Humans are disgusting
- The Sloth, Ice Age -1

These days, I have been living in a perpetual space-time conundrum. Don’t get alarmed, I am still on the border where insanity meets language, so no more heavy words.

I have heard this word, space time conundrum, somewhere on Discovery Channel. And since then I’ve been trying to find out what it means. Yeah, I know google exists, but there is more fun in knowing words and attaching your own meanings to them. So I made one for space time conundrum.

It means ” A person exists in a space time conundrum when (s)he has no idea of how much time (s)he has spent in a particluar space(place), or has lost a sense of location and direction”.

The next experiment to try out was, of course, to get lost in it myself. Though I perpetually live in a state where my mind handles several varied thoughts at one time, this was challenging, I thought. To be lost so much that there is no sense of time.

Needless to say, I managed to enter the state. Where time had no meaning, I was lost.

And that is when I felt my past, my present and my future come to me at once, and remind me that getting out of time is really a tough thing to do. I was out of it as soon as I got in.

Every event in a person’s life has a profound impact. Everything that a person does has a ripple effect on many other lives around him, lives of people he might know and people he might not. I tend to agree with the philosophers who say that God is to be found within yourself.

If my actions have a profound impact on even one more life, doesn’t it go to say I have an element of God in me? And the same hold for everyone in the world.

So the next time you do something, just think. Anything you do will affect another life. Your anger can cause a lot of pain to someone, your haste can ruin other lives….your attitudes and opinions can ruin a life…

Be rational, be practical, be positive…and remember….God is good as long as you are…coz God is you….

and you are God…in ways small….yet you are….

Two posts in just as many days is too much by my standards, but I can’t stop myself from posting this beautiful song, that I am listening to..and means a lot…

artist: Lobo
title: I’m Glad I’ve Got Someone (Who Loves Me Like That)
album: Sometimes

She wants to know where I am all the time,
Who I talk to what I do
When I’m away she calls on the phone,
You’d think she’s checking up on me
She says she just wants to hear my voice
And make sure I’m ok

I’m glad I’ve got someone
Who love’s me like that
Someone who always misses me
And just can’t wait till I get back
She can’t love me too much…
I just can’t get enough
I’m glad I’ve got someone…
Who love’s me like that

I’ll have a day at work
When everything has gone wrong,
I want to spend some time alone
Out on the freeway
Feeling sorry for myself,
I hear the ring of the car phone
She says “Hey baby how’s it going
Are you on your way home?”

Find this song, and listen to it…it’s really worth it!

It is always difficult to write a post when I have a lot going around in my mind. Everything wants to be put down as a statement, and yet there has to be a coherence, a meaning in what is written. or should there be one? I don’t know, so here goes.

I’ve been wondering about time. Time, that is the catalyst for change, that keeps changing even if everything else wants to remain the same…and once time has changed, it catalyses change. From a purely analytical point of view, time keeps moving because the earth keeps spinning on its axis, and around the sun. Most philosophers will cringe at such a dry explanation of time. But this is the disadvantage of being an engineer, you develop an ability to view everything in a terribly analytical fashion. Yet, however analytical I get about time, I cannot stop it. Or even so, make it go back.

There is only one shot you get at life, they say. Some believe you are re incarnated, and thus will get another shot at life. Hindu mythology believes that the human form is achieved after a soul goes through 64 thousand different life forms(called yonis). Many believe that the human soul is destined for heaven, or hell, based on what you have done on earth. I don’t subscribe to this view. In my opinion, all payback happens in the same very life that you are living, no balance is carried forward.

So where am I trying to get to with all this heavy philosophical babble. Actually, I don’t know. And even if I were to know, whats the point? So let me get back to the topic at hand..

So time keeps moving, and pulls life ahead with it. Our actions of today become memories of tomorrow, and might even be forgotten the day after. Tomorrow is just a day away from being today. In the big picture, the sun is going to explode and annhilate this planet forever. But I am not going to live for that long, am I? So let me not worry about the tomorrow that I am never going to see. But in a smaller picture, I see people ravaged by hunger, countries ravaged by fighting, children crippled by landmines, the polar ice caps melting, wars, tears, pain, anger….

