A Lady Who Thinks She Is Thirty

A Lady Who Thinks She Is Thirty
BY Ogden Nash

Unwillingly Miranda wakes,
Feels the sun with terror,
One unwilling step she takes,
Shuddering to the mirror.

Miranda in Miranda's sight
Is old and gray and dirty;
Twenty-nine she was last night;
This morning she is thirty.

Shining like the morning star,
Like the twilight shining,
Haunted by a calendar,
Miranda is a-pining.

Silly girl, silver girl,
Draw the mirror toward you;
Time who makes the years to whirl
Adorned as he adored you.

Time is timelessness for you;
Calendars for the human;
What's a year, or thirty,
to Loveliness made woman?

Oh, Night will not see thirty again,
Yet soft her wing, Miranda;
Pick up your glass and tell me,
then-- How old is Spring, Miranda?

Frederic Ogden Nash (August 19, 1902 – May 19, 1971) was an American poet well known for his light verse. At the time of his death in 1971, the New York Times said his "droll verse with its unconventional rhymes made him the country's best-known producer of humorous poetry"

Mirror--Sylvia Plath

Mirror-Sylvia Path

I am silver and exact. I have no preconceptions.
Whatever I see I swallow immediately
Just as it is, unmisted by love or dislike.
I am not cruel, only truthful --
The eye of a little god, four-cornered.
Most of the time I meditate on the opposite wall.
It is pink, with speckles. I have looked at it so long
I think it is part of my heart. But it flickers.
Faces and darkness separate us over and over.

Now I am a lake. A woman bends over me,
Searching my reaches for what she really is.
Then she turns to those liars, the candles or the moon.
I see her back, and reflect it faithfully.
She rewards me with tears and an agitation of hands.
I am important to her. She comes and goes.
Each morning it is her face that replaces the darkness.
In me she has drowned a young girl, and in me an old woman
Rises toward her day after day, like a terrible fish.


Sylvia Plath (October 27, 1932 – February 11, 1963) was an American poet, novelist, children's author, and short story author.

Kurt Vonnegut's Short Story Rules

Here are Kurt Vonnegut's excellent rules for short story writing:

Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. (November 11, 1922 – April 11, 2007; ) was an American novelist known for works blending satire, black comedy and science fiction, such as Slaughterhouse-Five (1969), Cat's Cradle (1963), and Breakfast of Champions (1973).He was known for his humanist beliefs as well as being honorary president of the American Humanist Association

Here are Kurt Vonnegut's excellent rules for short story writing:

• Use the time of a total stranger in such a way that he or she will not feel the time was wasted.


• Give the reader at least one character he or she can root for.


• Every character should want something, even if it is only a glass of water.


• Every sentence must do one of two things -- reveal character or advance the action.*


• Start as close to the end as possible.


• Be a sadist. No matter how sweet and innocent your leading characters, make awful things happen to them -- in order that the reader may see what they are made of.


• Write to please just one person. If you open a window and make love to the world, so to speak, your story will get pneumonia.


• Give your readers as much information as possible as soon as possible. To heck with suspense. Readers should have such complete understanding of what is going on, where and why, that they could finish the story themselves, should cockroaches eat the last few pages.

Is Your Favourite Medicine Killing You?

by MONIRUPA SHETE

Many drugs that have been banned, withdrawn, or marketed under restrictions in other countries, continue to be sold in India.

Life, it seems, comes cheap for the health officials of our country. How else would you justify the existence of drugs withdrawn elsewhere in the world but still sold and prescribed in India?

Delayed Reactions

Doctors campaigning for the sensible use of drugs say that regulatory authorities in India have not addressed the issue of delays in withdrawing drugs. Eleven drugs - including cisapride, furazolidone, nimesulide and phenylpropanolamine - that have been banned, withdrawn, or marketed under restrictions in North America, Europe, and many Asian countries, continue to be sold in India.

