Words...

It's only words... and words are all I have... to take your heart away... Goes a song from 90's. 

Few days back, there was a 'Secret Santa' event at my workplace - where we were supposed to send anonymous gifts to our teammates. As usual, few gifts were 'interesting' and others... were pens... I, too, gifted an unknown person a pen. And in return got a pen myself... So much for seasons' festivities. 

I actually wanted to add a note along with the pen to make it 'special'... but... didn't... so here it goes...

They say a pen is mightier than sword! 

There should be some relevance to this proverb. A sword may save or kill one person at a time. But, a pen might bring to action hundreds and thousands of such swords, either one way or the other. As such, indeed, pen does seem to be mightier. However, looking all around us, with so much death and misery and gloominess, I wonder, has all the ink in our 'collective' pens dried up? Or has the thirst of sword overcome the might of pen. Has the power of pen, i.e. words, lost its meaning? Have words turned dysfunctional? 

I write, blog to be more precise. Okay, not very often, but still... occasionally. But, I've never thought, that my words would have saved someone's life. Its a far fetched idea. May have given someone a glimmer of hope, but then that's about it. 

However, if I had a sword (or any other weapon) - would there be any difference. Perhaps not! I still wouldn't have saved or taken anyone's life! But, I definitely would have felt more powerful than a nerdy, introvert punching words on his blog that doesn't get any hits!

Why is this feeling so pertinent and logical?

Having said that, there are so many keyboard punching zealots, who are changing the course of history, as we speak - for good or for bad... mostly for bad, I would believe. Is it because of them that the words, we speak or write are loosing their importance? 

At the end of the day, neither pen nor sword... nor the words matter... its the deeds that we actually do that make the most difference. That would be our legacy. A restraint pen (keyboard!) is as good as a restraint sword! Be careful of the words you choose, for once said they don't come back. There are no erasers and sutures for the hurt caused by our words, choose them wisely. (there's no undo on internet either!) 

People matter more than pens and swords! They should!  

Pride

Pride... It's a strange word and even a stranger emotion...

"I'm proud of ...."
Complete the sentence with any word that you hear every now and then!

Add name of a country in the blank. Country as an entity existed before, and will continue to, irrespective of the fact that you exist or not! It is merely by chance, you were born in a country instead of another. You did not have any role to play in making of this country as it is today (or in any time in past) (assuming 'you'' to be a reader of this 'rant'' - I don't expect any important who's who to be wasting time here, if you indeed are making a difference to country or society). Call it nationalism or patriotism or whatever you may, there is no good reason to be proud of something you don't contribute to!

That brings me to 2nd word that could fill up the blank... Religion! Again, there is not much that you have contributed, apart from being a devout follower! But, the pride that is usually associated with religion is more "stronger" depending on how stronger your faith is! Religion can help at times with faith and hope and motivation and about 2nd chances and failures and mortality among many other things. But, essentially it is how you cope with things, so you should be proud of yourself and not being identified by religion or for that matter nationality or race or creed or gender. Simply because it was by chance you were an Indian or Pakistani. Hindu or Muslim. Female or male. Black or white.

It would be another thing if you were originally something else and then struggled to get into another. Like in case of people who have migrated, or converted, or came out of the closet! In such a case, it really is understandable and justified! And then, people taking pride in their identity is good. To set an example for others. These have earned their identities under difficult circumstances after a lot of trials and tribulations!

Talking of struggle and difficulties, parenting is another tough thing to do. So, parents being proud of their children and children (probably after becoming parents themselves) being proud of their parents! Both these cases are very pertinent! It's the relation between that of creator and creation - not in strictest sense, but close enough!!

Parents are being parents for the first time. And so are children. And it takes a lot of efforts. It's never easy!

Which brings me to the next case, doers, makers, inventors! Similar to parents, these people are doing something which perhaps no one else has done before. And when they do achieve success in whatever their endeavor be, it is but obvious to feel proud of their invention or creation. 

Ask any artist about his art - painting, music, literature, just anything that he may have composed, and you'll understand what I mean. Or a highly skilled worker making a Swiss luxury hand made watch. Or an unskilled worker (perhaps one in a team of thousands) who physically toiled to build a civil  engineering marvel! Or a junior coder who adds a few lines of code in a very complex software. No matter how small his contribution, would take pride in identifying himself with the larger project! These people truly deserve the pride, since they have contributed and were not just there by-chance!

