Its difficult to imagine a world without words. Imagine you are in a meeting and you didn't have the tool of word to communicate !Sounds bizarre to our verbose ways of the world but I would like to believe that communication in such times would be a fairer representative of our true inner feelings. No rhetorical pleasantries, no over-reactions on a minor accident, no false shows of sympathy through words, words and more words.
If I dig history, I learn that our ancestors didn't have the faculty of language to communicate and they felt shortchanged. Then came words and the rest is history. To that point, I would like to say that evolution for the sake of evolution is not good. I am hoping for a day when all words would have dried up in the minds of the people and only way they could communicate is through facial expressions and body languages !
I have been told by an Italian friend of mine that 40% of communication in Italy is through body language! Sounds fantastic to me but by no means I would imagine that this was the reason for their debt crisis. Government okayed the over spending by shaking the pervert head of Prime Minister whereas it actually wanted to say NO. Far fetched but a possibility.
My education trained mind asks me to think realistically and perform a cost benefit analysis. I think the benefits far outnumber the costs.Here is the list that I can quickly think of :
Benefits
1. Reduction in Noise
2. Honest communication
3. Time saved on unnecessary explanations
Cost
1. The printing world would suffer huge revenue losses
2. The languages will die a natural death
3. The telecom world would be flabbergasted
Well, there is not a day when I thought words are insufficient in expressing the true thoughts so why not just get rid of words, words and more words...
Friday, February 10, 2012
Thursday, February 9, 2012
Degree of randomness
There are different aspects of life that fascinate people differently. Something which has caught my fancy of late is the degree of randomness in one's life. Order is against the grain of human life. I think while I pursue for more order in my life , its balancing out one way or the other. God is very good with numbers, he insures that the sum total remains zero.
Spending time with oneself, however rare it has become in the modern lifestyle, opens my eyes to a totally different world where money, position, achievement do not amount to anything. It just tells me what I don't need in my life to be happy or stable, unfortunately it doesnt tell me what I need in life. Frankly, I don't know , living life on a per day basis has it's own set of challenges, the most striking one being, there is nothing to look forward to the day after... And this again adds to the randomness in my life distrubing my personal entropy equation.
I sit in silence with no agenda and after a while it becomes difficult because of lack of structure not just in action but also in thoughts. I know a friend of mine who also chides me for thinking random stuffs and not doing anything about it. To my defense I can only say that I will work my way through it, may be live with it and not necessarily suffer from it ...
Spending time with oneself, however rare it has become in the modern lifestyle, opens my eyes to a totally different world where money, position, achievement do not amount to anything. It just tells me what I don't need in my life to be happy or stable, unfortunately it doesnt tell me what I need in life. Frankly, I don't know , living life on a per day basis has it's own set of challenges, the most striking one being, there is nothing to look forward to the day after... And this again adds to the randomness in my life distrubing my personal entropy equation.
I sit in silence with no agenda and after a while it becomes difficult because of lack of structure not just in action but also in thoughts. I know a friend of mine who also chides me for thinking random stuffs and not doing anything about it. To my defense I can only say that I will work my way through it, may be live with it and not necessarily suffer from it ...
Thursday, March 10, 2011
What has concluded that this should?
Excerpts of a conversation between Earth (E) and its Inhabitant (I)
E: Why do you look so worried?
I: I am not worried on the account of anything material. Its my conscience.
E: I want to know the reason behind this strange worry
I: I don’t get worried for the love of it. I mean, I have seen it all. I have lived my life traversing the sinusoidal wave of joy and sorrow with equanimity. Now, I have come to a stage when nothing excites me. I don’t quite love success or hate failure. I just do it. But....
E: You sound very strange. You suffer from fear psychosis, the fear of not having to anything to cherish, not having anything to fear. You must be a well to do man of means and jobs and that’s why you found something to worry upon.
I: I see that as an affront. I am not a poor man and by worldly standards I am qualified to be called a man of riches and intellect. But that’s not the point.
E: That precisely is my point. You have more intellect matters to worry about. Don’t I see where you come from? Brother, I have seen plenty like you.
I: You don’t have to be so rude. Do you think I am ordinary? You think all my concerns are hypothetical. I thought my experiences were unique and extra-ordinary. My joys the worthiest and my sorrow the deepest, how impudent you can get? I always prided myself at the mere thought of calling myself an intellectual.
