Realizations occur in odd, various ways... a quiet distant relative of mine had come to my place today.... I had met him for the first time in my life.... Things started of slow.... but I did recognize certain mannerisms very native to my father's side of the family from the very beginning... but the actual show started post lunch.... and what a session it was!!...... certain excerpts, inferences and learning....
First of all, Are we breathing?? according to one school of thought (which is quite persuasive, i must add), we are not..... That's right.... what we thought that we were doing all our lives is something that we have never done..... let me try and explain how..... right now you must be sitting, right?? How can you say that "I am sitting"?..... you can say that you are sitting only because you had the option of standing, sleeping, kneeling, squatting etc.... and yet, you CHOSE to sit..... so you can argue that "I am sitting" only because you are capable of doing otherwise too... similarly, you can say that "I am going outside the room" because you can decide to do otherwise too and stay put in the room..... so if some one kicks you out of the room, its only but natural for you to say that "I am not going out, I am being forced to go out"..... So, keeping this logic in mind.... lets answer once again..... Am I breathing?..... can i decide to do otherwise? can i stop breathing?..... unless you are quite suicidal by nature, i guess the answer is no.... so what we are doing is basically allowing the air to go in and out..... Food for thought, isn't it?.... think about it.... I know that I am..... because, I know that I can do otherwise and not think about it!!
The purple thread...
All my life, I have believed that I've been born to do things different.... Never knew that its conveniently termed as being a freak of nature.... it is said that we are all unique but some are more unique than others.... I've been that way.... since childhood, I was too South Indian to be a Gujarati and too Gujarati to be a South Indian... too linguistically gifted to deny my roots, too numerically challenged, to live up to it..... I've always looked different to other people... but never felt anything inside.... I had almost resigned to the fact that I am an anomaly of nature... a piece of jigsaw puzzle that has no place to fit....
But then, just the other day, I was watching Boston Legal (a series I love so deeply, that I don't follow it too often.) In one episode, the character of David Spader says
"Epictetus compared people who “fit in” to the white threads of a toga. Indistinguishable. He wanted to be the purple thread. “That small part which is bright, and makes all the rest appear graceful and beautiful. Why then” he asked, “do you tell me to make myself like the many? And if I do, how shall I still be purple?”
Its ironic how all our questions get answered when we stop searching.... I wish i could stop searching the answers for all my questions....
But then, just the other day, I was watching Boston Legal (a series I love so deeply, that I don't follow it too often.) In one episode, the character of David Spader says
"Epictetus compared people who “fit in” to the white threads of a toga. Indistinguishable. He wanted to be the purple thread. “That small part which is bright, and makes all the rest appear graceful and beautiful. Why then” he asked, “do you tell me to make myself like the many? And if I do, how shall I still be purple?”
Its ironic how all our questions get answered when we stop searching.... I wish i could stop searching the answers for all my questions....
Twinkle Twinkle Little Star....
Let me put it straight.... "We've stopped gazing at the stars"...... It may seem like a simple enough statement but the ramifications are immense.
Have we ever thought.... What was the need for the ancient star gazers to make complex calculations about the distance of the Sun from the earth?... Wasn't his existence on earth, filled with enough hardships, so as to dissuade him from undertaking such tedious exercises?..... The learned amongst us may answer using terms like Motivation, Need for achievement and self-actualization. But I'd simply say, they had the time and the inclination to look up at the sky..... simply put, they were star gazers, because they looked up at the stars....
Today, when we look up the stars, we may end up marveling a man-made sattelite instead.... but then again, there is no dearth of stars on earth.... People who have achieved what others couldn't even dream.... People who have taken human capabilities to the edges of possibilities and sometimes even beyond..... People from all walks of life.... Business, social works, entertainment, theology, philosophy and sometimes, even something as mundane as public administration.... choose any walk of life and you might find a plethora of stars making up the "Walk of fame"......
Media has made it all the more easy for us to take a closer look at these stars.... Media works as a long range telescope that brings us closer to the stars....sometimes, too close for comfort....... We see people winning awards, being gifted some of the costliest cars around.... buying some of the best indulgences, money can buy..... if we want to, all this can really influence us.... even to the point of positive influence.... motivation...... but that is where the catch lies.... IF we want to... The trouble is, we are more worried about the potholes on the road than the stars in the sky..... we are more worried about the garment selection process of the pretty-young-thing across the building, than the endless sky that makes a quiet background to that building......
We need to look up more often..... we are all, finally, a bunch of frogs in a well.... the difference between us is probably that some are looking at the abyss below, some are looking at the darkness around... while some are looking at the skies above..... it is a different story whether we'll be able to get out or not.... but at least we'd have lived a different life....
Have we ever thought.... What was the need for the ancient star gazers to make complex calculations about the distance of the Sun from the earth?... Wasn't his existence on earth, filled with enough hardships, so as to dissuade him from undertaking such tedious exercises?..... The learned amongst us may answer using terms like Motivation, Need for achievement and self-actualization. But I'd simply say, they had the time and the inclination to look up at the sky..... simply put, they were star gazers, because they looked up at the stars....
Today, when we look up the stars, we may end up marveling a man-made sattelite instead.... but then again, there is no dearth of stars on earth.... People who have achieved what others couldn't even dream.... People who have taken human capabilities to the edges of possibilities and sometimes even beyond..... People from all walks of life.... Business, social works, entertainment, theology, philosophy and sometimes, even something as mundane as public administration.... choose any walk of life and you might find a plethora of stars making up the "Walk of fame"......