What do you think? Should we take pride in something which happened to us by chance? Or, should we be more proud of something that we actually created/contributed?

Am I different?

Look around yourself, you'll see only two types of people - males and females.

That's the only difference nature choose to have in mankind! Isn't it?

The only difference God chose for us!

All other differences are man-made, in my opinion.

Strangely enough, mankind has found ways to coexist in this dicotonomic world! Men and women not just coexist together, but also compliment each other in a very beautiful way! Not just in the way animals coexist. But, much more beyond that. As complex as they seem, man-woman relationship have stood the test of time and have evolved to huge extent, albeit it's share of abrasion!

(Subtext: abrasion like oppression, exploitation and imposition... Mostly fueled by the societal and cultural norms build by "humans".. Men trying to exploit the difference nature created for us, rather than protecting its sanctity! At times for animalistic needs, but mostly for and under the sanction of these "norms". Now, who created these norms or rules?? And more importantly why?? May be some other day...)

Yes, there black and white, brown and not-so-brown people. People with different types of eyes, nose, and other anatomical parts of body. But, they are more evolutionary adaption, or a result of environmental factors, or a "misfortune", if I may! Something, that people could not choose or control themselves. Yes, these too are differences!

Yet other ways to differentiate, that mankind chose for itself, are regionalism... religion!

Regionalism could have been an evolutionary "concept" devised to distribute and protect "interests" of a particular group. But, do they really serve the purpose? Is this design, this scheme of things, works perfectly "as-designed". Or is it more of a trouble, not worthy of the price humanity is paying. Wouldn't it be much better place, if people protected each others interests, rather than spending energies to protect them from others, who by the way are equally scared!

On the other hand, religion may have been 'invented' to make sense of things around us, which did not have good explanations! Or, perhaps to set few guidelines of how to interact with those in your closer vicinity. Or, to explain 'supernatural' phenomenon. Or, to explain the reasons for our existence. Or, to strike a balance between our physical and spiritual self's. Or, to explain concepts of life, death, soul, life after death... And many other dogmas in a quest to put to rest the 'doubts' of a wandering, restless soul... or should it be 'being', since 'soul' happens to be another explanation!

For sure, minds of men and women are full of questions, those arise, thanks to the human ability to think. However, he and she and we, are expected to just accept things and not question, for many doubts may still remain unexplained. Beliefs and faith are needed much more, than the quest to unearth the truth!

For sure, one life time is not enough to explore ourselves the mystic ways and find peace! But, the discovery from within would be so much more satisfying, rather than accepting what others experienced! Keeping aside the cons, isn't the collective wisdom,  amalgamation of thoughts of masters, something that should make things easier for us. For indeed the troubled mind is also impatient!

Is survival the only way to spend the precious little time we have? Is the time we have really little? Why, or how, few can change the world, while others choose to submit to surroundings? Why are men behaving the e way they are? How could we be better people than those who lived before us? Why are looking at the mistakes of the past, and bringing most to present, and spoiling our tomorrow? Why are we not looking into the future, in a positive and motivated way, drawing inspiration from the past? How can we bring peace to our hearts? And how can we bring peace to others? To each other? How about sharing the love, compassion and love of life?

Am I too different for this or am I capable enough?

Questions… Reasons… Answers… Actions…

ना ख़ामोशी, ना अल्फ़ाज,

होते हैं वजह जीने कि...

वजह ढूंढ़ने वालों को,

मिलते हैं बहाने हज़ार ...

जीने के... न जीने के!!!

बेमतलब ही जी रहे हो ज़िन्दगी

अगर सिर्फ ढूंढ रहे हो,

जवाब उन सवालों के…

जिन सवालों के जवाब ही नहीं !!!

Neither silence, nor words,

Can explain the reason for existence…

Those who search for reasons,

Will find numerous excuses…

For existence… or otherwise!!!

Living a Life meaningless you are,

                If searching for answers to questions…

                                Questions which can never be answered!!!

Life is a quest, a journey, an attempt to find, discover, and explore the unknown.

The cycle of Life and Death...

Few days back, I ran into this conversation with an ol' pal.

