Long journey came to an end.
Showcasing revealed at the end.
Moment of joy followed by sorrow.
Body and heart became hollow.
Disease of trust rests uncured.
As betrayal continued its go.
Insane actions with thorny words.
Situation was out of control.
Changing colours like chameleon.
He was a moron.
Fake expression and always lied.
A deceiver was sitting beside.
Doing all in the name of a supporter.
He turned out to be a traitor.
Realization came too late.
As the damage was already made.
Life taught a good lesson.
Trusting should be a cautious lesson.
Deceiver do not come with prior notice.
As they always pretend to be supportive.
They always pretend to be supportive.
- Ashish Kumar
Month: July 2021
Book Review – When Bad Things Happen to Good People – Harold S. Kushner
Life is full of good and bad moments. We desire to be happy but sometimes few tragedies hurt us a lot. Life offers both pain and pleasure. When bad incidents happen and that too at a sudden, we are ruined from inside. Often there are many of us who might have done good to many but have faced bad moments. When we are good, we expect life to be good to us but when life hurt us despite of being good in life, few questions come in our mind: Why this happened to me and Why bad things happen to good people? In the classis book titled “When Bad Things Happen to Good People”, the author, Harold S. Kushner provides some good insights about the general feeling of humans and also tries to figure out the answer to the above questions.
The Background: Harold Kushner wrote this book dedicated to his son, Aaron who was detected with the disease “Progeria”, rapid aging. Aaron was only three years old when he was diagnosed with Progeria and would maximum continue till his early teens. Aaron died two days after his 14th birthday. Kushner was a rabbi, and it was very difficult for him to digest this incident of knowing his son would die at early teens due to a rare disease, Progeria. All his life, Kushner did good, helped many people and was always ready to any social cause. The untimely demise of his son made him to think on the notion of God, whether this was the punishment given by God to good people and that too in the form of his son’s death. The author had brilliantly provided very argumentative analysis about God and his notions that most of us perceive. The choice of good and bad and whether it is the God who is responsible for all the happenings in this world including happening of bad things to good people. This makes the book a very interesting read.
About the Author
Harold Samuel Kushner is a prominent rabbi and author. Born on 3rd April 1935 in Brooklyn, New York, he graduated from Columbia University and have received six honorary doctorates. He is best known for his books, When Bad Things Happen to Good People (1981) and When All You’ve Ever Wanted Isn’t Enough (1986).
When Bad Things Happen to Good People is his best-selling book which he wrote following the premature death of his son, Aaron due to Progeria. In 2007, Harold Kushner was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award by Jewish Book Council.
About the Book
When Bad Things Happen to Good People was published in 1981. As mentioned earlier, Kushner wrote this book in memory of his son, Aaron. The book is a very good read which deals about human sufferings, God, Omnipotence and theodicy.
Throughout the book, the author has raised many questions about God and why bad things happen to good people. When good people suffer any turmoil which makes their life difficult to live, people starts asking below questions:
- Why did this happen to me?
- Do I deserve to be treated like this?
- Is this a kind of punishment that God offers to his followers?
- What did I do that I deserve this?
- How God can be so cruel to give punishment to innocent people, for wrongdoing of others?
The book provides a very good discussion on the above questions. The initial chapters will make readers to think that what we have been taught about God and his doings including running of this universe will seems to be only an attractive answer. The author had brilliantly provided argumentative analysis about God and his limitations. Reader may think about the general perceived notion of “what we get is what we deserve”, if it is really the case.
The idea that God gives people what they deserve, that our misdeeds cause or misfortune, is neat and attractive solution of problem of evil at several levels, but it has a number of serious limitations. It teaches people to blame themselves. It creates guilt even when there is no basis for guilt. It makes people to hate God, even as it makes them hate themselves. And most disturbing of all, it does not even fit the facts.
There is good discussion on the sufferings of righteous person and a wicked person. There are so many examples from author’s life journey where he has given a good insights about the sufferings of many like, parents losing their children, living with multiple sclerosis, accidents, retarded children etc. It might be true that sometimes we have to do painful things to people we love for their benefit, but not every painful thing that happens to us is beneficial.
The author has provided a good argument on why God will create sufferings to the people in order to learn compassion and gratitude? Why should God distort someone else’s life to such a degree in order to enhance our spiritual sensitivity? Such kind of questions and arguments provided in response to those questions makes this book a beautiful read.
There are few incidents which happens accidently and blaming God for those is not a good thing, as per the author. According to Kushner, the accidents, plane crash, train accidents, falling off a bridge etc. are not the punishments provided by God. If that is so, then this mean God is selective. He is selective because if the plane crashed and killed many passengers and few only got injured and few got minor injuries, the outcome is not uniform and what about those passengers who missed the flight? So the person who missed the flight should thank God for not boarding the flight because his life was safe? And what about those who boarded the flight on time? Such kind of examples and arguments will make you think for a while, after reading the book. God is not selective, sometimes there is no reason. These events do not reflect God’s choices. They happen at random, and randomness is another name of chaos.
God has made this universe and the law of nature is uniform and there is no discrepancy in it. One of the things that makes the world livable is the fact that the laws of nature are precise and reliable and always work the same way. Everything has some pros and cons, and this has been discussed so well in this book. We cannot live without gravity but at the same need to live with its dangers. Harold Kushner provides answer to the cause of bad things happening to good people. God is the creature of universe and law of nature which is uniform, and God does not reach down to interrupt the workings of laws of nature to protect the righteous from harm: this is an area which causes bad things to happen to good people and God does not cause it and cannot stop it. One should read the book for such interesting discussion.
