An Encounter with Green Zone Living I just noticed a formatting problem on the published article. Many of the quotation marks somehow are transformed to question marks. Editors, please correct.
Readers, sorry for the inconvenience.

An Encounter with Green Zone Living Re#4: The stories at the GZL website are not meant to explore the theoretical basis and the clinical techniques of the GZL. This article attempts to make that knowledge accessible. It is an exploration of 'behind the scene' work that goes into such enterprises. The theory and practice of GZL as explained in this article is based on interviews and correspondence with the founders of GZL. Moreover, it was reviewed and agreed upon by them before publishing.
Only a dimwit cannot see difference between a story and a dissertation. I hope you are not the one; you might just have not read it carefully or you are just one of those who has nothing else to do but troll on the Internet with ever-changing nicks.
Go and be in your green zone. Staying in yellow and red for any length of time will damage your capacity of understanding further. (I said 'further' as your last sentence indicates your incapacity to put together a sentence coherently)
And what about new age BS question? no reply to that!

An Encounter with Green Zone Living Re: # 2. What kind of link do you see between new age BS and the scientific principles/techniques of Green Zone Living as expounded in this article? You may have a point but you need to prove it. Otherwise, it seems either you have not read the article closely or you are unable to comprehend it properly. Hiding behind new nick to deliver unfounded judgments is tantamount to intellectual cowardice.

Seven Reasons to Kill A character in Dostoevsky’s novel says, it is only man who can kill just for sport. He was not talking about animals; he meant killing other humans. He was describing war atrocities where the victorious warriors would tear apart a pregnant woman and throw the baby in the air and catch it on the spear and like. How sad and pathetic.

It is true man kills on various pretexts, but he also manipulates pretexts with ulterior motives. It is simplistic to say that only religion is responsible for violence. There are other forces behind the scenes that use religion to incite violence to promote their self-interests. I believe forgetting that fact is like treating illness for symptoms only and ignoring the underlying causes.

Man's inability to stem the violence (as is evident from the fact that last hundred or so years have seen more killings than any other epoch) is intriguing in itself and defies the logic. What then all the so called progress and civilization has given us and what lessons this state of affair it is begging us to learn?

Interestingly, (or ironically) the ending of the article echoes the famous edited verse of Quran(5:32) "...whosoever kills a human being … it shall be as if he had killed all mankind, and whoso saves a life of one, it shall be as if he had saved the life of all mankind,."

Mutaal Mooquin

Plastics In Our Environs Great to read this article. Well done Junaid. These are important issues and are linked to other social issues. Brining awareness about these is a worthy effort.

This article reminded me of my poem about the same topic when I was attempting to write one poem for each one of the environmental issues and was posting it in our office bulletin board:

The Plastic Kills

This shopping bag I carry my dear
Is one of one trillion used a year.
If I do not make sure it’s safely disposed
And follow its tracks to find where it goes
I may be in for the shock of my life.

We all see it litter the landscape
It might travel to an unlikely place.
It may enter into a waste carrying pipe
And cause a grimy overflow in a swipe
Flooding the roadways, havoc for all.

We know it litters shores and seascapes
But don’t know it kills turtles and whales.
One hundred thousand of marine life
By this little plastic every year die.
Nature cannot deal with this cunning piece.

To make this plastic of whatever worth
We deplete petro-fluids drawn from the earth
And use further resources on factory floors
And precious landfills speedily choke.
A little convenience of fatal results

This shopping bag I carry my dear
Is one of one trillion used a year.
Each bag shortens our capacity to live
A wound to our planet we continually give.

Mutaal Mooquin

(http://www.chowk.com/ilogs/67233/47644)

Sunshine #7. Many writers of SE origin have taken a similar view. No doubt English being virtually lingua-franca provides a much larger platform. Writing in English also contributes towards bridge building between people of different cultures. Therefore, I believe your decision to write more in English will be significant one in your aspirations.