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?

Largest Democracy or Banana Republic?

Few days back some bafoon from the "political circles"(?) called us a Banana Republic. Which is an understatement, if I may. It is a no-brainer. The current state of affairs is much worst... but still people went "how dare he..." nobody has the gut,s to accept the problem and then move towards the solution .. they are instead more interested in playing the "naive ostrich" ..

The first step of solving a problem is acknowledging it and admitting that, yes, there is indeed a problem .. and then looking for solutions.

If people don't allow someone to speak truth, isn't it a banana republic anyways?

Sleeping Beauties...

It is one of those nights.. Neo awakened by the blinking green cursor!! No, i'm not The One, nor do I lead a dual life.. coder at day and hacker by night! However, I do face the same questions, 'Who am I?', 'Why am I?'. Did I take the wrong pill? (Thanks Samee for the last sentence). Or did I take any pill?

No doubt, my work defines me. I'm making my own little 'dent in universe', by the work I do for living. I do wake up daily at around this time for our little princess and quickly go back to sleep afterwards. However, today, Mr. Mind has lots of 'work', technical details :P. Now, I understand, why soldiers suffer from sleeping disorders - awakened by the souls they put to 'rest'(?). Luckily, I don't have such haunting ghosts. But, have my own share of different kinds.. I'm sure each one of us has our own type of ghosts too.

This also makes me appreciate the contribution of my wife in bringing up our kids. Every night is similar for her - and this is true for every mother! That's why mothers are a 'respected breed of professionals'... no no no.. don't get me wrong.. I'm not equating motherhood to some 'livelihood earning' profession! But it is a tough 'job'! And unfortunately, it is not the only role that a woman has to play.. she's also a wife, she could also be a 'real' professional, and many other shoes to fill-in. Same holds true for a man - the focus somehow may be different. The species from Mars are more focused about their works, than let's say, looking after young ones.

So we keep on switching roles, but at the end of the day.. at night.. when we are supposed to strip out of all these roles and get some rest and sleep. Precisely at that moment, another role pops up!! 'Why am I?'-role, which is keeping me up now...

Many things are going around in life.. generally and of course, in a smaller sphere of influence around me and my family and our family. Makes me wonder where we are heading, as a race? Human race.. a race of people, deprived of sleep, by the ghosts of their lives? 

When will I find my 'white-rabbit'?

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.

Being Human...

I have nothing against Salman Khan's initiative by this very name. It does mean something good and is a good ad-line. However, every time I hear or see this 'logo' on T-shirts, I go crazy! As if we are all animals and these blokes are the only humans.. makes me want to wear a T with 'being animal' slogan!

Guys, you don't have to remind us.. we know "We're all Human Beings"!! Aren't we?? Atleast, 'social' animals for sure!!

I really wonder sometimes, does wearing clothes qualify/justify the 'social' tag? I mean.. without the clothes, we're are the same! Same anatomy, same body, same appendages, etc. Then how did this species aquire the special status of being called the 'humans'? Remove the clothes and we're all animals! Isn't it? In fact, there are many prowlers out there waiting to attack and tear someone elses clothes!

Don't the animal instincts of human beings mean anything or something?

Why then the false masks?

Why do we need to hide our feelings and emotions, similar to our bodies? Why can't we bare our immortal souls, just as we seek pleasures of mortal bodies? Or are we too human for that??

Body and Soul...

Source

It is always said that the body is temporary while soul is immortal. Have been hearing this ever since my childhood. And I always had this dilemma or question about death in humans/animals as compared to trees/vegetation. Animals supposedly have soul which at the time of death seemingly leaves the body, rendering it lifeless. What happens with trees then? Do they die at some particular instant or moment? Or they don't have soul?

O Morpheus, where art thou?

There are times when we all are full of self doubt. We try to understand the reasons for the things, things which don't make any sense but exist, and we can't do anything about them - or so we think.

Does it sound familiar? Well, this might be a story of everyone, isn't? This is not the story of everyone.. it's the story of the One! We're talking about the central character of the cult-classic movie-series The Matrix, Neo aka the One.

The entire series, from a different perspective, can be summed up as a struggle of a single person. From a computer geek full of questions to the ultimate savior of what is left of mankind.

