Sachchi Shiksha

[I was planning to do a blog post on this topic (which I still might do later) but when I woke up this morning the inspiration in my head was more towards poetry than prose. Result is this poem. I take no responsibility for what happens if you follow it like a life philosophy. Or if you don’t. ;)  ]

नया ज़माना आया प्यारे इसके नये उसूल,
झूठ के ढोल बजाओ भाई, सच को जाओ भूल,

सच को जाओ भूल यही दस्तूर है प्यारो,
सच की फीकी दाल में यारो, थोड़ा झूठ का तड़का मारो.

बारह आने सच्चाई के चार आने का झूठ,
खुल्ली लूट मची है प्यारे लूट सके तो लूट.

लूट सके तो लूट, बहुत मौके हैं प्यारे,
बेईमानी की चाबी पकड़ो खुल जाएँगे ताले सारे.

दस्तूर जहाँ दस्तूरी का हो, सच्चाई का राग ना गाओ
भाषण तो घर जा कर देना, पैसा फेंको काम कराओ

पैसा फेंको काम कराओ, चाहे नौकरी या हो तरक्की,
चोर चोर मौसेरे भाई, अपनी दोस्ती सबसे पक्की.

सच की राह तुम चलो हमेशा बच्चों को यह पाठ पढ़ाओ,
Admission  का समय जब आए, donation दो entry पाओ.

donation दो entry पाओ. , मत सब को उपदेश सुनाओ,
'खाओ और खाने दो' का तुम नया मूल मन्त्र अपनाओ.

सच्चाई की राह चले तो काँटे ही राहों में होंगे,
बेइमानी की खाद लगाओ, फूल उगाओ खुशबू पाओ.

सूखी रोटी सच्चाई की कब तक पानी से खाओगे,
बेईमानी का मक्खन मारो अपना जीवन सरल बनाओ.

Google now censoring some websites

[Photo credit: http://www.toonpool.com/cartoons/Do%20no%20evil_5798]

My outspoken disgust for Apple and iPhone does not stem from personal reasons and as such it does not stop as a particular company or product. My objection, vehement and strong objection, is against limiting the users, restricting how they can live their lives. I have never been a big fan of Flash, I have never been a Flash developer and frankly I hate those annoying Flash ads that you have to watch on some websites. But I despise that Apple should decide whether users can have Flash on their devices or not. NO! It's the user's right to decide.

So when Google starts acting like a big brother and starts with censorship, no matter how small, no matter how benign in appearance, I wouldn't stand for  it. As of now, I am looking for a new search Engine. The link below is an article that'll explain why.

http://torrentfreak.com/google-now-censors-the-pirate-bay-isohunt-4shared-and-more-111123/

Copyright Industry - A Century of Deceit

A fascinating article on the copyright lobbying through the 100 or so years.
http://torrentfreak.com/the-copyright-industry-a-century-of-deceit-111127/

Just to add my own 2 bits, I remember one time I was stuck trying to fast forward the anti-piracy warning on a DVD and found that I couldn't. Try it some time, it's programmed so that the viewer has to watch the full track that contains the warning or warnings. At that time I remember musing over the fact that the punishment for the crime of copying a movie seemed unreasonably high, like 10 years of jail time. I mean, that's the kind of sentence that should be reserved for really heinous crimes. Is copying a DVD really at par with rape and murder?

The Finer Things in Life

"Sunny, you have no taste for the finer things in life!", she says. 

All because I wouldn't go to the bloody opera with her. 

And that brings up a very interesting question - what are the finer things in life and who decides? 

As always I am going to pose the questions and leave you holding the bag for answers. 

• Why is wine tasting a finer thing while drinking beer while watching sports is uncouth? 
  
• 
  
• Why is watching a boring, insomnia-curing opera is finer but watching a 2-hour rollercoaster of action and suspense with Messers Stallone and Schwarzenegger is not? 
  
• 
  
• Why is reading mind-numbing, brain-killing fat-ass classics is a finer thing even though they were not written for today's life, but reading an interesting, action-packed thriller is junk? 
  

Well, the answer to who decides is simple - the society! How is it decided? I may not have the definitive answer but I have some theories. 

• Anything that's so expensive that only an elite group of people can do it, is a finer thing in life. Case in point - Theatre vs. Movies, Wine vs. Beer. 
  
• 
  
• Anything that's so mind-numblingly boring that doctors can prescribe it in place of sedative is a finer thing. Case in point - opera. 
  
