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Friday 25 August 2017
Wednesday 19 April 2017
Shape of a Story
Somewhere in the history of a nation, a group of people, a religion is a time of profound and well spread activity philosophically. It's like they all limited all of their core beleifs to some critical period of time and then they decided not to think about those things anymore. People do that too, they make an image of themselves modelled upon some specific times and try not to vary too much from that, unless of course the vagaries of life holds up an unrecognisable image in the mirror.
Further than what our thoughts can convey, the roots of our thinking are submerged in the soil made up of dead ancestors. It's not easy to forgive someone for being limited to their own perspective, because everyone else too is limited to their own, but reasoning out things helps us recognise why we think like we do and that is required for moving forward.
For me, there was my fear of giving up on my lousy job. As long as I kept on telling myself that I could both achieve my dream on the sidelines and do the job as well and that thinking otherwise is cowardice and shirking, I wasn't able to resign. It was only when I recognised that my actual fear was in fact rooted in an utter lack of self belief that I was able to move forward, take appropriate remedies and get the control of my life back.
Somehow, there lies in our subconscious the same kind of reasonings that keep on pivoting us back to the same peg and we are conditioned not to question those basic assumptions. Religion gets a hold on us in that way. I feel that we are afraid of the great unknown that life really is. Maybe there is no meaning to it all and we were all a freakish coincidence in the otherwise deadness of life. Then we evolved according to the conditions we faced and bam, our story is explained. But hey! That to me doesn't sound too inspiring and the storyline sucks too.
George Borges had warned his fiction class about relying too much on reality. He said that if the story gets too real, we start finding it boring. After all we have certain expectations from the story and expect it to play accordingly. A nicer story would involve us in the lead roles doing some culturally appropriate things to bring our own selves into existence, Jesuslike.
That story is so infused in every step of our lives that we take that we can't help overlooking it. The story of capitalistic growth has at it's roots a story of struggle of the poor guy, say Jack who through struggle and his wits manages to make himself rich and then finds way to keep it that way forever. Communisms story is that of collective struggle against Jack and taking his property and dividing it up. Socialisms story is setting a ceiling for Jack in terms of richness in the first place. Religions story is keeping everyone happy despite the poverty and pain.
Stories don't have to be literal, they just need to have that felt value which gives them the authority to run our lives in a very subtle way. A man on the side of revolutionaries fighting the just war and the man on the side of the enlightened conquistadors trying to bring light to darkness would have very different ideas about the same situation and the same happenings.
What is the story of today's world? We are tired of the capitalist's story, for it has left us raw and bruised. We gave up on the communist story because after the rush of the first page, it was rotten all the way to the end. The only option is to go back to the tried and tested story of the religious opium addict and many people have done exactly that.
From Putin to Erdogan to Trump to Modi to all those dictators rising up in the world right now, all of them without exception have used the nostalgic story of giving the people back the simple times of yesteryears as a ruse for getting elected. They've promised and promised and promised all of this on the basis of not some concrete plan that they have in their hands, but rather the clever move of building the story of revival that starts through the personal self of these power men.
Like a hero in a story without a villain, these men would feel useless and so they have even created the ruse of the coming evil and asked their followers to remain prepared. That is their story and we have believed them, considering their electoral victories.
What the world needs is therefore some new stories.
A story where we don't need dichotomies, where there is a lot of dialogue and a lot less action, a proliferation of unique characters doing what they like and others accepting the change. Underlying the entire story would be the basic human emotions of love, compassion and understanding, which would be aim of the story and not some megalomaniac or some extremist philosophy.
I just hope that such a story doesn't become too boring for our popcorn nibbling selves.
Off beat
the more you go into the search of self, the more you realise that it is like going into the atom. First you end up making concrete assumptions and then you end up breaking them, till you get a deeper understanding. However, just when you think that you have everything figured out, something entirely out of the blue strikes and then the same process begins again.
With the atom it was the discovery of subsequent models of Rutherford, Bohr, Quantum related, Boson et cetera. For the mind, there was the philosophical model of the Anima, Spirit-God,the era of pure mechanism, the era of unconscious and conscious, behaviourism-cognitivism and now the accumulative wealth of all of these models adding up to a small part of understanding.
These theories should link up at some level, like the nature of reality itself has something to tell us about the mind and visa versa. At the end of the tunnel, I expect some sort of entanglement of the observer and the observed, both effecting each other equally.
Physics can get the answers to the "what is it" and philosophy to the "why it is so".
With the atom it was the discovery of subsequent models of Rutherford, Bohr, Quantum related, Boson et cetera. For the mind, there was the philosophical model of the Anima, Spirit-God,the era of pure mechanism, the era of unconscious and conscious, behaviourism-cognitivism and now the accumulative wealth of all of these models adding up to a small part of understanding.
These theories should link up at some level, like the nature of reality itself has something to tell us about the mind and visa versa. At the end of the tunnel, I expect some sort of entanglement of the observer and the observed, both effecting each other equally.