The way we are going today, I don;t think we need the sun to wipe out our planet. We look like we’ll self-destruct.

Is there a solution? of course there is, everybody knows it. But nobody will implement it. Inflated egos need to be maintained, world supremacy and dominance must be held…who cares if thousands are murdered in the name of protecting freedom. Who is the terrorist? Why do we focus on bringing these “terrorists” out of their holes and killing them? Why do we kill in the name of God? Why don’t we try to help people to leave their weapons? Why don’t we ignore those selfish leaders who interpret holy words of peace in their favour and start off wars, killing innocent people?

Why do we forget that all we have in life are a few spins, and a few turns…before we log out? Pretty ironic…isn’t it?

There are times..when all you can speak is less, and you end up thinking…

“Man, There’s so much to say, and so little time”

And yet, there are times, when you try to speak, but fall short of words..

Shortage of vocabulary is not a reason on these days, just that life overwhelms you so much so that you lose all words..

and then…there is silence….

but can silence last forever…can the unspoken words be heard…be understood…

Human life starts with a loud noise…of the baby crying when it is brought out of its safe hiding place..into the cruel world..

And at the end of it…we are so overwhelmed..that its always silent…

loss of words…loss of emotions…loss of feelings…loss of all dreams…desires..expectations….

and yet…without the eternal hunt of glory that man spends his life in…

he finds peace..in silence….

UPDATE: 20 Oct 06 : Coherent Rambling wishes you and your family a very Happy & Prosperous Diwali…This year, celebrate diwali with joy, and do something for a needy person. Your diwali will be good, so bring some light and joy in another life. God Bless You all!

On Saturday, I had gone to see Lagy Raho Munnabhai (finally). And the movie, in addition to leaving me impressed, left a lot of random strings of thought, and questions in my mind. Let me try to share them.

The movie, on a broad front, tackles two issues. One is the fast fading principles of Gandhi. It seems that the only memory of bapu is left(as very correctly said in the movie) on all those MG roads, on our currenct notes, on those Gandhi Parks…and on 2nd October, that is spoon fed into our memories along with 15 August and 26 january, as a national holiday. Gandhi jayanti…it is called. But how many of us actually ask why is it a national holiday?

Bapu is everywhere, but in our hearts. We have forgotten his principles, his way of life, his teachings. I had many a friends in college, who used to hate Gandhiji coz he moved around with two young ladies. What they never saw was that bapu tested his self-control by being with two women, yet not being attracted to them.

There used to be an ad-film, that was aired on Doordarshan a long time ago. It said ” The greatness of this man is his simplicity. ” And yet we are nothing but simple today.

The movie highlighted one of Gandhi’s favourite ways of protest, the satyagraha. A peaceful, non-violent way of protesting for your rights. And it does need a lot of guts, and willpower not to slap back when you are slapped. But does our generation believe in non-violence? No. We proudly call ourselves the RTB generation, where we do not believe in the power of non-violent protest. Or putting it in another way, we do not have enough patience to wait..wait for the result of our non-violent protest. The truthful path is always long, full of thorns, but victory is guaranteed. The path of violence, anger is always short..maybe you can win a battle or two, but you will always lose the war.

Will Lagey Raho….change our way of thinking? As much positive I want to be, I know that it will not. Because we have evolved into a very impatient generation. We want everything to happen quickly, waiting is a word not in our dictionary. And why should we wait, what are we going to get by waiting, is anyone ever going to listen? No…let us not wait, let us pick that brick, and throw it…whether the target is the police, or the house of our VC, or our own college for that matter. Why should we care?

Confused? No I am not changing the direction of my post. I am simply including those arguments that will come up against it. The question I ask is, why does no one listen? Not because they don;t want to, simply because they know that people will shout, take a protest march, make up for two minutes on the news and a day long breaking news on the ticker…and then fade away. They will listen if they are met with a bunch of protesters, who march non-violently, bearing the brunt of water cannons..but not giving up…day after day after day….

