तकदीर

"तकदीर के खेल से निराश नहीं होते, जिंदगी में कभी उदास नहीं होतेl

हाथों की लकीरों पे इतना यकीं मत कर, तकदीर तो उनकी भी होती है जिनके हाथ नहीं होतेl"

Love - Samuel Taylor Coleridge

All thoughts, all passions, all delights,

Whatever stirs this mortal frame,

All are but ministers of Love,

And feed his sacred flame.

Oft in my waking dreams do I

Live o'er again that happy hour,

When midway on the mount I lay,

Beside the ruin'd tower.

The moonshine, stealing o'er the scene,

Had blended with the lights of eve;

And she was there, my hope, my joy,

My own dear Genevieve!

She lean'd against the armed man,

The statue of the armed Knight;

She stood and listen'd to my lay,

Amid the lingering light.

Few sorrows hath she of her own,

My hope! My joy! My Genevieve!

She loves me best whene'er I sing

The songs that make her grieve.

I play'd a soft and doleful air;

I sang an old and moving story--

An old rude song, that suited well

That ruin wild and hoary.

She listen'd with a flitting blush,

With downcast eyes and modest grace;

For well she knew I could not choose

But gaze upon her face.

I told her of the Knight that wore

Upon his shield a burning brand;

And that for ten long years he woo'd

The Lady of the Land.

I told her how he pined: and ah!

The deep, the low, the pleading tone

With which I sang another's love,

Interpreted my own.

She listen'd with a flitting blush,

With downcast eyes, and modest grace;

And she forgave me, that I gazed

Too fondly on her face!

But when I told the cruel scorn

That crazed that bold and lovely Knight,

And that he cross'd the mountain-woods,

Nor rested day nor night;

That sometimes from the savage den,

And sometimes from the dark some shade,

And sometimes starting up at once

In green and sunny glade...

There came and look'd him in the face

An angel beautiful and bright;

And that he knew it was a Fiend,

This miserable Knight!

And that, unknowing what he did,

He leap'd amid a murderous band,

And saved from outrage worse than death

The Lady of the Land;

And how she wept and clasp'd his knees;

And how she tended him in vain;

And ever strove to expiate

The scorn that crazed his brain;

And that she nursed him in a cave;

And how his madness went away,

When on the yellow forest leaves

A dying man he lay;

His dying words--but when I reach'd

That tenderest strain of all the ditty,

My faltering voice and pausing harp

Disturb'd her soul with pity!

All impulses of soul and sense

Had thrill'd my guileless Genevieve;

The music and the doleful tale,

The rich and balmy eve;

And hopes, and fears that kindle hope,

An undistinguishable throng,

And gentle wishes long subdued,

Subdued and cherish'd long!

She wept with pity and delight,

She blush'd with love and virgin shame;

And like the murmur of a dream,

I heard her breathe my name.

Her bosom heaved--she stepped aside,

As conscious of my look she stept--

Then suddenly, with timorous eye

She fled to me and wept.

She half enclosed me with her arms,

She press'd me with a meek embrace;

And bending back her head, look'd up,

And gazed upon my face.

'Twas partly love, and partly fear,

And partly 'twas a bashful art,

That I might rather feel, than see.

The swelling of her heart.

I calm'd her fears, and she was calm,

And told her love with virgin pride;

And so I won my Genevieve,

My bright and beauteous Bride.

p.s: One of my favorites! Note the genius of having 3 stories in one love story!

Troy

I present one of the best movies I have seen in the form of its script. Here's coming 1o best dialogues in the movie - Troy!

1. Achilles’ entry - an elegant way of portraying the arrogant mindset! What follows is the first duel scene of the movie. This scene surely promises a solid 2 hours 30 minutes full of awe and perfection!

Achilles: I was having a good dream, very good dream…

Messenger boy: King Agamemnon sent me. He needs you…

Achilles: I’ll speak to your King in the morning.

Messenger boy: My Lord, it is morning! They are waiting for you. (A long pause) Are the stories about you true? They say your mother is an immortal goddess. They say you can’t be killed!

Achilles: I wouldn’t be bothering with the shield then, would I?

Messenger boy: The Thessalonian you are fighting, he is the biggest man I have ever seen! I wouldn’t want to fight him.

Achilles: That’s why no one will remember your name!

2. Discussion between Hector and Paris when Hector comes to know that Helen (Queen of Sparta) is on the ship! Trojan’s are returning to their land after the signing of Peace Treaty between Troy and Sparta.

Hector: You fool; do you know what you have done? Do you know how many years our father worked for peace?

Paris: I love her!

Hector: Ahh! It’s all a game to you, isn’t it? You roam from town to town betting merchant’s wives and temple maids, and you think you know something about love? What about your father’s love? You spat on him when you brought her on the ship! What about the love for your country? You’d let Troy burn for this woman? I won’t let you start a war for her!