• 
  
• Anything that's fun and enjoyable is eithe forbidden or dirty or both. Case in point - sex. 
  
• 
  
• Anything that's cheap and easy to obtain is junk. Case in point - Burgers and Pizza. 
  

You know the finer things in my life? 

Any moment when I can enjoy the music (any kind of music) and move to it, with or without a pretty girl for a partner. (I am no dancer but I believe in the old adage from Bali island "If a man is happy, he can always learn to dance.") 

Any stupid, silly comedy show that makes me clap and burst into laughter. 

A smile that comes to my lips after I finish a nice meal that I cooked for myself. 

An evening with friends where they are being just as silly as I am (or usually beating me at it) and it doesn't matter what the silliness was wrapped around, a game of pool, a movie or a dance class. 

A parcel that brings me a new book. Read or unread. 

...actually, I have a few thousand more but they all have one thing in common, I don't give a hoot if they are the official "finer" things or not. My life, my rules! [Hmmm, not a bad title for my autobiography! ;) ]

The Power of One!

Never say you couldn't achieve anything because noone was there to support you. Did you dare to start?

It reminds me of this sher from Allama Iqbal -
"Main akela hee chala tha jaanib-e-manzil magar,
Log saath aate gaye, kaarvaaN ban.ta gayaa".

(I had started alone towards the destination,
People kept falling in step with me and procession was thus built.)

(Originally seen here - http://sagargoswami007.blogspot.com/2008/09/great.html)

No Sorry No Thank You

In the blockbuster, record-breaking movie 0f 1989 - "Maine Pyar Kiya" Salman Khan says to Bhagyashree, "Dosti ka ek usool hai madam, No Sorry No Thank You." (In friendship, no sorry no thank you).

Sounds nice and romantic, yes? Yes. A lot of chumps, including me (I can chump with the best of them!), fell for it and thought it was such a great principle.

Now, think about it seriously without the glamour of Bollywood behind it. When you make friends with someone, you don't do it for a moment, you want it to last, hopefully, for years. With both friends being human (alien friendships and other relationships are outside the scope of this textbook), there are sure to be some misunderstandings, one might hurt the other, incidences not exactly pleasant. So, what you are saying is that you might hurt your friend, emotionally, maybe even make them cry (esp. if she's a girl) and NEVER say sorry? Hmmm, kind of a cad, aren't you?

Having said that, I and my best mate Fazil, in about 20 years of friendship we have had some arguments but we have never done that kind of hurting where you need to say sorry (touchwood!). The most we fought was on the motorbike journey to death (or almost) into the Himalayas but that was the effect of having low oxygen flow to the brain and everybody was fighting with everybody over absolutely nothing.
But we still acknowledge kind words and kind acts with thank you and it's common courtesy that maybe more important between those you consider close.

Well, what do you think?

Ask and ye shall receive!

I recently watched this movie called Evan Almighty which is the sequel to Bruce Almighty.
I had already read the review on another blog (the one in my favorite blog list - Electronic Cerebrectomy) and it was very accurate.

My own review in short:

For one thing, the title is not accurate, in Bruce Almighty Jim Carey becomes God, well deputy God so the title fits, in this sequel, Evan gets an assignment from God with no special powers, so he's not really almighty.

The movie is quite predictable. Once you find out that God wants Evan to build an ark, there are no further twists or surprises. However, the speed of the movie keeps you from getting bored. The climax is also kind of predictable.

The cast is ok, Jim Carey has more silly faces for weird situations than this guy (I hate Jim's silly faces but I have to admit he's one of the most expressive actors in the business and has a fabulous screen presence, kind of like Hollywood's Govinda :) ), this guy is just ok. Lauren Graham as his wife has been more effective and showed him up kinda. I don't think anybody would debate it but Morgan Freeman as God is the best. He has that coolth, that charisma to pull off a superlative role like God Almighty. His sense of humour aided by the special effects is fantastic.

The video clip below is from the movie when Lauren Graham leaves her husband because he's being such an ass and is enroute to her mother's house, I think. This is the best scene from the movie, in my humble opinion. Believe in God or not, (I don't) but the lesson in the scene is very useful and equally applicable irrespective of your beliefs.

Just to give you an additional context tip: in the beginning of the movie, Lauren Graham had prayed for her family to be closer.





