathy and Don in love and becoming a huge movie star.

The movie is hilarious and energetic. The dance sequences of Gene Kelly and Donald O'Connor is wonderful. Music, by Adolf Green, is beautiful too. The story is simple and reveals a lot about the film industry of late 20s when talkies were just introduced. The performance of all the actors is good but Donald O'Connor and Jean Hagan have performed extraordinarily. Specially, O'Connor is awesome with his one liners. The choreography is fabulous. Overall, the movie is entertaining as well as informative.

Preacher MOSS's comedy lecture

Whichita State University Student's Activities Council invited Preacher Moss for lecture on "Racism". He was comic and deeply effective in his style of presentation. It was nice to hear from a black muslim american and everybody roaring with laughter.

His message was loud and clear. He just wanted to say that there are no such things as race. Every problem on arises when we talk about races. In USA if you call a black person an American everything is ok why do we need to call that person a black. The root of all racism is clinging on a thought a refusing to change, which he calls 'constipation'. If you can't digest new ideas then you are surely constipated. And constipation surely is helping to flourish racism. The other effective things he said was at the end of the lecture. He asked everyone to stand and put forward our hands and open the palm. He then talked about the five letter thing. We are 'human'
and we live on 'earth' . 'Black', 'White', 'Latin', 'Asian' everything has five letter. 'Unity', 'Peace', 'Happy' all have five words each. Other stuffs included his personal experience of being victim of racism.

Overall, he was hilariously serious. His wit and knowledge was deeply compelling.

DRAMA REVIEW: FREEZEFRAME

'FreezeFrame ' acclaimed for it's playwright and winner of 32nd Annual Playwright Contest was staged at Wilner Auditorium at WSU. Penned by Deborah Yarchun and directed by Dannette Baker, the play focused on issue of lost college going youths in the hi-tech world.

The plot revolves around the four characters of the play: Paul, Aliyah, Mark and Brianna. Paul, a photographer as well, lives with a dark secret in his heart. He prefers to remain introvert.Paul darkest secret turns out to be the charge he had faced of molesting his brothers, whom he says he loved, for taking their nude bathing photo. His consciousness of guilt constrains him from admitting his faith on God and love to his girlfriend, Brianna. Brianna, a fashion major, is always anxious as if she's not got what she ought to. Her desire turns out to be sexual as Mark makes her consious of it. Mark, a careless freak, loves the company of video games and marijuana and saucy relationship with women. Aliyah, cold and murderous, is omniscient and omnipresent. She is in mission to what she calls "freezing the man's soul". She eventually changes into a normal person with mortal emotions and feelings. The play ends as the time arrives when Mark uses his invetion to go back to the past.

The plot was mediocre but the message was loud and clear. The issue of sexuality, change and inhumanity in this hi-tech world was not tough to infer and easily tackled. The play was beautifully staged with artistic set design . The division of stage to show different places belonging to character and performing simultaneously at the same time was praisworthy as well as bewildering. The actors gave superb performance; applauded for a long time by the viewers. Light, costumes and multimedia were used beautifully to flow the plot, playing the part of fifth character. The dialogues were full of jargons, slangs and one-liners to strongly redeem the lacklustre of the plot while the monologues were used to gauge the depth of the matter.

Overall, the playwright didn't stand upto the acclaimed it had recieved but a beautiful play to watch. A lot of confusion but entertaining and sensous.