Paris: May I speak? What you are saying is true! I have wronged you, I have wronged our father! If you want to take Helen back to Sparta, so be it. But I go with her!

Hector: To Sparta, they’ll kill you!

Paris: Then I’ll die fighting.

Hector: Oh well, that sounds heroic to you, doesn’t it? To die fighting, tell me little brother – have you ever killed a man?

Paris: No.

Hector: Have you seen a man die in a combat?

Paris: No.

Hector: I have killed men, and I have heard them dying and I have watched them dying and there is nothing glorious about it! Nothing poetic! You say you want to die for love, but you know nothing about dying and you know nothing about love!

Paris: All the same! I go with her. I won’t ask you to fight my war.

Hector: (A helpless pause) You already have!

3. King Odysseus convincing Achilles to fight for the Greeks.

Achilles: Are you here with Agamemnon’s bidding?

Odysseus: We need to talk.

Achilles: I will not fight for him.

Odysseus: I am not asking you to fight for him. I am asking you to fight for the Greeks.

Achilles: Why? Are the Greeks tiered of fighting each other?

Odysseus: For now.

Achilles: The Trojan’s never harmed me!

Odysseus: They insulted Greece!

Achilles: They insulted one Greek, a man who couldn’t hold on to his wife, what business is that of mine?

Odysseus: Your business is war my friend!

Achilles: Is it? The man has no honor.

Odysseus: Let Achilles fight for honor, let Agamemnon fight for power and let the God’s decide which man to glorify! ----- This war will never be forgotten, nor will the heroes who are fighting it!

4. First confrontation of Prince Hector and Achilles. Achilles’ army has just conquered a Trojan Temple.

Achilles: You are very brave or very stupid to come after me alone! You must be Hector. Do you know who I am?

Hector: These priests weren’t armed! (Swinging his sword) Fight me!

Achilles: (A pause with a sarcastic smile) Why kill you now Prince of Troy, with no one here to see you fall?

Hector: Why did you come here?

Achilles: They will be talking about this war for thousand years!

Hector: In a thousand years, the dust from our bones would be gone.

Achilles: Yes Prince, but our names will remain. Go home Prince, drink some wine, and make love to your wife. Tomorrow we’ll have our war!

Hector: You speak of war, is it for the game? But how many wives waited those give their husbands would never see them again?

Achilles: Perhaps you brother might comfort them. I hear he is good at charming other men’s wives!

5. Conversation between King Agamemnon and Achilles after capturing the Trojan beach.

Achilles: Apparently you won some great victory!

Agamemnon: Ah! Perhaps you didn’t notice, the Trojan beach belonged to Priam in the morning, it belongs to Agamemnon in the afternoon.

Achilles: You can have the beach; I didn’t come here for the sand.

Agamemnon: No, you came here because you want your name to last through the edges! A great victory was won today. But that victory is not yours. Kings did not kneel to Achilles. Kings did not pay homage to Achilles.

Achilles: Perhaps the Kings were far behind in the sea. The soldiers won the battle!

Agamemnon: History remembers Kings, not soldiers. Tomorrow we’ll batter down the gates of Troy. I’ll build monuments of victory on every islands of Greece. I’ll carve Agamemnon in the stone!

Achilles: Be careful King of Kings, first you need the victory.

6. Conversation between Priam and Paris after Paris commits to fight against King Menelaus (Helen’s husband)

Paris: Father, I am sorry for the pain I have caused you.

Priam: Do you love her?

Paris: You are a great King, because you love your country so much. Every plaid of grass, every grain of sand, every rock in the river; you love all of Troy. That is the way I love Helen.

Priam: I have fought many wars in my time. Some were for the land, some for power and some for glory. I suppose fighting for love makes more sense than all the rest. But I won’t be the one fighting. (Hands him the Sword of Troy)

7. Greek Kings and Princes of Troy face to face before the first battle!

Agamemnon: I see you not hiding behind your high walls. Valiant of you, ill-advised but valiant!

Hector: You come here uninvited. Go back to your ships and go home.

Agamemnon: We’ve come to far Prince Hector.

Menelaus: Prince, what Prince? What son of a King would accept a man’s hospitality, eat his food, drink his wine, embrace him in friendship and then steal his wife in the middle of the night?

Paris: The sun was shining when your wife left you!

Menelaus: (Pointing his sword at Paris) She is up there watching, isn’t she? Good. I want her to watch you die.

Agamemnon: Not yet brother. (Lowering Menelaus’ sword) Look around you Hector. I brought all the warriors of Greece to your shores; you can still save Troy young Prince. I have two wishes, if you grant them; no more of your people need to die. First – you must give Helen back to my brother; second – Troy must submit to my command, to fight for me whenever I call.