[P.S. Can't help but mention an example of Seek and ye shall find...my free video editor Avidemux which is a simple and effective video editing tool was not able to handle this movie for some reason, it played the movie without sound. So, I looked for another one and the new one, called Virtual Dub, another free tool, is even more powerful and useful. It makes smaller movies. So, you'll keep seeing my video posts, from FSX and otherwise. :) ]

A madman's dream - khawaab deewane ka

Happy New Year! Happy New Year!! Happy New Year!!!

Is it? Really? Why?

What's so wonderful and unique about a year change? It's just a unit of time, isn't it? Seconds, minutes, days, weeks, months, and years. So? What's so bloody fantastic about changing a year that you have to go all out and spend a lot of money, drink like crazy and wish each other like idiots, "Happy New Year, Bill!", "Happy New Year, James!".

This world is a funny place. Not funny as in "ha, ha", but funny as in weird! Very weird! There are people who go crazy celebrating the change of a year, and there are people who wouldn't know what bird you mean if you say "Near Year's Eve". There are places where a man may be killed for a 100 dollars and there are places where it wouldn't buy a cup of coffee. There are people who devote all their lives saving the rain forests and there are people who pride themselves on buying genuine crocodile purses and suitcases. There are children who don't have a regular source of food and there are people who need to take pills to digest all that they eat...

You know as well as I do that I can go on and on, there is no limit of such contradictions in this world. You don't even have to look hard.

The question is how to make sense out of this madhouse? And more importantly, what is my place in all this shambles? Am I being callous when I ignore the sad pleadings of the tragic, miserable, needy situations in the world? Or I am being stupid by thinking about such things and wasting my chance, one chance, at living? There must be a balance somewhere, there must be some method to this madness? Is there?

I don't know!

That's my honest answer. I simply don't know. But then that gives rise to the next question - I don't know but what should I do about it? One extreme path leads to the mountains in search of "the Truth" and the other extreme leads to the concrete jungles made by humanity to enjoy this life in the pursuit of happiness in endless cocktail parties and meaningless festivals. Again, is there a balance, a middle path somewhere?

I don't know!

I'd like to quote from Faani Badauni's ghazal once again:

एक मुअम्मा है, समझने का ना समझाने का,
ज़ीन्दगी काहे को है, ख्वाब है दीवाने का.

Ek mu_amma hai, samajh_ne ka naa sam_jhaane ka,
zindagi kaahe ko hai, khwaab hai deewane.

[It is a riddle, neither to be understood nor to be explained.
Don't call it life, it is the dream of a madman!]

My interpretation, (not very insightful), is that a dream has no logical or rational flow, nor any basis for things that happen there. And a mad person's thoughts are also like that, with no logic, no rationale, no sense. So when you combine the two and talk about the dream dreamt by a madman, you are talking about something that'd defy the "sensible" completely, something impossible to understand, something beyond our powers of comprehension and imagination.

I'll continue to try and find my place in this infinite madness...in the meantime I'd love to hear from you. Please feel free to add your own questions, comments, answers, opinions. I'd really welcome a chance to discuss this.


P.S. Wishing you all a Very Happy New Year! :-)

Beauty is a sham!

“Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder.”, we have all been hearing it since ages, haven’t we? I have too, but then I ask myself, “If beauty is in the eyes of the beholder then what the hell are all those beauty contests for?”

I used to watch as many of the beauty contests as I could. I still wouldn’t mind watching if I knew beforehand of the schedule. But I wouldn’t because I don’t read, watch or listen to the news.

There have been times when the judges have selected a beauty queen and I have said, “Well-deserved!” (Like Sushmita Sen winning Miss Universe), but there have always been times, when I have screamed, “Are you bloody kidding me!?” (No, I don’t say “bloody” that’s more of a British word and I have recently moved to Britain, but the word I was going to use is not so nice. Anyway…)

So you can say that since my idea of beauty differs from those judges, it really is in the eyes of the beholder. Are you sure?

There are common ideas of beauty, as a group of people or society at large would agree to what is beautiful and what not. That same group of people might agree on a 100 people and yet may have dissent about others.

Or, you could meet a girl you don’t find attractive at all but who is somebody’s girlfriend or somebody’s wife, the apple of their eye, the prized possession or whatever..(ack! The inscription on the knife in my back reads “Women’s Lib”). And you do see the kind of guys or girls who look to you like nobody can find them beautiful by any stretch of imagination and yet….for example I think Julia Roberts is ugly, but her fans would want to kill me a slow and painful death just for saying that. There is a quote that I read recently, it says “..in the right light, from the right point of view, in the right situation, everything is beautiful…”, something like that.

