Life makes poets out of people at the oddest times. This one once came quite unexpectedly, straight from the bottom of my heart :)
As my journey continues,
Through these roads so abstruse
I find me asking myself always
Where life is taking me at such a pace
If fate breaks me, i wouldnt mind
If time leads me nowhere I'd still be kind
'Coz somewhere during my addled quest,
Our paths met, Life showed me its best !
Thursday, April 26, 2007
Thursday, April 12, 2007
The man in the mirror
He has always been there for me whenever I needed him. As years pass by, his face would get wrinkled, his memories would start fading away, his body would grow frail... the only thing which would stay young for the longest would most probably be his heart.. And one day that too would cease to beat. But by then I would have become totally independent....I would have set myself free from all earthly bonds. In this world there is only one certainty – death. But does everything end with that?.. True that our memories and every single thing that we have learnt in this world will die with our brain, coz that is where it's all stored. But what about the core emotions like love, that have no logical connection to the brain. Science puts them as chemical reactions.. I, for some unknown reason refuse to believe so.
All this talk about death reminds me of this poem by John Donne...
-
Death be not proud, though some have called thee
Mighty and dreadfull, for, thou art not so,
For, those, whom thou think'st, thou dost overthrow,
Die not, poore death, nor yet canst thou kill me.
From rest and sleep, which but thy pictures be,
Much pleasure, then from thee, much more must flow,
And soonest our best men with thee does go,
Rest of their bones, and souls deliverie.
Thou art slave to Fate, Chance, kings, and desperate men,
And dost with poison, war, and sickness dwell,
And poppie, or charmes can make us sleepe as well,
And better then thy stroke; why swell'st thou then?
One short sleep past, we wake eternally,
And death shall be no more; death, thou shalt die.
-
Are we indeed gonna wake up eternally?.. That is one thing I'm in no hurry to find out :)
Monday, March 19, 2007
EXPLORER OF THE UNKNOWN REALMS – The prelude
Today, I have been pondering on why I wanted to start this blog. Is self discovery my only motive? Or does my mind secretly want interested people to know me on a different level? If I do, then why am I hesitant to keep a link to this blog elsewhere? Even if self discovery does not prove to be my primary motive, all these questions suggest that I should indeed know myself on a deeper level.
This reminds me of a comparison I chanced to come across in a friend’s blog long back. She had compared people to onions, having different layers. As other people get to know us, they start moving towards our core, layer by layer. Some find their way past quite a few layers, some hardly manage to penetrate a few, and we of lil’ knowledge often live with the assumption that we are at the core of our ‘onion’. And then one fine day, if we are fortunate enough, life proves us wrong, making us strong supporters of “Assumption is the mother of all screw ups”. We realize that there is a lot we don’t know about ourselves. Once this happens, some of us try figuring out ways to get to know ourselves better. Some others decide that ignorance is a bliss and that we should go no further and burden ourselves with knowledge which is not gonna make us any less of a mere mortal. I, however belong to the former group. I feel it’s a necessity to know myself as well as I can and I’m hoping that this blog is gonna help me do that
This reminds me of a comparison I chanced to come across in a friend’s blog long back. She had compared people to onions, having different layers. As other people get to know us, they start moving towards our core, layer by layer. Some find their way past quite a few layers, some hardly manage to penetrate a few, and we of lil’ knowledge often live with the assumption that we are at the core of our ‘onion’. And then one fine day, if we are fortunate enough, life proves us wrong, making us strong supporters of “Assumption is the mother of all screw ups”. We realize that there is a lot we don’t know about ourselves. Once this happens, some of us try figuring out ways to get to know ourselves better. Some others decide that ignorance is a bliss and that we should go no further and burden ourselves with knowledge which is not gonna make us any less of a mere mortal. I, however belong to the former group. I feel it’s a necessity to know myself as well as I can and I’m hoping that this blog is gonna help me do that
Saturday, March 17, 2007
The black sheep speaks
After walking this planet ensalved by paper with fancy prints (Yup, u guessed right – Money!!... people live, work, die and kill for it) for about quarter of a century, I have finally decided to give vent to my thoughts and emotions
Its fun to wake up every day and watch a zillion people run the rat-race all around you, and that is exactly what I’ve been doing all these years … watching, I mean. Never bothered to take part in it. Always had better things to do … always had a heart to follow. But still its fun to take a break once in a while and take a seat by the footpath. Helps you realize that you indeed are a superior-sapien
People run frantically at a reckless pace, trying to hoard all the riches they can without bothering to slow down and savor what they have, so that they can enjoy it all together once they are done hoarding
