The Childhood Approximation

"How I wish I was a child again". "I wish I got my childhood back". "Oh, this cartoon so much remidns me of my childhood". Three common phrases that I commonly see these days on the wall of my friends' social network pages. It got me thinking, why haven't I even thought in these same lines?

Then, one day while I was generally talking to a friend on football and cartoons, she gave a laugh. I was like "what"? She replied "there are some people in this world who will never change and you belong there". I was like "I dont get it!". "Very few people can still maintain that little boy inside them even when they are physically 6 foot tall with side burns, mushtache and beard".

It then hit me. I am still a little boy. I hate my class assignments and homework. I love dinosaurs and Jurassic park till date. T-rex was my favorite in 2nd grade and it is still my favorite as of today. I love watching cartoons even today (as a matter of fact Batman>>Superman any day). I have all my favorite cartoons stacked up in my HD. Football and Cricket are ways of life for me (well, there are a lot of grown ups also who follow, but unlike them, I still follow these games with the same enthu with which I first began watching them.. fighting for clubs with rival fans and hoping your rivals drop points week in week out). I dont like to boast about a great corporate career (I doubt I'll have one either) or an office with so much work. I dont like to deceive to flatter on being busy at work in a gruesome schedule. Monday mornings mean nothing to me. Big bucks have never excited me as much as a champions league final has. I still love making fun of my friends. I enjoy talking the same way I always have with no holds barred in my heart. Come to think of it, I think I am still that little boy unless someone has an alternate explanation. I doubt I'll come out of that little boy even when I'm say 745 years old (yes it is 745 and not a typo error). I wouldn't personally want to.

P.S: Did I tell you that my latest hobby is to write children stories with pictures? My first two stories were reasonable.

P.P.S: Hell yes, my drawing still sucks like how it was when I was 6 years old. Cats are dogs, dogs are donkeys, donkeys are lions and the lions I draw look like me. It also hasn't changed.. Sigh.. Perhaps thats what is making my stories readable with the two kids who read it so far :P

The Questioning Excitation

Sometimes, people do not deserve the truth. They deserve something more than what truth has to offer - faith. These were the last lines of Christopher Nolan's "The Dark Knight".

I was just reflecting on these simple yet poweful lines. Very often, in our lives, we never digest the truth as it is. We are all biased and cleansed to views from birth. As a consequence, it becomes increasingly difficult to digest truth when we see it plainly. Though questioning is a freedom that most of us have constitutionally, questioning is a taboo socially. It pains to see people not questioning the ways of living. It even pains me to see people commenting "though I'd love to do it, I fear the social consequences". (Ok, the love to do it is an ethical thing first up when I mention it, if it sounded unethical to me, I wont care socially or non-socially).

Societies exist as a mechanism to structure out ways of living and as support systems to individuals. There are reasons to why rules exist. The flop side of this is, rules have to change with time and context. I think this is where the whole drama comes into the picture. What began as a reasonable structure was lost in the middle. I'm talking about a lot of philosophical practices and not anything in particular. Somewhere down the middle, things were meddled and people suddenly stopped questioning either because they were forbidden to or because they felt they had to do things and had no choice. Because of the fact that the informational transition did not happen, the current generation has no clue to why a lot of practices are being done.

The skeptics question because they feel the contemporary ways of living suit them personally better and therefore they do not question as an actual skeptic. Whenever some rule when broken/created helps someone in their personal desire, people start to castigate any kind of a traditional value system. To be fair, this has happened throughout time and hence we all follow a vague derivative of what we were intended to follow.

We all have faith in stuff, partly because we want to believe it as our parents/peer group believe so or partly because we dont like to question "properly". Hence, truth as it is is never seen as it is! The whole point of this blog is to stress the need for constructively questioning practices - which is inherently not bad, and thus arriving at a clear notion to why we do things! And thus, one has a reasonable chance of going towards figuring out his/her purpose of life.

P.S: The drift here is, questioning helps understand concepts and philosophies better and not the other way round which is questioning means there is no trust/faith in practices.

P.P.S: There is a slight difference between a true skeptic and being insane. I hope the reader understands the difference.

