The year of the Rat (as per the Chinese calendar) is over, and the year of the Ox is about to start.
A search on Wikipedia tells me this “The Rat (鼠) was welcomed in ancient times as a protector and bringer of material prosperity”. It also says the following about the characteristics of Rat, “Rat (Yang, 1st Trine, Fixed Element Water): Forthright, disciplined, systematic, meticulous, charismatic, hardworking, industrious, charming, eloquent, sociable, shrewd. Can be manipulative, vindictive, mendacious, venal, selfish, obstinate, critical, over-ambitious, ruthless, intolerant, scheming.”
Well, I think the world did see these characteristics of rat in play this year. We saw making of history in white house and also the rage of bear on the Wall Street. We experienced some of the biggest terror attacks and also survived them. The world is going crazy folks with the biggest economy failing, people losing jobs, recession in market, fanatics sieging luxury hotels and much more… I did a lengthy search on Google before I started writing this blog, and I was fed up of digging up stories filled with violence, hurt and misery. Seems like that either the media has planned to highlight only the worst doings of this year or that is the only thing that has happened in the last year. I dunno. The year has been a nightmare to many a people. I just hope and pray that the year of Ox brings wealth, happiness and peace to all.
To summarize, this is the year of Rat that went by:
Turn my mic up louder I got to say something
Light weights step to the side when we come in
Feel it in your chest the syllables get pumping
People on the street they panic and start running
Words on loose leaf sheet complete coming
I jump on my mind, I summon the rhyme, I’m dumping
Feeling the blind I promised to let the sun in
Sick of the dark ways we marched to the drumming
Jump when they tell us that they wanna see jumping
F**k that I wanna see some fists pumping
Miss something, take back what’s yours
Say something that you know they might attack you for
Cause I’m sick of being treated like I had before
Like the stupid standing for what I’m standing for
Like this war’s really just a different brand of war
Like it doesn’t cater the rich and the fan and poor
Like they understand you in the back of the jet
When you can’t put gas in your tank
These f**kers are laughing the way to the bank and cashing the check
Asking you to have the passion and have some respect
For a leader so nervous in an obvious way
Stuttering and mumbling for nightly news to replay
And the rest of the world watching at the end of the day
In their living room laughing like “what did he say?”
In my living room watching but I am not laughing
Cause when it gets tense I know what might happen
World is cold the bold men take action
Have to react to get blown into fractions
Ten years old is something to see
Another kid my age drug under the jeep
Taken and bound and found later under the tree
I wonder if he thought the next one could be me
Do you see the soldiers they’re out today
They brush the guts with bullet proof vests away
It’s ironic at times like this you pray
But a bomb blew up the mosque yesterday
There’s bombs in the buses, bikes, roads
Inside your market, your shops, your clothes
My dad he’s got a lot of fear I know
But enough pride inside not to let that show
My brother had a book he would hold with pride
A little red cover with a broken spine
On the back, he handwrote a quote inside
When the rich wage war it’s the poor who die
Meanwhile, the leader just talks away
Stuttering and mumbling for nightly news to replay
And the rest of the world watching at the end of the day
In their living room laughing like “what did he say?”
His hands held high into a sky so blue
As the ocean opens up to swallow you
His hands held high into a sky so blue
As the ocean opens up to swallow you
His hands held high into a sky so blue
As the ocean opens up to swallow you
His hands held high into a sky so blue
As the ocean opens up to swallow you
His hands held high into a sky so blue
As the ocean opens up to swallow you
His hands held high into a sky so blue
As the ocean opens up to swallow you
-Hands held high, Minutes to Midnight, Linkin Park
Kalpesh Padia's Blog 