The Leap of Faith

Update: hehe...I am on a video-blogging spree these days so I am adding the video clip to which I refer in this post. This one is from dubbed version of Spiderman 1 but I guess a smashed face is a smashed face in English, German and Dutch. *grins*



Have you watched "Spiderman"? I am talking about the first part where he starts to get all these powers. Remember the scene when he starts realizing that he may have some special powers as a result of that bite from the radio-active spider, where Peter Parker wants to test his spiderweb cord and jumps from one sky-rise building to another, across a main New York road? When I saw that I was like, "What an idiot! Why the hell do you want to risk breaking every bone in your body for that?". In my view, the same thing could have been tested with a much smaller, and therefore, safer jump. That's common sense. That's valid logic.

Well, since then I have realized that many times in life you have to take a leap, a big leap, a leap of faith. That leap carries an element of risk, you know that you don't know what's ahead, but you take the leap anyway. It was a long time back when David Lloyd George said, "Don't be afraid to take a big step if one is indicated; you can't cross a chasm in two small jumps". There are many times in life when a big step is indeed indicated. It may be the decision to start a new venture, embark on a new journey, start a new relationship or maybe just to change a habit or a pattern, many times you have to take a jump into the unknown. History shows, if anything, that people who take risks are more successful in achieving what they set out to.

I think behind the mentality of taking a risk, there always has to be a mindset of taking responsibility for your actions and your life. If you are one of those people who think that God, or life, or Nature, or your parents, or your boss, or somebody has screwed up your life and that's why you are miserable, you'd probably not be willing to make a change in your current situation mainly because you think that your life is not a result of your actions and your choices. But if you accept this basic fact then you will be more willing to take control of this life, make a change and that kind of change almost always involves risk.

If you have this firmly established in your mind that you are the one who is in control, not some universal puppet-master or some unknown force then the unknown variables will not scare you that much. There is a majority of people who advocate common sense, logic, the "practical" approach to life, who make a good case for the safe approach, the secure way of living. If I look around though, I don't see if any of these practical people have achieved anything spectacular. Any great man that I see, has taken a risk in his life, at some point, most of the time that leap was the turning point of his life - be it Bill Gates or Gautam Buddha.

Oh well, I can keep rambling on in my usual fashion but I think you got my point!

Thought of the day - 31st March 2008

Remember not only to say the right thing in the right place, but far more difficult still, to leave unsaid the wrong thing at the tempting moment.
- Benjamin Franklin (1706 - 1790)

Where heart is...

I wonder if one's taste changes with time. I had this audio cassette of
Qawwalis from Films. A qawwali is a form of music that's very alive,
very dynamic and full of frenzy. Usually ghazals (Urdu poems) are sung
as qawwalis but I believe qawwalis are also written specifically to be
sung like that.
Anyhow, I had this audio cassette which had many qawwalis from different
Hindi movies and some of them I liked more than the others. There was
one that I didn't like at all and used to fast forward over it.
Strangely enough, it was written by the celebrated Urdu shayar Allama
Iqbal. It went like this:
Kabhi ae haqi_qat-e-munt_zir nazar aa libaas-e-majaaz meiN,
Ke hazaaroN sajde tadap rahe haiN meri zabeen-e-niyaaz meiN.
Now, this was too complex Urdu for my limited knowledge and even if you
could translate the words, it's really abstract and the meaning is out
there. Even today if you ask me I can't really, accurately, translate or
interpret that. Loosely the meaning is this:
O awaited-reality sometime display yourself in the attire of metaphor,
For a thousand bows are raring in my yearning forehead.
See? Not very clear, is it? But these days I still like it, because it
leads to this final sher which has become one of my favorites over time.
Jo maiN sar-ba-sajda kabhi hua to zameeN se aane lagi sada,
tera dil to hai sanam-aash_na tujhe kya milega namaz meiN?
Let me translate this or try:
Whenever I lowered my head for a bow, this sound started to come from
the ground,
Your heart it in your beloved, what will you get in worship?
It's the whole combination of words, their meaning and the composition
of the couplet that makes it so interesting and actually inspiring.
Reminds me of two different things:
There was a guy preaching, don't remember who it was, might have been
Osho, he said, "People, when they bow in the temple, their body is
bowing to the God, but their heart is not in God, their heart is in the
shoes that are outside the temple." Humorous, based on the fact that
theft of shoes is notoriously high from outside places of worship.
Another one. A joke from Great Indian Laughter Challenge.
A muslim man bowing in 'namaaz' with his shoes in front of him. Another
man tells him that you lose the credit for the namaaz if you bow with
shoes in front of you. To which he replies, "But if I bow with the shoes
behind me, I lose the shoes."
Anyway, the main meaning of Iqbal's sher for me is that you should not
go through the motions but decide where you want to devote yourself, to
the God, or to your beloved and then go for it.
End of Chapter. :)