A Letter to God

Dear god,

This letter is written by the young boy who used to talk to you frequently 17-18 years ago. The boy has been a bit angry with you for a long time because you never let him drive a bus he wanted to in those days. Therefore he did not talk to you frequently. Now the boy has realized that it is time he started talking to the only true friend that he truly had all those years ago. He is remembering how, in those days he used to meet so many people along his day and share with them what all he saw including the red and white painted buses, the stray dogs, the dinosaurs that he could not stop raving about, the soda can's cap, the aeroplanes, the kites that flew over his head, the young Sachin Tendulkar, the Santa that he read about, the story of the hare and the tortoise etcetra. He is even remembering how none of the people even remotely cared about what he was describing and they were all immersed in a worried world of their own.

He is suddenly relishing how much he used to love talking to you about all of these and was even happy to know that you were the only one who would care to listen to his stories and respond in many forms (including more buses, more dogs and dinosaurs, more planes etc). That young boy is writing to you now after all those years to remind you how true a friend you were then. Further, he now wishes you come back to him and be friends again. He feels he is not yet over the hill and has a big part to play in the life of the young man who is typing this letter on his behalf. Further, he asks you to forgive the young man on his behalf, for the young man does not believe in your existence. But, you and me only know the beauty of life and the things around us and about your existence. Afterall, this young man is also a part of the grown ups who live in a world full of numbers and who never cared to listen to my tales in those days. So, dont give much importance to his views on you and please come back to talk to me.

Thanking You,
The Young Boy as he was in 1993-94.

P.S: This is a true story of a young boy. Some phrases and idioms have been borrowed from "the little prince".

The Never-Ending Nauseation

The toy that never was,

The dad who never famed,

The exam that never got the mark,

The university that never educated,

The girl/boy who never looked back,

The company that never paid,

The spouse who never connected,

The child who was never there,

The body shape that never was,

The hair that never remained,

The house that never stood,

The pension that was never enough,

The oldage that never ceased,

The god that never helped.

P.S:  The poem carries sarcastic implied meaning about how people go about life.  

The Corruption Explanation

Well, I'm just sick of seeing people in all social connections (p2p, facebook, twitter, linkedin etc etc) asking others (of course if I wasnt a part of others, why would I rant?) to join the anti corruption cause.. Well, I have already talked about cause and have even talked in depth about questioning the ways of living.. Enough ranted in those areas.. Let me come to the point.. As it seems, people are in a sudden fury when a supposed yoga baba and another social worker have gone on a hunger strike against corruption.. A fury to join those two and fight against corruption..

Now wait, before all of this, I think its fair that all of us understand that the solution to any problem is understanding the problem itself.. It solves 90% of the problem.. With this in mind, all I ask everyone is, before going anti-corruption gaga campaign, let us take a very close look at ourselves.. Are we all corrupt free (is 'satva' alone flowing in us?)? Do we like to go in the free darshan in tirupathi or prefer to pay money and visit the so called 'god' faster? Do we like to wait in the queue to get tickets or like to byepass the queue by all means possible? Do we like to get our licenses by driving and waiting or by bribing and baiting? It sounds good when we pay 50 bucks to a policeman for turning left in a no free left turn than pay 1000 later on in a court.. Hell, corruption is good, isnt it?

My point here is, I think it is high time all of us understand that we are all supposed to behave as proper citizens and humans first.. Showing discipline and compassion towards other living beings.. (A little anniyanish)! High time we all started doing our duties as citizens of whatever state/country we belong to..I mean, if all of us dont adhere to the bribery courted by those who take bribes, they are out of customers, then what happens - the business is out! Sounds simple, but I think this is a better solution than asking others to click and join babas and others! I personally have started doing my simple bits to be a proper citizen (off late)!

P.S: The classic reply would be "What will change if I alone change? I cant change it all".. My reply is, 'if you alone cant change, STFU and dont expect any one else to change'.

P.P.S: Isnt it hypocritic and ironic to goto Delhi for anti corruption campaign by buying an open ticket in a train and then bribing the TTE to get an A/C or other confirmed seat? Apparently some of those who have been going for anti-corruption campaigns have been doing that.. Sigh!

