Pursuit of Happiness

No this is not about a movie with the same name. This entry is about the actual pursuit of Happiness.
Remember your childhood days. I believe everyone cherishes their childhood days. It would be a very rare grown up to find who doesn't speak about there childhood fondly. Or who doesn't reminisce about those days and say "Those were the days..."
Yes.. That is because that part of our life is one in which we remember ourselves to be genuinely happy.
Then again the college life too is remembered by most to be the golden days of their life. And once again we remember how we used to enjoy the college days.
But what happened after that.. We were happy in the college.. So that means something must have happened after that.. Yes, after that we went on to have a job.
After that we forgot how to make friends. After that we forgot how to enjoy life.
A 5Rs. ice cream was looked forward to in the childhood days. Having a party with all the money in pocket was enjoyed in the college days not even thinking what would happen the next day. But what happened now? Now of all the times. When we can have all the ice creams in the world to our heart's content. When we can have parties everyday. But they don't actually make us happy now. Even though we can very well afford them. But we don't have such friends anymore with whom we used to enjoy. Friends have parted ways. We meet them less and less. We talk to them even lesser. The same friend with whom you shared the class and yet you both had to talk in the evening. The same friend with whom you went to lectures, bunked classes, roamed around in the evening and yet still went on chatting in the night hours in college. Now you feel there's nothing to share with them?? Even though they now know nothing about your days now. Ever wondered why??
During all those years we used to be happy because we did what we wanted to do. While doing something we never paused a second to think on how others would feel like or how stupid would we look doing those things. We used to sing aloud in college irrespective of the people around. What happened now. Now we rarely sing to even ourselves. Leave aside singing aloud.
That, i say, was the key to happiness.No, I'm not talking about singing aloud. I'm talking about doing whatever our heart wants. People today have forgotten that true happiness is not through money. The lavish party we couldn't afford in college has led us to believe that money is needed for happiness. That 5 Rs. ice cream for which we had to ask their parents has also led to the same belief. And now we run after money trying to compensate for those waiting periods. But during this process we have forgotten that we had more fun in the small party held in a single hostel room than we have in the lavish parties we throw now. we forget that the 5 Rs. ice cream tasted a lot better and made us much happier than the few hundreds of rupees worth ice cream bowls we can have these days. While pursuing happiness, how and when the tracks changed and instead of happiness we started pursuing money, no one actually knows. We now spend late hours in the office trying to impress the boss and get a promotion so that we can get more money. But to spend these late hours we take away the time we earlier had for ourselves. For our loved ones. For our friends. For our family. Earlier we used to have a lot of ways to spend time. Now we don't even leave ourselves any time to spend. That on the whole is the difference why even after earning a lot of money and affording all the things the world could offer, we are not happy. And that is why we must change our tracks again and start looking for ways to make ourselves happier instead of richer. I have a lot more to write about, mostly about politics, and this makes me think that the next entry would soon follow. Till, then.. Keep smiling and be happy... :D

Misal Pao

Well... Here i go just to satisfy the strong feeling that has gripped me to write an entry on this.
After reading my previous entry a lot of people must think that i am insane... as in not in the right state of mind. Well.. you are not exactly wrong.... Even i sometimes feel the same.. :)
But as a few of you must have imagined me to be... Let me dispel their misconceptions. No... what you think is not true.... Even i sometimes do enjoy life.... Today was one of those evenings thanks to an awesome performance by Nitesh Pandey, Sudha Chandran, Pooja Ajinkya and a couple of other people to whom i owe a sincere apology because i am not able to remember their name. The play was named Misal Pao- after a famous dish in Mumbai which is like a mixture of a lot of things. The play however was not so.... It was heavily flavored with comedy. The anecdotes and one liners, though very common, were delivered very well to make the audience laugh. I do not think that anyone in audience could have kept a straight face for even a minute during the show. Except of course the ten minute break provided in between. The performance of the actors, except for a slur and a fumble at one occasion each was spotless.

I was especially awed by Sudha Chandran. I had read about her in a very old magazine when i was a kid. The magazine dated around 1986-87 i guess, and had an account and review of a movie "Naache Mayuri" which was inspired by her life in which she herself was in the lead role. The review was not very good though but the story truly was inspiring. What i read was that she lost a leg in an accident. Even after that setback she went on to pursue a career in acting and is also a great dancer. Even today she infact looked the most nimblefooted person on stage and depicted a character around 20 years younger than her perfectly.
All in all it was an awesome performance by everyone and an evening i would remember for long.

Am i me??