So what’s the deal here? Is it in the eyes of the beholder or is it something that can be defined?

I have been thinking about it lately, quite a lot, and I have come to the conclusion that leaving apart the extreme cases of individual preferences beauty is largely defined by society. Beauty is what a certain ratio of the population may possess. It has to be a group not so small that almost nobody has it, but it has to be something that not everybody has it. Let me take an example.

Big breasts are considered sexy and something to have, so much so that surgery and money come into play. But if all the women in the world had big breasts, it wouldn’t be sexy. If only a few hundred women in the world had big breasts, it wouldn’t be sexy. It’s something that’s possible to see in a man’s lifetime, but something that’s not common - that’s beauty!

I will take two examples to illustrate my point.

My friend N in Germany, has a preference of brunettes, dark-haired girls. I can’t understand why because I think blondes are so sexy! But, he argues, Germany is full of blondes, brunettes he doesn’t see so often. On the other hand, India is full of brunettes almost exclusively, and blondes….not really. Hence my fascination.

Second point is from a story I read in high school - Country of the Blind. Don’t ask me who wrote it, I am too old to remember that now. One peculiar thing that I never forget about that story is that the hero, who is the only person with eyes and a stranger in that land, falls in love with a pretty girl who is considered ugly in that society. The barometer of beauty in that land of the blind is skin. Yes, the smoother the skin of the girl, the more beautiful she is considered. I don’t remember the story in its entirety and I doubt that it has any statistics but I will give you even odds that smooth skin was something not every girl had in that country.

Beauty, as per my arguments, is nothing more than a statistically selected group of features, a standard defined by the society and thus, is completely worthless!

So, do you agree or do you want to cross swords with me on this one?

Pencilled Memories

Ok, I am at work. I pick up a pencil from the desk. Now, I am a software tester and my work consists of a glorious routine where I log out and log in to many computers, and so it happens that as I am waiting for the machine to come up again, I pick up this pencil and I have time to pick up a sharpner to sharpen the pencil. But then I realize I will have to stand up and walk up to the trash bin to actually sharpen a pencil that I don't need. So, like the lazyass that I am I put down the pencil.

But it reminds me of desk sharpners that have a bin to collect the peelings. That in turn, reminds me of battery-operated sharpners that I have always been fascinated by. That reminds me of the first and last battery-operated pencil sharpner that I bought. More than 2 years ago, when I was going to appear for my CSTE exams. (Just a geeky certification exam for software QA professionals).

Those exams are subjective as well as objective, and writing long answers in pencil means the need to sharpen them between answers. So, smart as I am, I bought that automatic sharpner to gain an edge. My girlfriend, who was supporting me in my mission, had an even better idea, she suggested that I take 20 pencils, all pre-sharpned and use them.

So, that's what I did. (Who can say no to a girl who gets hold of an idea?). Even though I looked like a freak with a pencil-fetish, carrying a pencil box choke-full of sharpened pencils, I did gain at least 20 minutes on the others who had to stop every few minutes to sharpen pencils (with manual sharpners), and 20 minutes for me means 20 more minutes for me to think up fancy crap to please the examiners.

The moral? "God is in the details!". Little things make for big differences!

Stop waiting

....if I sleep now, I'll have 5 hours of sleep.....if I fall asleep now, I will still have 4 hours of sleep....if I could fall asleep now, I'll have 3 hours of sleep...

Have you had nights like that? I have! You desperately want to sleep and yet for some reason, being too excited, too worried, sometimes too tired, to sleep. Or maybe not tired enough, not sleepy enough, not relaxed enough. You try and try but it doesn't work, you just lie there waiting..and wishing...

There's a parallel to that in life. We are always waiting for something that's just around the corner and is going to make our lives so much happier. Or happy.

Once I turn sixteen...once this pay raise kicks in...when I have that new phone...after I receive my new, fast PC...when we go on that vacation...once I reach India...

Funny enough most of these things that we wait and wish for do come true, okay, not all of them, but quite a lot. Surprisingly though, they do not bring the everlasting joy that they seemed to represent. What happened? There are many reasons. Sometimes our expectations were so high that the actual event could not fulfill them. Sometimes, the thing, the event, the person is very very good, but still we miss something in him/her/it, but mostly, by the time we get that wish, we already have a few more that we want to come true.