E: O, I am sorry, I didn’t mean it. All I said that your problems aren’t new to me. Your lives are similar if not the same, though there is a high possibility that it would be the same, I won’t say this because it might upset you. Why everyone thinks he/she is unique? Of course everyone is unique like everyone else. You have to come out of that arrogant self important feeling. You don’t have to be yourself as they say it.
I: Now, that is something. What do you mean? I always thought there is merit in being myself?
E: If you want to conquer something you would need complete freedom. And what is this freedom worth if one is not seeking freedom from oneself. Only this kind of self-mastery will give you eternal happiness. Everything else joy, happiness, family and love are fleeting.
I: You think?
E: I do. All you need is faith. Faith will then bring miracles. Your life will see a turnaround.
I: Can I die a happy man? Can I say with pride in the heavens that I lived a worthy life? Will there be no pangs? This whole idea of submission to a virtual nothing, life of renunciation scares me.
E: No, you won’t die a happy man. You will still have a pang or two. That is what makes you human. And your pain might as well continue, I haven’t seen life beyond me so I can’t say much.
I: (puzzled even more than before) How would you conclude this conversation?
E: What has ever concluded on this earth that this should? This too shall go on. Forever.
E: Why do you look so worried?
I: I am not worried on the account of anything material. Its my conscience.
E: I want to know the reason behind this strange worry
I: I don’t get worried for the love of it. I mean, I have seen it all. I have lived my life traversing the sinusoidal wave of joy and sorrow with equanimity. Now, I have come to a stage when nothing excites me. I don’t quite love success or hate failure. I just do it. But....
E: You sound very strange. You suffer from fear psychosis, the fear of not having to anything to cherish, not having anything to fear. You must be a well to do man of means and jobs and that’s why you found something to worry upon.
I: I see that as an affront. I am not a poor man and by worldly standards I am qualified to be called a man of riches and intellect. But that’s not the point.
E: That precisely is my point. You have more intellect matters to worry about. Don’t I see where you come from? Brother, I have seen plenty like you.
I: You don’t have to be so rude. Do you think I am ordinary? You think all my concerns are hypothetical. I thought my experiences were unique and extra-ordinary. My joys the worthiest and my sorrow the deepest, how impudent you can get? I always prided myself at the mere thought of calling myself an intellectual.
E: O, I am sorry, I didn’t mean it. All I said that your problems aren’t new to me. Your lives are similar if not the same, though there is a high possibility that it would be the same, I won’t say this because it might upset you. Why everyone thinks he/she is unique? Of course everyone is unique like everyone else. You have to come out of that arrogant self important feeling. You don’t have to be yourself as they say it.
I: Now, that is something. What do you mean? I always thought there is merit in being myself?
E: If you want to conquer something you would need complete freedom. And what is this freedom worth if one is not seeking freedom from oneself. Only this kind of self-mastery will give you eternal happiness. Everything else joy, happiness, family and love are fleeting.
I: You think?
E: I do. All you need is faith. Faith will then bring miracles. Your life will see a turnaround.
I: Can I die a happy man? Can I say with pride in the heavens that I lived a worthy life? Will there be no pangs? This whole idea of submission to a virtual nothing, life of renunciation scares me.
E: No, you won’t die a happy man. You will still have a pang or two. That is what makes you human. And your pain might as well continue, I haven’t seen life beyond me so I can’t say much.
I: (puzzled even more than before) How would you conclude this conversation?
E: What has ever concluded on this earth that this should? This too shall go on. Forever.
Monday, March 7, 2011
What’s love without madness?
I thought for long after getting instigated by Friedrich Nietzsche’s moving line where he says “There is always some madness in love” to think for it myself. I might as well write something about it and think along the way. Well, is this so difficult to answer? No but still I will dedicate a blog to it.
In all the three phases of love as I see it Courtship, Prosper & Decay, there is an element of madness written all over it. For those who don’t quite agree with my classification of phases, I am sorry! When a boy sees the girl for the first time in his life, he makes up his mind to pursue her till she gives her assent amicably. So he goes about waiting on her at the scheduled time of the day and wittingly finds her in the city’s markets or her well-known visiting places. He would then write her a letter (excuse my incongruous letter), hoping for a reply or a positive shift in her attitude. You may say there is some method in his madness nevertheless he gets welcomed into the world of mad. The only silver lining in the cloud being her delinquent yes is enough for the boy to swim deeper in the sea of madness.
