Belief system

There. Just once a while you come up with a sequel to one of your blogs. Maybe a corollary, more so.

No, its not about the belief that 'you believe in what you've to do and half your job's done' type of belief. But its a rather funny type of belief that has kinda been thrust upon us. What do I call it? Lets see if the blog suggests some idea toward the end.

While there are beliefs that you abide by, there are some that are mere societal 'laws', if I may even say so. These laws are dumped on to you and easily, some 97% of the populace blindly follows it. While a section of people get offended when someone eats cows or pigs (which is further complicated by adding another entity that has ruined the world - caste, but lets not get there today), the same people refuse to believe that by not eating meat, they are just living in a false assumption of not killing a living being. The vegetarian section quite similarly consumes all parts of the shoot and the root, quite similar to a non vegetarian consuming legs, breast or liver. You need to survive, you need to eat. Period. But no, one is made to believe that the other is wrong. Some harmony can't exist. Faces have to be made. Disgust has to be expressed. Why? Because we have freedom to do so. Freedom or the lack of it, which curtails the very essence of it, when there is someone waiting to express their opinion on what you want to feed yourself. "Oh, you are a Brahmin, how can you eat beef" remains the most absurd, hilarious and foolish statement that is of a typical classic blind belief system.

The other day I was sitting at a temple by myself. It was a semi rural area on the outskirts of the city. Being an atheist, or, rather, after converting myself into one, I went to the temple only because that was the only place available to sit down in the swelter. I am a converted atheist, so I know the whole deal with footwear and temples. Yet, succumbing to the societal forced norms, I don't act very cranky and mess with the system that way. If at all I enter a temple, I take out my footwear. Mind you, this might seem normal to you till you start questioning it. Only once you question do you see the most obvious reasoning, but let's just leave it at that. So I was sitting by the side of the inner chamber, which was the wall facing the road. It was quite dusty and I wasn't planning on entering the sacred temple. So I chose to leave my footwear on. It was about 30 minutes later that I was questioned by a passer by, a younger guy (perhaps). "How can you leave your footwear on when you are sitting in the temple?" It was a question that was not posed to anticipate a reply. It was a question that came out of anguish. How can a person not take care of the footwear when he's in the temple premises.

So all the god believing people have a set belief that the god they worship is only in the temple. What makes these people roam around in footwear wherever they go? Don't they contradict the saying that god's everywhere? Again, if god's everywhere, is he not in the footwear? Is he not in the mind of the person who designed the footwear some thousands of years back? Is he not in the mind of the person who 'harms' religious animals? Is he only in the mind of the person who is allowed to kill poor mute plants? Isn't this all a little too much imposed by the society rather than anything else? Much like caste, religion and the other bull crap that is plain disgusting?

Of existence

Hello 2019. Yeah, well, it's been a little over 60 days, but what the heck.

I was thinking off late that when people say something stopped happening or they stopped working toward something, did they really mean to do it? There is also the oft used - 'Life happened'. Which is a little cliched. Because if you gave up on what you wanted to do to live life, it kinda contradicts the whole thing of living.

Seriously, what is it that happens. Yes, we all get busy, we all tend to get out of touch with friends - definitely wanes from what it would have been earlier - in the good times. But the one thing that I think must stay with a person is the fire that was ignited at some point of time in life. Today, in my current state of mind, I'd strongly assert that age is a number. Earlier, maybe some 4-5 years back, it was an escape route. Once you see things happening to you when the time is right, the term age just dissolves itself into time. Its one thing if it makes one wiser with experience. But then there are the others too, which makes you think why such dumb fucks are still favoured by the universe and why they are still kept alive :P.

Anyways, coming back to the point (if there was any), life does happen. Life throws responsibilities, life throws unanticipated deaths, life throws unplanned pregnancies, life throws uncalled for bankruptcy and so on. This might seem like a veil of unnecessary things just waiting to pounce on you as you grow older and claim that 'there is no time'. But yeah, life can't be as carefree as it was in college. Life has to happen. But how much are you capable of adapting with it. How many of us are willing to take huge risks in career post 30? How many of us are happily single and still have an active profile on dating apps post 35? How many of us have a physique and the stamina that can put a 20 year old to shame, at 40? How many of us can become style icons at 45? How many of us taste success in what we want at 50? Notice the 5 year gap? It wasn't accidental.

Life happens, when you make it happen. By alienating yourself from what you want, by giving into peer or family pressure, by being bogged down by additional responsibilities, by assuming that its too late now is not life. Its existence. No wonder then, that people experience mid life crisis when they are 30. Or is it existential crisis? Wait, should it happen only at 30? Wasn't age a number?