Long time back I read a quote that stayed in my mind, "We never live, but kill time in the hope of living.".

This hope of living stays alive but usually stays a hope and nothing more...

To add another quote, "Death is more universal than life; everybody dies, but not everybody lives."

So what is the solution? Well, I am no expert in the art of living but I definitely am a student and most things in my philosopy come back to the same principle, "Live in the moment". Don't stop wishing, wanting, creating, getting, but don't make life wait on your wishes. If you look in this moment, you will find a lot to be happy about. Once you learn to squeeze the joy out of every moment, you'll be surprised to realize how little it takes to make you really happy. Sometimes, after I finish a meal I sit there with the rest of the Diet Coke in my glass and sip it slowly, watching TV and as I sit back enjoying the perfectly chilled Coke with 2 ice cubes, my feet up on a chair...I feel, "This is life!". None of these things are extraordinary and yet, that's how little it takes to be happy if you want to be.

I'll end with Leo Tolstoy's famous quote, "If you want to be happy, be!".

Who will cry when you die?

मुट्ठियों में ख़ाक लेकर दोस्त आये वक़्त-ए-दफ्न,
ज़ीन्दगी भर की मुहब्बत का सीला देने लगे.

[Mut_thiyoN meiN khaak lekar dost aaye waqt-e-dafn,
zindagi bhar ki muhabbat ka sila dene lage. ]

Let me see how well I can translate it.

At the time of burial my friends came up with dirt in their fists,
and started to pay me back for a lifetime of love.

Sad and cynical though it may sound but that is the reality. This is all that is left at the end - a handful of people with a handful of dirt.

In India, and I think this is common in other countries too, there are two major events in a person's life when his friends, relatives and acquaintances gather around him - wedding and funeral. Having made no plans for marriage, that leaves one for me. (Hey, hey, I said I have no plans! I might get married, I might not. But I am not planning for either. Jeez! You sound like my mother!). Well, so anyway, the whole issue of who will cry when I die. Not who will come to my funeral but who will feel sad, how many people will shed a tear for the departure of one Sunil Goswami?

Why do I care?

There is a saying in Hindi - "Aap mare jag parlay", when you are dead the world has eneded! As far as I am concerned the caring is not for the actual moment when I die and people hear of it, but for now, I need to count that number now and see what value, if any, I am adding to the world. How many lives have I changed? How many smiles would not be there without me? How many moments I have made easier for others? Those questions need to be answered now! And the answer to those questions will lead to the answer to the main question.

I have always had delusions of grandeur (every dream is a delusion until you prove it with your own sweat and blood), and if you ask me, I'd like the newsreaders to cry when they announce my death. Oh yes, it'll be a big enough news item to feature in the international news!

So, as I was saying, this one seemingly frivolous and idle question can prove to be a good barometer to measure the "success" of your life.

But that's just my take on it, what do you think?

Advertising point of view

I watch a lot of ads and as everything else I think about them also, so you may see some more posts about ads in here.

When I watch some ads I wonder if the ad agencies think of the general public as a bunch of dumb idiots. And then I wonder if they are right. Case in point, 2 cases actually, 2 car ads.

Kia cee'd: This young man rings the doorbell, a girl comes out, they are awkward about hugging or kissing, can't decide, so I'd guess they have been dating for some time but not yet in the girlfriend-boyfriend stage. They get in the car, she says, "Nice car". He drives to some place, stops the car and proposes to the girl, right there, without a ring, just some stuff about "buy a house, get a dog..", and she says yes. They don't know each other well enough to hug without awkwardness and it's the first time she's sitting in his car (if had just bought it, the conversation would go differently), but he proposes and she accepts. Then they get out of the car and you see that he has parked away from the building, in pouring rain, in the middle of a grassy lawn, where there are no other cars around. With all that space he parked in a place where the car will get wet and they will have a puddle in their shoes just walking through all that grass to the building. Voice over talks about quality commitment and 7 years warranty.

My question: Do only dumb people buy Kia cee'd or it makes them so dumb just by driving it and traveling in it?

Toyota Yaris: They have a series of ads all on the same theme, one person doesn't treat the car with respect and the owner of the car gets even with them. Ad 1 - A girl is flying her boyfriend's remote control plane and then purposefully smashes it to the ground pretending to lose control. Following the gleam of devious victory in her eyes the flashback shows a scene when this guy was helping her carry stuff from the car and since both his hands were full he kicked the car door shut with his foot. The girl saw it and resolved to take revenge. Ad 2 - Two buddies crossing a muddy patch on rope and this one guy cuts the rope when the other is just above the mud, causing him to splash in the mud. Flashback shows that guy 2 had put his foot on guy 1's car's dashboard as guy 1 was driving. Voice over says, "Toyota Yaris, treat it with respect!"

