From Hamlet 3/1

Here I comment on a post by a friend of mine. Devashish. Having read this post by him is not a pre-requisite, but it will definitely help you to understand this post better. Find it at http://dev-s8n.blogspot.com/ titled "Stay low..."


What really got me thinking in this post was the pure abstract nature of it. On the face of it, it might look as a simple question asking "Do I talk to my girl or not?" Look deeper. It is the classic question that Shakespeare put forth in Hamlet :


To be, or not to be: that is the question:
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them? To die: to sleep;


Think it about it. Ah... That was too quick. Once more. Deeply ponder on its meaning. What Shakespeare (perhaps) meant was whether it is better to live or die. I expand the question. Is it better to do? Devashish states "For the ones who don't give a fuck what others think about them, life's just too smooth." Is passivity a better approach to life?


? That is the question indeed.
I am a passive being. I am the one who doesn't "give a fuck what others think about them". But is my life "just too smooth"? I wonder.
Haven't we all wondered and cribbed about how outrageously unfair this world is to us (possibly during a daru-party!)? And did we all not sulk the very next day (probable hangovers?)? Or were we even aware of that unjust world? Did we prance about in the gay meadows with our mates, loving the sight of the morning sun, appreciating the beautiful flowers, the towering trees? Or was it that we were sulking in the depressing weather, the suffocating pressure of performing, the rash pace at which the world moved?


What was the point of that para? Exactly. We did none of it. We lived our lives the way we lived it the day before, and the day before that, and the one before that. We crib, we cry, we abuse, but we go on living the same way that we did. That is called passivity in life. Life in itself is passive. The only reason you survive life is that it's passive. The minute it changes in an overwhelming fashion, be it "good" or "bad", you are unable to handle it. That is when you quit living.
But you on the other hand my friend, are dynamic. You couldn't survive being passive. Its a pain to go on living without having something new to do, or look forward to. Unbearably painful.

Now getting back to the question of "Is passivity a better approach to life?". I would say it really doesn't matter. No matter whether you choose to be passive or active, you are striving to be a dynamic person. And you end up with a passive life in all. Crib all you want, cry all you might like. You end up in the same position as I do. I will live through as any phases of joy and sorrow as will you, as will Osama, as will Bill Gates, even your hateful neighbour. So live through it my brothers and sisters, life's too short to think of it. Let the thinking be dumped on the shoulders of the unfortunates like me.

Here i would like to end with a joke that I came across in a movie - Annie Hall:


Two elderly women were sitting in a restaurant having food. One said: The food here tastes so bad! To which the other replied: I know! And in such small portions too!


Well that's exactly what life is like. Full of pains and unhappiness and over too soon...