Justice

Is Forgiveness = Weakness? Is Justice = Revenge?

Source

These were the questions that rose in my mind few days back when I had a heated debate on FB with a colleague-friend. It revolved around the idea of delivering justice in a very straightforward way - kill the killer. This person comes from a armed-forces background. I have immense respect for the people who risk their own lives guarding the nation and its sovereignty against any hostility. I, on the other hand, am civilian, who does not have the faintest idea of what it feels like to be having the power to take away someones life. I'm too faint-hearted for any blood and gory. Fine, I may have read Godfather many times or may have cried watching war movies.. but by nature I'm a peace loving person.

It - the debate - boilded down to the notions of justice and forgiveness.

What is justice? What does being just mean? Being fair mean?

Take Care

It is said that where science ends, religion and philosophy begins. This would essentially mean that the people of the world can be divided in two classes. Believers and Reasonable. This is a very crude classification, but let’s say this is how it is for time being, an assumption at this point of time. Now let us analyze or try to see thru these two points of view the present series of unfortunate events that are happening all around us and life in general.

The believers have very strong faith in the being of God. And believe that most of the things happening around us are controlled by God (in fact all things, not just ‘most’ of them). And, also, that our own deeds are precursor to the kind of situations that we land up in. It’s the good that we do which returns to us. The same is true with our bad deeds. There might be some delay but the justice is delivered according to our deeds. It’s our Karma.

Arre Ruk Ja Re Bande...

Right now, I am listening to this awesome track from equally hard-hitting movie 'Black Friday'(wiki-link). Accidentally played it yesterday and it has been playing in a 'single-repeat' mode. It has a line which has been haunting me since y'day. Why? Because, the thought behind this line has been haunting me since long long time and I could not 'wordify' it. It goes...

            Kise kaafir kahega (whom will you label as 'infidel'/atheist)

            Kise kaayar kahega (whom will you label as coward)

            Teri kab tak chalegi (how long will you call shots)

The context of the movie (and the song) is very different from my line of thought. The movie is about an act of terrorism. However, I won't venture in that direction - religion, hatred, killings, atrocities, injustice, organized crime, etc. I have something else in my mind.

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'.

Equations of Life...

"Poverty = Struggle"
This is what my wife said casually. Made me think, are there such equations in life?

The sign of equality '=' is strange. It never lies. It always depicts the truth, the exact value. Stuff on either side can be anything.. being an engineer, by education and profession, I know the different mathematical 'forms' that can be equated. Angles, lenghts, trigonometric relations, physics, chemical attibutes, complex numbers, calculus, differentials, even probability can be equated -  meaning quantified with an equivalent entity on the other side of the "=" sign.

Can life, or the 'values' and 'attributes' of life be compared, quantified, equated? I feel they can be at best approximated in mathemetical terms. Each can be thought of as an cause-and-effect. Causuality.. remember Matrix? And also 'control'??

"Philosophy/Religion/Faith begins where Science ends" goes a popular saying. That does explain a part of what I feel. Life or the values of Life cannot be equated/quantified. They are just there.. hanging in air.. in the middle of nowhere..

Reminds me of something else but similar from Ayn Rand.. A is A and B is B.. implying many things - few of them being 'truth remains unchanged', 'producers and parasites are different classes'.

Still there are many things which remain unexplored and untouched by human thoughts. Life will always be changing. And human minds are too small to understand it completely and derive an equation for it!!

Re-inventing the Wheel

http://www.upwardlifestyle.com/2009/04/path-13-reinventing-wheel.html 

Every now and then we are told - you don't have to 'reinvent the wheel', 'reuse what is available and make it work'. And we are relieved that our efforts would be saved!


Just imagine - a top of the line automobile say a Ferrari or a Rolls Royce having stone or wooden wheels! What a sight it would be, wouldn't it?

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.

Nadaan Parindey...

Trips to my native place, sometimes, remind me of what I’ve lost by moving to a bigger city for earning a ‘so called’ decent living and a better future.

Indeed there was no other option left for me. With an engineering degree in my hand, I felt at that point of time, I have to go to either Bombay or Pune to get a good job and get on with life… face the world full-on… seek challenging avenues… fulfillment through work and career… utilize the acquired ‘skill’ and education for the betterment of all…