A "Home"-ly Voyage...

A slowly-getting-crowded platform of a railway station, a steadily-moving constant crowd, almost the most-diverse population of a geographical region at a single place, and a slowly approaching train's siren... Although a very common picture to everyone, yet it takes me to a different world of thoughts...

Photo credits: http://patokallio.name

The times when it all begins... A kid is born, his world is his "little home"... He doesn't know of anything outside his home if it ever existed... But then he grows up inevitably, and his definition of the world expands with him...
Though his growth is linear, the size of his world inflates exponentially...which kinda freaks him out... But he manages somehow...

He is a very bright kid, he grows up... Shifts the cities for higher education... His alma mater is his new "temporary home"... Unaware of the actual length of his life's voyage, he still considers his "little home" as his actual home... Still believes in the philosophy "The end of this round-shaped earth is nothing but the HOME"... Aspires to be back to his "little home", from where it all began...
Soon, he shifts the cities for earning his share of bread... Leaves his alma mater, and makes a "new temporary home"... and his journey proceeds...
Now, every night he longs to come back to his "new temporary home" for rest... He kinda forgets his "little home" and remembers it just once in a while for the sake of it...
As the kid grows up to be a guy, a man, and so on... He makes several temporary homes for himself during his journey - more than the degrees of English adjectives could possibly define numerically... The knowledge of "Geography" becomes his strong point where he actually lacked once as a student...
He might also succeed in making his own "new little home" in his life's time...
And thus the pilgrimage "takes him to places", and he enjoys every bit of it...
As he grows up in terms of "years" and in terms of "life's experience" to understand the realm of his voyage...
It takes quite some years or sometimes forever, for him to know where he actually belongs... Does he belong to his "little home" or "N" number of those "temporary homes" which he creates and demolishes frequently... 
Or does he belong to the beautiful "voyage" itself? Is the sense of belonging most-prominent, when he is running to catch the train along with the crowd...??? Perhaps, it is... May be that's where the pilgrim belongs... Worth a thought...!!!

My India... A Religious Nation...

It's the time in Indian politics, when many records have been broken and many new established. Driven by it, I felt an utter need to put forward my views on the same.

Well, not going in to much of its statistics, for the social media is already flooded with that. I actually used to believe, that in India, it is not the democracy or religion, but only cricket which unites us together. I was right, but until yesterday, the game-changing day in Indian political history. It was like India winning the world cup (needless to say - a "cricket" world cup), and every Indian played in the final match.

Everyone has their favorites (and that's okay), but I really feel it is no longer about the favorites. It is about the nation, about the people wanting the change so badly. It is about the ever-most-aware generation. It is about the 9-phase election process and the counting taking place peacefully. It is about an ever-huge majority wanting the same thing, wherein everyone feels being not only a citizen of India, but INDIA him/herself. It is the first time when I feel INDIA as a truly democratic country.

photo credits: http://commons.wikimedia.org/

We, the "young" generation of India are actually " grown-ups" I feel. We are aware that we have to earn our own bread, and we are the solo-fighters in our combat of life. And nobody, no leader, no government can manifest it for us (even if it is in their MANIFESTO).

The only problem I feel here is, we Indians are too RELIGIOUS. We believe in God like hell (not literally the "hell"). We make temples of our cricketers and film-stars. We also fling stones at a star-cricketer's house if he fails to perform. And we get drained in the flow. Let's not do that.

Just for a change, keeping aside, how Kejriwal actually turned out to be, let us not do at the national level what we did with Kejriwal in Delhi. Let us work more, be patient and be righteous. And the most important - let us NOT expect MIRACLES.

Modi has yet to prove many things to India. Let our faith not become blind, let's be vigilant.

Let's NOT get MODIfied. Let's get REAL to the nation. And as they say, be the change we want to see in the world (here "nation") :-)

BELIEF... from another perspective

Beliefs can be poisonous...

Well... This is not about stating that the wrong/negative beliefs could be harmful... A blog is little uncalled-for such an obvious thing...

I am to logicize an unusual oblique angle to the concept of belief... It's about the positive ones which sometimes I see as harmful...