As each day passes by i find myself more and more distant to me. No i have not made any error in the last sentence. This is perfectly true. The people who have not talked to me for the last couple of years would remember me as an idiot. As someone who did not care for anything. As someone who did not listen to anyone. As someone who had most idiotic theories of his own. As someone who talked only to talk and most of the times to be laughed at. As someone who never took tension of anything. As someone who didn't care a bit about disturbing anyone. As someone for whom sleep was the top priority and no force on the earth could displace the priority.
But when today i think about how i was and how i am i find a total alien. Yes, I am an idiot today too. But a totally different one. Today's me tries to listen as much as possible and does not talk much apart from a couple of remarks. Today's me gets a maximum of 6-7 hours sleep everyday. Today's me has gone on to become an almost pessimist though i call it a "Tragic Optimist" meaning that he will optimistically believe everything to turn into a tragedy. This me instead of theorizing about idiotic things now thinks everything very seriously and takes tension for something which doesn't even concern himself. Just like the topic it is currently writing an entry for. And a lot of other questions one of which someday eventually i may discuss....

Are we what we think??

One of the questions which always bothers me is: What exactly is our purpose to live? What exactly are we here to do? And are we doing it? And why are we doing what we are doing? And whether something called destiny is present in our lives? If not then why am i in the place i am instead of yours? And if so then who decides the destiny? What bothers me most is this scenario which i frequently imagine. Consider yourself in the position/location u are right now. Now just consider yourself from the eyes of a lizard had it been on the ceiling of the room you are in. Easy... Let me make it more difficult. Move the ceiling a little higher. Or maybe as high as you can imagine. and now look through the lizards eye again. And remember only the ceiling goes high. The walls of the room do not expand.... See how small you've gone. Well we've not reached even half of what we know. Consider the ceiling to be transparent or better if you can imagine your room without the ceiling. Consider an aeroplane which is just flying above your head. And a five year old kid is looking out of his window directly at you. Do you think you are the only thing visible to him? Just try to imagine the perspective of his gaze. Well if you are able to do so let's take a huge leap and land on the moon. The only manmade thing visible from there as they say is Great Wall of China. What happened to you? You are just one of the people whom the astronaut on the moon can't even see. Want to go further?? Your wish... You can go on to the other galaxies and much further and you'll find the worthlessness of yourself. I'm not saying you are worthless. What I'm trying to say is that when i reach such heights i find myself negligible as compared to the huge scenario in front of me. So i wonder. What exactly is my purpose of existence. I already have written an entry on it. But one of the gruesome realizations/question that comes to my mind is that...
From the eyes of the five year old kid in the aeroplane the scenario seems similar to what your eyes see when you look down at a cockroach. I didn't want to use this scenario but this is what exactly comes to my mind. So the people who have problems in coming to terms with this scenario... please do not read any further. And i apologise beforehand if i hurt someone while describing my thoughts any further. How much difference is there between the two scenarios i just mentioned? We are populating as much as i guess with the same speed as the cockroaches are or can. Most of us think that they are making a difference to the society or the world but they actually make the same kind of difference on a larger scale as an intelligent cockroach does by making an artificial leg for a leggicapped cockroach. Most of us just care about our families and relatives and their well being. In fact so do cockroaches. Most of us have just money on their mind(which after a long discussion can be equalised to food) and so do they. Can you imagine whether cockroaches can play football or not? How sure can you be that they do not build football fields hidden from us? Or that they do not have hangouts where they go on special occasions? Of course they will be special to them and not to us. Just like our sports are special to us but not to a lot of other people. And by the way i guess that i think about cockroaches instead of any other insects because i hate them a lot.
Not going into any further details but all this makes me think if i am like a cockroach to someone just like a cockroach is to me.

Why is India so....??? - II

Here I go again from the fourth question: Maman??

Don't we recognise him?? He's everywhere. Just behind the curtain waiting to be found out. He's one of us and sometimes in us. Once again the importance of money for us creeps up. We can do anything and everything for money. Ethics/Relations are nothing in front of money to us as long as those being hurt are not one of our own. So actually this is a simple depiction of "we don't care about others. What we care about is money."

And another part of the same question: "Begging as profession??"

Leave aside the children who are forced to do it. Even the adults who are capable of working go for begging as a profession. Don't believe me?? One of the popular newspapers conducted a survey/interview on beggars in Mumbai. They found out that a most of them had properties worth more than a normal worker in an industry. A few infact owned and rented houses to others as another source of income while they themselves lived in Slums. One of them boasted of coming in a well ironed dress in an auto everyday to his workplace(the place where he sits and begs) where he changes into his work clothes(tatters) and leaves the same way 10 hours later and a few hundreds richer. This is how low we can go for money. Thinking that at least you are not such. Well not exactly. But yet.. no different. How many of us are who wont do something morally wrong if they are assured of no ill consequences and high gains. If you wont then search among the people you know. You'll definitely find a lot.