What they fail to realize is their mortality. They believe they are gonna live for ever. But the sad truth is that by the time they are half way through hoarding, they already would have lost a fair share of the most valuable thing they have – time. And by the time they decide to take a look at what they have, they wouldnt be physically, mentally or spiritually fit for savouring it. Time is our most priced possession (the second, i believe is health, though it can be regained to a certain extend. No matter what u achieve, u wont be in a position to enjoy it if you are not healthy in body, mind and soul). Time is the only thing of which any bit lost is lost for ever. The value of everything else is superficial. A recently purchased private jet plane wouldnt mean half as much to the 'rich' Sheik in the Middle East as what the first four-wheeler of a 'middle-class' guy means to himself. And this car wouldnt mean a tenth as much to the middle-class guy as would good food to that starving kid in Zambia who gets fed eventually after a week. I remember a time when one Asterix comic gifted to me by my dad at the end of every month would make me hop around with joy. And then there came a time when even a dozen of my favourite comics a week wouldn’t get me half as excited, though I still enjoyed reading them. Once you become a slave to money, the little things fail to keep you entertained anymore. Every time it takes a little more to give you the same amount happiness. And right now we are living in a world where man's basic necessities are things he doesnt need at all
I’m proud to say that I’m not driven by money. The day I decided to break the shackles, the world became beautiful again. And the day I accepted my mortality, I set myself free again. I am not saying that I'm not ambitious. I'm just saying that my ambitions are not materialistic, and money is not the first thing on my priority list, though i need it to live
A good percentage of the human population believes that “he who has the most number of toys when he dies is the winner” . Then there are the cynics who say that “Life is hard; and then you die; so its not worth your while trying to achieve anything” … and some extreme cases who go “No one dies a virgin, coz in the end life fucks em all”. Blaming life doesn’t help. Life is what we make out of it. It is not what happens to us, but how we react to it that makes life heaven or hell
Life begins with the top chambers of our hour-glasses filled with sand. As the sand-grains of time slip right through our fingers, the lucky few among us realize that the sole purpose of life is living … I said LIVING … not EXISTING. That means savoring every second of it along with every emotion that comes with it, doing the things your heart wants you to do, not screwing with your conscience and keeping it clean, finding love and returning it, and having faith in yourself.
Life is something that falls somewhere between a pleasure-trip and a computer game. It is not just the final goal or destination that matters; but the whole game/trip should be made equally enjoyable. Ultimately its nothing but satisfaction that all of us want out of our lives
Its fun to wake up every day and watch a zillion people run the rat-race all around you, and that is exactly what I’ve been doing all these years … watching, I mean. Never bothered to take part in it. Always had better things to do … always had a heart to follow. But still its fun to take a break once in a while and take a seat by the footpath. Helps you realize that you indeed are a superior-sapien
People run frantically at a reckless pace, trying to hoard all the riches they can without bothering to slow down and savor what they have, so that they can enjoy it all together once they are done hoarding
What they fail to realize is their mortality. They believe they are gonna live for ever. But the sad truth is that by the time they are half way through hoarding, they already would have lost a fair share of the most valuable thing they have – time. And by the time they decide to take a look at what they have, they wouldnt be physically, mentally or spiritually fit for savouring it. Time is our most priced possession (the second, i believe is health, though it can be regained to a certain extend. No matter what u achieve, u wont be in a position to enjoy it if you are not healthy in body, mind and soul). Time is the only thing of which any bit lost is lost for ever. The value of everything else is superficial. A recently purchased private jet plane wouldnt mean half as much to the 'rich' Sheik in the Middle East as what the first four-wheeler of a 'middle-class' guy means to himself. And this car wouldnt mean a tenth as much to the middle-class guy as would good food to that starving kid in Zambia who gets fed eventually after a week. I remember a time when one Asterix comic gifted to me by my dad at the end of every month would make me hop around with joy. And then there came a time when even a dozen of my favourite comics a week wouldn’t get me half as excited, though I still enjoyed reading them. Once you become a slave to money, the little things fail to keep you entertained anymore. Every time it takes a little more to give you the same amount happiness. And right now we are living in a world where man's basic necessities are things he doesnt need at all
I’m proud to say that I’m not driven by money. The day I decided to break the shackles, the world became beautiful again. And the day I accepted my mortality, I set myself free again. I am not saying that I'm not ambitious. I'm just saying that my ambitions are not materialistic, and money is not the first thing on my priority list, though i need it to live
A good percentage of the human population believes that “he who has the most number of toys when he dies is the winner” . Then there are the cynics who say that “Life is hard; and then you die; so its not worth your while trying to achieve anything” … and some extreme cases who go “No one dies a virgin, coz in the end life fucks em all”. Blaming life doesn’t help. Life is what we make out of it. It is not what happens to us, but how we react to it that makes life heaven or hell
Life begins with the top chambers of our hour-glasses filled with sand. As the sand-grains of time slip right through our fingers, the lucky few among us realize that the sole purpose of life is living … I said LIVING … not EXISTING. That means savoring every second of it along with every emotion that comes with it, doing the things your heart wants you to do, not screwing with your conscience and keeping it clean, finding love and returning it, and having faith in yourself.
