Dimensions of LIFE

Are all things ‘real’ 3-dimensional or 2-dimensional ??? 3-dimensional of course… isn’t it?

Everything ‘real’ is thought of in terms of a trio of dimensions, the inseparable 3 idiots – length, breadth and depth. The closer a depiction(of any creative sort) comes to being 3-dimensional, the closer it comes to LIFE. Perhaps a glimpse of the much hyped James Cameron’s Avatar would go a long way in illustrating this very fact.

With the advent of progressively progressive technologies, the unreal is having a tryst with the real, progressively trying to overtake the latter. What about Android technnology being looked forward to by technology geeks in the just arrived decade or the virtual world having a greater say in human lives than the real one. Technology is strenuously being advanced to achieve what nature achieves with a heady mix of great ease and complexity. DNA refactoring, human intelligence replication machines, voice,smell,touch simulation, prosthetic limbs, testtube babies…

Ironically, life itself seems to be on a rewind track; curling its third dimension up like a touch me not; as a measure to protect and adapt itself in the changing kaleidoscopic world lest shall it be stamped an orthodox, a nonprogressive, unbecoming. With advancing technology, life is morphing into a size zero, sacrificing its depth, transforming into a flimsy sheet – birth certificate, degree certificate, offer letter, promotion letter, will paper, death certificate, a hanging photograph – the entire being trapped into a frame of two dimensions. Then how could life possibly be 3-dimensional?

Everyone’s life has invariably been reduced to the twin dimensions of the dialectic between being and becoming. The green offshoots in any other dimension are ruthlessly pruned off. Life has been reduced to a thin gossamer fabric, with the superficial length and breadth but lacking that so very needful depth, heavily relying on the thick satin cloth underneath for its beauty to be manifested and admired by the onlookers. Material goals and ambitions need to be built upon a strong moral and human foundation. Mother Teresa, Nelson Mandela, Bill and Melinda Gates foundation, Bill and Hillary Clinton foundation – the satin cloth of the society. Churning the thin fabric by the tons isn’t enough, the satin cloth is equally important. Then again, just saying this isn’t enough, it has to be DONE. But how?

I wonder if personal formidable power helps provide that thickness to our thin fabric transforming it into the thick satin cloth, strong and shining. Hmmm… Formidable power riding on the back of the flimsy greenback. Symbiosis, one feeds the other and the other feeds it back. As long as the feedback continues, we are good to go. So, don’t worry, be happy !!!

Prevailing Landscape

Swaying along the way,
Making one’s hey day,

Its hypocrisy on the run,
Here, do not miss the pun,

Morality completely choked,
Sycophancy rewardingly stoked,

Is this what lay ahead,
Our ethics for us to shed,

Definitely a picture utterly negative,
Might help, realization of the positive,

It seems we have hit the bottom,
From where we can but only blossom

Gazing outward, ‘looking’ inward !

It is said that man has tremendous potential. Seems absolutely true taking into account the histrionics of feelings and emotions that our minds experience throughout an entire lifetime. Could the relentless thought process – conscious or subconscious – extending from birth to death, may be even further, be sustained without potential, qualified by the extreme? Makes one wonder why a person can’t live beyond ten seconds in the absence of oxygen in the brain, in the absence of thoughts. Food for thought???

The mind seems akin to a prism with the scattered dewy thoughts being the occupants of the spectrum. We constantly gaze at dear life through our own tainted glass. A slight change in alignment, a trigger of the mind, a surge of a thought wave and the entire picture transforms. The same situation, ground reality at times rears negativity while at others breeds positivity in terms of will power, determination and so on. It all depends upon the frame of the mind at that moment. Matches your wavelength???

A serendipitous alignment, a sweet accidental orientation of the prism, the dawn of a new depth of thought, the origin of philosophy – not a discovery of new realities but novel perspectives. There are diverse provocations among various people that whip up their philosophical cream, which has a distinct corner of the mind all to itself.

