Category: Purpose

  • For what i came…..

    I finished reading a book recently, ‘vertigo’ by ashok banker… set in mumbai a little over a decade back, it explores the existence of a guy in the initial stages of his career, battling career debacles, an alcoholic mother and a stormy love life… no, i am not good at reviews, coz i rarely read objectively, which i think, is absolutely necessary to write a good review, but the book is definitely worth a read…
    there was a quote in it, which appealed a lot to me, and which, if delved into, could give a lot of clarity to our existence… ‘What i do is me, for that i came’…. we are what we do in life, from a personal as well as professional point of view.. to debate it further, in a perfect existence, our actions are such that there is hardly a difference between work and personal life…we enjoy doing it so much that it is no longer ‘work’, at least not in the way we treat it now.. imagine someone paying you for listening to music, reading, blogging, sleeping…yup, a very utopian kind of existence, but it sure would be wonderful, but i guess like all utopian theories, this one fails too, because i dont think there would be too many people who would enjoy cleaning public infrastructure, or pizza delivery, for that matter.. which i guess is why things are the way it is right now…
    but its a good thought nevertheless, each of us doing exactly what we love to do, and therefore feeling that we have made a difference by our existence.. the first key being finding out exactly what it is that we would love to do.. and since that doesnt throw up too many practical answers (in the current scheme of things, that is) i suggest we get back to what we regularly do…
    until next time, a post is what you came for, right? 😉

  • Word’s Worth

    i will not be getting poetic….yes, thank god…:)…. this is more to do with a movie i saw last weekend.. “The word is Lakshya”, so is the movie… Farhan Akhtar, i think, is using emotions he felt during different phases of his life, in his movies, and that increases the ‘reality effect’… i am not good at reviews, so i’ll just say its definitely worth a watch…
    Hrihik Roshan’s internal conflicts made me think of the concept of an individual’s ‘lakshya’…. that which manifests  itself in different forms, from answers to uncles’/aunts’ questions of “what do you want to be when you grow up”, to the “career objective” in the resume…and that which propels us to do a whole lot of things , some for good/ some for worse?..and is it, finally, worth all that we do for it… so whats the word’s worth?
    the needs that mom and dad gave up so that the child got the best education, the agony of learning the multiplication tables, playing time spent in studying (or made to spend studying..hehe) to retain the first rank in class, the heartache when one realises that music/dumb charades/quizzing/scrabbles/monopoly/cricket are not viewed upon as conventional viable careers or rather , the heartache when one decides to be conventional, having to change ‘lakshya’ at some point of time, disappointing loved ones when one decides to do an unconventional thing for once, playing mindgames and having mindgames played on you in the corporate world, pressure tactics from above and to below so that dadlines are met, losing friends and family because of time constraints, losing friends and family and not being able to be there even to say goodbye…..
    and then, after all the gains and losses, judging yourself and wondering what is true joy- having a happy family, being able to see smiling people, sharing the smile with them, dying when their thoughts about you die; or appearing on the cover of “Time’, being the role model for millions, and perhaps a legend, and therefore almost immortal……or something in between, and whether an in-between state is possible … wondering whether you had it in you and you let it go…wondering whether you had a ‘lakshya’ or not, ever…..and wondering whether it mattered…ever..
    and thinking that floyd had rightly sung, albeit in a different context “And did you exchange , A walk on part in the war, For a lead role in a cage? “…also thinking that you thought the same kinda lines, but floyd is famous and you are not…hehe… and wondering how much the word is worth and how much is worth the word……..
    and wondering if this should do for

    manuscrypts trivia
    a quote
    “Galaxies…numerous, like the grains of sand on a seashore…yet our vanity reigns supreme ! ” ~ Unknown
    and seen
    In a Laundromat:AUTOMATIC WASHING MACHINES: PLEASE REMOVE ALL YOUR CLOTHES WHEN THE LIGHT GOES OUT.
    Notice in a farmer’s field:THE FARMER ALLOWS WALKERS TO CROSS THE FIELD FOR FREE, BUT THE BULL CHARGES.