Physics can get the answers to the "what is it" and philosophy to the "why it is so".
Wednesday 15 February 2017
what gives meaning to our lives
In the name of the lord, most mighty in service of whom our lives will be spent.
This is how most articles in the medieval times would have been written. In supplication of the lord that granted the barn journalists bread and water, it was customary to address ever letter with a little praise for him. This doesn't mean that we have to do it still, because as a certain Mr. Dylan identified correctly, the times they are a changing.
I wouldn't want to harp on about songs. Do they give meaning to our lives? Maybe, they do to some people and in that sense, lots of people would derive meaning from lots of things.
If I told the people who are gladly living their lives, that they had only 60 more years left ( cheers from the octogenarians!) ... I don't think that their current way of living their life would change by that much. The vastness of time would seem to loom in front of them and they would continue to plan for the future far ahead, while livning the kind of life that they wanted to, every now and then.
What IF?
What if, I told a healthy middle aged person that he/she has 30 years to live. It'd be hard for to accept, but not totally unlikely given that 30 years is sufficient time to wind up our lives and do whatever extra things that we've put on the back burner. I expect that most of them would become a little more focussed in the kind of life that they want to live, in the kind of people that they want to share their lives with and then also the choices that they make would be more reflective of this choice.
What iff?
The fun starts when I tell someone that they have only 10 years to live, which is assuming that I am some sort of magical creature that comes every once in a while to tell people how long they have got left. It's a strange iff, for buried deep inside every person is perhaps this fear that they have to die and yet the vagueness of the oncoming death does little to keep them reminded of it. When suddenly, you have the 10 year target, I think it would bring about a hell of a change.
What do you think 'You' would do?
I would give up on my current life, take up travel blogging, never settle kind of life to fill every possible experience that I can imagine into the remaining 3560 days, see now I am thinking about the time in a much more concrete term.. it's about how my focus changed. I'd take up odd jobs now and then to sustain myself and I can even see myself doing something meaningful for those years in terms of working, but I would never take a piece of shit from anyone just for the sake of work.
Morally, I'd suffer a decline maybe.
I won't bother about long lasting relations and one night stands would become more common. But, I don't see myself doing bat-shit crazy stuff, not in the beginning at least, because well... there are those 10 years to live and I don't want to spoil it with disease and disability.
There'd be more sports and more flirting and less of job hunting and more of partying and less of cholesterol watching and faster biking and slower walking and ferocious reading and kind living.
What ifff?
So, now you have only a year to live A SINGLE GODDAMN YEAR TO DO IT ALL!!!!
Ahhh...hhhh..hhh.. Sorry my brain was exploding with the thought of it. Take it away it's too much, too awful, too short, too long.
Yup, deep breathing helps.
One year sucks, it's too short to do anything meaningful and too long to just sulk about it.
I'd go to a monastery to find some calm and travel again, but this time I'd be sadder and somber and more aware about the sword hanging over my head. This is like only a certain number of weeks left. So I'd have to plan them out, like winters for the beaches and summers for the hill stations and then partying in the cities when the monsoons are around and they've been cleaned of all the shit.
I might try for a visa to go to some exotic foreign land... If the process takes too long then I'd just fu&* it and go bombastic in India.. it has a decent amount of poverty to depress me in my last days. hey! I forgot about charity>>> I might try to teach kids in my last year, like really change their lives and see them succeed.. give them hopes and a positive mindset.
It would be more satisfying than just aimlessly roaming around.
Yup, that's what I'd do. Virtually adopt 20-30 orphans and spend my time in teaching them all I know, making them emotionally strong and gritty and self reliant.
What iffff?
I had only a week?
One week? God nooooooo... not this short a time
I'd just sell all my stuff and then move to some hotel and blow it on girls and drinks and drugs and tiger meats. I realised that deep within me, beneath the facade of a peaceful guy, there lurks that wanton suppressed desire to go crazy. I realised this only when I tried to imagine my last week on the planet. I mean, what else am I supposed to do?
I can fly away to different locations, commit crimes ( for novelty) and then run around naked ( again strictly a novelty thing) and eat a lot of banned stuff ( what the heck ) .. but it seems kind of sad somehow.
I mean, I'd love to fly out with my close friends and relatives to some hut in a hill station and then spend that time with them and have an amazing week just trekking, laughing, drinking myself to death, building bonfires and climbing trees and you know swimming in dangerous streams and jumping off cliffs into lakes. Yeah that sounds better. That's what I will do then.
What ifffff?
One day. A single day? Argghghhhh...
I love you. I had to say it to someone and I'd tell her. Then I'd also take my bike and visit every close friend, relative that I have and spend some quality time with them and have a good meal and be welcome death dancing with my best buddies ...
What ifffffF? seriously it's getting too ungrammatical ..
One minute.
A single minute ?
I'd run out of my room, hug my mother and say nothing till I pass away? Sounds cool?
Time changes how we view our lives and we keep pockets of it reserved for some uncertain future when someone would literally give us these pockets of time to full fill, except that life's a bitch and not everything happens how we imagined it would.
