Category: Thoughts uncut

My Summer Travels

I visited Trichy during my Summer holidays. I’ve been wanting to visit Rockfort for a long time, therefore I was overjoyed when my father accepted my proposal, but I wasn’t too happy at the fact that  I had to wake up at 4.00 a.m.

Once on the streets, I was actually happy that we left early. While travelling from Salem to Trichy by car, we had to first leave the breathtaking Yearcaud scenery behind us. In that early hour, the silhouette of Yearcaud was beyond words.

At length, I saw nothing but trees and highways, but while travelling towards our village I was thrilled by a couple of rare sights. Firstly, I have seen goats, grazing the piles of garbage(!) on the streets of Salem but in complete contrast, I saw goats being themselves and grazing grass.That was the first time(and probably the last) I saw goats being – goats.

A few years ago, in a book about a fishing village, I read about a village dog, chasing the town dwellers’ car. This was something I only read. It would be absurd if it happened where I live, but I witnessed this while going on towards the village. A tiny dog, just about a foot in height, kept barking and chased the car. I must say, it was an amazing sight.

Moving deeper towards the village, I was disturbed at the fact that there were plenty of bare lands with boards, of housing plans. The lush greenery was soon to be adulterated by smoky buildings. Those lands had a look of all hope lost. The villages were the only lovable places of India and those would also soon be destroyed of their nature.

This year’s trip to Trichy made me realize the truth in Gandhi’s words,

                   -“India lives in her seven hundred thousand villages”-          

The trip also taught me that India’s life is gradually being sucked out of her, by her own inhabitants.

Alas!

Victims of our beliefs

Indians and superstitions are inseparable. We allow our beliefs to define us. A typical Indian limits his range of thoughts to his superstitions and fancies. We all are aware of the fact that various superstitions exist, even among the well-educated families. Logical reasoning is not enough to uproot superstitions from our culture.

How can we explain it to a person, who discontinued his quest, just because a black cat crossed his path? Poor cat, would’ve been hunting for food. How, possibly can it be an evil omen? Now that I’ve mentioned that, I remember a quote I read somewhere: “A black cat crossing your path signifies that the cat is going somewhere”. Worrying about that cat’s sinister behaviour isn’t going to get us anywhere, so why worry?

If cat behaviour is tormenting us on one side, there are people who don’t want to face widows. What kind of honest reason can they give for avoiding a widow? It’s considered a bad omen if one faces a widow before doing anything auspicious. I don’t think any ‘god’, has told us to avoid or shun our fellow humans. Then why do some people ignore them? Is it a girl’s fault if she obeyed her parents; married the man they pointed at, who just happened to face an unnatural death?  People and society make these women vulnerable and then shun them saying they bring bad luck.

My friend accidentally dropped a mirror. It shattered to a million pieces, each reflecting her mother’s angry expression. She wasn’t angry because her daughter had broken an expensive mirror; what angered her was the simple fact that her daughter had broken a mirror. She said that it would bring seven years of bad luck! It was quite surprising; she was an educated and socially reputed woman, but here she was, worrying about a silly superstition. I can personally guarantee that I’ve broken a lot of mirrors before, enough to bring me a life-time of bad luck. These beliefs just don’t work.

We generally tend to blame others. If something bad happens, we blame cats for crossing our paths, we blame widows if our prayers aren’t fulfilled and we even blame crows for cawing if undesirable visitors turn up. We simply blame others and victimize them for our superstitions.

I think we can develop ourselves, only if we could accept the consequences of our own actions, instead of blaming others, in the name of god and superstitions.

More About People

People come in all shapes and sizes. That’s the beauty of life; the variety. There are the good-humoured people who appreciate others’ efforts and views. We don’t find too many such people around here now though.

Then, there is the other kind, who can’t live without disturbing and distracting others, but despite all these kinds of people,variety, to this day, remains to be the spice of life.

This poem – ‘More about people’ by Ogden Nash; I found this in my mother’s treasured ‘Poems for pleasure’, a collection of a few of the best poetry ever found. When I first read this poem, I was amused; how true and how simply said!

Sometimes, when we attempt creative writing, we look to add tough vocabulary because we feel that’s creativity; using words no one else is familiar with. But many a time, the most creative of works consist of simple words. The simplicity of the thought and the usage of words themselves are rejuvenating. We fail to realize this at times.

This is yet another amazing lesson poetry has taught me. They say brevity is the soul of wit, but this poem plainly states that unpolished and naked words can be witty as well.

Coming back to the poem, what a complete picture it gives! And all it says is, more about people.

The best thing about the poem is that it’s undeniable. It is simply and truly said. See for yourself.

More about people

                                     ~Ogden Nash

When people aren’t asking questions 
They’re making suggestions 
And when they’re not doing one of those 
They’re either looking over your shoulder or stepping on your toes 
And then as if that weren’t enough to annoy you 
They employ you. 
Anybody at leisure 
Incurs everybody’s displeasure. 
It seems to be very irking 
To people at work to see other people not working, 
So they tell you that work is wonderful medicine, 
Just look at Firestone and Ford and Edison, 
And they lecture you till they’re out of breath or something 
And then if you don’t succumb they starve you to death or something. 
All of which results in a nasty quirk: 
That if you don’t want to work you have to work to earn enough money so that you won’t have to work.

