Well... Two totally unrelated topics in my mind today... Actually there are a lot(as usual) but putting down only two... One because it is a hot topic... and the other... hmm... because i want to...
First.. Sachin scored a double century in ODI's today... In process he became the first man on earth to do so in One-Day Internationals... Absolutely true and i'm happy for him... Infact I feel proud that it's Indian who did so... But News Channels once again have started touting him as God and are telling people that he's the first person on earth to do so... And I'm thinking... Why is it so...
Is it so because they dont research history properly... Or is it so because nobody follows Women's Cricket... Or is it that Women's ODIs are not actually counted as ODIs?? Dunno...
Somehow i still remember the couple of paragraphs of the Hindi newspaper when i was a mere 13 year old... But no one else seems to remember... In a very obscure corner of the newspaper it was written that Australian Women had defeated Denmark by a huge margin. The Australian Captain lead from the front scoring a double hundred (229*) off 155 balls... In process Australia became the first country to score a 400+ score in an ODI and an Australian slammed the first double ton in an ODI.. Today no one remembers her... Did anyone actually know that...
Her name is Belinda Clark... and her feat was no less... But when i think about both the feats....
She got a mere mention in one of the two paragraphs in which the news was covered. Sachin, on the other hand, would be on all newspapers' front pages tomorrow... and i'm not sure if even the newspapers would do the homework properly...
Why the difference?? Why the bias??
By the way another important part of the story is that Belinda slammed the double ton in Mumbai, India in a world cup match... still a mere two paragraphs... Sad!!! Somehow I feel sad... Even when I should feel happy because one of my countryman has created a world record...
Whatever!!!
The other topic needs to wait for now...
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
The big wide generation gap...
Got off a call just now with my parents. And i feel like there's huge gap between their and my understanding. I feel like there's a huge difference in their and my viewpoint. Even on the points on which we agree.
I never have understood why parents feel as if the children can never grow up. They can never take care of themselves. I'm lucky in the sense that atleast my parents do understand this to a larger extent than a lot of other people i've seen. But now as i've crossed adolescence and am into adulthood, though still being a child at heart, i'm beginning to understand the reason behind this. When i go to my elder bro or sis's and try to interact with my nieces and nephews or even younger cousins and sisters i feel as if i am out of place while talking to them. As if my world and their world is totally different. And amazingly it seems almost the same as when i talk to a very elderly person. Only the places change. In the latter case i feel as if the other person is ignorant of new things and in case of former i am the ignorant one. This I believe is what they call generation gap. And the way I understand why this happens is that whenever we talk to someone younger we remember ourselves at that age and try to talk about things we used to do at that age. And in all this we forget the most basic aspect of this world. CHANGE!!! As we grow up the world changes. As we grow up the circumstances surrounding a child changes. For me a mall or a fast food joint was ike a dreamland 10-12 years ago. But for the younger generation it's a frequent hangout. That's the difference. While we all are busy in our jobs the world outside our office changes a lot. A couple of years ago an iPod used to generate a lot of excitement. Now it's just another commodity. My grandpa used to tell me that when he was young he used to get 1 paisa as pocket money. Now it has changed to 100Rs. Similarly has the world changed. But if i look from my grandpa's perspective 100Rs. is still a very big amount. I'm not sure where this is leading to. I'm not even sure why i'm writing this down. Maybe because of the same reason i do everything else. Because i feel like it. And already i'm feeling better. Much better. Well I just hope that I dont forget when it's my turn to face the generation gap. Any comments are most welcome. Because i still am very confused on all this. :s
I never have understood why parents feel as if the children can never grow up. They can never take care of themselves. I'm lucky in the sense that atleast my parents do understand this to a larger extent than a lot of other people i've seen. But now as i've crossed adolescence and am into adulthood, though still being a child at heart, i'm beginning to understand the reason behind this. When i go to my elder bro or sis's and try to interact with my nieces and nephews or even younger cousins and sisters i feel as if i am out of place while talking to them. As if my world and their world is totally different. And amazingly it seems almost the same as when i talk to a very elderly person. Only the places change. In the latter case i feel as if the other person is ignorant of new things and in case of former i am the ignorant one. This I believe is what they call generation gap. And the way I understand why this happens is that whenever we talk to someone younger we remember ourselves at that age and try to talk about things we used to do at that age. And in all this we forget the most basic aspect of this world. CHANGE!!! As we grow up the world changes. As we grow up the circumstances surrounding a child changes. For me a mall or a fast food joint was ike a dreamland 10-12 years ago. But for the younger generation it's a frequent hangout. That's the difference. While we all are busy in our jobs the world outside our office changes a lot. A couple of years ago an iPod used to generate a lot of excitement. Now it's just another commodity. My grandpa used to tell me that when he was young he used to get 1 paisa as pocket money. Now it has changed to 100Rs. Similarly has the world changed. But if i look from my grandpa's perspective 100Rs. is still a very big amount. I'm not sure where this is leading to. I'm not even sure why i'm writing this down. Maybe because of the same reason i do everything else. Because i feel like it. And already i'm feeling better. Much better. Well I just hope that I dont forget when it's my turn to face the generation gap. Any comments are most welcome. Because i still am very confused on all this. :s
Thursday, November 26, 2009
Happiness..??