Media has made it all the more easy for us to take a closer look at these stars.... Media works as a long range telescope that brings us closer to the stars....sometimes, too close for comfort....... We see people winning awards, being gifted some of the costliest cars around.... buying some of the best indulgences, money can buy..... if we want to, all this can really influence us.... even to the point of positive influence.... motivation...... but that is where the catch lies.... IF we want to... The trouble is, we are more worried about the potholes on the road than the stars in the sky..... we are more worried about the garment selection process of the pretty-young-thing across the building, than the endless sky that makes a quiet background to that building......
We need to look up more often..... we are all, finally, a bunch of frogs in a well.... the difference between us is probably that some are looking at the abyss below, some are looking at the darkness around... while some are looking at the skies above..... it is a different story whether we'll be able to get out or not.... but at least we'd have lived a different life....
A Puerile Dream
One day, a little hand will grasp my finger,
and will introduce me to my adult dream.
But until that time, I'll be a child,
frolicking without worries, in time's stream.
She'll make me realize that what I thought, right; is wrong.
she'll make me realize that what I thought weak; is strong.
She'll make me realize that a 'happening place' is not necessarily where people throng.
She'll make me realize that my biggest wish,
is not worth her one cry of avarice.
she'll make me realize that a simple smile,
can make me want any daunting task, to be reprised.
I'll realize that a penny saved today,
will realize one of her dreams tomorrow.
I'll realize that the day she leaves,
will bring me my greatest moment of sorrow.
One day, a little hand will grasp my finger,
and will teach me a new meaning of life itself...
but till that time, this waking dream,
will inspire me to survive.
Angels on earth....
This past week saw the successful completion of a day dreaded by many Indian men.... that's right, Rakshabandhan!!.... The occasion has been a tumultuous one for me too... but for different reasons....
It is an unstated postulate that we all crave for something that we don't have (the inverse of which is that, we don't realize the true worth of what we have)..... So, just for the fact that I was not endowed with one, I had this yearning for a sister.. (all those guys who find this despicable.... press alt+left arrow)........ and and and...... one more sad unstated postulate is that, if you really wanna have something/someone, you have to prove that you don't need it/him/her..... so the loan always goes to the person who proves that he doesn't need it..... the Boy always goes behind the girl who neglects his very existence....and vice versa...... so for some strange reason, all the girls in school used to be gung ho about "catching" the most famous studs.... whereas the geeks were left to fend for themselves (case in point, being me)..... So I still remember all those years when my packet of pens used to return home in its original state (giving pens to sisters was a fad during those days.... ah! those cheap cheap times!!!)..... soon, I found better..... how should i put this.... hmmmmmm...... usage??..... of an image of a girl (perverted, of course!....good ol' days!).... and hence, alleviated my urge to get citizenship in sister-dom.....
Ah!!... But that's where the second postulate came into force..... Just try to imagine this.... (not for the weak hearted)....... I found all my sisters during my college days!!!!!..... yeah, I can understand the goosebumps you are having right now.....But, its been a happy experience for me..... I hope I don't get some fatwa for saying this, but I truly feel that sisters are the guiding angel for all us men..... specially elder sisters..... they are motherly, but from the same generation.... they are friends, but with no strings attached.... they are your confidante, who can, of course blackmail you every once in a while (you win some, you lose some!)..... They are everything that you want a woman to be..... with an added benefit of having none of the traits you wouldn't want in women... They are like the litmus paper who teach you how to react to women; before the more important ones come into your lives... They are always there for you (whether, you like it or not!)... and it is one of the very few relations that does not change during the course of a life time.. sadly, it is also one of the relationships which is under a perennial threat of being taken for granted....
Hence, I hope every man who reads this post looks at his sister in a more caring way... and every woman who reads this.... feels that much more special about being a woman.... God Bless you all..... So that you may bless us back.....
It is an unstated postulate that we all crave for something that we don't have (the inverse of which is that, we don't realize the true worth of what we have)..... So, just for the fact that I was not endowed with one, I had this yearning for a sister.. (all those guys who find this despicable.... press alt+left arrow)........ and and and...... one more sad unstated postulate is that, if you really wanna have something/someone, you have to prove that you don't need it/him/her..... so the loan always goes to the person who proves that he doesn't need it..... the Boy always goes behind the girl who neglects his very existence....and vice versa...... so for some strange reason, all the girls in school used to be gung ho about "catching" the most famous studs.... whereas the geeks were left to fend for themselves (case in point, being me)..... So I still remember all those years when my packet of pens used to return home in its original state (giving pens to sisters was a fad during those days.... ah! those cheap cheap times!!!)..... soon, I found better..... how should i put this.... hmmmmmm...... usage??..... of an image of a girl (perverted, of course!....good ol' days!).... and hence, alleviated my urge to get citizenship in sister-dom.....
Ah!!... But that's where the second postulate came into force..... Just try to imagine this.... (not for the weak hearted)....... I found all my sisters during my college days!!!!!..... yeah, I can understand the goosebumps you are having right now.....But, its been a happy experience for me..... I hope I don't get some fatwa for saying this, but I truly feel that sisters are the guiding angel for all us men..... specially elder sisters..... they are motherly, but from the same generation.... they are friends, but with no strings attached.... they are your confidante, who can, of course blackmail you every once in a while (you win some, you lose some!)..... They are everything that you want a woman to be..... with an added benefit of having none of the traits you wouldn't want in women... They are like the litmus paper who teach you how to react to women; before the more important ones come into your lives... They are always there for you (whether, you like it or not!)... and it is one of the very few relations that does not change during the course of a life time.. sadly, it is also one of the relationships which is under a perennial threat of being taken for granted....
Hence, I hope every man who reads this post looks at his sister in a more caring way... and every woman who reads this.... feels that much more special about being a woman.... God Bless you all..... So that you may bless us back.....
"Ok.....so I wrote what u wanted, didi.....
Can I please have my bike keys back now?"
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