Lax Officials

“Indian regulators are accused of laxity in not banning drugs,” says Dr Anant Phadke, city-based medical practitioner who has done extensive research on the issue. Dr Phadke however cautions that the belief that India has become a dumping ground for banned drugs is an issue too far stretched. “Regulations in India and US vary. In the US, drugs are not banned, they are withdrawn from the market. When a certain drug is found to have side affects, Indian regulatory authorities should also withdraw it from the market. Unfortunately that does not happen,” adds Dr Phadke.

Grey Areas

He explains that whenever a drug is banned by the Drug Controller of India, it should stop being available in the market. But there are times when a drug is banned yet continues to be sold for a few months till stock lasts. “There is a lot grey zone in the field,” says Dr Phadke. Dr Shirish Praya feels that drugs continue to be available over the counter because doctors keep prescribing it. “Till the time the drugs are not banned by regulatory authorities, no doctor can be blamed for prescribing it and as long as doctors keep prescribing, chemists will keep selling these drugs,” explains Dr Prayag.

Docs To Blame?

Many doctors, experts says, are unaware of the researches being conducted worldwide. “There have been campaigns against various drugs. Noted doctors keep themselves informed of the harmful side-effects of these drugs and do not prescribe them,” Dr Phadke argues. It is advisable to buy drugs only if prescribed by a doctor. Also, it is advisable to check out which company manufactures it from a reputed drug store. Remember, popping in some of these drugs can cause harm beyond repair.

Are you taking any of these?

ANALGIN: This is a pain-killer. Reason for ban: Bone marrow depression. Brand name: Novalgin

CISAPRIDE: For acidity, constipation. Reason for ban : irregular heartbeat Brand name : Ciza, Syspride

DROPERIDOL: An anti-depressant. Reason for ban : Irregular heartbeat. Brand name : Droperol

FURAZOLIDONE: An antidiarrhoeal. Reason for ban : Cancer. Brand name : Furoxone, Lomofen

NIMESULIDE: Painkiller, fever. Reason for ban : Liver failure. Brand name : Nise, Nimulid

NITROFURAZONE: An antibacterial cream. Reason for ban : Cancer. Brand name : Furacin

PHENOLPHTHALEIN: A laxative. Reason for ban : Cancer. Brand name : Agarol

PHENYLPROPANOLAMINE: For cold and cough. Reason for ban : stroke. Brand name : D'cold, Vicks Action-500

OXYPHENBUTAZONE: A non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug. Reason for ban : Bone marrow depression. Brand name : Sioril

PIPERAZINE: Anti-worms. Reason for ban : Nerve damage. Brand name : Piperazine

QUINIODOCHLOR: An Anti-diarrhoeal. Reason for ban : Damage to sight. Brand name : Enteroquinol

Placebo : Cure By Illusion

Placebo : Cure By Illusion
K V Seetharamaiah
health.indiatimes.com

The placebo effect is the measurable, observable, or felt improvement in health not attributable to treatment. This effect is believed by many people to be due to the placebo itself in some mysterious way.

A placebo (Latin for “I shall please”) is a medication or treatment believed by the administrator of the treatment to be inert or innocuous. Placebos may be sugar pills or starch pills. Even “fake” surgery and “fake” psychotherapy are considered placebos. Researchers and medical doctors sometimes give placebos to patients. Anecdotal evidence for the placebo effect is garnered in this way. Those who believe there is scientific evidence for the placebo effect point to clinical studies, many of which use a control group treated with a placebo. Why an inert substance, or a fake surgery or therapy, would be effective is not known

The Psychological Theory: It's All In Your Mind
Some believe the placebo effect is psychological, due to a belief in the treatment or to a subjective feeling of improvement. Irving Kirsch, a psychologist at the University of Connecticut, believes that the effectiveness of Prozac and similar drugs may be attributed almost entirely to the placebo effect.

He and Guy Sapirstein analyzed 19 clinical trials of antidepressants and concluded that the expectation of improvement, not adjustments in brain chemistry, accounted for 75 percent of the drugs' effectiveness (Kirsch 1998).