The Liberation Contemplation

 

Liberation is when there is a world to be than a world to do,

When the police stations become redundant,
When the hospitals turn empty,
When machines are no more needed,
When love is no more conditional,
When siblings no more fight,
When empires no more exist,
When relativity ceases to exist,
When kingdoms no more expand,
When cultures no more quarrel,
When supremacy over religions becomes a myth,
When politics and personal finance are no more the same,
When Facebook is no more the root of socialization,
When happy lives are no more illusory,
When disharmony is not a virtue among species,

When literacy does not define education,
When education does not define an individual,
When individuals are not stratified by prejudice,
When prejudice itself is banished,

Liberation afterall is when the maya of "seperation" is uplifted!
Behold, I would peacefully die instantly when I see such a day!

Paradigm Shift

What ever is to follow is a direct/indirect consequence of the "Malcom Effect" (or Crichton effect).  Just like how, when you do a titration, there is one final fatal drop that neutralizes the acid (though there was a soaking up of the alkali till before the fatal drop), I've been soaked enough and the Malcom Effect has inspired me to write about paradigm shift.  Malcom Effect is the effect of reading Michael Crichton's Jurassic Park (something I've been wanting to do for more than a decade).  There may be glimpses of Ian Malcom the chaos theory specialist (or Crichton actually) in what is to follow.

I've been pondering all over 2010 about the contemporary life.  People working their arses off each day for about 10-12 hours on an average and the so called weekend rests!  A purpose less 12 hour marathon each day.  I ought to admit it began from the west.  Our people are just amazing - they never take the better things from the west and they have this feeling "if i imitate certain things from the west, then i'm a stud (gethu) person".  This disease has begun from "american" accent butler english to the 5 day professional and 2 day personal week in week out...

First up, look at what the cavemen did.  Work 10-20 hours a week collecting food and maintaining shelter.  Rest of the time, do what you want.  Sing, dance, hunt, love and name it all.  There was so much time for oneself.  Then come the civilization - trust me there was civilization in the cro-magnon age.  That is if you call a civilization as one where there is discipline among the individuals in a group and a decorum...Again, decorum need not mean aristocratic behaviour, just synchronization and order within a group.  Same to discipline too, about stating objectives and sticking to it.. Language is again a means of communication, so even sign language would be fine.  Back to civilization, as people called themselves civil, paradigms began to change.  The era of monarchs came, then comes Florence, Italy a place where science was groomed.  Paradigms change again, and now the modern world.  A world where there is the 5 work man days and 2 holidays.

My point is very simple - where is the purpose towards life?  How many of us live life with a purpose?  Is calling myself "manager" or an Investment Banker just for a symbol of my status quo in the social structure or is it really a passionate purpose?  If I've gotta be honest with myself (come on, I can fool anyone but myself!), I think I'm facing reallity.  I think this is today's world.  The paradigm of today.  No one has the time for himself (this is where I envy the madmen on the streets with beards and funny smiles all over them! Damn, Khalil Gibran was so right in his poem about the madman).  No one wants to express feelings anymore, its all about impressing! Impressing who I ask? This is where some say - I know it but I cant change it.  I am not taking this answer anymore cause I believe if one is awake, he is and if he aint, he aint.  You cant be aware and say I am aware but cant change it - plainly sorry!

Paradigm shifts have happened very frequently.  As Malcom models it out, there was once a time when Oxygen was poison and now it is life.  There was once time when even water may have been poison.. There will be a time when UV rays from ozone hole will be a source of life, carbon dioxide will be the source of life.. Life will evolve, it'll keep shifting paradigms.. So will the forms of life and people... (This part is a big reflection of Malcom and Crichton actually - credit to them!)  I end this disconnected blog with questions - is paradigm shift for the better or for the worser for us? Is there purpose to life like it was once upon a time?  Will humans still be pretending divinity when reality keeps striking once every now and then?  Are we evolving or devolving?  With these confused questions and a cacophonic blog, I'm signing off on a New Year!

P. S:  I'm a friggin hypocrite plainly b'coz I've written this blog