My take: The people who disrespected the car did it in carelessness and negligence (or necessity, how do you close a car door when your hands are full of grocery?), but the owners of the car acted with devious craftiness, premeditation and deliberate revengeful intentions. Again, it maybe that only mean people would buy this car or they get this mean streak after they buy the car.

Every car has a character and it attracts people of that character to buy and/or it influences the character of the owner by association. I know this from my own experience with motorcycles and observing different cars and their owners in India (where the car models are not so numerous as to lose track), you can confirm this simply by asking any man who has owned multiple models of cars over time.

So, my question is - are we as dumb as the advertisers seem to think we are?

Peace of mind

I have been blamed again and again for writing thought-provoking posts.
This post might prove to be provoking also. (I do like to argue as my
readers (all 6 of them) know very well :) )

People say quite often, religious people, or
self-proclaimed-intellectuals-but-still-trapped-in-religion-people that
sitting in a temple gives them an unexplained, mysterious feeling of
peace. There is nothing mysterious about it, the feeling comes from the
expectation and the environment. The feeling of peace and tranquility
comes from within not from without. You can get the same feeling sitting
in a forest, on a riverbank, on a raft in the middle of the sea and when
you have learnt the real source of the feeling, you can have it in the
middle of a busy thoroughfare like Times Square.

As Basheer Badr has said,
Apna gham le ke kaheeN door na jaaya jaaye,
Ghar mein bikhari hui cheezoN ko sajaaya jaaye
[Let us not travel without with our sorrow, let us rearrange the things
strewn about in the house.]

The source of this peace and happiness is within us and we don't need to
take a single step to find it.

There are a lot of things that add to the feeling. Keertan is a popular
way of worship in Hinduism, music, songs, dance all brought together to
worship God. Other religions have similar practices, Islam the qawwali
and Chritianism their hymn-singing. It is the power of music that turns
your thought in a particular direction, it has nothing to do with God.
You can use anything to connect yourself to God and you can use the same
media to connect to anything.

Remember Hitler's songs of the Third Reich?

My point is that it's not neccessary to worship God in any one way or
any particular style.

Ghar se masjid hai bahut door chalo yoon kar lein,
Kisi rote hue bachche ko hansaya jaaye.
[The mosque is very far from home lets do this instead, help a crying
child to find his smile again.]

I seriously dislike the people who think themselves righteous and God's
favorite because they "go to church every Sunday", there are similar
equivalents in all religions, people who spend 4 hours in keertan every
week or perform namaaz 5 times a day. They are all fine practices, IF it
does not give you a superiority complex. I have met people who have the
holier-than-thou attitude because they have a direct hotline to God and
a suite reserved in heaven. On the other hand, rarely, but I have met
people, who serve God and humanity equally and as part of their very
being rather than as a habit or an attempt to earn brownie points with
the Big Guy.

I like Osho because he does not use any of the gimmicks and he does not
do anything that is supposedly mysterious or unexplained. His discourses
are not accompanied by music or background sounds. His langauge, tone
and style is not professional. He never raises his voice like a
professional speaker and he definitely is not an orator. Still, when he
talks, people listen. Simply because what he says makes sense. In
answering a question from someone about going to the temple he explains
at length why the person himself is the source of all that is good and
pure, even though all the religions preach otherwise. Osho finishes with,
"The day you understand this one thing, you will not go to the temple,
you will BE the temple."
["Phir tum mandir nahin jaaoge, tum khud mandir ho jaaoge.]

Reality Demystified

Alright, I have had enough of people lecturing me to get back to 'reality' and now I am ready to dissect the concept of reality and see what comes up. Feel free to contribute a comment and your own point of view, even if you think I am crazy .

So, reality? What is reality? Things as they are, absolutely as they are, free of perception isn't it? That's how I understand it, I didn't look it up, not yet anyway.

