Alive and Kicking

Irrespective of your designation, age, caste or creed you must surely be following a routine. You daily life, or at least you weekdays must be governed by a schedule. We cut the day up even more ruthlessly than a butcher cuts a lamb. The pieces thus obtained represent something very different than the whole, not to mention much less lively than the whole. When we start living by a routine we slowly but surely start killing off the uncertainty synonymous with life. We plan our lives to eliminate the small uncertainties of life, even before the day begins you know exactly how the day is going to be. If it is a Monday you know that it is going to be sleepy and that you are going to feel as though someone has woken you up from a very very nice dream. If it is a Friday, you know that you are either not going to get any work done or you are going to summon your super powers and finish every thing in record time. These generalizations may vary from person to person, but there are very  few people who can claim that such generalizations do not exist for them.

The plus side is that the dissection of the day creates the illusion of being extremely busy (Oh no I can not come tonight, my planner says that I have about 20 things to do that day, which includes ten second tasks like emptying the waste basket.) and of course helps us finish all of our task and keeps that sense of amnesia away (Oh did I really promise to submit the paper by today, now that I remember I had used the pink highlighter to remember it, should use yellow the next time around, is more prominent), but the downside is that it takes out that zing from life, it kills that emotion which said that, enjoy life, it comes by only once, or when will you be 18 or twenty or thirty or fifty...again?

They say that necessity is the mother of invention, a derivative from this would be that “boredom is the mother of craziness” and craziness is what keeps the laughter rolling and laughter is what drives the evilness away, and well evilness is what none of us want in our life.

So what does one do? Do we just give up our planned lives and go back in to the forests and ape our ancestors, live in the trees and eat whatever is at an arms length, after our addiction to hand sanitizers and perfumes, I think that the above idea would be slightly insane. So do we just let it go, do we just learn to live with some evilness in our lives, I mean we are already living with pollution and extremism what more harm can a dash of personal evilness do? Here is a suggestion, a middle path, why do we not keep a time in the day, yes we plan it, a time when we do whatever we feel like to doing. A time when we just let our desires loose. This way both our itch to fill in our planner and our itch to fulfill those insane desires are happy.

For instance over the weekend, you decide that you are going to do just what you want without feeling guilty about it (the guilt is where the challenge lies). You feel like cooking up a storm you do it, so at the end of the day, you either have a delicious new recipe or you have a lot of garbage, either ways you are going to have a wonderful, laughterful and content dinner. You feel like eating the most unhealthy  meal of the week it, you do it and you savour every bite of your meal, you feel like wearing your favorite team’s colors and cheering as loudly as you can in front of your TV screen, you should go ahead and do it and maybe even paint your face to get the full effect.

The whole point is that sometimes all of us need to loosen up in the right way, loosen up the way we want, not the way the guy on the television asks you to do but the way that tiny voice of craziness in our head commands us to do. At times, we need to jump in to the water to figure out exactly how cold it is, we need to dance in front of everyone to figure out exactly how embarrassing it can get and how long can it take to forget it, we need to endure a long trip just for a moment of pleasure before undertaking the long trip back, sometimes we just need to give those logical, practical and frugal cells some rest and those craziness and insanity related cells some much needed exercise, because it is those cells which take care of the kicking part in being alive and kicking!

PEACE

When we hear others, we do not necessarily absorb every word being spoken but often there are some words and some phrases that catch our attention. My chemistry professor spoke on a lot of things, atoms, Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle, Young’s experiment and Schrödinger’s wave equation. Of all that I have ever heard from him, there is one phrase that stands out in my memory. Once, he deviated from chemistry to explain the order of the world to us. He said, “The World is ruled by power and fear.”

He explained and justified his statement. But I never believed him. On a philosophical note I believed that love rules us, on a realistic note, I believed that a democracy ruled us. I listened patiently to all of his explanations but I never accepted his statement even for a moment.

This was an event that happened a year ago. These words were buried deep in the store room of my mind. Last week, when I heard the experiences of an Iraqi refugee, I was compelled to dust off my year old memory and replay it. Suddenly and frighteningly there was a ring of truth to it.

What is it that compels a nation to wage a war with another nation? History stands testament to the fact that all wars could have been avoided. We have always refrained from understanding history therefore we continue to wage wars. Why are we being so ignorant?

It is because we want to prove to the whole world that we can not be messed with. We want to establish the fact that we are powerful, we have a strong military and lots of nuclear arsenal.

World war II could have been avoided entirely had Hitler gotten over with his obsession to prove to the world that Aryans were the most powerful human race. The ensuing cold war between the United States of America and the Soviet Union would have never taken place if the USA was not hungry for the title of the most powerful country in the world and if the Soviet Union was not fearful of losing its title of the most powerful country of the world. The Kargil war would have never taken place had Hindus and Muslims not lost sleep over which religion was powerful enough to snatch a piece of land.