"The critical factor," says Kirsch, "is our beliefs about what's going to happen to us. You don't have to rely on drugs to see profound transformation." In an earlier study, Sapirstein analyzed 39 studies, done between 1974 and 1995, of depressed patients treated with drugs, psychotherapy, or a combination of both. He found that 50 percent of the drug effect is due to the placebo response.

A person's beliefs and hopes about a treatment, combined with their suggestibility, may have a significant biochemical effect. Sensory experience and thoughts can affect neurochemistry. The body's neurochemical system affects and is affected by other biochemical systems, including the hormonal and immune systems. Thus, it is consistent with current knowledge that a person's hopeful attitude and beliefs may be very important to their physical well-being and recovery from injury or illness.

However, it may be that much of the placebo effect is not a matter of mind over molecules, but of mind over behavior. A part of the behavior of a "sick" person is learned. So is part of the behavior of a person in pain. In short, there is a certain amount of role-playing by ill or hurt people. Role-playing is not the same as faking or malingering.

The behavior of sick or injured persons is socially and culturally based to some extent. The placebo effect may be a measurement of changed behavior affected by a belief in the treatment. The changed behavior includes a change in attitude, in what one says about how one feels, and how one acts. It may also affect one's body chemistry.

The psychological explanation seems to be the one most commonly believed. Perhaps this is why many people are dismayed when they are told that the effective drug they are taking is a placebo. This makes them think that their problem is "all in their mind" and that there is really nothing wrong with them. Yet, there are too many studies which have found objective improvements in health from placebos to support the notion that the placebo effect is entirely psychological.

Luis Buñuel &his Viridiana

After 25 years' exile, Luis Buñuel(The father of cinematic Surrealism and one of the most original directors in the history of the film medium, Luis Buñuel was given a strict Jesuit education,which sowed the seeds of his obsession with both religion and subversive behavior) was invited to his native Spain to direct Viridiana -- only to have the Spanish government suppress the film on the grounds of blasphemy and obscenity. Regarded by many as Buñuel's crowning achievement, the film centers on an idealistic young nun named Viridiana It is always hard to select the most outrageous scene in any Buñuel film; our candidate in Viridiana is the devastating Last Supper tableau consisting of beggars, thieves, and degenerates. As joltingly brilliant today as on its first release, Viridiana won the Golden Palm at the Cannes Film Festival

Synopsis-Viridiana

The film focuses on a young novitiate about to take her vows named Viridiana (Silvia Pinal), who is told by her Mother Superior that she should visit her uncle, Don Jaime (Fernando Rey), her only living relative. After some time on his large country estate, he tries to seduce her, believing that she resembles his deceased wife. Hearing of his desire to marry her, Viridiana attempts to flee the house immediately, but is subdued by Jaime and drugged with the help of his servant Ramona. He takes her to her room and considers raping her in her sleep, but decides otherwise. The next morning he tells her that he took her virginity, and says that therefore she cannot return to her convent. By this means he intends to make her wish to stay, but instead she is disgusted and starts to pack. He tries to rectify the situation by telling her that he lied, hoping it would convince her to stay, but this does little to appease her. He asks for her forgiveness, but she ignores him and leaves the house. She is on the way back to the convent when the authorities stop her, telling her something terrible has happened.

Back at the house, her uncle has hanged himself. Viridiana collects the village paupers, returns to the estate, and installs them in an outbuilding. Shunning the convent, she instead devotes herself to the moral education and feeding of this exceedingly motley group.

Meanwhile, Don Jaime's son, Jorge (Francisco Rabal), moves into the house with his girlfriend, Lucia. He, like his father, lusts after Viridiana, who scorns him. A model of moral rectitude, Viridiana will soon suffer for her good deeds. When they all leave to visit a lawyer in the town, the paupers break into the house, initially just planning to look around. But, faced with such bounty, things degenerate into a drunken, riotous orgy—all to the strains of Handel's Messiah.