Let us accept it, we lack patience. When it be standing in a line outside the ATM when an old man is taking his time to withdraw money, we curse under our breath, but none of us volunteer to go in and help him out. When it be waiting in front of a red light( if we have stopped for it), we keep honking away to glory…You can just think of the last week in your life, and you’ll realize how impatient you as a person have become.

This was one. The other topic, that this movie very subtely addresses, is our faith on astrolgy, astrologers and horoscopes. We will not accept that we didn’t work hard enough in the office to get that promotion, but we will blame it on mars, venus or jupiter. How convenient. We will enforce irrationalities, taboos…things like being a manglik, or not being one. We will conveniently blame the planets and stars for all our problems, and think that adding that extra k will solve all our troubles.

Every day has a night. There are good times in life, and there are bad times. There always will be bad times. How do you expect me to appreciate light if I never know wat darkness is?

And yet, we believe in all this non-scientific mumbo jumbo. We believe that Ganesha idols can drink milk. We believe that wearing a gold ring with a pukhraj stone will bring us good luck.

What we don’t believe is, that truth, hardwork, determination are the only ways to succeed.

Can Lagey Raho…change the way we think? The way we act? Can it make us more rational, more patient and more determined people?

I have tried my bit to spread the word. Now I’ll request you, to spread the word, not only to others, but to yourself too. And as a mode of feedback, please let me know by commenting here how do you plan to do it. You can be completely anonymous…all I want is for you to write your committment down, and be firm on it.

I alone can’t make a big change to things around me, but I can change myself. Can you?

Just when you think that today’s students know nothing but violence to get their voice heard, a refreshing movie comes by. No, I am not referring to lagey Raho Munnabhai, but I am referring to a little known movie called Amazing Grace & Chuck. Let me tell you its story..

In this small town of US, there lives a kid named chuck. He’s the star pitcher of his baseball team, and his dad is a fighter pilot. One day, students from his school are taken to a trip of a nuclear missile silo..where chuck comes to know the killer power of nuclear missiles, when the scientist tells him ” Imagine your sister dropping a spoon in the kitchen.If one of these missiles happens to land in a 30 mile radius, your sister will be vaporised before the spoon hits the ground”

This has a huge effect on chuck, who refuses to play in the little league match of his team. slowly, a major league baseball star listens to this, and teams up with chuck. Now chuck goes silent, vowing to talk only when all nuclear weapons are dismantled. subsequently, this catches on, and children all around the globe go silent.

Many twists and turns later, the movie has a happy ending, with both US & Russia dismantling their nukes, and the kids of the world talking again.

Now this could be a great work of fiction, but will it work in real life? I guess it will…a civil disobedience movement was launched by the father of our nation, that was absolutely non-violent..and yet it succeeded.

Violence always creates more violence. Hatred creates more hatred…

The world certainly needs neither of these. It needs love, compassion, non-violence…

Please remember, it is always easy to slap someone…but it is tougher to hold back..and even tougher to present your other cheek.

Whatever our civilization may be, whatever culture or religion we might belong to…we must remember that violence is not a reply to violence.

True salvation is always in forgiveness…in compassion…in peace…and in love.

Let us all make this world a better place to live in.

The author pays his homage to the countless victims of terrorist strikes across the world, on a day that has now been embossed in our memories as the worst day ever in the history of humankind. May all those souls rest in peace

Hello good people…

I am back after a long time..and for all those of you guessing as to where I was, well I have a good news for you.

I have switched jobs..and today is my 3rd day in my new job..it feels good…the people are nice….but there’s always the old friends left behind…

well life, in its own ways, does move forward…and i guess its better to flow in the current rather than put up a fight against it…

though there are times when a fight becomes necessary..and that is when the saying goes…

when the going gets tough, the tough get going!!

i’ll end the post on this note..but from now on, it;ll be regular updating from me…

ciao

Well I am making it sound technical, but that is what it’s gonna be for some days. I will be off blogging, and also blog hopping for a good part of the coming month.

Although I’ll be making my best efforts to return to blogging as fast as I can, it could still be some time.

The reasons for this break, well if I tell them now, what would I write when I am back? So keep guessing…

ciao