We all know that wars scar our lands and seas. They ravage countries and end up changing the course of history. We have time and again said that the World does not deserve any more wars. Yet, no one has ever said that their part of the world does not deserve power. No nation has ever felt secure of its standing as far as being powerful is concerned. All nations constantly worry over the fact that the rest of the world perceives it to be weak. They worry that they are not powerful enough to intimidate and gain the respect of the remaining world. In a desire to prove their power nations wage wars, conduct nuclear tests, indulge in cold wars, spy on other countries and create an atmosphere of distrust and insecurity.

These reflections have greatly depressed me. My belief in love and democracy is maimed. If power and fear are all that rule the world today then can we ever expect peace?

Drifting with Faith

A lone boat drifting away in the azure ocean, an ocean which looks calm on the surface, but which hides a tumultuous storm underneath. This imagery sounds like an artist’s fantasy. The idea seems to be perfect for a heart rending song, a picturesque painting or even a melodiously melancholic poem, but the one place where this idea does not fit is reality.

We humans like to think that our life is synonymous with order, we cannot bear the idea of the uncertainty that the above image vividly paints. Unfortunately, this is the unfaltering reality of our existence. A reality, that we spend our whole lives covering up. We create illusion upon illusion to assure ourselves that we are ‘sailing’ and not ‘drifting’ along the ocean of life. We make ourselves believe that as long as we do not disturb the ocean, it will never unleash the monsters that are hiding underneath its calm surface upon us. We create numerous illusions until we have transported ourselves as far away from reality as possible.

Yet, reality is omnipresent, no matter how many illusions we create; the cool ocean breeze always drifts through the walls of illusion and reminds us that we are drifting. As hard as we try and give a direction to our boat, the truth stands tall and unchanging at the fact that we do not know our destination. That all is not revealed to us and that in the present moment we are only expected to play out our part.

As a human, I have glorified myself at various points. I have made myself believe that I represent a microcosm of the universe. It has always been all about me. It has always been about my dreams, my ambitions. My life has always been about my happiness and my sorrows. It has been about me celebrating my success and about me learning from failures. My life has always been about me, it has never been about life itself. Throughout, I have focused on the illusion that I am leading myself towards a good life. I have made myself believe that I am sailing, that I am in control. All along when planning for the eternal dream of ‘the’ good life, I have conveniently overlooked the fact that life is not a dream and it is not eternal either. The experiences that I describe here are not unique to me. Everyone goes through these tumults in what they perceive to be life.

Life is a journey, an impromptu journey. Life is drifting in the ocean, enjoying the serenity and understanding that the storm in the belly of the ocean can capsize my boat at any instant. An important lesson of life is to assimilate the fact that although the steering wheel of the boat of life lies solely in our hands, the power to steer our boats is shared among the winds, the waves, the monsters in the belly of the ocean and lastly, ourselves.

The idea is easier expressed than implemented. It is easier to explain the idea than to experience it, after all most of us have been immensely pained and scarred by failure which is not a direct consequence of our actions. Our rationalizing minds refuse to call such cruel twist of events a failure. The mind reasons, “It was not our folly.” Then what do we consider such events to be? The rationalizing mind attributes these events to various fancy yet empty words such as injustice, bias, hatred and many more. Soon, we start believing that we are victims of injustice, bias and hatred and many more such feelings. We turn bitter from inside out. We start believing that we are being targeted, that our innocent selves are being exploited. We wallow in self pity and cry for the lost innocence of the world which is hell bent on destroying precious little us we, who are a microcosm of the universe. Thus, with each incident of the so called injustice, bias and hatred, our rationalizing mind creates the huge wall of illusion.

This wall of illusion is strong enough to prevent good sense from prevailing. Yet, it falls like a pack of cards when a powerful gust of reality wields its power and lashes at it. The deafening sound of breaking illusions shatters us and shames us enough to accept defeat and to resign ourselves from travelling along the journey of life, the breaking down of illusions reduces us from being walkers along the path of life to becoming mere pedestrians.

Such is the vicious circle of the creation and destruction of illusions. As much comfort as illusions lend when they stand tall we crumble easily when they are shattered. If you consider the fact that all this happens just because of the human obsession with reasoning and rationalization, don’t you feel like a fool. If only we, as individuals, as a community, as a city, as a nation and as a world accept the fact that all cannot be explained, that impulses are not limited only to eating chocolates, will we not have better lives. Will our experiences not be more enriched? Will our egos not shrink?

If only we, the human race could and would understand that everything is not meant to be understood. If only we could and would embrace and not try to understand faith, diversity and culture will this world not become more serene a place to live in? If only we as individuals could and would understand the fact that a 100% surety does not exist, that there is always that other factor- Destiny, Karma, God…..which also shares control over our life wont our lives be less complicated, will there not be lesser sad days in our life.

If only we had enough faith in the unknown we could learn to enjoy the drifting nature of our life, we could learn to exalt in the immenseness of the azure ocean, we could even learn to deal with the monsters that lay hidden in the belly of the motion.

