The collection of a Libran's honest thoughts about life, religion, politics, movies, music, India, Indians, culture, psychology, philosophy, zodiac and a lot of other topics that left an impact in him!
Every patriotic Indian would be extremely happy today as India's mission to reach the moon is a success and the tricolor flag now adorns the moon. It is a moment of pride to the Indian scientists and quite obviously another feather in the cap to the subcontinent.
Without a greatly organized Government, without the state-of-the-art infrastructure, without getting much help from other countries, India has crossed this milestone which in my view is a remarkable achievement. Let the success story continue and let the 'developing' crap come to an end bringing us to the dawn we have been expecting for years together. Jai Hind!
For a change, I'm not going to write a lot today. I saw this interesting video on world economics... I'd reserve my opinion for now and let you enjoy the speech...
The good news is that there isn't much of philosophy about this post though the title tries to threaten you with a question on the word 'I'. In a week of joblessness or perhaps I should call it 'salarylessness', I've been more into movies than anything else. I got to watch some of the best movies I always wanted to watch and some other excellent movies that I accidentally landed upon. One of them has left me thinking for the past couple of days and even though I'm a movie freak and I keep recollecting good scenes (sometimes even have the dialogues by-heart); I never really 'think' after a movie especially if it is not a movie about facts, history or philosophy.
The movie's name is Rounders, more about the game of poker and how it is important to play the player than the cards. There are a lot of interesting scenes in the movie but one of them created an impact so to speak, in me. The crux of the scene is 'We can't run away from what we are. Our destiny chooses us'. Isn't that true?
Now with all the due respect for the authors, I've heard this "You can do it", "Nothing is impossible", "Follow your dreams", "Spot your talent" and all the BS being written to sell a big, fat book to you that doesn't change you a bit except lightening your wallet. But this time, the sentence was different. I mean, after all the rational analysis and logic, one could easily observe that everyone is naturally good at just one thing. Just one thing above everything else... It just happens beyond one's control and there is something with everyone that s/he does better than the (most) others. The fact is no matter how hard we work on things that we are reasonably pretty good at, it's not going to take us to heights. If there is something that could really take us to great heights, it is the purpose of our creation, the best part in us and what destiny chose us for. How many of us (including me) dare pursue it, is the question...
Every organism in this universe has its individuality, an identity, a characteristic and a trial to visualize the degree of uniqueness in this universe might be mind blowing. If you started saying "Oh no... Not philosophy again...", I got you! :) This is not about philosophy, nothing about the society, not even about movies... This is about something that I don't talk about quite often - me!
I usually hate talking about me partly because there isn't much to talk in the context and partly because expressing yourself completely in words is something beyond the imaginable. However today I couldn't resist talking about me for one reason - the way I've been spending my last week.
Virginia is a new place for me and fall here is as beautiful as any other north eastern state in the US. I've been here for almost a week now and the interesting part is it once again proved how much I love solitude... I joined a company last Monday and ever since then, I haven't even stepped out of my apartment... When I say stepped out, I literally mean it - not even cross the door steps. I've got a pretty comfortable room here with a broad window and it's kind of the master bedroom for this house and that makes it unnecessary for me to step out of the room except to cook and eat; and I just get out of my room when I cook and eat! I'd been clicking a few beautiful views but all of them are taken without leaving my room. My camera just peeks out of the window and that's all about it. There's a guy here who is supposed to be a care taker for this guest house and he works in the Virginia branch... Must be HR I don't even know what he is... He leaves at 9 and comes back at 8; and the last time I saw him was on Monday! I haven't called anyone in the whole week though I had received quite a few calls...
It's been just internet, internet and more internet... And the best part is... I love this! :) If someone asks the other guy, he might even say I need medical attention. :)) But again, this is what I am and this is what I love to be. Every organism in this universe has its individuality, an identity, a characteristic and a trial to visualize the degree of uniqueness in this universe might be mind blowing. Isn't it?
Whether it's cricket or blog posts, hitting century is always an enjoyable experience. That way, I'm really excited to post the 100th entry in my blog; and though it took a bit longer than I expected, it still has been a good journey.
A few years back perhaps in 2004-2005, I used to question the purpose of blogging. I mean who would write down something and post it on the internet just so that someone might come and read it; and more than that why would someone want to let out his thoughts in an open channel with no benefits? Even today I have no answer to these questions but I've been doing that for almost a year now. In a way blogs, journals and diaries are like silent companions... They accept whatever you say and don't speak back to you. To counteract the silence, our mind starts speaking on their behalf. It has been an interesting experience so far and just when the artificial pace of life kept me from being as close to my friends as I used to be; this blog came in as an outlet through which I express the world I see, without any thoughts about the person who is listening to it, without any customizations, without any specifications. A free flowing waterfall that doesn't care about the objects it might hit; and all it knows is the course to the ocean. I really enjoy being so... :)
News news news! I'm back to philosophy... :) But I'll try to keep the dose minimal...