Life is something that falls somewhere between a pleasure-trip and a computer game. It is not just the final goal or destination that matters; but the whole game/trip should be made equally enjoyable. Ultimately its nothing but satisfaction that all of us want out of our lives
Wednesday, February 28, 2007
A lil' blast from the past
Before I start posting in this blog, I thought I’d just copy-paste a chapter from a group in the same name – The Soliloquy of a Libertine – that I once hosted. Just to get into that good ol’ philosopher gear ;)
CHAPTER 2: Another Road Not Taken
It was an afternoon in August and I was sitting on the sandy beach of Shangumugham near the Trivandrum Air-port.It's the second best place I prefer whenever I feel that I need to spend some time with Mr. Solitude.The sea was calm and as usual,I was cogitating with my eyes fixed passively on the crimson above the horizon when something which seemed to be a silver arrow dashed across the sky followed by the deafening sound of a jet engine.After a second or two,one morefighter plane of the Indian Airforce dashed through the same path.
The 'Sukhoys' were doing their routine practice rounds.A couple of days back,I had read in the news papers that its with the American f-15s that they are practicing above the Indian ocean, these days.
My mind raced back in time and stopped at the face of a 12 year old boy. The ultimate dream of this 12 year old boy was to soar the skies in ultra-sonic speeds. His notebooks wre filled with sketches of pilots and fighter planes. He even made a couple of comic books with pilots in the lead roles. At young age, children tend to get easily influenced by the stuff that they watch and it must have been the Tom Cruise starrer Top Gun and a couple of other movies in the Iron-Eagle series that inspired this boy. So, he grew up with the dreams of becoming a fighter-plane pilot someday. But at age 16, he developed a slight myopia. Before long he realized that he would have to give up his dreams of becoming an air-force pilot.
But he continued making comic books. Art was his passion, and that made him an ardent dreamer. He created chaotic realms and mystic characters never seen before. His comic books became quite popular in his school
After schooling, he took up Computer Engineering as that seemed to be the most promising option for a good career. Computer engineers were in high demand at that time. But his mind was always after more adventurous and creative things.
For a while he tried to compensate for his 'losses' by signing into the internet in the false name-John Hunt-A naval aviator on board the U.S.S.George Washington- the aircraft carrier as large as the Empire State Building. His job : flying Harrier fighter planes. He continued having fun this way till he realized that the most enjoyable thing in life is being oneself. That is when he gave up being a 'pseudo'.
After graduating as a computer engineer,he turned to the multimedia side since that was more fun. During his eight months' training in Toons India as a 3D Animator, he found a handful of guys with the same mentality,vision and almost the same attitude as his.They decided to start something on their own and together they registered a company called the Mirchiz Studios. Together, now they aim at making their dreams come true.
Now you must be thinking "Wotz this guy trying to prove with this story outta' the blue?". That was just a brief version of the last ten years of my life.Ofcourse it is true that I am happy with the way I am today and the graveyard of broken-dreams is not a place I frequent.But there are times when I ask myself the 'what if'- questions.It is at these times that I think about the roads that were not taken.What if I had undergone a laser surgery and pursued my dream career? But the closest I can get to being a pilot now is when I play one of those flight simulator games on my computer or when I imagine myself to be sitting in the cock-pit of a F-16 while driving my car on the highway all alone.
