Celebrations...

A couple of days back, I had been to a friend's wedding. And also turned 33. Both occasions called for a celebration by conventional traditions. While weddings are "grand affairs", birthdays are relatively personal. But, both are celebrated, and I wonder why?

Not just personal occasions, but even community/national events… every other day, we have some or the other religious holiday, or some jayanti or punyatithi or a national holiday. Just another reason to celebrate or have a holiday.

What is the reason and logic behind having these holidays, and the so called enforced celebrations?

Then there are these “Hallmark” celebrations. Mother’s day, father’s day, lover’s day, friendship day, blah blah blah… it seems we need a special day to show our love and affection to our special ones… hmmmm

What is the significance? Why at all do we celebrate? What is the meaning and symbolism of particular days?

Go(o)d Particles

Seeing and believing are two different things. Seeing, hearing, tasting, smelling, sensing touch are all physical activities. While belief is something much more.. it's an abstract idea.. something similar to feeling.. the physical sensory organs create some reflexes which we all feel - a mix of physical and metaphysical .. the physical part leads to our actions and reactions while the metaphysical part leads to accumulation of experience and feeling which leads us to believe in a certain way and evolve a 'belief system'.. and a collective 'belief system' is known as... we all know what...

The concept of God and God, Himself, are difficult for us to understand. The common wisdom and common belief systems lead us to believe in things which we ourselves have never experienced.. here comes the concept of 'Faith'.. and to be 'labeled' as a 'good person' according to the 'society' or a 'community', one has to conform to this belief system and have faith.

Respect.. Free-will.. Culture..

Few days back I read this interesting post. It was about few blokes who out of respect to elders, don't smoke in their presence.

In another couple of days, saw a similar post on FB. This one had a different flavour. Few young ladies taking a puff - title went 'mulgi shikli, pragati zhali'.. now this particular title is used by Government to promote education of girl child and literally means - If girl child learns (is educated), society will flourish/develop. Obviously, with this picture its plain sarcasm - don't know towards whom.. Government or this young generation of today's progressive India. Below this 'status' were thousands of likes, hundreds of shares and people who had strong opinions also wrote some very fiery comments.. ranging from 'women in India/our culture are treated with respect - daughters, mothers', 'they should not be objects of desire but of respect', and similar sentiments on one side of the spectrum. And in the 'red corner' were champions of free will and equal rights and freedom for smokers. Some were indifferent to the fact that these smokers were females, while others felt strongly that women are being 'singled out'.

Teachers

Teachers... the most important people in a person's life after parents.

They taught us Life much beyond the scope of books. Built our Characters. Instilled Values. Challenged our limits, yet, helped us also understand , that sometimes, letting go is the best thing to do. Disciplined the Immaturity in us. Taught us that Mannerism and Finesse are as important as Truth and Faith. That Success and Failure are equally important. That Friendship and Trust are the means of winning Hearts. That with Love and Duty world will be a better place. 

Life wouldn't be as good as it is, but for you.

Sorry for all our mischievous troubles. And Thanks for all your kindness and also the thrashings.

Thank Your Dear Teacher.

The Wronged Notion of Justice!

We have been traditionally told and have been listening to this notion of justice, "It is better to free a hundred criminals than to punish one innocent". This was the topic of discussion over the lunch few days back, trigger to these rants :)

While I partially agree to this "philosophy" or "governing rule" when delivering justice in a perfect state of affairs. However, I have a strong objections to this 'rule' when it comes to real world, where hundreds misuse this premise and go scot-free and only the innocents are trapped because they have no mean to manipulate the system.