An evening of gloom (the bell tolls for thee)

A lot seems to be going on with the world today which is plain wrong. We can feel it, sense it.

"Things aren't like what they were when we were young." "Life was much more simple in those days."

 These lines have been spoken from one generation to the next, with the older one always lamenting those days gone by when the weight upon their shoulders was not quite the mountain it is at the time of voicing their sorrowful objection to the change in times.

I am in one of those dark moods which make me maximize the negative and prevent me from seeing the miniscule rainbow that looms over the dark clouds that fill my horizons at this time. I am, not going to apologize for it because, well, some things need to be said and some things need to be let out. Period.

1)We are more addicted to finding out who screwed up what in which aspect of his/her lives instead of making our lives more productive.

2) Instead of planting seeds, we cut down trees by the fucking dozen. And lament on how the summers are longer and more hot, and the rains less frequent.

3) We keep our love bottled up inside instead of giving it out to others. We're afraid we'll look foolish and too naive if we help people who genuinely need it. We use the social media as a substitute for face-to-face interactions, and genuine laughter.

4) We like to keep a distance. From people, from nature, from exercise, from discipline, and from following our true dreams.

5) With the advent of life becoming more comfortable (for us,at least; I can't speak for the starving children in Africa), we are afraid to expend ourselves even a little. Things are more readily available; we don't sweat for them, don't struggle to attain them, they're present at the end of our fingers where they meet the enter button of your mother board.

6) Ever remember the time when we had a government owned channel that made do for all our entertainment requirements?  Were you happier then or now?

7) The Anna Hazare's and the India against Corruption movement means a pile of turd shit the minute you break the traffic light and there is a cop waving you down some distance ahead.

8) We kill dogs that don't hurt humans unless they're rabid, and let the politicians live, who don't hurt humans only if they're dying, in jail, or in front of a camera. The rest of the time they're as rabid as can be.

9) Today, tobacco is the scourge of all evil. It kills, it causes cancer. But of course! Tomorrow it's going to be alcohol-it kills, it breaks up families. The day after it's going to be butter-it kills, it's fattening, and your mother must know better by now. Teach aversive conditioning to everyone, about everything, including taking personal responsibility for their actions.

10)Let's face it-democracy in a country like ours (India) is about as effective as giving a set of car keys to a demented 90 year old who wets himself each and every day. You need to know how to use the car before you can take the keys.  We need to know how to manage ourselves before we're given the responsibility of managing our country (which we do by voting for the trendiest, or flashiest,the bigger familia,  or the one who has lesser corruption cases in his name). A country like ours needs an iron hand, a whip capable of such ferocity and pain that we dare not risk being at the receiving end of it. Only then will we learn. Until then, money talks, caste reigns supreme, talent is made to take the back seat and sociopathy takes all. It's called conditioning. It has worked for other countries, and for a people as eager to be subservient and have others make all our decisions for us, it's just what the doctor ordered.

Good night, and may you not fear being good. We can do with more of it right now. 

Face your life

As I returned home from a social outing, I did what many people normally do-go and check their Facebook page. And I realized that I did not not have anything to post, I didn't have much to say, and that I was basically browsing Facebook to see if there was anything interesting that someone had posted.

 Now, this may all seem fine if we log onto the net once a week, or every few days or so. But I know people who are so glued on to Facebook that it would appear to be their proxy for all social interaction. It doesn't hurt that much to type out something and confess rather than actually tell it to the person who wronged you. You don't need to remember anybody's birthday now-Facebook does that for you as well. You don't need to call somebody you've been out of touch with as well, Facebook gives you all updates about their lives, including their significant life events! I suppose the only thing that people do not come to know about through Facebook is someone passing on, and that might change anytime too!

It is all well and fine if we use the internet and it's numerous assets for things that we want, but it should never be a substitute for things we need. I also use Facebook just as much as the other person, and I do not mean for this to be a holier-than-thou preaching session. What I do want to point out is that we, as a generation, are drawing too many boundaries, too many limits for what is appropriate social interactions, and what isn't. Like the strip below:

What do you guys feel?

Showdown!

Can't wait for The Dark Knight Rises. Just hoping it's as good as The Dark Knight. July 20th, A Fire will Rise.

Don't ever give up. You can't!

Of pain and pleasure.

The elusiveness that is inherent in any given pleasurable experience is what makes us crave for it in the first place.

Think about the first ever thrill you had, either your first amusement park ride, or your first big success, the first time someone patted you on the back for a job well done (that you actually did yourself). All of these experiences carried with them a thrill, a sense of euphoria that can be explained by the release of endorphins within our system in response to what we perceive to be pleasurable.

Once that time has passed and we're back to our more mundane reality, we crave for the euphoria that completed us in every way imaginable.

It's what is termed in behavior therapy as conditioning. We become accustomed to reacting to things in a particular way, and we tend to get caught in a loop for the rest of our lives. I suppose that's why religious texts, the Bhagvad Gita for example, speak of the ideal soul who is neither burdened with pain or pleasure.