One such inspiration that shifted the gears of Akshata’s brain and creaked her philosophical muscle into motion was, staring out the window of her room. While rolling through her engineering studies she would religiously extract sometime to have a date with the window as a daily ritual. Her hostel room on the second floor in the second year of her college had been the best; offering a panoramic view of a vast campus playground at the centre, neatly framed with the adjoining road with its graceful curvature and the portion of the city beyond. The shades of the sun would paint the scene in its own hues, sometimes bathing it with the morning freshness and at others embellishing it with the majesty and peace of the night. The twinkling street lights would highlight the flowing curve of the street like a princess’s necklace, if not a Queen’s (that’s the monopoly of only one!). The jungle – green and concrete – could be seen near and far. She would in a trance keep gazing through her beloved window immersed in the peaceful darkness of the night, transgressing the threshold of minutes to hours, touched by the poignancy which her act evoked. The physical expanse perhaps would assist her mind and heart to spread the wings and soar high to an elevated plane of consciousness thus dwarfing her worldly predicaments to a size insignificant enough to abruptly stop worrying about.

As the year drew to an end, departure from her room was a pain. Yet, she had to move on; having emblazoned the window and its magical conjuring of thought provoking images on her memory but alas not the photographic plate of a camera. Ahhhh…

In the journey of life, flowers of new experiences blossom to eventually wither out during the fall, bleeding the heart. Nonetheless, the cycle continues and spring brings in its wake yet new shoots to be welcomed and caressed. This play of birth morphs the sadness of the heart into nostalgia, a bitter-sweet lingering memory, thus continuing the journey forward. Akshata’s window gazing had been replaced with her visits to the terrace. After all, something’s better than nothing. However, she missed peeping through her cosy little recess at the infinite wilderness beyond, a paradox pregnant with thoughtfulness.

College gave way to professional life. She turned busier and the time for poignant reflection was devoured up in the pursuit of the mirage of the ever alluding success. Along the course, she happened to move into a house at the fifth floor of an apartment. Yet again, the setting of her room was punctuated with a little window that opened to a divine vista; a string of misty hills at a far distance, a colony of thatched roofs on the sloppy land nearer, blocks of houses with patches of green all over the landscape.

The view is wider than the earlier, perhaps by virtue of elevation from the second to the fifth floor. She has come a long way from the second year of engineering to the fourth year of her professional career. The window has grown smaller but the aspect wider. One wonders if it is an indication to widen one’s vision, open one’s mind, elevate one’s goal, slip through the contracting aperture of positivity among the myriad difficulties of life, spread one’s wings and soar high above the petty considerations of material success in the pursuit of not pleasure but happiness!!!

The first shower!

By the hordes, the revitalizing droplets arrive,
Only to find that over the muddy puddles we sigh

The play of creation on green offshoots,
But about the insects & worms we moot

Chitter chattering birdies in their abode delight,
Alas! We turn a blind eye to the heavenly sight!

The celebration of life,
Why butcher with a knife?

Come, let us put the worldly ills to rest,
Together, let us live life with zest!

The first shower!

By the hordes, the revitalizing droplets arrive,
Only to find that over the muddy puddles we sigh

The play of creation on green offshoots,
But about the insects & worms we moot

Chitter chattering birdies in their abode delight,
Alas! We turn a blind eye to the heavenly sight!

The celebration of life,
Why butcher with a knife?

Come, let us put the worldly ills to rest,
Together, let us live life with zest!

A unit of life – a day and a night!

A battlefield of work, duties and responsibilities, witnessing the typical modern homo sapien sapien at the peak of his energy, flexing his muscles, mental more than physical, stretching himself to the limits. Meet the new age Atlases carrying the weight of the heavens on their shoulders – the cliched reality all around us. But delve a bit deeper and there emerges a pattern in even the daily humdrum of life.

The day seems to have an intrinsic characteristic quite similar to the rising crest and falling trough of a wave. We get up early in the morning with a ‘hang over’ of the pending to-dos and conjure up fresh new ones too. Slowly but surely, the climactic drama unfolds. The peak of performance. The high gear notwithstanding, equally slowly and surely it recedes away like a tide leaving the shells of a day’s experiences and bitter-sweet memories along the shoreline. The setting sun paints a crimson hue on the outspread sky and golden streaks on the wide sea embellishing twilight like a new Indian bride. The evening comes as a gust of cool wind in a sweltering hot summer. The strain eases a bit and the to-dos are supplanted with the what-to-dos. A horde pops up at chaupati, the ever mushrooming malls, cinema theatres, coffee shops. In a melting transition, the light fades and darkness sets in. Peace trails in the wake of the dark. The twinkling stars, the bulb-like moon, the whistling trees and the whispering sea. No doubt lady night has seduced a preponderance of poets, now me too… The darker the hour, the deeper the feeling. The soothing silence seems to speak volumes. A crack of a creative thought, a split second of enlightenment. If only the treasure trove could be mummified and preserved till the crack of dawn. The first ray of the sun vaporizes the magical illusion of the night. The resting Atlas resumes his job. Ahhhh so eagerly I wait for the night to arrive again. The whistling tree, the whispering sea, the sleeping me!