24 hours

So it turns out that I didn't make any time at all to write in my favourite month of the year. Tsk. Such a sad story. But better late (November) than never (next year), I guess :P.

The title is a give away this time. I more or less come up with something cryptic yet befitting what I'm about to write. In some other stray cases, the title magically appears in my head once the writing part is done. And some very times, both the title and the content fizzle out by the time I actually put these fingers to good use.

So Thanos proposed a plan that would be fair to all, irrespective of nature, wealth, looks, sex and just suggested that half the population be killed. It was a fair suggestion. Some people called it genocide. Some people called him a madman. But hey, it was fair. If like in the movie 2012 where only the uber rich had access to the fancy ships that China made, then there would be a new world with only the uber rich people, who (pardon me), would not perhaps know how to live or make do with basic necessities. Now that's not a world we would want, would we? Thanos' proposal should have been taken. A friend said recently after wading through Bangalore traffic that maybe that dude should have actually been in reality rather than in fiction. My friend would have reached his destination sooner if not for anything.

One of the times when you are overwhelmed with love and just feeling so grateful to life, well, that which at least works for me every time is when I happen to chance upon a video which shows the earth from outer space. A tiny blue dot (cliché) as seen from the outer space, perhaps from the moon or slightly farther. Not as far as mars because it would probably just look like a blue star like how we see the tiny red dot from here. But when I say all this, a vast number of thoughts and reactions start floating in my field of imagination. We are on that tiny blue dot. Like really 'ON' it. We are on a blue dot that's rotating and revolving quite fast. All that we know, all that we remember, all that we concoct, all that we yearn; people whom we love, hate, despise; things that we covet for; the science, the moments we get inspired from, moments we casually live in which inspire others, the ambitions, the quadrillion plans we have, every single fucking thing happens on that blue dot hurtling away. Honestly, it would have been a little comfortable for me if we were close to the northern pole. At least we would stand a chance to 'stand' on a fucking ball. We are almost on one of the sides, close to the horizontal diameter of the sphere. Kinda scary if you imagine it. But yeah, its quite an overwhelming feeling to think that all that has ever happened to us and all that will, has happened on this ball.

Nature, no matter how badly we have ruined it is also fair. Well, we learnt it in school when we were educated with 'survival of the fittest', evolution and the other phenomena that inevitably dictated survival. There were resources and nature decided the one who's able will get it. It was fair. You want it, you fight for it. You don't fight for it, you die. Now the thing that comes to our mind, at least to mine when we say nature is the natural habitat, the supposed co existence of man and animals or plants. Its quite rare that we see earth, its rotation as nature. It is somehow classified into astrophysics, or space science. It is just a natural course of action that has been happening for millions of years. Maybe in other births (suit your belief system here) you were something else, or later after death, you may be reborn into another form of life. Or like Bill Bryson says, it is just atoms that will leave your mortal remains and find some other form to attach themselves to. Well, even that is nature.

What nature has done to us, which is a fair treatment across nature, wealth, looks and sex is give us 24 hours. All of us equally receive 24 hours. If that's not fair, I don't know what is. Its an exact replay of survival of the fittest. You know how to put those 24 hours to use, you live. You don't know, you'll die. Not your mortal self, but you die inside. We see successful people. Of course success is relative. For a guy on a wheelchair, success would be to get cured and play basketball or go for a run. For an entrepreneur, for a musician, for an actor, for a teacher, for a sportsman, for an engineer, for a thinker, for an artiste, for a painter, for a manager, for a bodybuilder, for a scientist, success has its own relative definition. And all the greatest minds we have ever known, the greatest musicians we have ever heard of, the greatest people who became great with whatever they wanted to do it, all of them on the pale blue dot hurtling across the sky did so in the fair amount of 24 hours that they got. The earth never changed its speed a whole lot. A few milliseconds here and there is, well, insignificant. It has always - well, at least as we know, taken 24 hours to complete one rotation. These 24 hours that a Steve Jobs got, an AR Rahman got, a KS Chitra got, a Robert Downey Jr. got, a Vijay Narendra got, are the same. Nothing's changed. Nature's way of playing fair.

I'll leave it at this, a la X files.
Ta!

Good, Bad and Ugly

First of, the moniker this 1966 movie earned for itself as a part of the 100 greatest movies of the last century is commendable. What is not, is the way it has made to transcend in our lives till date.

We yearn for balance, yet make sure it never happens. This is based on a lot of recent discussions I had with a few people and perhaps my own comprehension of these. The discussions were on varied topics - ranging from feminism, equality of men and women, attributing the term 'best' to a friend and so on.