Often it is said that it is the environment, upbringing and people suffering which makes them cruel and futile. Some becomes criminal and some kills many innocent people. People become like that because they are the victims of circumstances. Kushner had provided a very crucial point on this notion in the below excerpt:
To say of Hitler, to say of any criminal, that he did not choose to be bad but was a victim of his upbringing, is to make all morality, all discussion of right and wrong, impossible. It leaves unanswered the question of why people in similar circumstances did not all become Hitlers. But worse, to say “It is not his fault, he was not free to choose” is to rob a person of his humanity, and reduce him to the level of an animal who is similarly not free to choose between right and wrong.
Why people in similar circumstances did not all become Hitlers? An unanswered question. Read the book for more such mind blogging discussions. The author has given a good insights on sufferings in the book and he recommends not to compound the damage which one got because of sufferings by hurting oneself one more time or several times.
Instead of asking the questions, “why this happened to me? What did I do to deserve this?” The better question would be, “Now this has happened to me, what am I going to do about it?”
As mentioned earlier, the initial chapters would make readers to question about God and what he does to us in the form of sufferings and punishments. But the concluding chapters takes the readers to know about God and what religion should be. This journey has been presented beautifully by Harold Kushner in this book. The book is a journey from asking the question, “Why this happened to me? “ to asking the question , “Now this has happened to me, what am I going to do about it?”
A good book which deserves to be read, if not read so far.
-Ashish Kumar
Worry…
Weird and annoyed of this torture.
Fading away the present and future.
Useless and false sympathy everytime.
Real faces appeared fake in trying time.
Surrounded by dark intentions every side.
They are always ready to attack.
Standing in the centre of the battle playground.
I am building the ground.
Cutting the thorns of life.
I am sowing the seeds of life.
Life without purpose is meaningless.
People play with emotions seamless.
Truth buried and falsification surpassed.
Faces are counterfeit while truth lies in their inside.
One truth lies inside us too.
Identifying that is what we must do.
Inner strength is the power to tackle all worries.
When worries also worry to come and let us worry.
This fear is good.
Achieved by inner strength and soul try.
Worry should worry to let us worry.
Worry should worry to let us worry.
–Ashish Kumar
Book Review – FEELINGS – Sunita Nanda
Feelings are part of life. Every moment, we feel something. Sometimes good or sometimes bad. Sorrow, grief, pain, bliss, happiness etc. our life cannot be imagined without feelings and emotions. If someone praises, we feel happy and if we are scolded or criticized, we feel sad. Our heart is delicate when comes to feel the moment. Author Sunita Nanda brings about these moments in her book, FEELINGS. The book brings about feelings of a girl after shifting to a metro city, voice of an introvert soul to today’s world explained poetically.
About the Author
Sunita Nanda is an IT professional. Apart from working on software, she is a very good writer as well. Her writings are too good to read. In simple language, she makes to feel what she writes. Her writing can be easy relatable.
She is a well-known blogger as well. Popularly known as Soni Cool in blogging world. 😊 Do check her blog for good writing stuffs. She can be found at https://sonibindaas571181659.wordpress.com/
I would like to congratulate the blogger turned author, for getting her work published. Many congratulations. 😊
About the Book
FEELINGS is all about what we feel during various situations. Frustration, happiness, agony, sorrow, bliss, grief etc. are different kinds of feelings which we often experience. The book has 25 poems and two short stories.
The poems have mix of emotions and the state of mind of a girl at various situations. She has smartly raised few questions on society perception and orthodox thinking, about girls. Being a girl, what society has presumed and how it has an impact on the way of thinking can be easily felt while reading the poems.
The poems presented has motivational and optimistic touch as well. She has captured various feelings beautifully in well-crafted poems which are easily relatable. There are situations in life wherein we are in dilemma of what to chose and what to avoid, which she has penned beautifully in one of her poems.
There are two short stories in the book, apart from 25 poems. The short story is based on the feeling of a homesick girl when she has to leave her parents for pursuing higher studies. The feeling of night life of a girl who never went out of her house after 7 pm, is a good read. An interesting read.
In a nutshell, she has provided a good “reading” feeling through her book, FEELINGS. Do read the book for beautiful poems and cute short stories and share your feedback.
–Ashish Kumar
One Lovely Poem…
I started to write one lovely poem.
Filled with emotions and romanticism.
Some sorts of sorrow, grief and hope.
Covering the battle of tragedy and scope.
Love and betrayal back-to-back with storm.
Transformation from being feeble to strong.
Lovely days along with lovely memories.
The poem had all sorts of stories.
Trust, understanding being pillars of relations.
The poem covered all sorts of relations.
Life struggle, thoughts and imagination.
The poem dealt with all trying situation.
Well crafted words and easily relatable.
Poem described life was not much profitable.
Each phases had its own story.
The poem was a poem, not a story.
Simple, short and understandable.
The poem was little bit emotional.
Writing one lovely poem continues.
As that poem was never complete.
I wrote another lovely poem.
I am presenting that one lovely poem.
You are reading that “One Lovely Poem”.
–Ashish Kumar
Ashish Vision 