Interestingly, and fortunately, there is lot of good material available in English on writing. For ESL People like us, peculiar areas of language pose difficulties. For me it is the use of articles. I use 'the' in many places where I should not and vice versa. Also, I tend to use lot of adverbs. Third, I tend to write long (or long-winded) sentences. Fourth, I make mistakes in coordinating tenses. All such issues were identified ‘clearly’ (using adverb again) when I start showing my writing to a professional editor. The lessons I learned were invaluable. I have learned a lot but still had to do lot of revisions and still the Editor finds mistakes.

I have not read your articles as my editor would read mine. And I don't mean to sound critical. Just making the point that writing simple, effective and good English - though on one hand comes naturally from heart - also demands hard work.

You have all that takes to make you a good writer. But there are no limits for excellence.
I continuously read, glance, review, consult books on the art and craft of writing. On craft of writing, a book that I have no hesitation in recommending is "On Writing Well" by William Zinsser. On art of writing you may find Margaret Atwood’s “Negotiating with the Dead: A Writer on Writing� an interesting read. For a reference manual, a good one is “Redford Handbook for Writers�.
The main thing is to read a lot. I would recommend you to read all classical and famous modern short stories. I found some anthologies having excellent collections like “Heath’s Anthology of Short Stories�

Encouraged by your comments, and knowing that you can appreciate the feedback in positive spirit, the following is my humble attempt at suggesting a couple of revisions for the first few lines:

Shutting all the doors, he left me in complete darkness. Curtains of my lavishly decorated but barely lit bedroom were fully drawn. I could hardly see a thing in the room. I pulled myself up from the bed, and dragged myself to begin my day as a routine to be followed as per his instructions.

(the first sentence changed for clarity in use of tense. Combined the next two sentences into one. The reason: “The room was barely lit like always� does not convey meaning immediately. In last sentence, added words to emphasize the situation)

In my experience, I have found a skilled editor can be a great help. Wish I could reach to that level. My attempt may not be good enough, but tried for honest feedback.

Sunshine Can't agree more with #4 about not giving away your thought process. I had regrettably made such mistakes.

Nikhat, This metaphorical story, just like your art posted as Gallery, speaks volume about how it pains you to see this ubiquitous suppression of half of humanity. I like such works which tells of 'agony and ecstasy' of the writer - and show that the writer has something significant to say. Some linguistic polishing can further enhance its effectiveness, and you know there is always room for such things. Overall, a worthy and commendable piece.

I am glad to see at FP. Congratulations and keep it up ...

Payback: Debt and the Shadow Side of Wealth From Anne, recived via e-mail, posted with permission:

"I listened to these lectures (delivered in M.A.'s distinctive dry and drawly voice) and was struck by the depth of her research and her story-teller's way of laying out the horrors of indebtedness on many levels. All my life I have been struck by people's willingness to borrow, especially for things with no lasting value, things that can't be sold to pay off a debt in the event of a catastrophe that cuts off one's income. I have been appalled by the culture of greed, endless consumption and disposability that we have been living in for decades...always wondered what would halt it. People just got used to borrowing, lulled by advertising and reassured by ever-rising incomes. I used to feel so sad for the poor, who weren't part of this "prosperity" but if forced to borrow for necessities, had to deal with loan sharks, gangs etc. or else lose the little they had.

From my fear and mistrust of debt, I always taught my children never to borrow and to always pay their bills on time, leaving no balance. They do that and are grateful for having that philosophy.

Although I know you as a poet, it didn't surprise me in the least to read a review by you of this book. It's an issue of conscience and humanism. You captured her content and style so well.

Anne

Payback: Debt and the Shadow Side of Wealth Re: # 3 Atwood had surprised me with depth of her views and by bringing such a fresh and educative angle into this topic and that inspired me to write this review. Thanks for your comments.