Well, talking to one of my friends just started another thought chain on happiness. She is not very happy in her present condition and so i got thinking how much can the conditions affect us. No, i know that the environment around us, the people around us, have a bearing effect on us. But the question that crept into my mind was... Can they do that without our consent???
Yesterday i was reading The Gathering Storm by late Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson. It's Book 12 of the Wheel of Time Series by Robert Jordan. There RJ has described a whole world of his own. So a woman from one part of the world called Aviendha was wondering about the culture of another part of the world. Let me quote the line from the book: "After some contemplation she had determined that being a wetlander required one common attribute: A fondness for complaining." Wetlander in this case is a person from the continent Aviendha was visiting. But this line struck me. A fondness for complaining. And i remembered... For so long i have not seen a person who doesn't complain. And this includes me. I complain about not being with my family because of the job and so i hate the job. But i forget that the decision to join this job was taken by me. I complain about the company not giving enough compensation to me. And yet I forget that the decision was mine. I complain that my current project doesn't have much work. Yet the decision was mine to join the project. And so on... Similarly if someone complains that they don't get time from their jobs. I would like to remind them that the decision to complete their work by a specified deadline is their own. Or their superiors but if they blame their superiors then they should remember that they always have an option of telling the superiors that it would take more time than the time assigned. Most of this is true for the IT people only. Let me take it global. We complain about the heat. But what are we doing to reduce it. Now that electric cars are here. How many of us actually use them?? we still think about petrol/diesel vehicles when we go for buying one. I see a lot of public vehicles going empty and yet there would be a lot of personal vehicles on the road. Then again.... Car pooling... and yet when i try to flag down an absolutely empty car, it doesn't stop. No, I'm not blaming it on you. Maybe even i would do the same. But then again, saving electricity too helps reducing the global temperature. And yet my friends sleep with their AC turned on even in this month, when a fan seems more than enough. Then again we complain about poverty... we complain about less jobs, we complain about inflation. But that's due to us. When the government asks us to have no more than two kids. We laugh at them. Even though it's simple math. If a couple has 2 kids and so on, the population would remain the same. If a couple has only a single kid, the the population would reduce. I saw this movie "Idiocracy" a long time ago. The theme was that world's smartest people in order to control the population and due to other stress have lesser children than the dumbest of people. for eg. a couple whose average IQ is over 140 have only one kid because they care for the world while another couple with an average IQ of less than 80 have 10 children coz this way they get 10 more people to earn in family. It's true in current scenario. In the movie this led to a gradual decline in the average IQ of human population. Dunno if it's practical in the real world too. Nyways whatever!!! I'm diverging from the topic of happiness. That's fondness of complaining. Fondness for blaming others. Nyways basically i wanted to express that one can not be unhappy unless one wants to be. But I'll continue it some other day. Hopefully in near future. Till then... Idios.... :p
Yesterday i was reading The Gathering Storm by late Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson. It's Book 12 of the Wheel of Time Series by Robert Jordan. There RJ has described a whole world of his own. So a woman from one part of the world called Aviendha was wondering about the culture of another part of the world. Let me quote the line from the book: "After some contemplation she had determined that being a wetlander required one common attribute: A fondness for complaining." Wetlander in this case is a person from the continent Aviendha was visiting. But this line struck me. A fondness for complaining. And i remembered... For so long i have not seen a person who doesn't complain. And this includes me. I complain about not being with my family because of the job and so i hate the job. But i forget that the decision to join this job was taken by me. I complain about the company not giving enough compensation to me. And yet I forget that the decision was mine. I complain that my current project doesn't have much work. Yet the decision was mine to join the project. And so on... Similarly if someone complains that they don't get time from their jobs. I would like to remind them that the decision to complete their work by a specified deadline is their own. Or their superiors but if they blame their superiors then they should remember that they always have an option of telling the superiors that it would take more time than the time assigned. Most of this is true for the IT people only. Let me take it global. We complain about the heat. But what are we doing to reduce it. Now that electric cars are here. How many of us actually use them?? we still think about petrol/diesel vehicles when we go for buying one. I see a lot of public vehicles going empty and yet there would be a lot of personal vehicles on the road. Then again.... Car pooling... and yet when i try to flag down an absolutely empty car, it doesn't stop. No, I'm not blaming it on you. Maybe even i would do the same. But then again, saving electricity too helps reducing the global temperature. And yet my friends sleep with their AC turned on even in this month, when a fan seems more than enough. Then again we complain about poverty... we complain about less jobs, we complain about inflation. But that's due to us. When the government asks us to have no more than two kids. We laugh at them. Even though it's simple math. If a couple has 2 kids and so on, the population would remain the same. If a couple has only a single kid, the the population would reduce. I saw this movie "Idiocracy" a long time ago. The theme was that world's smartest people in order to control the population and due to other stress have lesser children than the dumbest of people. for eg. a couple whose average IQ is over 140 have only one kid because they care for the world while another couple with an average IQ of less than 80 have 10 children coz this way they get 10 more people to earn in family. It's true in current scenario. In the movie this led to a gradual decline in the average IQ of human population. Dunno if it's practical in the real world too. Nyways whatever!!! I'm diverging from the topic of happiness. That's fondness of complaining. Fondness for blaming others. Nyways basically i wanted to express that one can not be unhappy unless one wants to be. But I'll continue it some other day. Hopefully in near future. Till then... Idios.... :p
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
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
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
Saturday, April 18, 2009
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.
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.
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
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....
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....
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
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.
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.
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