Thought of the day - 10th March 2008

“Unless commitment is made, there are only promises and hopes….but no plans”

Celebrating Uncertainty

Some of you who read my blog, (since the counter crossed 1000 visitors mark I am going to stop saying 'all six of you'), might remember when I was ranting about my current mental state regarding the big questions and beliefs in life. If you don't you can read it here

Recently I started reading a book by Osho, a book that I bought in India, because Osho is a man I immensely respect and admire. His books have some very odd titles, this one is called - "Courage - The joy of living dangerously". Now, anyone who knows me, (and you should if you read my thoughts on this blog), would know that that title is like a magnet for me.

In the foreword, he explains the meaning of security, insecurity, certainty and uncertainty. Let me quote - "Don't cling to any certainty. Life is uncertain - its very nature is uncertain. And an intelligent man always remains uncertain.
This very readiness to remain in uncertainty is courage."

Now if you think that didn't make me feel better about all my doubts and confusion...hehe... you better see a doctor!

I am still reading the book and it is fantastic. The simply-worded, profound kind of book that's full of guidance and direction. A typical Osho book.

Virtual Parting

There's this stupid little virtual world game that I play, called Second Life. I have talked about it quite a few times in my blog. This is not a game but a virtual world as in you are free to do what you want once you are in it. There are no aliens to shoot at no points to collect or stuff of that sort that makes up a video game. There are games "in" the game but SL itself is fully free-form. It has its own economy and many types of businesses. People meet, chat, have relationships, marriage and everything.

It is quite an engrossing thing, this game and so addictive that some people have this text on their profiles, "Remember, it's just a game!". I don't agree with them. It's a game, technically and for the purposes of establishing that I am a sane person, I'll concede that it's a game. But it's not completely a game. In a game when you shoot at the alients, or the villain's henchmen or the enemy army, they don't hurt, they don't bleed, they do bleed on the screen, but not in real. Just pixels. Lighted dots on the screen. But in SL, behind the pixels there is always a human being. He may not be as ruggedly handsome, or she may not be such a ravishing beauty but they are human, with a mind that thinks and a heart that feels. Some people, not necessarily the people who claim that it's a game, but some people do not fully realize that they are interacting with humans. Humans with feelings. These people can be really mindless jerks at times.

On my friend list are some people I have not talked to in a long time, but I still can't bring myself to delete them off my list. It's not much different from the way I always call my friend Harry, my real world friend Harry, on 9th Feb without fail, even if I have not talked to him the rest of the year. And there are some people I talk to almost every day on Sl. Just like in RL, I will call my real friend Fazil at least once a week no matter what corner of the world I have taken refuge in.

In this world we form friendships. Do they matter any less than the "real" friendships because the medium of communication is different? I don't think so. The joy of new connections is the same. The partings have the same kind of sting and the feeling of loss. The partings are quite real and painful they are depends on depth of the relationship not the medium they were made in. Well, I am feeling the pang of such a virtual parting today so I just thought it might help if I rant about it.

Back like a bad penny!