Together they see heaven on earth, comforted by the sight of each other they walk hand in hand swinging amorously at the song beating in their hearts. There is mad whirl of pleasure in seeing each other every day, eating together and talking for endless durations. The madness in boy is kept in check by the arrival of the girl in his life but this apparent loss is compensated by increased madness coefficient in the girl. There is no madness like love and there is no love like the prosper love. And just when you thought they lived happily ever after, enters God with his balance sheet of each person’s stint at earth, reminds that the time is right for a change in fortunes. Madly enough did they build it together something that gets destroyed by the act of God in a strong message of vengeance for garnering too much happiness in too little a lifetime.
This phase is characterized by madness of the highest degree. One loses interest in the world around him and is yet to come to terms with the new realities of life. While it aches to live such a life one is unwilling to take any extreme step as sudden bouts of maturity attacks are a common phenomenon preventing any end to this tale of misery, skullduggery and madness inflicted by a supernatural act. With age also comes greater endurance to live through all of this despite all the madness putting on a pretentious face masked with fake smiles & hollow laughters. Anything but a failure, they go on to live and perform all the murky duties of a man. Now the question arises why don’t they look for happiness which is by the corner at the doorsteps and blah blah blah....
Does it still perplex you? Remember Cheap Happiness or Noble Suffering?
In all the three phases of love as I see it Courtship, Prosper & Decay, there is an element of madness written all over it. For those who don’t quite agree with my classification of phases, I am sorry! When a boy sees the girl for the first time in his life, he makes up his mind to pursue her till she gives her assent amicably. So he goes about waiting on her at the scheduled time of the day and wittingly finds her in the city’s markets or her well-known visiting places. He would then write her a letter (excuse my incongruous letter), hoping for a reply or a positive shift in her attitude. You may say there is some method in his madness nevertheless he gets welcomed into the world of mad. The only silver lining in the cloud being her delinquent yes is enough for the boy to swim deeper in the sea of madness.
Together they see heaven on earth, comforted by the sight of each other they walk hand in hand swinging amorously at the song beating in their hearts. There is mad whirl of pleasure in seeing each other every day, eating together and talking for endless durations. The madness in boy is kept in check by the arrival of the girl in his life but this apparent loss is compensated by increased madness coefficient in the girl. There is no madness like love and there is no love like the prosper love. And just when you thought they lived happily ever after, enters God with his balance sheet of each person’s stint at earth, reminds that the time is right for a change in fortunes. Madly enough did they build it together something that gets destroyed by the act of God in a strong message of vengeance for garnering too much happiness in too little a lifetime.
This phase is characterized by madness of the highest degree. One loses interest in the world around him and is yet to come to terms with the new realities of life. While it aches to live such a life one is unwilling to take any extreme step as sudden bouts of maturity attacks are a common phenomenon preventing any end to this tale of misery, skullduggery and madness inflicted by a supernatural act. With age also comes greater endurance to live through all of this despite all the madness putting on a pretentious face masked with fake smiles & hollow laughters. Anything but a failure, they go on to live and perform all the murky duties of a man. Now the question arises why don’t they look for happiness which is by the corner at the doorsteps and blah blah blah....
Does it still perplex you? Remember Cheap Happiness or Noble Suffering?
Friday, March 4, 2011
Cheap Happiness or Noble Suffering?
So I ask this question to myself from time to time, which is better? Cheap happiness or Noble suffering? Well, they say life is about choices we make and those choices do add up to our lives where the sum is greater than the parts. My predispositions have always been human when I have given in to the demands of the matter. But there have been incidents which are still fresh in my memory when I outdid myself and opted for the noble. The noble matters have a way of coming, they wouldn’t even knock on your brain doors, and they would rather wait at the doorsteps silently without raising alarms hoping for you to get rid of the ignoble thoughts so you could embrace it wholeheartedly.
The pleasure of doing things noble is hysterical as the conscience is clear, head is straight, will is empowered and satisfaction immense! I am not babbling something because I had to write a blog due for the month of March, this feeling has taken abode in my head for sometime and I have been thinking is it only me or is there someone else too? Allow me to make myself clear on this. What sort of happiness is that which is only meant for public consumption? That you don’t quite like yourself? And what is happiness begot without a fight? Man like me is too disgusted with the idea of anything cheap that he wouldn’t ever go for it, so what if it gives happiness! I think happiness is exaggerated; the sole purpose of living should be doing things noble. Happiness makes a man content that leads to inertia coupled with arrogance. He that is happy is either dead or a fool. I look at them and smile, this smile is not the same as theirs not because I have assumed a moral dictatorship over everyone but due to the fact that I count one more man down pursuing the path of cheap happiness which makes my noble suffering even nobler and just a bit more difficult.
