Quote uncoat

“If life gives you a lemon, make lemonade”

This is supposed to inspire you to take the smallest thing and make the most of it, or at least something. I am intrigued by the lemon. It conveys a certain level of being sparing. Why does life not give you an avocado? Why can we not make it into pulp and use it as a dip? How about an apple that we can make a pie of?

These, you might say, require other ingredients. Lemonade needs only water. What if the water is contaminated? What if you are in a desert and get that lemon? You might suck on it, but does it slake your thirst? Can you capitalise on its full potential?

How do you gauge potential? If you are suffering from nausea, then that sucking is good. I don’t know if life has given me lemons. This ignorance or not knowing has not prevented me from making lemonade. However, lemon juice is not an end. It is only one of the things one can do with lemons.

I’d much rather leave it out in the sun and watch it dry, the rind stiffening and slowly browning, while the insides swell with rage. And if one must learn any lessons from such idioms then pickled lemons last longer. If there is only one that darned life gives, then too you can separate the rind, the insides, the seeds. Add some sugar to the rind and eat. Feel the tartness of the juice or let it sting your eyes. And take those seeds and throw them in the soil. Wait for them to sprout to life.

Then let's see what life does with the lemon you give it.

Murder, she said

She is distasteful. She is dramatic. She comes on strong. Then why do people expect Lady Gaga to play Little Bo Beep?



In a performance in Manchester she recreated murder with scenes of her being eaten by a psychotic killer, fake blood on her body. It just so happened that there was a shooting spree in Cumbria hours before the show.

There are questions being asked. Most people are shocked. Shocked about what? This was part of the Monster Ball tour. Get it? The name conveys something. So, why was one mommy so agitated when she took her 14-year-old for the show? She said, “I was absolutely sickened at what I saw. We know Lady Gaga is not exactly mainstream performance for all the family but she really crossed the line this time.”

If they were worried about the 12 people who were shot dead or the three prostitutes a few days earlier in Bradford, then they might have chosen their entertainment more carefully. Were they not riveted by the news in the tabloids or on television channels? How does that imbue them with a sense of superiority? Lady G had planned this performance. They say she could have toned down the act? How would that have helped? It would have only drawn attention to what had happened and then there would be accusations that she was using the tragedy. Besides, if it is understood that she is not mainstream, then why apply those standards for her?

Here are a few comments that I completely disagree with:

"We're always saying, people who are icons to young people need to be aware of their behavior and they need to think about how their behavior influences young people.”

It is the job of the parents to ensure that young people are not besotted by glamorous images. These same young people read about stars and socialites in skimpy clothes getting drunk at parties and even stripping. Only because they have not paid for the show, does the responsibility factor decrease?

"Would she have sold less tickets without that scene in her show?”

Did she advertise that scene? If she did, then why were all these people there with their impressionable children?

“Murder is disturbing image to impose on young people. When young stars mention they've got a collection of knives and enjoy flicking their knives they're endorsing it. They're not thinking about what they're portraying to their fans. It's all for shock value.”

It is indeed shock value and they may be endorsing it. But there is a gun culture that exists. There are murders. There is incest. There are cases of monster dads and moms who have sex with their eight-year-old kids. They are not watching these shows. Often news stories and most certainly documentaries recreate such scenes. Do parents have problems with that?

Art, music, cinema and literature portray social evils or use them as metaphor. What if these people had decided to stay at home and watch one of those horror movies?