It's a hard state of being to reach for. But all said and done, who would we be if not for our passions and our prejudices?! Souls dedicated to being in the here and now do not have time for ipods and iphones and the galaxy tabs and what have yous. They're perfecting the art of living in the moment, not craving for the memories that give them pleasure, and not worried about a hypothetical situation in the future that might cause them pain.

Given the way we are living now, I don't think any of us can attain that utter sense of completeness that comes with being. We exist to a large extent, and live to a smaller one. Being is elusive, and hard. It's doubly harder to maintain that sense of being in the here and now.

One thing that I am fascinated by is the sheer extreme lengths we go to in order to avoid pain. I do too, regularly. But is there something beyond it? And for how much we talk about it, is there something that is all to transient and shallow in the pleasure that we constantly crave for?

The same problems apply to conditions such as Alcohol Dependence; the craving that is inherent in the condition is first in order to get pleasure or euphoria from the substance. Later on it is largely to avoid the pain of withdrawal from the substance, the pleasure consequently becomes more transient and the pain becomes more protracted. Which is why the initial stages of withdrawal are painful; they're terrifying if not handled and managed properly. But after that harrowing experience, a new dawn arises that is rewarding and uplifting to the person; (s)he sees things in a new light. If they're lucky, they may realize that they were caught up in a raging war (entirely within their minds) that dealt with avoiding pain. Once they see through that, things are easier to deal with; life shines like never before, and the promise of tomorrow has never been more pure.

Maybe what I'm trying to say is that we've grown too accustomed to instant gratification. We can learn to stretch ourselves a little bit and try to hold on for a minute longer, and find growth within ourselves we never thought possible!

Back from hibernation

Something about visiting the places where you grew up that compels you to come out of a long slumber.

I'm talking about Gandhi Bazaar and Chennai, respectively. I guess what has happened is that the old shops have been replaced by new ones. Traffic has increased a fucking million times over. It is heartening to see a lot of the old shops, the old vegetable vendors sitting in their old spots selling vegetables that are not packed in plastic bags, don't have stickers on them and don't have a dude swiping your credit card. They still take cash here, keep it in a small pouch and sometimes act rude towards you.

The number of people riding cycles has reduced dramatically. Replaced by cars of all makes and sizes. Bikes are much more too.

I think the only thing that has reduced is human interaction and human experience, and this has reduced to an extent one would never have thought possible.

We tend to get wrapped up in our own little microcosms and tend to exclude all that is human in our day to day lives and see it replaced by electronic media, be it for communicating, transacting or for entertainment. Whatever happened to a face to face chat on a park bench with the one you love? Instead of sitting in front of the television and allow the images to eat away at what is left of your energy and initiative?

I never thought I would be the old fashioned type, but I'd still like to think that a cell phone is only for keeping in touch with people and should be treated like a phone and not your entire life synthesized into a single tablet of circuits. Which is the trend these days. I also feel that a chat over the phone does not substitute for a google talk chat. I suppose we need to hold on preciously to these moments because the day is fast coming when we won't have any of them to rely upon. We'll have .avi files and the like to keep us company.

As for me, a lot has happened in my life since the last post. I completed by MD and am engaged to be married to a wonderful person by name Megha. I suppose I am not celebrating my own personal highs because the larger scheme of things has me worried. I guess we can do our own bit to reduce the burden of the electronic device in our life. That is, if we want to.

What are your views, dudes and dudettes?

I'm a Star Trek geek!

Today I'm going to talk about Star Trek. Ok, Ok, have your laughs and get it out of your system already!

I know that killing your enemies with a single photon torpedo while they have all guns firing at you is a tad unrealistic, but think about the larger implications of this franchise; there is life outside this planet, outside the galaxy we inhabit, outside galaxies that surround ours as well. Other beings, other life forms, other forms of energy, dimensions of time that exist in parallel with our own, the possibility of multiple dimensions, it's so rich!

I find it a fascinating concept and its never failed to draw my attention to the exciting possibilities that it has to offer.

Imagine meeting another form of life that may or may not be vertebrate. Imagine they were a peace loving species, one that does not feel the need to conquer or mutilate owing to their own internal insecurities. How would we be able to handle them? Rape and kill them due to our collective fear of losing control over what we perceive to be our personal space?

Or would we be so bold so as to actually learn something from them? Can we foresee ourselves as being so open so as to be open to another fresh, interesting idea, instead of rehashing old ones time and time again?

Mind you, in that day and age the human race has eliminated hunger and poverty!So an idea like that may well be improbable.

But we tend to make the same assumptions that issues that exist in this day and age will continue till the 23rd or 24th century or whatever: Imperialism, Fascism, Deceit, War, and anything else gory. Which is why I find the franchise a tad too presumptuous in thinking that these issues wont be solved given the extent to which humanity as a species has evolved in the past 300 years!