Moved

Moved to http://www.grasskode.com :-)

Pictured Life!

"Why?" is probably the most oft asked question. All our lives - right from the times we are kids to the time we are pondering old men in rocking chairs - we constantly wonder "Why?". Why does a certain thing happen? Why does a person behave in a particular way? Why is it that people have different beliefs? Why can something hold different values for different people? And everytime the answers converge to the same thing - PEOPLE. People are different. This has been said often enough. But what is it in people that makes them differ? The difference, most certainly, lies entirely in the mind. For where else can the difference between two intelligent creatures lie? There already seems to exist a philosophy that says that everything is just an illusion. The entire world around us is a projection of our own brains. A recent conversation with a certain Ms. Ln'F drove me to this lane of thought and I have been cruising along it since.

It was brought up, during the aforementioned conversation, that people try to get to know each other, to find out more about their fellow human beings, despite a certain muffled knowledge of there being no guarantee that what they are finding out is the truth. The reasons for profiling people and things despite knowing the uncertainity of it were listed by Ms. Ln'F as follows:

"an intelligent mind
will try to find out as much as possible
about fellow humans in it's environment
one part is survival
another, intellectual curiosity
a third
a genuine need
to discover others...
who you can communicate to
those who understand you...
it's a process of identification...
the immature mind
will typecast
into friends and foes
the mature one
will treat each individual as different"

This leads to an obvious conclusion that lurks just under the surface of point three. Making some safe extrapolations to it we reach come up with the following :
People try to draw a picture of the world around them.
But then there is nothing new to this philosophy. People having a certain set of notions and beliefs of their own is a well known fact. And it is quite well understood too. A certain John Moore said the following on experiencing a similar realisation :
"Your opinion is your opinion, your perception is your perception - do not confuse them with "facts" or "truth". Wars have been fought and millions have been killed because of the inability of men to understand the idea that EVERYBODY has a different viewpoint."

I could not, however, help but pause and ponder whether our basis of differing perceptions is limited to just the abstract. Whether there is a single set of these "facts" and "truths". Take something as well defined as a colour. Red per say. Perhaps your perception of red is similar to my perception of blue. But in the end we point at a "red" object and call it "red" albeit our perceptions of red being different. (This is comically expressed in http://xkcd.com/32/ [:D] ) Another obvious confusion that Ms. Ln'F had was between perceiving and analysing. Perception is simply how you look at your world. Analysing is how you decipher your perceived world. But in the end, it all contributes to how we define the "worlds" that we live in.

But wait! It is still not the end of this line of thought. How do we define our worlds? Or rather, can we define our worlds? My take : the world is too big an entity for a presumptuous creature like man to define it. So what does he do? He takes the easy way out. He defines his stand in his immediate surroundings, which, again, is nothing but his own brain's interpretation!

"one cannot really define how one defines his world
one can tell how he defines himself in his world
as in
where do i stand among these people
in this system
that kind of stuff...
one cannot define his position in THE world...
as i see it... no one is anyone in THE world...
in fact there is no THE world...
there is atleast one world for every living person...
so when you define your world(s)
you are simply defining how you see yourself as compared to your perceived surrounding
people, places, things
etc...
when you say that the world is scary
you just say that you see yourself as weaker than those around you
be it the jungle, the animals or people"

This probably explains multiple personalities. All one needs to do is look at the phenomenon as someone defining more than one world for himself when faced with the urge to BE contradictory selfs in the same perception of his surroundings. But I guess this line of thought has become too complicated and twisted by now. So I'll end it here at this untied end.

Here is a quote by William Blake that shows the importance (or possibly the unimporatance) of perception :

"If the doors of perception were cleansed everything would appear to man as it is, infinite."

(Had we been able to perceive nothing and not define our worlds, we would have been able to see everything and comprehend nothing.)

Eye Spy

I dodge the wayward eyeballs.
Those that float in the space around.
Fearing I might be noticed,
fearing I might be found.
All I sought was an asylum.
Some place to run to, some place to hide.
Some nook where I could bury my self;
save myself from this riptide
that engulfs us. This tumult of society,
where everyone stands stripped,
imploring others to acknowledge their existence
for without this recognition their life seems clipped.
Why should I join the parade?
This shameless pretense for approval?
Find more pleasure in the dazzle of glamour,
despite the comforts of frugal?
I feel lost and confused, for despite seeing through
I cannot ignore these eyes.
That hunt me and despise me
for not conforming and force me to tell lies.
So I keep dodging these wayward eyeballs.
Those that float in this vast space
around me, as around everyone else
nudging us on in this pointless race.
I seek the self that I had lost as a child, a long time ago;
the one that was 'me', way before this plague.
But I well know this search is only a dream. As it shall remain,
even on the day I seek refuge in my grave.

Blood On The Altar

A recent conversation with a junior of mine raised the topic of "sacrifice". The talks were concerning friendship in general hovering over semi and fully processed glasses of alcohol. He pointed out that I as a friend had failed to sacrifice something to make another friend of mine happy. To avoid monotone, I did not explain the point (or rather pointless-ness) of sacrifices using my "selfishness of man" theory. Rather, I maintained that it should have never come to the point where I was asked to sacrifice for a friend's sake.

If I need point out again, sacrifice is another selfish human gesture. One sacrifices for his friends because it makes him feel good about it. Curtly put.

But let us try to stray off the path a little. (After all its not always fun to do things the simpler way!) Sacrifice, as far as I believe, is the voluantary giving up of things that you would rather have. Sacrificing something for a friend means that you give up things because the particular friend of your's wants you to. And a friend is supposed to be one who cares for and respects you for what you are... I believe the point/pointless-ness is made.