Recently I have been neglecting my blog lately. So this short and sweet entry to just let you know that I am back from my vacation in India (like you care), and things have been happening at quite a fast and exciting pace. So, I am back in England, enjoyed a long break in England after the holidays in India and now back to work. Different work, different city, new hassles. I'd like you to believe that my neglect of my blog is because life has been busy, hectic and full of new hassles but it's not. It's my usual, well-known and oft-celebrated laziness behind this long silence.

Most of time, spare time, has been spent in a), looking for an accomodation in the new city, b), reading thrilling, fantastic, old-is-gold type American fiction and rest on my laptop, watching The Great Indian Laughter Challenge videos or playing Second Life.

Well, let's see how soon I can write a meaningful, (and interesting) post again. Not that there is any shortage of topics or ideas in my mind.

More Comedy

Okay here's another clip from the Indian comedy show I am addicted to. This guy Kuldeep Dubey, he's young, but he awfully talented. In this clip he's presenting a mimicry style account of the much talked about Abhishek-Aishwarya wedding. Simply hilarious

Flattery

Don't they say "imitation is the highest form of admiration" or something like that? Well, I'll tell you what it's all about.

I have some bad habits and some very bad habits. Among my bad habits is blogging and among my very habits is that I sometimes indulge is writing poetry, Hindi or English or even Urdu sometimes. Nothing that's worth anything, just to amuse myself and to try and create the illusion that I am more than just a blot in the vast universe.

Anyway, this one time I had a dull toothache that lasted several days and one of my friends, it was MJ I remember, suggested why don't I use that pain as inspiration to write something. It's a common (mis)conception that pain inspires great creativity and a poet is worthless until he has felt real pain in his life. So, be that as it may, I decided to write on it and came up with a Hindi poem (kavita) "Zikr Us Dard Ka" that talked about this toothache in a humorous way. My friend liked the poem very much so I got encouraged and posted it on a forum called www.ebazm.com which I used to frequent. Here's a link if you are curious - Zikr Us Dard Ka It's a great forum for creative people or the ones who like to read poetry. Some people on that forum who read that said good things about my poem and I felt like a million dollars.

They also asked me to follow up on the poem and write about the next part - the visit to the dentist. I picked up on that and wrote another poem called - Ek Anokhi Mulakaat Obviously this was not as good at the first but still people liked it and parts of it I do like.

Now, today, my sister emailed suddenly talking about couple of my poems (English) that I had sent her before and I decided to send her these poems. I decided I would like her to read people's comments as well about my poem and did a search in Google for "Zikr Us Dard Ka". The results surprised me.

My poem is available in places where I had posted it, but also where I had not posted it. At least 2 people are using my poems as their own. LOL. I was surprised and of course enraged, but now I am not sure if I should make a whole lot of noise about my copyrights or consider this a flattering situation and just enjoy it.

Thought of the day - 16th Jan 2008

"The three great essentials to achieve anything worth while are, first, hard work; second, stick-to-itiveness; third, common sense."
- Thomas A Edison


This might be my last thought of the day for a while. I am going on hoilday and might not get time to do this for two weeks! :-)

Thought of the day - 15th Jan 2008

I was in the mood for a Latin quote today so here it is. Notice the confidence of the author!

aut viam inveniam aut faciam
[I'll either find a way or make one]

Thought of the day - 14th Jan 2008

When written in Chinese the word "crisis" is composed of two characters - one represents danger and the other represents opportunity.
-John F. Kennedy, address, 12 April 1959

Thought of the day - 11th Jan 2008

“What would life be if we had no courage to attempt anything?”
- Vincent van Gogh (Dutch Painter, one of the greatest of the Post-Impressionists, 1853-1890)

Thought of the day - 10th Jan 2008

Only when we are no longer afraid do we begin to live.
-Dorothy Thompson

Thought of the day - 9th January 2008

"The best time to plant a seed and grow a tree was 20 years ago; the second best time is now."
- Chinese Proverb

Thought of the day - 8th Jan 2008

He who deliberates fully before taking a step will spend his entire life on one leg.
- Chinese proverb

Cooking up something new

Would you believe I never learned to cook? Culture being what it is in India, boys are not obliged to learn to cook, and believe you me, I had no interest in learning to cook in the time I could go out and play in the street! :-)

So, long story short, when I got a chance to go work in the US, I took it, but soon found out that the US of A is not very kind to strange foreigners who have chosen to be, stupidly it seems, vegetarian. Since I was working for an Indian company, hence getting money enough to buy food but not 30 days in a month in a restaurant (Indian restaurants are really pricey, it seems all over the world.), the next option was ...you guessed it, cook!