Noble suffering also has purgatorial undercurrents. It purifies your soul of all the sins and keeps you clean. That for me is a bonus as I am not a man of strong religious conducts. Such a living also insures one has least number of undesirable contacts from the outer world, keeping the list to bare minimum. Trust me all of this won’t get you ostracized and you can easily get by for a large part of your life, even amidst the corporatization of emotions and feelings. What will thence remain with you will be a complete diary of noble sufferings which would till that date gladden your senses, your rattled physical self because obviously you have suffered and if you are lucky one or two close acquaintances who had the strength of character to stand by you withstanding your idiosyncrasies. I wish I could practice even an iota of what I write nevertheless a beginning has been made.
The pleasure of doing things noble is hysterical as the conscience is clear, head is straight, will is empowered and satisfaction immense! I am not babbling something because I had to write a blog due for the month of March, this feeling has taken abode in my head for sometime and I have been thinking is it only me or is there someone else too? Allow me to make myself clear on this. What sort of happiness is that which is only meant for public consumption? That you don’t quite like yourself? And what is happiness begot without a fight? Man like me is too disgusted with the idea of anything cheap that he wouldn’t ever go for it, so what if it gives happiness! I think happiness is exaggerated; the sole purpose of living should be doing things noble. Happiness makes a man content that leads to inertia coupled with arrogance. He that is happy is either dead or a fool. I look at them and smile, this smile is not the same as theirs not because I have assumed a moral dictatorship over everyone but due to the fact that I count one more man down pursuing the path of cheap happiness which makes my noble suffering even nobler and just a bit more difficult.
Noble suffering also has purgatorial undercurrents. It purifies your soul of all the sins and keeps you clean. That for me is a bonus as I am not a man of strong religious conducts. Such a living also insures one has least number of undesirable contacts from the outer world, keeping the list to bare minimum. Trust me all of this won’t get you ostracized and you can easily get by for a large part of your life, even amidst the corporatization of emotions and feelings. What will thence remain with you will be a complete diary of noble sufferings which would till that date gladden your senses, your rattled physical self because obviously you have suffered and if you are lucky one or two close acquaintances who had the strength of character to stand by you withstanding your idiosyncrasies. I wish I could practice even an iota of what I write nevertheless a beginning has been made.
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Forlorn
I told it several times, tried to convince the stubborn alter ego
T’ didn’t yield the exact results though pure was the motto
T’ insists on revels in the memory of the bygone
Undermines all my efforts I made since dawn
T’ goes on to argue my position with a rebellion rant
Says it was I who set it up contrary to its want
T’ still yearns for the sunny mornings and warm days
Blaming me for the tempest that me creates
Sleepless nights, restless days, diffident smiles and hollow laughter
Like an aimless arrow it runs towards a goal that is not an honour
Like a crying child wanting to be lapped by its mother
T’ hopes for a fate similar that’s better
T’ is doing what it could while I am what I should
Premises I don’t have to act on it so rude
They say there is good in everything he does
Long lost the reasons to believe in those words
If he can’t act God, I too should get a reprieve
Battling humans, struggling men isn’t that a sight so trite
Oh I must be punished for questioning the incontestable reality
But grant me a patient hearing if it’s not the time yet for your benignity
What does one do when the destiny conspires
Where does one take refuge when the soul has no desires
Why & how are long left conundrums that I do not seek
All I long now is some silence for my heart that is weak
With each ticking second I am nearing towards you
I hope to start a conversation that’s long overdue
Left little to chance, I aim to make a fresh beginning
I lost hope here and I can't see anyone ushering
T’ didn’t yield the exact results though pure was the motto
T’ insists on revels in the memory of the bygone
Undermines all my efforts I made since dawn
T’ goes on to argue my position with a rebellion rant
Says it was I who set it up contrary to its want
T’ still yearns for the sunny mornings and warm days
Blaming me for the tempest that me creates
Sleepless nights, restless days, diffident smiles and hollow laughter
Like an aimless arrow it runs towards a goal that is not an honour
Like a crying child wanting to be lapped by its mother
T’ hopes for a fate similar that’s better
T’ is doing what it could while I am what I should
Premises I don’t have to act on it so rude
They say there is good in everything he does
Long lost the reasons to believe in those words
If he can’t act God, I too should get a reprieve
Battling humans, struggling men isn’t that a sight so trite
Oh I must be punished for questioning the incontestable reality
But grant me a patient hearing if it’s not the time yet for your benignity
What does one do when the destiny conspires
Where does one take refuge when the soul has no desires
Why & how are long left conundrums that I do not seek
All I long now is some silence for my heart that is weak
With each ticking second I am nearing towards you
I hope to start a conversation that’s long overdue
Left little to chance, I aim to make a fresh beginning
I lost hope here and I can't see anyone ushering
Saturday, February 19, 2011
Lazy is not a bad word
Few things in life are as boring as prolonged inflicted boredom. Last days of my academic career are so unlike MBA in its nature, sans classroom sessions, presentations, submissions reports and et al. I am not ruing the lack of them but I am definitely not liking the absence of any solid alternative. These days throw my memory back to the long summer vacations I enjoyed doing nothing, semi-long winter vacations spent playing cricket and badminton with equal fervour. Alas, I am a grown up now and not that lucky anymore to enjoy simple pleasures of life. So what am I supposed to do?