You have brought a good point about the need to differentiate between the commercial practices talked about in Quran in the historical context and the practices of today's economy, but of course that is another topic. Atwood have alluded to it in a more cultural context.

As mentioned in #4, Atwood had used debt as a motif for spiritual transaction. The para from her work that I have referred in the article is quite revealing. I read it couple of times to enjoy its scope; specially see this sentence, "In fact, the whole theology of Christianity rests on the notion of spiritual debts and what must be done to repay them, and how you might get out of paying by having someone else pay instead.�

I liked the term you have coined / used - the 'market dictatorship'. This is a huge topic, but the brief comment to add to your take is that the answer is in creating the balance. However, the challenge is how to do it.

Payback: Debt and the Shadow Side of Wealth Re: # 2 There are two types of verses that cite commercial transactions in Quran. One which use it as a metaphor for spiritual transactions and the other which actually refer to good / bad practices in daily commercial dealings. Atwood in her work has referred to the motif of debt in the former sense.

Of course, her frame of reference was Christianity. While making this comment, I realized that even great writers in West are little exposed to the traditions of other religions, in particular of Islam. That is why we need to work on building the bridges of understanding. That is the only way to move forward from present mess of polarization. Seed of all big changes are sowed in the minds first.

Thanks for your interest and appreciation.

Payback: Debt and the Shadow Side of Wealth The footnote reads on:

Margaret Atwood's lectures were broadcast on CBC Radio and are available as podcast at http://www.cbc.ca/ideas/massey/massey2008.html.
The book was published by House of Anansi Press. Its adaptation as a documentary film is being planned.

Obama\'s 100 Days of Presidency Re: # 11 when I come to think of it, it seems strange how the duality of life makes the middle ground always so elusive. It is such a paradox. And there are no easy answers. Often, it reminds me of 'Candide' who went searching for meaning all over the continents, and finding none, at the end came back home and said, "Let's till our garden" What a simple ending of a complex story.
But how this can be viewed - pessimism or optimism - or transcending both? Answer lies with the reader.

Obama\'s 100 Days of Presidency Re: # 7 I hear you Delirium, but as I said earlier the man is already making too many compromises.
See for example this video, though it is humor, but comedy often is nakedly true.
http://www.chowk.com/ilogs/71729/47644
I was elated as many others, (my Before poem) and then later I was disappointed, particularly after watching his performance during Europe tour, where he appeared less of statesman and more of salesman.
My harsh words in the After poem are pointing not as much to the person but more to the system - that unruly beast.
Can the Kenyan kid rein over it, to bring the change he thought he can - maybe in his naivety. To me, the answer is already becoming clear within these 100 days. But, let us give him more time and let us talk again on this topic, after – umm, how much time you say, 100 weeks. I am willing to bet, Are you?

Obama\'s 100 Days of Presidency Re: # 6 Not exactly, but at occasions it does feel like that.

Obama\'s 100 Days of Presidency Re: # 5 No doubt Obama is better than Bush, but Bush was one of the worst Presidents in history (by many accounts and by many studies by American journalists.)
In my poem(s), I have tried to capture more intense sentiments on both sides of the spectrum - using a bit of poetic liberties. It is true he himself as a person may not be that horrible, but he is making too many compromises, which may make him end up just as another one on the junk heap of history. And that is very sad. At one point, just for that reason, I was wishing that he does not win. The odds against any real change from the top down are huge; however, from the bottom up is a different story.

Obama\'s 100 Days of Presidency Re: # 2, glad you liked the poem Eklavya bhai. Within my life time, or maybe shortly thereafter, either a global revolution will take place or all will be wiped out as we know it ... just a poetic intuition ... it is not matter of need, it is matter of natural course ...

(Disclaimer: I am not a philosopher, nor a historian, nor a theologist, nor a political commentator, nor a socialist, nor an activist - just no body - so no one should take my words seriously - however, if these stimulate some thought or give some enjoyment of art, I am the one happy soul.)