Tariku's Droplets

The Few ( Tariku Abas Etenesh) -------------------------------------------------------------------- I read in the notebook of an old man, Who was craving to tell me the secrets of his tears, Whenever he stood and looked at my life’s path. I never gave him time, though; “I was busy”, Between doing nothing and getting dizzy; and following the mass and decrying my own bliss, For the vogue and acceptance I badly had to make fuss; Many false starts and mistakes away,  Once I casually-towards the old man- turned, Yet the old man was gone;save the notebook he left for me to read: In his note I read: “Life has many ends, not one, When the mass is busy degrading itself, Under the pretence of normalcy or its proof, In sermons of parroting and calls for a masquerade, Pleading to emulate someone or something dead; Embellishing a known ego vilified the ‘common good,’ Beware, my son, you look out for the few around, Who into a life of delusion nor de...

I am an Oasis   ( Tariku Abas Etenesh) My heart has this sweet lullaby, Of fewer notes that always say: When you feel like an oasis in the desert of being, With springs and purest of waters, Be worried not of the desert blazing, Nor be too proud of the caravans, Taking respite under your shades; Nor be too worried of their resignation either; Whether thirsts are quenched by you or not,      Say: I am an oasis in the desert of being, And that is enough a cause for me to sing.  ................

“ Where is the sheep?”  ( Tariku Abas Etenesh) Do you like humor? I do. Oftentimes, I try to find the mirthful face of my social encounters; and luckily, I usually get what I seek. It is not just the fun and the laughter that delights me the most; it is the shade of wit they leave with me to ponder about later. Well obviously, the one fine ingredient of humors is their unpredictability; they often sprout out of moments that one could less expect them to. Not all humorous moments would fall into such category; but when they do, they last with me for long. Sometime, one doesn’t have to actually experience the situations to laugh; recalling humorous moments would suffice; they only need some triggers. I got one of these triggers recently from an unlikely corner: the Arab revolt. These days one has to be totally isolated in the woods to not know and hear about the youth in Tunisia who, driven by economic desperation and political repressions, fin...

Branding Fear (Tariku Abas Etenesh) Months ago, I paid for a ticket at the box office of Ambassador Theater to watch an old, 1998 released movie, Soldier . I was commencing a planned lazy Sunday morning with one of my pastime activities. However, when I left the movie theater, I was replaying a scene from the film, in my mind, again and again. The film with the lead role of a soldier, Todd, acted by Curt Russell, depicts a world order where soldiers are selected from birth to be trained in an institution where they would be subjected to trainings aimed at turning them into remorseless killing machines capable of no emotion but a few. Almost half way in to the movie, Todd, declared dead after a fight with a better trained soldier of another military school, gets discarded. En route to the dumping site, he regains consciousness to only realize he was in a waste ship. He finally finds himself dumped on another planet. The planet is fortunately life supporting...

Of Beauty and Character   ( Tariku Abas Etenesh   “What is beauty and what is character?” this was the question I asked myself when I read an African saying that goes: “ Your beauty will take you there, but your character will bring you back .” What of beauty is agent of reaching one’s destination and what of character the agent of return? I know discussing such concepts might turn into volumes of metaphysical discourses and still not be conclusive enough to address the manifestations and implications of the concepts in various cultures and circumstances. I read the saying a couple of years ago but it was not until I heard a story last month that I found a context in which I could clearly understand its implications to Africans like myself. The story that gave me a big aha moment was a story of nomadic tribes in Ethiopia . These nomadic tribes, by virtue of their way of life, move from place to place in search of pasture and water following seas...