Maybe I should do it now.
All of it.
This is how most articles in the medieval times would have been written. In supplication of the lord that granted the barn journalists bread and water, it was customary to address ever letter with a little praise for him. This doesn't mean that we have to do it still, because as a certain Mr. Dylan identified correctly, the times they are a changing.
I wouldn't want to harp on about songs. Do they give meaning to our lives? Maybe, they do to some people and in that sense, lots of people would derive meaning from lots of things.
If I told the people who are gladly living their lives, that they had only 60 more years left ( cheers from the octogenarians!) ... I don't think that their current way of living their life would change by that much. The vastness of time would seem to loom in front of them and they would continue to plan for the future far ahead, while livning the kind of life that they wanted to, every now and then.
What IF?
What if, I told a healthy middle aged person that he/she has 30 years to live. It'd be hard for to accept, but not totally unlikely given that 30 years is sufficient time to wind up our lives and do whatever extra things that we've put on the back burner. I expect that most of them would become a little more focussed in the kind of life that they want to live, in the kind of people that they want to share their lives with and then also the choices that they make would be more reflective of this choice.
What iff?
The fun starts when I tell someone that they have only 10 years to live, which is assuming that I am some sort of magical creature that comes every once in a while to tell people how long they have got left. It's a strange iff, for buried deep inside every person is perhaps this fear that they have to die and yet the vagueness of the oncoming death does little to keep them reminded of it. When suddenly, you have the 10 year target, I think it would bring about a hell of a change.
What do you think 'You' would do?
I would give up on my current life, take up travel blogging, never settle kind of life to fill every possible experience that I can imagine into the remaining 3560 days, see now I am thinking about the time in a much more concrete term.. it's about how my focus changed. I'd take up odd jobs now and then to sustain myself and I can even see myself doing something meaningful for those years in terms of working, but I would never take a piece of shit from anyone just for the sake of work.
Morally, I'd suffer a decline maybe.
I won't bother about long lasting relations and one night stands would become more common. But, I don't see myself doing bat-shit crazy stuff, not in the beginning at least, because well... there are those 10 years to live and I don't want to spoil it with disease and disability.
There'd be more sports and more flirting and less of job hunting and more of partying and less of cholesterol watching and faster biking and slower walking and ferocious reading and kind living.
What ifff?
So, now you have only a year to live A SINGLE GODDAMN YEAR TO DO IT ALL!!!!
Ahhh...hhhh..hhh.. Sorry my brain was exploding with the thought of it. Take it away it's too much, too awful, too short, too long.
Yup, deep breathing helps.
One year sucks, it's too short to do anything meaningful and too long to just sulk about it.
I'd go to a monastery to find some calm and travel again, but this time I'd be sadder and somber and more aware about the sword hanging over my head. This is like only a certain number of weeks left. So I'd have to plan them out, like winters for the beaches and summers for the hill stations and then partying in the cities when the monsoons are around and they've been cleaned of all the shit.
I might try for a visa to go to some exotic foreign land... If the process takes too long then I'd just fu&* it and go bombastic in India.. it has a decent amount of poverty to depress me in my last days. hey! I forgot about charity>>> I might try to teach kids in my last year, like really change their lives and see them succeed.. give them hopes and a positive mindset.
It would be more satisfying than just aimlessly roaming around.
Yup, that's what I'd do. Virtually adopt 20-30 orphans and spend my time in teaching them all I know, making them emotionally strong and gritty and self reliant.
What iffff?
I had only a week?
One week? God nooooooo... not this short a time
I'd just sell all my stuff and then move to some hotel and blow it on girls and drinks and drugs and tiger meats. I realised that deep within me, beneath the facade of a peaceful guy, there lurks that wanton suppressed desire to go crazy. I realised this only when I tried to imagine my last week on the planet. I mean, what else am I supposed to do?
I can fly away to different locations, commit crimes ( for novelty) and then run around naked ( again strictly a novelty thing) and eat a lot of banned stuff ( what the heck ) .. but it seems kind of sad somehow.
I mean, I'd love to fly out with my close friends and relatives to some hut in a hill station and then spend that time with them and have an amazing week just trekking, laughing, drinking myself to death, building bonfires and climbing trees and you know swimming in dangerous streams and jumping off cliffs into lakes. Yeah that sounds better. That's what I will do then.
What ifffff?
One day. A single day? Argghghhhh...
I love you. I had to say it to someone and I'd tell her. Then I'd also take my bike and visit every close friend, relative that I have and spend some quality time with them and have a good meal and be welcome death dancing with my best buddies ...
What ifffffF? seriously it's getting too ungrammatical ..
One minute.
A single minute ?
I'd run out of my room, hug my mother and say nothing till I pass away? Sounds cool?
Time changes how we view our lives and we keep pockets of it reserved for some uncertain future when someone would literally give us these pockets of time to full fill, except that life's a bitch and not everything happens how we imagined it would.
Maybe I should do it now.
All of it.
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