There is a stark difference between "to believe in" and "to believe"... You generally "believe in" a God/a ghost/a person/an idea/a principle/a policy/a cause etc... Which are all ILL-DEFINED and ABSTRACT... Whereas you "believe" WELL-DEFINED things such as a fact/a story/a rumor/a thing...

Now as I see... When you start "believing in" an idea, it boosts your creativity... It gives you a positive energy, a driving force for a cause, curiosity, and motivation... But when this "believing in" a random idea, starts taking a SHAPE, it no longer remains ABSTRACT... And it starts becoming confining... It hampers creativity... A simultaneous conversion takes place of "confidence" to a "sort-of-overconfidence"... which probably leads to a demise...

For example, you believe in an expert for a solution to your problem... The faith in that person's help, keeps you motivated and moving... But when the idea of help takes the shape of a steady relief (a belief that you have the ultimate solution to your problems), you start being dependent, non-creative, and disabled... Your mind stops trying to seek solution to any problem for yourself... The confidence in the idea of help shapes into the overconfidence...

Another example (of myself)... Before I started writing, I was a non-believer...

When I started writing few things, the idea that "I can write" made me curious, creative... and helped me write well... Then followed the praise from people, which turned my confidence into a "sort-of overconfidence" and a BELIEF... that "I am a writer"... At that moment, the transition of the verb "writing" to the noun "writer", made me a believer, killed my curiosity... creativity too followed...

The bottom line is: I now "believe in" an IDEA but I "believe" NOTHING... I am better-off being a NON-BELIEVER than a BELIEVER...

Which one you are among the two???

Gotta have some non-productive days too...

A fine morning you wake up on time, with a feel of having got a good sound sleep, you go jogging or gym-ing kind of thing, at work albeit you may not exactly rock but you do each task on time and with full satisfaction, go home, spend quality time with family or friends, eat well, watch your favorite movie or something and go to sleep on time, everything falls in place...

Well, I know that's just about perfect... But here it comes... We have those days too when despite all our efforts, one or most of the aforementioned things go wrong... 

I call them 'non-productive days'... While these are always almost unacceptable to any self-competitive person, these are but a reality... These are frustrating, now the frustration can be a driving force for few but not all and not always...

 

On one such a day when I had to have my share of philosophy, I encountered a thought process of 'complementarity'... If I name the days, as 'productive' or 'non-productive', that just makes them complementary to each other, justifying the meaning of each other... 

They are like soulmates, except for the fact that they actually never meet each other in time... We get complimented on productive days due to the existence of the complementarity... It's relative... Imagine a hypothetical situation, when you become a never-failing robot with all gala days... Would those be really called as productive? - not really... coz the moment the adjective 'non-productive' loses its existence, 'productive' too follows...

So when we curse these not-so-gala days, we should keep in mind that they too indirectly stand for the happiness which we feel on the happier ones...

Well, this thought how much ever relaxing may be for employees, but is not-so-relaxing for employers...;-) yeah... No one pays for non-productive days... So, to them it might seem a little controversial, but it actually isn't... and anyways I thought that it is not bad using a little controversy for publicity of my blog... LOL.

ORIGINAL... Really???

Well, don't take the title as a spoiler alert. It's nothing like an anti-innovation campaign but just an introspection-provoking thought.

One day after watching news about Kejriwal (obviously there seems nothing much left with media apart from him), I was wondering the impact of media in developing the true picture of a person in front of public and many more things... Then I shifted to a more generic version of this thought.

The impact of "received wisdom" in any aspect of life. I see human brain as more of a RECEPTOR than a TRANSMITTER...or more precisely... Earlier the RECEPTOR and later the TRANSMITTER...

To simplify that... Nowadays almost everyone is saying that no matter how AAP has turned to be, it has created a wave which has made people smarter... But I deviate a little from this opinion... I would say people have become more "aware" and not "smarter" precisely...

The awareness comes from receptor function of brain. A brain develops the picture of anything based on what it HEARS and SEES about that thing. I do not deny the analytical abilities of brain. It also ANALYZES and INTERPRETS and then develops the opinions... But the point here is... What are the basis for those analyses and interpretations? Simply VISION and SOUND...