While one discussion veered toward equality of both sexes being just on papers, we discussed how on a personal level, people come to terms with suffering and attribute pleasing the other person to lead a successful life. Might sound a little out of time, but this was purely based out of personal experiences. There was another thing that was about a very strong minded person who pursued something burning inside even after years of discontinuation and how the opinions were biased because the person involved was a female. Once she tasted success, everyone wanted a piece of the pie, but no woman, no man actually stood through the struggle. Where balance, where modern world?

I think there has to be a constant work toward something fully knowing that you can never get it. Thats the pursuit of life, itself. Now, you choose to run or you choose to walk, your life, your call. But really, there has to be a fruit that you should work toward eating. And that fruit goal can change, based on time, based on priorities, which is okay as long as you are one step closer toward it, by the passing day.

Balance in the universe is another similar thing. Now, Thanos might have done a good job, because its the right way to fix the burgeoning population - resource bullshit. But in reality, it can't happen. What would happen to the world if the supply - demand equilibrated? The thought seems quite chaotic in itself. While, on one hand, we all hope that it would be equilibrated. Funny irony.

Its the same balance that the world has come to, rather, has been. Few people say God and Satan, few people say Sura - Asura, few people say positive energy - negative energy, few people say Good and Bad. Have we let ourselves get affected so much with a language and an idiom that we ignore the balance completely? Have we grown to be so pessimistic that the negativity shows up even involuntarily? Why doesn't anyone say 'Best, Good and Bad?'

Happiness - part 2

Its only sometimes that a thought transforms itself into an astounding array of thoughts which you eventually think should be given some form. Such a true basis to define an artiste.

There are generally two reasons I blog. One is out of frustration and desperation and merely a means to vent out feelings. The other is kinda self counselling and thereby writing it down by not giving away too much.

I think there are primarily three things that made me write about this topic (again). One is an age old classic, which I think I should revisit toward the end of the blog or at least after I talk about the other two. The second one was a meme (i still get confused how to pronounce this word, classic example of old age hitting hard) which was a photo of 2 kids on a prize distribution pedestal or a victory stand with 1, 2 and 3 written on them on different steps. The one on the step 3 was so happy that he was 3rd and was showing off his prize with a grin that stretched from ear to ear. It looked like he was willing to take it further, but his cheeks didn't support it. The guy on the step 1 was looking at the other chap like 'Dude, what's the fucking fuss about?'. There can be many captions to this, many that even I can come up with, with my limited creativity in matters like these. The third one is a photo that I saw in the evening today. It was Vasu Dixit standing with two kids. He had a guitar in his hand and the kids were so excited to see it, feel it, touch it. And he had gladly let them do it. It seemed like a genuine candid (yeah, you are forced to use a genuine before candid these days) photo. The caption said, Music brings people together.

It is more than just a realisation. After brainstorming over countless ideas, having these discussions with few special people, after having preached all this, somehow, somewhere, the ideology gets lost when it comes to self implementation. Yes, we all aspire for bigger things and better things. But somehow what we also tend to do is to imagine a better situation or hope for a better tomorrow. We tend to assuage ourselves that it is going to be better. You call it optimism or anything, its bull crap. Materialistic or not, the place you have to reach will not make you happy. That place is not the ideal fantastical world which you'd dream of, because that place doesn't exist. Which is fair, because if it did, it wouldn't have been fun to pursue it. Happiness is the process, the path, the route, the journey. Because its about how to go about it. While the duration itself maybe short-lived, which no one knows of exactly, its one thing to enjoy it while going about it. Now its a little too far fetched for a person who has shit loads of liabilities, or maybe bankrupt, or maybe with terminal illness to be happy. But thats what is inspirational. Its inspirational because only a handful of them can actually do it. If it were common, it would be routine and we would end up seeking inspiration elsewhere.

The first one I was referring to was an age old classic - the rich guy who has liabilities v/s the poor chap who spends the money he earned in the same day. It is a little old fashioned and very crudely portrayed. Even then, happiness is relative. Happiness is something you choose. While you go about doing a zillion things in life, perhaps sometimes over a couple of beers, trying to figure out purpose (another bull crap), why not just do it with some degree of enjoyment. I'm not implying or advising anyone to quit what they are doing and just go see the world. Practically, and quite seriously, happiness is the process of achieving things that we might or might not. It is good to have goals and very good to have dynamic goals. While the journey lasts, why not make it memorable?

Change?

Boy, I missed writing.

Its quite easy to play the blame game and escape out of it, but the bottom line is that there isn't a dearth of ideas. Its the dearth of passion to execute them and write down a couple of paragraphs once in a while. There is a very oft used word for that in the lexicon. Its called LAZY.

I guess I wanted to write about something a few weeks back when I (re)heard a beautiful song. I'm somehow not in the frame of mind to write about it today. Even if I force myself to, it might just not receive as much attention it needs to. So, I'm postponing that for now. That might come up sometime soon.