Posing for a photo (sans camera) around the table, the beggars resemble Da Vinci's Last Supper. This scene, in particular, earned the film the Vatican's opprobrium. The members of the household return earlier than expected to find the house in shambles. As Jorge and Viridiana walk around the house in shock, the beggars excuse themselves and leave without explaining their behaviour. Jorge continues to inspect the house upstairs and encounters a beggar who pulls a knife on him. Another beggar comes from behind and breaks a bottle over Jorge's head, knocking him out. When Viridiana arrives, she sees Jorge on the floor and runs to his side, but is then overpowered by the two beggars.

Viridiana would surely have been raped except that Jorge, who is tied up, bribes one beggar to kill the other. Viridiana is a changed woman as the film concludes: her crown of thorns is symbolically burnt. Wearing her hair loosely, she knocks on Jorge's door, but finds Ramona, with Jorge in his bedroom. With "Shake Your Cares Away" on the record player, Jorge tells Viridiana that they were only playing cards, and urges her to join them, a conclusion that is often seen as implying a ménage à trois.

Personal Quotes of Luis Buñuel

I have a soft spot for secret passageways, bookshelves that open into silence, staircases that go down into a void, and hidden safes. I even have one myself, but I won't tell you where. At the other end of the spectrum are statistics which I hate with all my heart.

[When asked why he made movies] To show that this is not the best of all possible worlds.

I've always found insects exciting.

Nothing would disgust me more morally than winning an Oscar.

Thank God, I'm an atheist.

Sex without religion is like cooking an egg without salt. Sin gives more chances to desire.
I can only wait for the final amnesia, the one that can erase an entire life.

All my life I've been harassed by questions: Why is something this way and not another? How do you account for that? This rage to understand, to fill in the blanks, only makes life more banal. If we could only find the courage to leave our destiny to chance, to accept the fundamental mystery of our lives, then we might be closer to the sort of happiness that comes with innocence.

You have to begin to lose your memory, if only in bits and pieces, to realize that memory is what makes our lives. Life without memory is no life at all, just as an intelligence without the possibility of expression is not really an intelligence. Our memory is our coherence, our reason, our feeling, even our action. Without it, we are nothing.

The bar . . . is an exercise in solitude. Above all else, it must be quiet, dark, very comfortable - and, contrary to modern mores, no music of any kind, no matter how faint. In sum, there should be no more than a dozen tables, and a client that doesn't like to talk.

If someone were to prove to me right this minute that God, in all his luminousness, exists, it wouldn't change a single aspect of my behavior.

'God and Country' are an unbeatable team; they break all records for oppression and bloodshed. Give me two hours a day of activity, and I'll take the other twenty-two in dreams.
Tobacco and alcohol, delicious fathers of abiding friendships and fertile reveries.

A paranoiac, like a poet, is born, not made.

Fortunately, somewhere between chance and mystery lies imagination, the only thing that protects our freedom, despite the fact that people keep trying to reduce it or kill it off altogether.

Let Us Have Madness

Let Us Have Madness

Kenneth Patchen

Let us have madness openly.

O men Of my generation.

Let us follow

The footsteps of this slaughtered age:

See it trail across Time's dim land

Into the closed house of eternity

With the noise that dying has,

With the face that dead things wear--

nor ever say

We wanted more;

we looked to find

An open door, an utter deed of love,

Transforming day's evil darkness;

but We found extended hell and fog Upon the earth,

and within the head

A rotting bog of lean huge graves.

Kenneth Patchen (December 13 1911 – January 8 1972) was an American poet and novelist.Though he denied any direct connection, Patchen's work and ideas regarding the role of artists paralleled those of the Dadaists and Surrealists. Patchen's ambitious body ofwork also foreshadowed literary art-forms ranging from reading poetry to jazzaccompaniment to his late experiments with visual poetry