Let's say a musician, even if being a genuine composer, is inevitably influenced by his/her favorite musicians whose music he/she has listened to their whole life... So the product which comes out, is not pirated or copied per se. But it is not ORIGINAL also... It can be safely called "INSPIRED"...

Same logic applies to the regular viewers of a particular news channel, who unavoidably start developing their opinions influenced by what is being served on their platter every morning...

And this is not harmful until it goes viral... but this "received wisdom" goes epidemic way too fast than we can imagine...

The irony is... once we become the "aware" citizens, we start believing ourselves the "responsible" citizens and voluntarily take up the MORAL RESPONSIBILITY to shower the WISDOM onto the others... And the spread of this excessive awareness with uncontrolled, least-analyzed and more-manipulated "received wisdom" is a big national threat...!!!

How the Music feels?

Yeah, you are reading it correctly. It’s not a grammatical or sentence construction error. By this, I didn't mean to say “How do you feel when you listen to Music?” Sorry, nope. That’s the usual stuff. We all feel alive, elated, happy, sad, rocking, calm, excited, and what not.

But, here am asking you guys to think a little beyond the ordinary thinking pattern, just for fun!

I am asking you to personify the Music (“M” capitalized for a reason) in your imaginary world, and ask him/her (no gender bias :-D), how does it feel when it is being played? How does a song feel when it is sung? How does it feel when it is being listened to? How does it feel when it is ignored? When it is booed? When it is applauded? When it is uploaded? When it is downloaded? When it is performed to perfection? When it is killed? (yeah killed by bad “singers”)? The list extends too long.

Well, tough it is, to answer these questions without being Music yourself, so here I am taking liberty to self-assign the role to me on a temporary basis ;-)

Now, I am Music. First of all, I would like to be loved and sung by as many people as possible. But at the same time, I will feel bad if someone kills my “sur” or “taal” (unintentionally though). But also, I will appreciate the effort put in by someone in singing me. I will feel privileged to be played on a goodwala iPod or a high quality digital sound system. At the same time, I will become more melodious on an old radio in the poor’s hut.

I will prefer people to listen to my lyrics and understand it completely. I will be rocking the parties and also healing people’s solitude and sorrows. I will bring rains when sung with devotion. I will feel proud to be a component of a prayer, and essence of love. I will be just like a human in all possible ways but one; in which I will be in a thousands of disguises around people every day every moment, and then still I will be easily identifiable to people J

A GOD's Frustration

One day I was thinking about my own thinking pattern... about things, about changes, about many other things... then I wrote a poem which best described my thought process at that point of time, which was something like this:

When the nights are bright and the sun is cold,

When the hearts are pure and feelings are legit, I will be contented,

When the sun rises in the west, and the moon sings a song,

When the friends are FOREVER and enemies are for-never, I will be contented,

When the praise is real and criticism is sharp,

When the ocean flows into rivers just for a change, I will be contented,

When the seasons switch their routine just for fun,

When I get to be ME, I will be contented.

Photo credits: http://www.stevenmichaelphotographyandart.com/

That day I went home.. ate and slept.. in my dream, I met an old godly person 10 feet long, white shirt and trousers, black blazer, cool goggles and a french-cut beard.... he could do as a bouncer in any disc if he opted to...

He seemed very noble but a bit frustrated...we introduced each other... He called himself Mr. G and I called myself Mr. H.. (alphabetically we were so close to each other)...

Mr. G was a little mad at me, upon insisting him a little, he explained his share of the frustration, as follows:

“I created water, you needed fire…

I created days to work, you needed nights to rest…

I created winters, you needed summers…

I created love, you needed hatred…

I created light, you needed shadows…”

I interrupted him to try to explain my part... “aa…aa… b..but.t….” He was so annoyed, he told… “No, listen to me first…” and then he continued…

“When I give you beautiful cold, you want to wear sweaters,

When I give you beautiful sun, you want a shelter to hide,

When I give you a heart to love, you want to hate people,

When I give you a beautiful mind, you want to use it for dirty politics,

When I give you a chance to fight the challenges, you want to hide away,

When I signaled you to be satisfied with what you have, you always want something more,