Don't be silly, if I can't afford to eat out how can I afford to employ a cook? I meant cook not as in noun but as in verb..cook for myself. So, that's how I started to learn to cook, willy-nilly as one would say, cook or starve kind of situation. Still being the lazyass I am and a computeraddict on top of that, I spent over a year in US, cooking, on an average, about 3 times a week. Rest of time there were other options like microwaveable pizza or french fries.

Cut to 2006. I moved to UK. And immediately found out the brand names for readymade, microwaveable pizza. I spent about 6 months, on that pizza, rarely making pulao when the mood struck me but otherwise spending more time in front of the computer than the stove.

But then, I made a trip home, (you know about that right, last March?), and Indians express their love and affection through food. So, not only my mom was making my favorite dishes but cousin sisters, friend's wives trying to fill the void for Indian food created in 6 months, in 10 days.

The result was that as soon as I got back and tasted the readymade pizza again, I was like, "Wha...! You must be kidding me?! This is horrible!!". Well, I simply had to start cooking and I did, courtesy of the British stores that carry quite a good variety of Indian spices, cooking sauces, pickles and even real Basmati rice.

Cut to now. Recently I have started "enjoying" the cooking. No, I never had that attitude that cooking is women's job, but I did consider it something akin to magic that they could make such delicious food and seemingly so easily. I had started to learn by trying to make aloo-paranthas (hmmm, how to explain that, well, round items, like roti, but stuffed with mashed potatoes that have spices also mashed in. Does that help?). They used to be my favorite item, (ate a lot in Frankfurt) and I could make them even before I left India. But even if it was man's job or woman's job, it was not my job. I was mystified by how can someone cook. I know it doesn't stand to logic, maybe like a person who can ride a bicycle can never understand why someone else can't. Believe me I burnt rice so many times in US, I had a name for it.

From magic it turned to work, a chore to performed in order to eat.
But now, with the help of the British stores and their wonderful Indian-imported cooking sauces, I can make food that makes at least my mouth water. And I can eat it without having to stretch a point that it's my own work of art so I have to eat it. Now, I have started experimenting a bit, no, not to invent new dishes, just to try and make the dishes I have not tried yet. Nothing fancy, or even difficult, even a housewife will sniff at me calling that an experiment, but things that used to mystify me. Like recently I made peas n' potatoes, another one of my favorite dishes.

Moral of the story is that I have come to the conclusion that everybody, and by that I mean every boy, should learn how to cook. It is a wonderful ...sport? activity? skill? pastime?..??...and being able to feed yourself, adds a very important part in your personality. I am a little sorry, very little because I don't believe in wasting time being sorry about things that have already happened, that I did not start learning to cook before, but I am also very happy that I have started! My next plan is to make 'kheer', a dessert made of milk. Not difficult, but very delicious! Why is it a target? Because I am still a lazyass and making that will mean cooking another item on top of the usual dinner that I cook every day now! :-)

Thought of the day - 7th Jan 2008

“Daring ideas are like chessmen moved forward. They may be beaten, but they may start a winning game.”
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (German Playwright, Poet, Novelist and Dramatist. 1749-1832)

Thought of the day - 4th Jan 2008

“Take time to deliberate; but when the time for action arrives, stop thinking and go in.”
- Napoleon Bonaparte

Thought of the day - 3rd Jan 2008

I can give you a six-word formula for success: Think things through, then follow through.
- Captain Edward V. Rickenbacker