“Watch movies”, is the immediate response from the left side of the brain also echoed by some friends who also justify gross indulgence in this act citing this period as the last such phase in my life when I am entitled to have ‘fun’. I did give in. I did watch a lot of movies during this period; some were good and some not so good. Like everything in life, I got bored of watching movies and was now looking for some meaningful activity in my life.
“Write something”, ranted my brains to disapprove of my obsessions with the movies hoping to proselytize me to standard intellectual faith in reading and writing. So I wrote. In search of a muse I started to think but with the burden of an overwhelming thought proving too much to handle I started writing about everything, poems, and blogs about non de script matters, which appeal to me only in a certain state of mind. My honeymoon with writing lasted only for a few days but we separated to meet soon with the hope that future will correct the mistakes of the past.
“Why not read?” For once I was able to answer my brains with my chins up and confidence high that I always read a few pages of Nietzsche or Dostoevsky. Having said that I had to admit it to my brains that I wasn’t reading enough. 10 odd pages every night don’t make one a keen reader. With renewed love for reading I thought in my mind to do more justice to the wonderful writers. I have made a humble beginning but there is a long night to go before I sleep.
There are only a few more days left before I like my other batch mates would enter the corporate world where I am told man’s sense of the left brain blunts. I will do well to take care of that. But if I weren’t lazy, I wouldn’t have thought in such detail about my past, present and future, if I weren’t lazy, I wouldn’t have buried myself in wonderful pieces of literature, if I weren’t lazy I wouldn’t have watched tons of gigabytes of movies sitting princely on my sorry looking bed. I thought I would take this opportunity to mention this to my friends that after all lazy is not such a bad word.
“Watch movies”, is the immediate response from the left side of the brain also echoed by some friends who also justify gross indulgence in this act citing this period as the last such phase in my life when I am entitled to have ‘fun’. I did give in. I did watch a lot of movies during this period; some were good and some not so good. Like everything in life, I got bored of watching movies and was now looking for some meaningful activity in my life.
“Write something”, ranted my brains to disapprove of my obsessions with the movies hoping to proselytize me to standard intellectual faith in reading and writing. So I wrote. In search of a muse I started to think but with the burden of an overwhelming thought proving too much to handle I started writing about everything, poems, and blogs about non de script matters, which appeal to me only in a certain state of mind. My honeymoon with writing lasted only for a few days but we separated to meet soon with the hope that future will correct the mistakes of the past.
“Why not read?” For once I was able to answer my brains with my chins up and confidence high that I always read a few pages of Nietzsche or Dostoevsky. Having said that I had to admit it to my brains that I wasn’t reading enough. 10 odd pages every night don’t make one a keen reader. With renewed love for reading I thought in my mind to do more justice to the wonderful writers. I have made a humble beginning but there is a long night to go before I sleep.
There are only a few more days left before I like my other batch mates would enter the corporate world where I am told man’s sense of the left brain blunts. I will do well to take care of that. But if I weren’t lazy, I wouldn’t have thought in such detail about my past, present and future, if I weren’t lazy, I wouldn’t have buried myself in wonderful pieces of literature, if I weren’t lazy I wouldn’t have watched tons of gigabytes of movies sitting princely on my sorry looking bed. I thought I would take this opportunity to mention this to my friends that after all lazy is not such a bad word.
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