Another part after the fourth question which comes is: Taj Mahal??

This part I'm sure most of us is familiar with. Even the government is not behind. We charge the foreigners insanely high for most of the things. I don't yet know the logic why the govt. does so except increasing the forex. Yet, even we people never leave a chance to mug them in way of overcharging. Something which the locals can buy at 50 Rupees the foreigners are charges 50$ or more... which when converted turns out to be 2500 Rupees. or a mug profit of 2450. So see the high gain and low risk. We are adept at doing such things. And this is true not only for foreigners but even for people within India. I remember the first time i went to my college which was within my own state, i paid 5 times the rent for an auto rickshaw after i stepped down from the bus. Only because i did not know how far my college was located.

Moving on to the fifth and sixth question: Well.. I've already explained how low people can go for money and how much sense of ownership they have.

Well looks like I've covered all the scenarios from SlumDog in the first four questions. The other questions are just another representation of the things I've already listed.

However as someone mentioned in a comment in my last post:"It is written"

This shows how much we believe in luck/destiny instead of what we actually do. Infact even I, myself believe a lot in it. But actually in a way different than others. I instead of believing what is written for my future try to prove why it was written in my past. And I'll enumerate my findings some other day. The title probably would be "Plain Lucky"

Why is India so....???

This has a simple answer. Because "we" made it so.

Well one can not go back and see the history with one's own eyes. One has to rely upon the literature of that era for the information. But as much as i believe India was always a state, other empires were jealous of. So how did we become from an object of awe to an object of pity. The once "Golden Bird" of the world which foreigners looked upon in awe is now looked upon in pity?? Don't you think so... What does "SlumDog Millionaire" depict. The world thinks that it is true India. We, Indians, say it is not. But have we ever thought why exactly does the world thinks so?? They, of course, must have some basis to think so.

Well.. Here are my views on why the world thinks so. Actually this can also be summed up in one line.
Because most of us really are so.

Well... Looks like you are not able to identify with any of the characters?? Let me help with Slumdog.

The first question... How did Jamal get Amitabh's signature?
Yes.. We are that mad for our celebrities. This is why when a celeb catches cold it makes "Breaking News". This is why everyday outside the celebs Bungalows there's a horde of people waiting just for a view of the celeb. This is why when a celebrity player is left out of the team we have "Bandhs".

Continuing the first question.. What does Salim do of the signature??
Yes.. again we do not have a sense of ownership. Most of us work and care only for money. No matter how they earn it. Don't believe so?? Look at the politicians. Look at a lot of other people who are at the center of the "Power Hub" of India. Most of their assets would not have been present with the salary they declare. Even others are not exempt. If we find something we keep it or use it. We do not normally care to find the owner or return the things to the owner. In simple words we care for ourselves. Yet, if we lose something we shout a lot of abuses( openly or not is another case.. but yes... we do)

Moving on to the second question: The riots??
Do i even need to put in something for us to identify ourselves. If not religion as in the movie, then again we are divided on castes, ethnicity ,locations and now even gender biasing has arrived. We now fight as Hindus vs Muslims irrespective of the fact that the one we are fighting may be our old friend. We now fight as Mumbai vs North Indians. We now fight as caste vs caste in small cities/villages. What i mean to say is that we are always fighting.. irrespective of the reason we get. And if we don't get any reason... then we create one... but we always fight. No one has any sense left that these divisions were created by people in Power so that they remain in Power. And as the religious divisions were not enough, they created castes and are continuing to create newer and newer divides between us just so that we do not have enough power at any time to overthrow them. And these power hungry people; how they are using the power.. I don't think i need to elaborate on that.

Well.. the third question: Jamal didn't know something which even a five year old in India would know??
Check out [V] IQ on channel V. I think it has been renamed to GK. You'll be surprised at the awareness of the college goers in India. Even one of my friend who's preparing for MBA did not remember the name of the current President of India. This is how we are. We do not like to remain in touch of something we do not like. We hate politics.. Yes. So instead of doing something about it we forget about it. How convenient. Don't you think so?? If you think you are in touch of the politics around you just try to remember the names of the MLA's from the seats surrounding your district. These are the people who need to work around us. And we don't even bother to remember their names. Why?? Because we hate politics.

I think I'll continue fourth question onwards some other day... Enough for today...

Nice webcomic site

Here's a nice weblink for a webcomic on life and various irritants.. Chk it out.. It raises some nice issues through humour and satire.
http://www.flyyoufools.com