Hector: You want me to look upon your army and tremble? When I see them, I see fifty thousand men brought here to fight for one man’s greed!

Agamemnon: Careful boy. My mercy has limits.

Hector: And I have seen the limits of your mercy! And I tell you now, no son of Troy will ever submit to a foreign ruler!

Agamemnon: Then every son of Troy shall die. (Starts going back to his chariot)

Paris: There is another way. I love Helen. I won’t give her up and neither will you. So let us fight our own battle. The winner takes Helen home. And let that be the end of it.

Agamemnon: A brave offer, but not enough.

8. Briseis the Royalty from Trojan Kingdom held as a captive is just been saved by Achilles from Greek warriors. This conversation suggests that Achilles might be an atheist!

Briseis: I have known men like you my whole life.

Achilles: No you haven’t!

Briseis: You think you are so different than the thousand others? All those who understand nothing but war? Peace confuses them.

Achilles: And you hate these soldiers?

Briseis: I pity them.

Achilles: Trojan soldiers died trying to protect you. Perhaps they deserve more than your pity.

Briseis: Why did you choose this life?

Achilles: What life?

Briseis: To be a great warrior?

Achilles: I chose nothing. I was born and this is what I am. And you? Why did you choose to live a guard? Think you will find the romance one sided?

Briseis: Do you enjoy provoking me?

Achilles: You dedicated your life to the Gods. Zeus - God of Thunder, Athena - Goddess of Wisdom; you serve them?

Briseis: Yes of course.

Achilles: And Aris - God of War, the blanket he wears, with the men he has killed for the skin?

Briseis: All the Gods are to be feared and respected.

Achilles: I’ll tell you a secret. Something they don’t teach you in your temple. The Gods envy us! They envy us because we are mortal; because any moment may be our last. Everything is more beautiful because we are doomed! You will never be lovelier than you are now. We will never be here again.

9. Achilles filled with rage knowing that Hector killed his cousin – Patroclus. One of the best duels ever featured follows this powerful dialogue!

Achilles: HECTOR… (Keeps on shouting his name till Hector comes in front of him)

Hector: I have seen this moment in my dreams. I’ll make a pact with you. With the Gods’ eye witnesses; let us pledge that the winner will allow the looser all the proper funeral rituals.

Achilles: There are no pacts between lions and men. (Takes his head gear off) Now you know who you are fighting.

Hector: (Takes off his head gear) I thought it was you I was fighting yesterday. And I wish it had been you! But I gave the dead boy the honor he deserved…

Achilles: You gave him the honor of your sword. You won’t have eyes tonight; you won’t have ears or a tongue. You will wander the underworld blind, deaf and dumb and all the dead will know - this is Hector, the fool who thought he killed Achilles!

10. Priam in Achilles’ marquee for convincing him to give back the body of Hector for the funeral. Achilles had dragged Hector’s body behind his chariot after defeating him.

(Priam enters Achilles’ marquee, kneels down on his knees and kisses Achilles’ hands)

Achilles: Who are you?

Priam: I have endured what no one on earth has endured before. I kissed the hands of the man who killed my son!

Achilles: Priam? (Priam nods) How did you get in here?

Priam: I know my own country better than the Greeks I think.

Achilles: You are a brave man! (Helps Priam get up and sit) I could have your head on a spit in a blink of an eye.

Priam: You really think death frightens me now? I watched my eldest son die. Watched you drag his body behind your chariot. Give him back to me. He deserves the honor of a proper burial, you know that! Give him to me.

Achilles: He killed my cousin!

Priam: He thought he was you! How many cousins have you killed? How many sons and fathers and brothers and husbands, how many brave Achilles? I knew your father. He died before his time. But he was lucky not to live long enough to see his son fall. You have taken everything from me. My eldest son, heir to my thorn, defender of my kingdom; I cannot change what happened it is the will of the Gods. But give me this small mercy. I loved my boy from the moment he opened his eyes till the moment you closed them. Let me wash his body, let me say the prayers; let me place two coins on his eyes for the boatman.

Achilles: If I let you walk out of here, if I let you take him; it doesn’t change anything. You are still my enemy in the morning.

Priam: You are still my enemy tonight! But even enemies can show respect.

Achilles: I admire your courage! Meet me outside in a moment. (He wraps Hector’s body and mounts it on the Chariot for Priam) Your son was the best I fought. In my country the funeral games last for 12 days.

Priam: It is the same in my country.

Achilles: Then the Prince will have that honor. No Greek will attack Troy for 12 days. (Priam nods)… Go, no one will stop you. You have my word. You are a far better King than the one leading this army!