I am not much into poetry. But Robert Frost is one among the few poets that i admire. His poem 'The Road Never Taken' gives the message that everyone is a traveller, choosing the roads to follow on the map of their continuous journey of life.The poem clearly demonstrates Frost's belief that it is the roads that one chooses that makes him the man who he is.
Many a time we will arrive at points where our road branches into many and being a 'single person' , we can choose only one. Like the traveller in Frost's poem,I have chosen the road less travelled and where it takes me is yet to be seen.And i know very well that one way leads to another and the roads not taken will eventually get too far away to be reconsidered
The traveller in Frost's poem realizes that at the end of his life,"Somewhere ages and ages hence" he will have regrets about having never gone back and travelled down the roads he did not take.Yet he remains proud of his decision and he recognises that it was this path that he chose that made him turn out the way he did and live his life the way in which he lived.
Like all computer engineers, I too could have got into programming and lived a 'secure' life in the IT world. "But I took the road less travelled and that had made all the difference"- is the only line from the poem that I want to hear from my own mouth when I am in my sixties.( In the positive sense, ofcourse!!..c'mon!..I'm always an optimist.) And how do I get there?
Three things to watch for-Speech, Behavior and Action
Three things to control-Tongue, Temper and Temptation
Three things to admire-Honesty, Perfection and Hardwork
This, i was told by a certain wise-sapien, is the secret formula for being a successful person. But other than these, there are three most important things in life that keep us going, no matter what: Love ,Faith and Hope.
I totally agree with this. But which of these is the most powerful?..is it love?.. is it faith?..or is it hope?.. Well, this has always been a debatable question.
Atleast some of you out there must have heard this story.- A mother gives birth to her son. Like all mothers, she too naturally loves him. She has faith in him and has high hopes that he will make it big someday. The son grows up to be an outlaw. He commits a lot of crimes. The mother loses her faith in him. She still doesn’t give up hope. She hopes that he might correct himself someday and things will finally be fine. But then the son commits a murder, gets busted and is finally sentenced to death. The day he is executed, the mother’s hope dies along with him. The only thing she carries to her grave is the love that she has for her son.
Whoever wrote this story wanted to prove that love is the strongest thing in the world. But is it true? I have a different opinion
Now, If what u have in mind is a question along the lines of “Whoz this crack-pot?” ,I guess it’s time for a lil’ self-introduction
I am a warrior set out on a quest to conquer his dreams .On my way I have lost many an armour, many a weapon. Many a time I have been deceived by ‘pseudos’ .But the force which helped me learn from my mistakes and find better weapons and armour to assist me on my quest was the hope that my dreams are gonna come true someday. It is hope that still keeps me focused .Even if I spend the whole of my life chasing my dreams, I believe I am gonna enjoy every minute of it.
What are my dreams?. … isn’t it a bit too early in the game to be discussing my dreams? After all, I’m just 22 and I really have a long long way to go.
- Kishore M (on 24-2-2005)
CHAPTER 2: Another Road Not Taken
It was an afternoon in August and I was sitting on the sandy beach of Shangumugham near the Trivandrum Air-port.It's the second best place I prefer whenever I feel that I need to spend some time with Mr. Solitude.The sea was calm and as usual,I was cogitating with my eyes fixed passively on the crimson above the horizon when something which seemed to be a silver arrow dashed across the sky followed by the deafening sound of a jet engine.After a second or two,one morefighter plane of the Indian Airforce dashed through the same path.
The 'Sukhoys' were doing their routine practice rounds.A couple of days back,I had read in the news papers that its with the American f-15s that they are practicing above the Indian ocean, these days.
My mind raced back in time and stopped at the face of a 12 year old boy. The ultimate dream of this 12 year old boy was to soar the skies in ultra-sonic speeds. His notebooks wre filled with sketches of pilots and fighter planes. He even made a couple of comic books with pilots in the lead roles. At young age, children tend to get easily influenced by the stuff that they watch and it must have been the Tom Cruise starrer Top Gun and a couple of other movies in the Iron-Eagle series that inspired this boy. So, he grew up with the dreams of becoming a fighter-plane pilot someday. But at age 16, he developed a slight myopia. Before long he realized that he would have to give up his dreams of becoming an air-force pilot.