But the question is do you really know how things really are? Let's dig deeper. :P *rubs hands with glee*

Suppose you have a headache, you take a tablet. Now, we all know, most of us anyway, that that tablet doesn't do much in the way of curing the headache, it just anesthetizes (whoa that's a tricky word) the area where the pain is and you don't feel the pain. The cause is there, the pain is also there, but now you don't feel the pain. Which one is reality - pain or no pain? You are not feeling the pain so that can't be a reality for you, and yet you know very well that it's there since the tablet just induced local anaesthesia and nothing more so painlessness is not a real reality! :)

Some people don't take a tablet for headaches just for that reason. To them, I'll ask what about dental surgery? Would you go under the gas or not? What about molar extraction? If you persist, I will persist too, what about heart bypass? What about amputation? Can anyone go under any kind of pain without the help of drugs? No.

My point? You relax your hold on reality for a certain period in order to escape the pain and torture of reality.

Have you seen the movie "Shallow Hal"? This guy, the hero, after a post-hypnotic suggestion, sees all girls as beautiful because of their inner beauty and when his friend wakes him up he is ready to kill him. Why? He explains, "If I like a girl and you don't, would it matter to me, if you think she's not beautiful. I saw a knock-out I don't care what anyone else sees?" Does he sound like he wants reality?

This brings me to my next point, what about love? When people are in love, esp. when they are falling in love, they see things differently. Not only they don't see each other's faults but also the world seems like a perfect place to them. I am not a cynic, not any more, but still I'd admit that the world is far from perfect. Yet, to a couple in love it would seem like paradise itself.

I have been in love, or infatuation or whatever you want to call it, and then out of it. And when I was out of it, I thought "Man! that was a fool's paradise I lived in!" and then soon I realized that the fool's paradise was a very pleasant way of living rather than the "smart" awakened life.

Let me quote from Heinlein, from his book "Revolt in 2100" that I finished today, his young hero says, "Call it what you like and laugh at us, but at that moment we were engulfed in that dear madness more precious than rubies and fine gold, more to be desired than sanity. If you have never experienced it and do not know what I am talking about, I am sorry for you."

Madness that's more to be desired than sanity, eh? Yes, the lad is right, only those who have loved would know what it means. Especially the ones who have loved and lost! For my money, if I had a wish I would ask to be eternally in love, deeply, madly in love and never to be brought back to reality!!

erhm...*shakes head and comes out of the dreamy stare into space*

Other than all that, how are you sure that this dull, work-home-kids-drive routine is reality? Have you seen Matrix? Computers have created a virtual reality that they feed into the minds of humans. Ok, Matrix is science-fiction what about God? All religions talk about God having created the world and ruling it. According to Hinduism God uses his assistant the most-treacherous female 'Maya' to run the world, and,

"Maya maha thagini ham jaani", Maya in itself means mystery and confusion, creating an illusion. So her illusion is your reality?

I can still see people in the crowd shaking their heads (don't mind me, I am envisioning myself on a high stage, discoursing to a great crowd :D )

Any one who did anything in this world, anything worthwhile, anything that made you know their names even though you don't live in the same street, did so by ignoring reality to some point.

Ah, puzzled? Let me explain.

This German doctor, I keep forgetting his name, yes Viktor Frankl, he survived and escaped Hitler's concentration camp, a place where a person could lose their life, their dignity and their mind. He not only kept his sanity, but he helped others, escaped when he got a chance and finally made a difference in the world with his work. He had a vision, all the time he was undergoing the torturous, inhuman treatment in the camps he always focused on an image of a better life, a vision of liberty, equality and a life of dignity. And at one point, he was able to swap his realities. Could he do that if he had just lived in the reality?

Then look at other figures, Euclid, Edison, Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, Mother Theresa, Lal Bahadur Shastri...each and everyone of them had a dream, a vision, a better place to dwell on than reality.

Shaheed Bhagat Singh had a dream in his mind, the dream of an Independent India for which he gave up his 'reality', his safe and secure life as the beloved son of loving parents, and risked his life and ultimately died for that dream.

To conclude. I can't say that reality is something to be ignored. But reality is not everything. If you want to achieve more than what is real for you now, you have to focus on things that are not real, strive for them, work for them and make them the new reality.

I think I can best conclude with these 2 lines from Allama Iqbal,

"Isi roz-o-shab meiN ulajh kar na reh ja,

Zameen aur bhii aasmaaN aur bhii haiN."

(Don't be confined to this day and night,

there are other Earths there are other skies.)

[From his famous ghazal - Sitaron se aage jahaN aur bhii haiN, abhi ishq ke imtahaaN aur bhii haiiN.]