It is strange how one tendril of faith, of belief has the power to convert us from being mere pedestrians to becoming walkers, for “A Pedestrian is a man in danger of his life, a walker is a man in possession of his soul”.

And yet, for centuries we have been in possession of rationalizing minds which have taught us to cleverly evade that faith and belief. Which leaves me with a worrying question, “……will we ever learn and accept reality or will we sacrifice our life in the whirlpool of making and breaking illusions?”

Mother India

We always use the term “Mother India” to represent our country, India. When we think of Mother we claim that our country is filled with unending love and will sacrifice everything for our happiness. For all of us who have been blessed with a mother, we know that she is more than that. We know that a mother is someone who will tell you that you are wrong when you are. She is probably the only one who has taken authority to screech at you in front of your friends. She is the one who wields power over you no matter how old you get, no matter how independent you get. She is the one who can smack you and be thanked for it, rather than be ridiculed or jailed for it.

A mother is someone who can improvise the imperfections in the perfect too. So what if Mother India really existed? What if there existed that one lady who selflessly wanted our well being and who knew how to get the best out of India.

Well firstly Mother India would teach all of her children to stop bickering over stupid things like that person eats beef and that person does not. She would say, “As long as they are not forcing you to eat it, zip it! Let them eat whatever they want to eat. Let them live however they want to live. Let them dress however they want to dress and for heavens sake let them just be! You are your own person, what someone who lives kilometers away from you does should be the least of your concerns!”

Then, she would teach her children to not comment over everything anyone says. She would teach that it is bad, very bad to back answer people. So if someone said something to contradict you, first she would throw the most used comment, “The dogs are barking, let them bark. Then she would explain that when someone disagrees with you, they are disagreeing with your idea and not with your personality. Take it in your stride, just consider what they are saying, if what they are saying is not relevant at all and is merely a product of boiling human emotions then you do not need to glorify such a waste of a comment by acknowledging it and if what they are saying makes some intellectual sense, then prove them right and wrong by your actions. Basically, at the end of the day it is important to remember that freedom of speech is a fundamental right but the compulsion to listen is not a fundamental duty. So toughen up and stop carrying your heart up your sleeve.”

If Mother India actually existed she would spend most of her time disciplining her charges. Teaching them that battles create larger problems than they solve, the moment that she would teach this to one set of children another set will break out in to a fight. Separating them and explaining to them that a bundle of sticks is much stronger than a single stick would grey her hair, but she would not give up, because she is a mother and mother’s never give up on their children just as children never stop respecting their mothers.

Mother India would teach her rather emotional charges that their uniqueness does not come from their birth place, it comes from their hearts. Their uniqueness stems from their thinking and their action. She would teach her children that the fact that they are her, India’s children is a mere fact, but what they are or what they will be is a reality. It is reality that enhances facts. It is their responsibility to respect and forever treasure their roots, but if there is no shoot, no fruits and no leaves the roots are useless. She would help her charges understand that their origin, whatever it be is merely a part of their existence, whether they like it or not whereas their reality, what they become is a representation of their entire existence and they are the only ones who have sole monopoly over what they represent.

I believe that my country and its citizens (which includes me) are going through our adolescence, we are confused and thus angry. It is at such a stage that a mother’s gentle yet firm touch is most required although it is also the stage at which a mother’s presence is least appreciated. I sincerely hope that the love that we harbor for our country manifests itself in to that mother who lends the child enough strength and knowledge to deliver himself from the shallow yet troublesome waters of adolescence to the calm yet mysterious waters of adulthood!

P.S. There is another reason that I really wish that Mother India would have actually existed. If she did, then I could actually hug my beautiful country!

Cheers!

It is human tendency to form an opinion over everything that we pay attention to. I am not an exception to this tendency. So I have a view over almost anything that I can sense, Obama, Osama, that girl, the other guy, Dairy Milk chocolate, salads, the staircase, you sense it and I have an opinion about it!

I do not think that there is anything wrong with having an opinion about things. What scares me though is that my thoughts about things are often limited to my opinions about them alone.Opinions are only the first step towards knowing some one or some thing. Opinions need to be developed further, they need to be tweaked and honed to form honest and realistic thoughts about people or things.

The best way that I could come up with to develop my opinions further is by discussing them with friends and family and with all those who care.Unfortunately, I do not have my friends and family around me all the time to discuss such matters and even when I have the excellent fortune of spending some time with either friends or family, discussions revolving around such matters often take a back seat to discussing out lives.

Hence I have decided to start blogging, just to share my opinions and to develop them in to well informed thoughts. There have been many instances in the past when I had wanted to start blogging, reasons to do so had been different but the reason to not do so was the same – What if no one reads my blogs?

Believe you me, even as I am typing this out I am nervous, but then if I do not try, I will never know if this idea is good enough or not.

So here’s to my blog, my courage and a future of healthy discussions that contribute to enriching all of us who read this blog!