But he continued making comic books. Art was his passion, and that made him an ardent dreamer. He created chaotic realms and mystic characters never seen before. His comic books became quite popular in his school
After schooling, he took up Computer Engineering as that seemed to be the most promising option for a good career. Computer engineers were in high demand at that time. But his mind was always after more adventurous and creative things.
For a while he tried to compensate for his 'losses' by signing into the internet in the false name-John Hunt-A naval aviator on board the U.S.S.George Washington- the aircraft carrier as large as the Empire State Building. His job : flying Harrier fighter planes. He continued having fun this way till he realized that the most enjoyable thing in life is being oneself. That is when he gave up being a 'pseudo'.
After graduating as a computer engineer,he turned to the multimedia side since that was more fun. During his eight months' training in Toons India as a 3D Animator, he found a handful of guys with the same mentality,vision and almost the same attitude as his.They decided to start something on their own and together they registered a company called the Mirchiz Studios. Together, now they aim at making their dreams come true.
Now you must be thinking "Wotz this guy trying to prove with this story outta' the blue?". That was just a brief version of the last ten years of my life.Ofcourse it is true that I am happy with the way I am today and the graveyard of broken-dreams is not a place I frequent.But there are times when I ask myself the 'what if'- questions.It is at these times that I think about the roads that were not taken.What if I had undergone a laser surgery and pursued my dream career? But the closest I can get to being a pilot now is when I play one of those flight simulator games on my computer or when I imagine myself to be sitting in the cock-pit of a F-16 while driving my car on the highway all alone.
I am not much into poetry. But Robert Frost is one among the few poets that i admire. His poem 'The Road Never Taken' gives the message that everyone is a traveller, choosing the roads to follow on the map of their continuous journey of life.The poem clearly demonstrates Frost's belief that it is the roads that one chooses that makes him the man who he is.
Many a time we will arrive at points where our road branches into many and being a 'single person' , we can choose only one. Like the traveller in Frost's poem,I have chosen the road less travelled and where it takes me is yet to be seen.And i know very well that one way leads to another and the roads not taken will eventually get too far away to be reconsidered
The traveller in Frost's poem realizes that at the end of his life,"Somewhere ages and ages hence" he will have regrets about having never gone back and travelled down the roads he did not take.Yet he remains proud of his decision and he recognises that it was this path that he chose that made him turn out the way he did and live his life the way in which he lived.
Like all computer engineers, I too could have got into programming and lived a 'secure' life in the IT world. "But I took the road less travelled and that had made all the difference"- is the only line from the poem that I want to hear from my own mouth when I am in my sixties.( In the positive sense, ofcourse!!..c'mon!..I'm always an optimist.) And how do I get there?
Three things to watch for-Speech, Behavior and Action
Three things to control-Tongue, Temper and Temptation
Three things to admire-Honesty, Perfection and Hardwork
This, i was told by a certain wise-sapien, is the secret formula for being a successful person. But other than these, there are three most important things in life that keep us going, no matter what: Love ,Faith and Hope.
I totally agree with this. But which of these is the most powerful?..is it love?.. is it faith?..or is it hope?.. Well, this has always been a debatable question.
Atleast some of you out there must have heard this story.- A mother gives birth to her son. Like all mothers, she too naturally loves him. She has faith in him and has high hopes that he will make it big someday. The son grows up to be an outlaw. He commits a lot of crimes. The mother loses her faith in him. She still doesn’t give up hope. She hopes that he might correct himself someday and things will finally be fine. But then the son commits a murder, gets busted and is finally sentenced to death. The day he is executed, the mother’s hope dies along with him. The only thing she carries to her grave is the love that she has for her son.
Whoever wrote this story wanted to prove that love is the strongest thing in the world. But is it true? I have a different opinion
Now, If what u have in mind is a question along the lines of “Whoz this crack-pot?” ,I guess it’s time for a lil’ self-introduction
I am a warrior set out on a quest to conquer his dreams .On my way I have lost many an armour, many a weapon. Many a time I have been deceived by ‘pseudos’ .But the force which helped me learn from my mistakes and find better weapons and armour to assist me on my quest was the hope that my dreams are gonna come true someday. It is hope that still keeps me focused .Even if I spend the whole of my life chasing my dreams, I believe I am gonna enjoy every minute of it.
What are my dreams?. … isn’t it a bit too early in the game to be discussing my dreams? After all, I’m just 22 and I really have a long long way to go.
- Kishore M (on 24-2-2005)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