To be or not to be ! That is the question…

The bee which buzzes relentlessly and sits on your nose forcing you to take notice of it in the spring time (read exam time) is christened competition. Competition is the catch phrase which has creeped into almost every sphere of our mechanized lives, so much so that it has donned the veil of an axiom, an obvious truth beyond any derivation, explanation, justification… an eternal truth. It just exists… beyond the influence of us, the insignificant mortals. A student burning the midnight oil, an advertising guru packaging a ’stress’-relieving product, a meditation guru peddling the traditional methods of ayurveda of ‘the lost world’ may sound like disjunct sets but there is a fine string sewing all of them together. Bingo.. you guessed it just right!

However axiomatic it seems, an axiom it is not. A lil bit of contemplation would lift the veil and bring out the truth. While floundering in the dark and dingy caves of contemplation I stumbled upon an El Dorado of questions, to answer my way to enlightenment. First of all, is the competitive spirit an INDISPENSIBLE part of the spirit within, indispensible to the survival of the spirit in this mortal world? Is it constructive or destructive? Whom to direct this arrow at? Should we focus on getting rid of it altogether or should we strive to tame it? I wonder if these questions are answers in themselves…

Inspite of all the contemplation, perhaps the obstinacy of the hormones will prevail at the twitch of the connections of the nerves and the swings of the mood. Ohh I wonder, isn’t this contemplation a result of the hormonal game as well? Hmmm… it might itself be a completely abstract falsification in ‘reality’ as well… The bottomline… Do not contemplate, you never know what you are so bothered about is infact such a crucial issue. Just let the pendulum of competiton swing according to the whims of the nerves, just do not let competition get on your nerves. Wishing you a happy ride on the back of the ‘nervous’ horse, nervous due to the nerves or the exam, how does it matter as long as it wins the race!

After-life !!!

For money, name and fame,
only, are we today game

Squelching through materialism,
We barely remember the eternal truism

We will reign on for eons, so we feel,
By avoiding, the truth we conceal

The fine evolutionary course of civilization,
should have lit up a particular course of action

Nevertheless, towards coarseness we roll,
Grinding all humanity amidst the rock and roll

Such is the vicious circle in which we dwell,
That there is no place left for us except go to hell!

Tying the knot – untangling the future ???

Every idea has a provenance, a source of inspiration – what an idea sirji! I write this blog as I am flooded with invitations of marriage, of school friends, college friends, colleagues, roommates Ohhhh I feel like crying !!!

The institution of marriage today has evolved a hell lot from what it used to be in the stone ages(assuming the concept of marriage existed then, hi hi…), from being a mere ritual to being an institution in itself to be reckoned with.

Hey, the poet errr the poetess within me says,
“Samay ke thapede har cheez ko badal dete hain,
Kisiko ko mitti mein to kisiko aasmaan mein mila dete hain”
wah wah !!!

The concept of marriage hasn’t been an exception to the thrust of time. It has emerged in various hues at various times and geographical locations according to the requirement of the demography of the geography. In a matriarchial society, the bridegroom departs for his in-laws place. An interesting bit of trivia… The interiors of the country still witness kidnapping of grooms and marriages at gunpoint because of the basic requirement of…well…bridegrooms. How else do you consummate a marriage ?