I never wanted you like this”

After he took a pause, I was still trying to process his words… I had an answer to his questions but couldn't tell him for some reason…

I was thinking something like this: “Dear G, being a God, as you are also not free of frustrations, we are but humans, and we have our own set of frustrations… You didn't create few things, but those were the by-products of the good things you created… You expect us to be noble (like you) and we expect others to be noble (like us)…and it is nothing but a chain of expectations…”

Seeing my silence, the agonized, the noble, Mr. G stormed off, and I came back to life from this brief meeting with the divine...... period

Is it just about growing up? – inspired by “admirable weirdos”

First thing first, the term "weird" is very relative and can't be defined as such from a single person's perspective…and I take literary freedom to use it as an absolute one…

Talking about literary thing... only after meeting one such admirable weirdo, I started feeling myself as a good writer… thought often that I can barely read only few pages of a novel or something… I am not a good "reader", then how can I be a "writer"… "Good writer" whoa… that's a farther thing… I kept on writing few things for myself, but could not find answer to the "non-reader-can-be-a-writer" mystery, until one fine morning when stroke upon me a beautiful logic – something like this which follows:
There are two categories of peoples, not exclusive though – Type 1: Readers and Type 2: Writers… few people are excluded from both categories, few included in anyone and few included in both the categories… both are complimentary to each other…
As a matter of fact, I get bored reading long things from even a good writer, probably because I am not a good reader or probably it doesn't interest me at all…but on the contrary, I can write coz it is interesting to me… so I happily accept the “writer” tag and leave the boring (readers please pardon me ;-) ) reading task to the "courageous"… Nevertheless, I also feel that combination of both in a single person is obviously a good one…
That was about quite a longer than usual intro kind of thing… but am sure you belong to the brave reader category… so please hold on… just coming to the point………………

When I think about a clock or time for that matter (even before the invention of clocks - well, let's stick to the clock as a metaphor)… it is the only instrument which ticks constantly, and generates a non-stop music that reminds us that the universe is still in existence… ever heard of a clock going for a lunch break, tea party, or a day off, or Christmas vacation or summer break?... ever heard of a clock keeping two minutes of silence for the dead, ever heard of a clock chilling out or mourning… or being tired?... Nopes… it is the pace of clock, pace of time, which is the pace of life… and it goes on…
And with that constant background ticking, we meet many people in life… few "hats-off-to-you dude" kind, few "aw-yucks" types, few "pity-on-you" kind, few "love-you-a-lot" kind, and even few "man-you-really-suck" types, few "funny-ass dumbos", few "respectables", few "spectables", few "beatables", few "eatables", few "arrogant geniuses" and few "admirable weirdos"..
Among all these, I learn life, I understand things little more every time, and more than anything, I learn myself a little more at depth…
I earn respect, I earn humiliation, I earn a beautiful friend, I earn a beautiful idol of worship…
I laugh, I get laughed at…
I get tempted, I get cared, I get loved, I get hated, I get broken, I get joined back again… it goes on…
In the middle of this thoughtfulness… I always get two types of options... Type 1: whether to learn from the past and be wise, act wise, GROW UP, and in the process, lose the essence of life... OR Type 2: to live the other way… stop trying to predict… fall for love again whenever I get a chance to… give it a go… and live the same thing again with a new flavor every time with a little more wisdom…

I mostly prefer Type 2… and I see these two types as exclusive of each other… How much ever smart or pragmatic a man would be, he cannot optimize and blend these two ways of life… has to select only one code of life, live by that, thereby be saved from the disadvantages of the other one, forego the benefits of the other one, and enjoy the foolishness which lies in the chosen path... Yep, I mean that's the way… it isn't just about growing up… fair enough, fair enough…!!!

The Beginning...

In our day-to-day lives, often do we come across peculiarities of life which we can choose to either think upon or ignore... That's really up to an individual, and most of the "common" people safely learn to ignore them...

Most of the times, I also do belong to the same clan – until the time I come across a thought with which I feel like spending my quality time... And then I feel although it is smart, most of the times, to ignore small-small things, it can really be interesting if I analyze those little things... And it is where my journey of writing begins....!!!