Recently I got a weird thought about the sense of 'belonging'. If you ask someone where s/he belongs, the usual response would be the place where they currently live in or the place where they have been living for the most part of their life. I have always believed that the place where I was born and brought up is where I belong to and in a way I'm one of the those who boast of their home towns... :) But my recent vacation to India (perhaps because I had a lot of time to think :D) did bring in a question into me... "Where do I belong?"
This might kind of sound stupid but I still feel it's an absolutely valid question. Let me give a brief background before I dwell deep into the hypothesis... About 5 years back when I was doing my final year of engineering at college (of course in my home town), the city seemed to be mine... I was so filled with the place and everything around me indicated that I belonged to that place right from my bikes' number plate to my address and the people around me. When I went home this time, I was really enjoying my time there... I mean spending time with parents and sis, having good food, enjoying the 'back home after long' treatment and all that... But the belonging with the city became a question mark. I have been to almost every street in the city (ok... a hyperbole here...) but I didn't know where to go... Mom was busy with her cooking/home management, dad with his business, sis with her studies... Almost every other friend of mine was in Chennai or Bangalore busy with his/her work... Just like the famous quote "Water water everywhere but not a drop to drink" - Madurai did have the same places we used to hangout but I was feeling out of place and the best part is... nobody is to be blamed. If this is the case with the place that nurtured me for over twenty years, I need not mention about Chennai or the US. Tampa again was a classic illustration of this... We kind of settled very well in the place, had a huge gang, loads of fun, lot of travel... But one fine day, our company was chucked out and all of a sudden the place seemed alien. So... coming back to the question, "Where do I really belong?"
The simple but tough to accept answer is - 'Nowhere'. Our priorites at any moment decide where we belong and life as I'd mentioned a lot of times before, is just a travel, a journey to a destination unknown. Love, relationships, commitments, religion, sense of belonging are all feelings that we develop so that we don't feel alienated or meaningless. Imagine a world where everyone realizes that s/he is actually an independent entity surrounded by myths... After all that is what all religions preach... Forget the bondage of relationships and just focus on the Lord Almighty. But the beauty in the preaching remains only as long as the human nature of attachment counterbalances it. If everyone starts believing and practicing it, the response would be "Yeah, I know... So what?" Reminds me of the dialog from the movie iRobot where the introductory slides say "...They are governed by the rules and the rules are meant to be broken". We are all reminded of the absolute truth by religions and our great ancestors; but if everyone starts taking that course to be out of bondage, world would come to a stand still and everyone would die of frustration. The message actually is... "Live as if the entire world is yours but keep in mind that nothing is actually yours!". That is the only way to live happily and in the process, make as many people happy as possible.
"Munnai itta thee muppuratthile Pinnai itta thee thennilangayilae Annai itta thee adivayittrilae Yaanum itta thee moozhga moozhgavae"
The pyre that I lit is in front... The flames that were started by a tail; are back south in Srilanka (an excrept from Ramayana)... The flame of separation lit by mother is glowing inside me... Let the flame I lit, engulf this body!
-- a famous Pattinatthar song that was plagiarized by Kamal/Vairamuthu for Alavandhan, speaks about the pain of a son cremating his mother, requesting the God of flames to engulf the body. Flames and SriLanka have been having such a close relationship that it hits the mind of a poet and fits into a metaphor on flames. For a long, long time; Srilanka has been in the clutches of war and it's been a seemingly never ending problem that has been on for quite a lot of time now, consuming hundreds or thousands of human lives.
"The Sinhala government is trying to crush us and refuse the rights to Tamizh people in Srilanka. We need to make sure that the Tamils are given their rights and India needs to interfere in this matter to speed up the process." -- LTTE, Tamizh politicians in Srilanka and majority politicians/press reporters/actors/etc in Tamil nadu.
"LTTE is a terrorist outfit trying to ruin the peace in Srilanka by exploiting innocent Tamils. India should help us crush them as a personal victim that lost a Prime minister in a bomb blast organized by the LTTE." -- Srilankan government, Sinhalese, a few politicians in TN.
"LTTE is exploiting us and I was forced to take a gun against the Srilankan army" -- a Tamizh boy in a video.
"It is an internal affair of Srilanka and India cannot really get into it" -- Indian Government.
"Several including two Indian engineers were killed as the LTTE bombed the Srilankan communication centers" -- News.
As Al Pacino says in "The Scent of a Woman", I'm not a judge or jury to really assess who is right and who is wrong here; or what is true and what is not. But the fact is that a lot of innocent people are dying day after day and beyond the layers of politics, international affairs, exploitation, misunderstanding and grudges; there is something called humanity that is supposed to rule every human's heart. Somehow I feel that it's been totally forgotten in this issue and unless humans replace the fabricators, soldiers and politicians involved; I don't think a solution would be possible!
Nothing too great here... Yet another software engineer working in yet another services company located in yet another US city :) However, that's not what I want to be! Pretty much like a Libran definition - wouldn't you agree? :))