Passion and reality in conflict

You know that feeling you get when you look at a picture of a beautiful place; that blissful feeling you have when you realize you want to be there? What happens after that?

You come to reality.

You know you can’t be there, it’s way too much for your purse to handle, or it takes too much off your scheduled office time. What crap!

When I got to know about the Green Lake in Austria, I felt a sudden rush of liking to be there and to enjoy it. I don’t want to come back to reality; I’m not going to convince myself that I can’t do something I haven’t even tried. I like it and I want to see it. Nothing wrong with doing what I like, right? It might sound far-fetched, but it is still a nice feeling to know that you are at least trying to do what you love.

OK, let’s just forget about the whole ‘Green Lake’ thing; that’s my problem. What I’m trying to say is that, most of the time, the heart yearns for something blissful but the problem is, our mind tells us that it’s impossible. That’s where the conflict begins. Why does it have to be that it is always the mind and heart that disagree the most? The real challenge is to balance between the two and figure out which is dominant. That’s where we fail most of the time; that’s where I’ve failed.

Why is it so though? The heart always speaks for passion while the brain seeks reality. Why is it so difficult for us to win over the brain? The answer, as far as I know, is because we surround ourselves with people who have succumbed to the brain’s wish and have convinced themselves that their passion was beyond ‘reality’.

Now comes the biggest doubt: what is reality? Reality differs from person to person, right? It depends on our own lives. How then, can anyone say my passion cannot be reality? Of course, it can’t be his reality, but, it just could be mine!

Piggy business

I’ve used this blog to record a lot of my everyday rants, the common one being the incredible standards of education in India, particularly the South. Nowadays, in India, education is spelled M-O-N-E-Y and lots of it too. Having successfully broken through the hectic school life, I’ve had first hand experience when it comes to admission for higher education. And I have only one thing to say.

Bloody flock of sheep.

I was totally appalled by the way people rush to settle their children into a college; it’s almost as if they want to get rid of their kids for a few years. Parents make pathetic efforts to enroll their children in colleges, and I must say how amused I was to look at the look of desperation on the faces of anxious parents. How silly of them!

Unless I’m mistaken, (and I’m quite sure I’m not) a degree is not a necessity. I feel that the ones who heavily advertise and promote the concept of the necessity of a yellow robe are the representatives of leading educational institutions. Those preachings are now the talk of the town; our people are not the most difficult to convince. (we witness it during every other election) Isn’t it evident that these institutions are just mercenary, and not at all interested in the empowerment of youth as they claim?

I believe that a student should do a degree only if he/she has an interest and curiosity to do it, and not for the sake of a written attestation. Isn’t it better to spend one’s life in something he knows he’d enjoy, rather than whiling away precious years in a course that parents force them into? Oh, yes it is.

And about the sheep story, it’s a pity that folks feel convention is safe, despite watching conventions turn into absurdity. They say change alone is permanent but refuse to put it into action. Sad.

This convention doesn’t seem to be confined to education alone, rather, people stick to a step by step procedure throughout their lives and are scared to break free of their shackles for fear of what society would say. Society has it’s own say in everything we do and most people are too concerned about it than themselves. The same goes when it comes to marriages. I really don’t know who framed the real age limit for an unmarried life, because a lot of people can’t bear to see a twenty+ year old girl at home; everyone from relatives to friends begin to bombard the parents with questions and even matrimonial offers, as if life is an arrangement. Society doesn’t allow girls to even enjoy their lives. Boys are more pitiable; just when they realize the joy of freedom they’re persuaded into marriage. It disgusts me that people can’t keep their noses out of others’ lives.

People have been brainwashed so much that they now believe that conventional college life is the only option. That’s the sad part, they are sincere in their belief. Even reputed companies don’t care much about their employees’ talent, rather what interests them is the number of years their employees have spent under a college roof, the more popular the roof is, the better. Education which once led to knowledge, has now become a doorway between money. You can spend loads of money and learn how to retrieve your money and earn more. Where’s the possibility for genuine knowledge?

Of late, it’s quite common to hear parents complaining how much of a business education has become, but despite all complaints, they still tend to spend (at least by means of loan) on colleges. Ask them why and they’ll say, “better safe than sorry.” As far as I know, not even the world’s greatest scientist can guarantee a safe night’s sleep. Then why waste time caring about the certainly uncertain? (stole that from my brother!) ;)

It’s not just commoners who are to be blamed, listening to the authorities of those money-machines, anyone would be tempted to enroll immediately, and what’s worse; to pay a major part of the fees. They use such polished language that it’s difficult to see through it. To be point blank, it seemed to me like addressing a group of pigs before a mass slaughter.

Well, after all of this, I’ve decided that if I do a degree I would never trouble myself with my results, I am interested in nothing more than my passion. I’ve decided to break my shackles. No matter how difficult the consequences of my choices are, I believe I can face it as long as the decisions are mine.