The yester years saw marriage being treated as an out of the world affair, so much for the importance given to it. All around me, today I see a deluge of people who treat marriage as a mere check mark in their ‘to do’ list. Perhaps to an extent it SHOULD be treated like that, after all you don’t leave everything because of a ritual. Better treat it as a part and parcel of life. But shouldn’t it be CELEBRATED as a part of life? Should I say it has turned more professional in nature? Let me clarify myself before drifting into dangerous waters. My perspective says that a balancing act perhaps would help today’s life style and priorities on one hand and preserve the traditional grandeur of marriage on the other. At the same time, marrying someone purely because of ‘professional’ reasons, devoid of any romance is really something to be kept away from. Whatever the reason of professionalism, the thing clear is that one cannot afford to spend a lot of time in the act of marriage, else the rat race gobbles him up.hup hup hup!!!

Still a bachelor, away from the practical dimension of marriage, I have a lot of dreams regarding my marriage (PS – I say this on behalf of all the bachelors). Once in a lifetime moment, hopefully .

Who’s at fault ? Am i wrong? Isn’t a person supposed to have nuptial dreams? Or is it mutually exclusive – building a career and dwelling in marital bliss? I am at a loss for a concrete answer here.

This touches upon the aspect of emotions, a tempestuous situation when it comes to marriage. The basic emotions lapping up each other in the tempest inside the minds of both of the participants. The girl ‘hypersad’ at the prospect of leaving her loveable family, not just physically but things would never be the same again but at the same time feeling excited about sharing her life space with someone who cares, would always be with her through the thick n thin. The guy ‘crying’ at the nearing end of his irresponsible freedom but at the same time happy because of a new found softness in his heart and the prospect of good food, organized handkerchiefs and socks.

These forming the core, the crust is made up of the requisites of the times we live in. Some quite practical, some based on outright greed. The spouse being of the same field definitely helps a lot. Matching of the wavelengths has become a necessity in the event of both being working professionals, one cannot be expected to sit back and keep on making sacrifices. But putting the magnifying glass into use for inspecting the salary figure, the bank balance, property inherited would go into the other category.

The formation of the crust is crucial to protect the core within. A little bit of honest contemplation might help to get all the answers to the questions asked earlier and tailor one’s crust according to one’s unique requirements. Not to downplay the importance of the core, no two ways about it – it remains the same, immutable.

Will THIS school of thought help douse the fire of which is the best – an arranged marriage or a love marriage? Does it boil down to the process of formation of the crust? Meeting the right person with the help of family or without? Last but not the least, keeping aside all the wisdom, does providence have a role to play in the entire ACT?

Food for thought !

Aur agla sawaal aap khel rahe hain for a million dollars… a million dollar question for the slumdog millionaire…
What does every denizen under the sun vie for? Money !!! No, I guess the catchphrase in today’s world is HAPPINESS which invariably locks one in a catch-22 situation. A cliched topic it may sound but let us shuffle a bit in our cosy nests and try to look at it with a different perspective. It seems that everyone chases a common goal – the elusive butterfly of happiness BUT floats through an exotic and unique experience. This, by virtue of the wide ranging situations we all are enclosed in, in the game of life. Something like the journey being more important than the end result. As if in a bid to implicate the nature of human lineaments, the ways in which we seek happiness are very different from one another and occupy a wide spectrum. The horizon of which is more often than not incomprehensible to the one dwelling at the opposite end of the spectrum. Wide enough, that is, to beget a whole new stream in anthropological studies.

Just the other day, my ear drums vibrated vibrating my mind in turn, with the story of an erstwhile software engineer who renounced the moh-maya of the software industry and took recourse to asceticism. Good enough! The software industry first indulges one in extreme luxury and then the lil devil of that stuff called stress raises its ugly head. That is when one realizes the reality of life, its NOT a bed of roses. It is better to give up hoping against hope regarding the appraisals which inevitably neither satisfies one’s manager nor oneself. The tricks and trades of the IT industry, a novelty after a clean and clear student life in which one’s success is directly proportional to one’s hard work provides one ample time to indulge in some ‘brain storming’. For that matter, following any change of circumstance, we learn through making mistakes. Hence, we evolve. And with our evolution evolve our thoughts as well. Many a times, we see our notions being carved in a different manner. It is logical enough for the notion of happiness to change as well. Then where is the need for the eye brows to form that perfect arc on the forehead if one’s notion of happiness changes from indulgence to abstinence ? One’s thought pattern might well be as unique as one’s fingerprints and it’s on him to do anything he wants to catch that butterfly – a million dollar bank balance or a million dollar smile !!!