Sacrificing for your friends is something that you do voluntarily if you see your friend's benifit in it. Sacrifices are not something that a friend would demand of you. If not made, it's not something that he would hold against you (neither is it something that will bug your conscience).

My opinion, however paltry and contrary to popular notions, expresses that the best human relations are ones that require no sacrifice. Hardly do you need not travel lengths because you've been asked to, but because you want to, and still be glad to do it again. These relations come as not only human, but even your pet dog, or your fancy new car, or your ego even [:D].

I leave you with a couple of quotes to ponder upon:

Gandhi, one of the persons I do not usually agree with, remarked on the essence of sacrificing as follows:

“The sacrifice which causes sorrow to the doer of the sacrifice is no sacrifice. Real sacrifice lightens the mind of the doer and gives him a sense of peace and joy. The Buddha gave up the pleasures of life because they had become painful to him.”

And Oscar Wilde:

“A thing is not necessarily true because a man dies for it.”

The Judgement

So this is the day that I so dreaded?

Feared, repulsed and held in awe so?

Is this what it was all about?

This dais? This theater where I feel the walls grow?

And you my dear lord; yes, you who stand above.

And watch the show in silence.

Never cry, never applaud,

not even scream at all the gore and violence!

And you say you hold

the right to pass judgement on me?

While you are just a critic

of an art that strives to break free

of the shackles

that this absurd audience puts on me.

It laughs when I am uncertain

and applauds when I present a tragedy.

Why should I hear their bickering?

Why? Why indeed!

Why should I even fear your judgement my lord?

Tell me, why? I plead.

Your name is enough to cause wars.

Your existence a debate.

Should the fear that you instill,

be the one that decides my fate?

Should you not be appreciating

whatever it is that I do?

Be not the critic but the director

and see that I act my role through.

But you choose to sit not nigh but high.

To pass a judgement. To tell me my end.

So I tell you lord, strike upon me with your verdict.

But until I get off the stage I shalt not bend.

World We Belong

Another of those restless nights

when time seems to stand,

and I head out, call a good friend of mine

to join me in the old town bar.

"What's up?" he asks,

Smirking as if he did not know

What troubled me could consume him

but I just smile and raise a brow.

To whom does the night belong?

To whom belong the stars?

Stare at the neon halos in silence,

search for the answers in my half filled glass;

The futile attempts of man,

to fathom the endless nature;

Smile as I see the irony

in how he worships his own grotesque caricature.

"Never will we give up, never will we die"

floats the anthem covering the planet in a smog.

"We got nukes, so screw you!"

I vividly picture the threatening holocaust,

offered as a penance for the crimes we done

and the rights we managed to be-wrong;

I lie back as I try to rid my thoughts

And sigh, such is the world that we belong.

Freebird? Indeed!

I choose a particularly unobvious topic this time around. Freedom. Freedom from tyranny, freedom from society, freedom from the system, freedom from relations, freedom from reality... Like Freddie (Mercury), wont we all like to break free? The answer, you might say, is obvious. Why of course, we need our freedom, we crave our freedom. But is it that obvious?

There happens to be a particularly interesting book that I am reading at the moment. "The New Russians" by Hedrick Smith. It talks of perestroika and glasnost. For the historically impaired, the political reforms in the USSR. To explain it shortly, USSR was a very closed country. For decades. Ruled by tsars and tyrants, it had bred a generation that was totally unaware of political freedom. Gorbachev tries to introduce his people to the face of democracy. And as history tells us, he succeeds.

One of the more troubling things about this book is the way in which the author rambles about the "wrongs" of the Soviet system and how people are reluctant to change to the "new and improved" political version of democracy. I believe he is totally out of place in making comparisons and criticising a system he was never rooted in. But more importantly, what I found extremely interesting was the way that people started abusing the new freedom that Gorbachev blessed them with.

Getting back into a context that most of you would appreciate, freedom is something of a powerful drug, if you allow me to make the absurd comparison. It is addictive, it sure is abused, and it is very hard to procure. But then the rebel in us always wants to know what it is that is being held from us. Why arent we allowed access to that drug? What could it possibly taste like? And then there are our fantasies of how we will enjoy ourselves if we actually manage to get our hands on it.

But sadly there are two things that we tend to ignore. Firstly, we tend to lose the appreciation for the things that we already have in place of freedom. These things differ with the change of context of freedom. But yes there are things that we ignore, or take for granted, which sadly are no longer there once we get our so anticipated freedom.

Secondly, there are the responsibilities that come along with the freedom. It's like the big instruction manual with the gadget you just ordered. You have to go through it before you can get the (darned) thing working. All the plans that you make with your freedom are left jammed in the middle of nowhere while you go along finishing off chores that you so wonderfully enjoyed when you were dependent on others to finish them off.

Sad, but independence is not always all rosy. perhaps a shade of red, but definitely not rosy. Freedom is something that isn't meant to be taken without prescription. There comes a time when you are prepared enough for it. And usually its there when you are ready.

But then it does not stop you from experimenting. Sure, go on, venture, take a walk on the wild side. But be grateful for what you have. Dependence is as good as independence, if not better in certain ways. [;)]

If this post did not make sense to you, then probably it wasn't meant for you. [:)]

Anyway, I would obviously appreciate your participation.

I'll end with a lovely song by The Who:

I'm free-I'm free,

And freedom tastes of reality,

I'm free-I'm free,

An' I'm waiting for you to follow me.

If I told you what it takes

to reach the highest high,

You'd laugh and say 'nothing's that simple'

But you've been told many times before

Messiahs pointed to the door

And no one had the guts to leave the temple!