I was just wondering about innate characteristics of people (to be strictly read as me) (yes, I'm self centred). No, seriously. There are traits and then there are the ones you are known for. The kinds that people can associate you with. The kinds that the trustworthy ones can close their eyes and vouch for you about it. About your trait. That trait is something that becomes more of an identity for yourself. When there are these thoughtful questions that say - "Describe about yourself without talking about your achievements or your lineage", that actually keeps you thinking what you are. We all like bragging about what we've done. When that part is taken out of the equation, what do you talk about yourself? I don't know of a lot of people who can answer that without batting an eyelid.

Now imagine a situation where in, in due course of time, that trait dies out. You are very good at adapting and you choose to let go of your innate characteristics. There are a lot of things at play here. It is not that one day you are what defines you and boom, the second day you are no longer that person. Its not that. Its a gradual weakening of your ideology, of your principles and a definite change toward something. Now, change is change, just like news. The good and bad of it is a perspective. Only if it is Tai lung escaping prison, its bad news.

So who judges this change? The other people around you who are also dynamically changing and are probably grappling with their own imbroglios of life. In case it didn't occur to you, even their perspective toward you would change.

All changes apart, there is an innate nature. Someone can't just turn away from that. No matter what happens in life, I think we should never give up on our identity, especially if we have spent a lot of time in crafting it. I still remember when we were releasing the band's debut album. Every artist who came on stage to talk about it, kinda spoke about the ideology of the band. Despite featuring big stalwarts, the band's idea hadn't changed. I'd like to say that it hasn't changed today too. Now, is that a good thing or a bad thing? On one hand, I say change is dynamic. On the other, I say that few things shouldn't. Now, is it a good thing or a bad thing if that applies to people and their nature? How far a degree of tenacity is permissible? How far a degree of adaptability is permissible?

The best judge at the end of it all, is I guess what you want at that point of time. Which also, sadly, is dynamic.

Gosh. This sounds worse than a dream inside a dream. Wait, was that changing too?

Reinvention

Well hello there! It seems like its been a while since I met you here. No recap of the previous year as was the usual norm for a few years now. Neither was there a very resolute post in early Jan like was the norm a few years earlier. I actually thought the last I wrote was in Nov. I was let down. Mightily.

So, a very happy new year to all fellow bloggers and followers. Hope more of your resolutions are made and executed this year. I just noticed early this year that almost all my resolutions have been stuck on paper for the past couple of years now. Don't have the heart or the will to strike them off (read that as cancel) and for a multitude of reasons, they have not been executed. I hope to realise a few of them this year and strike them off (read that as executed) so that the next years resolutions look at least a little fresh. I'm very happy that this year has started on the right NOTE.

Anyways, I was thinking about a topic that was boggling me for the past few weeks now. Reinvention. How important it is for one to reinvent and adapt as per the current scenario. Or wait, maybe not. Adaptability is something that's probably vastly different from reinvention. Yeah. it actually is. Although both of them form the core essentials of an individual's nature. You might be able to adapt, but when it comes to reinventing, maybe you would shy away citing a lot of reasons.

I really don't want to take any names out, as always. But sometimes this reinvention that people term they are doing to themselves is mostly an abomination. The people or the organisations i'm talking about were at a point of time at their best. Displaying unparalleled workmanship, displaying creative ability, taking out ideas out of thin air, having everyone stumped. No, i'm not saying success got to their heads and they just got too cocky to experiment any more. I don't think its that. True, a lot of us might say that now there is access to everyone to everything. The world is a smaller place. You really can't think so much out of the box like earlier. Dude, if you can't think, then its dangerous. Not just for us, but for the future generations to come. Because this is what we'd pass on - intellectually and genetically.

Reinvention has happened in a few ways. People have gone out of their comfort zone to do things they have never done. I strongly feel that time and again, this needs to be done. Even your brain gets bored after a regular workout routine, so much so that unless you surprise it with something new, it signals the body to stop responding. So, basically to keep the brain active, you need to surprise it with a lot of new things and this is when you'd find out what's more to you than what was hitherto. But completely shifting focus to a new area and just resting on a previously created name will not do much good. If you are an expert at doing something, find out ways to better that. Find your forte. Find your native spirit. When it is set, you can play all around it. Some people fail to find that. But what's startling is that in today's times, after finding your trait, your home ground, you leave it all out and then go in pursuit of something else? I seriously think there is something amiss there. Its probably a phase, I like to believe where people have gotten more experimental, but I have strongly experienced that getting back to the roots is always the solution.

Yeah, you need to have roots of course. Without that, everything is just vapour.