  • What dreams may come

    i have a hypothesis, is it possible that god has given a quota of dreams per person, maybe as small as one dream, that can come true..this is not about the dreams you have at night, this is more the aspirational kind of dreams…… that after you have achieved that one goal, god believes you have done the work you came down here for, and now your life will be a monotony of unachieved dreams, and the rest of your existence will be spent following them…..sort of like the donkey and the carrot…….or maybe He takes the passion/drive that is required to pursue a dream and bring it to its culmination….I was also wondering about the male of the species’ attraction to the T&A of the opposite gender….. another hypothesis now, could it be because it is always covered….imagine a scenario where lets say the ears were always covered and the above mentioned accessories always left open…..would the attraction be now directed towards the ears???
    goodbye, and heres manuscrypts trivia
    a lil paki bashing, because i am peeved that the indian government is sponsoring the surgery of three paki kids…. as far as pakistan is concerned, i have no humanity left in me…An Indian is having breakfast one morning (coffee, bread, butter and jam) when a Pakistani, chewing gum, sits down next to him. The Indian ignores the Pakistani who, nevertheless, starts a conversation. Pakistani man: “You Indian folk eat the whole bread??”Indian (in a bad mood): “Of course.”Pakistani: (after blowing a huge bubble) “We don’t. In Pakistan, we only eat what’s inside. The crusts we collect in a container, recycle it, transform them into bread and sell them to India .” The Pakistani has a smirk on his face. The Indian listens in silence. The Pakistani persists: “Do you eat jelly with the bread??” Indian: “Of Course.”Pakistani: (cracking his gum between his teeth and chuckling). “We don’t. In Pakistan we eat fresh fruit for breakfast, then we put all the peels, seeds, and leftovers in containers, recycle them, transform them into jam and sell the jam to the India.”The Indian then asks: “Do you have sex in Pakistan?”Pakistani: “Why of course we do”, he says with a big smirk. Indian: “And what do you do with the condoms once you’ve used them?”Pakistani: “We throw them away, of course.”Indian: “We don’t. In India, we put them in a container, recycle them, melt them down into chewing gum and sell them to Pakistan.”

  • Exact vs Abstract

    i will most prob buy a cd today, but am finding it difficult to choose between john denver and the corrs.. i know, the genres are different, i have listened to a couple of songs of both, so….will share the other point that is inspired by a ‘spark’ from ‘india unbound’..unfortunately the author does not give a great deal of space to it in the book…it is to do with exact vs abstract….we pursue the study of exact (science) more than the study of abstract (art)…maybe because it is more difficult to make our mark in the latter, and only when we make a mark do we get some monetary returns on it….but in the former, we dont need to be extra special to make money…but i envy americans coz they somehow manage to pursue their dreams, i am speaking in generalities, but if i sing reasonably well here, i wouldnt try all my best to do that, it is subjective but i am speaking more or less for a majority of indians …. i think it is do with a lot of factors – culture, attitude, conditions…..i hope we can reach that stage one day, coz if our work is based on our passion, we will be successful and happy, right??thats it for today, heres
    manuscrypts trivia
    just a forward i got…TWO TOUGH QUESTIONS Question 1: If you knew a woman who was pregnant, who had 8 kids already, three who were deaf, two who were blind, one mentally retarded, and she had syphilis, would you recommend that she have an abortion? Read the next question before looking at the answer for this one. Question 2: It is time to elect a new world leader, and only your vote counts. Here are the facts about the three leading candidates. Candidate A – Associates with crooked politicians, and consults with astrologists. He’s had two Mistresses. He also chain smokes and drinks 8 to 10 martinis a day. Candidate B – He was kicked out of office twice, sleeps until noon, used opium in college and drinks a quart of whiskey every evening. Candidate C He is a decorated war hero. He’s a vegetarian, doesn’t smoke, drinks an occasional beer and never cheated on his wife. Which of these candidates would be your choice? Decide first, no peeking, then scroll down for the answer. ANSWERS Candidate A is Franklin D. Roosevelt. Candidate B is Winston Churchill. Candidate C is Adolph Hitler. And, by the way, the answer to the abortion question: If you said “YES”, you just killed Beethoven. Pretty interesting isn’t it? Makes a person think before judging someone.

  • Spiritual Fugitive

    That is inspired by an article i read, the link for which i got from a good find i made, no, that would be credit misplaced, actually it found me… so guys, check out this blog of Deki , it makes very interesting read…..so back to the title, it refers to me at some stage of my life, actually i think, applicable even now, to some extent… the stage when i dont want to explicitly acknowledge the presence, relevance or influence of God in my life, but at the same time will not, rather, dare not denounce his existence completely…..i still experience the phase now, especially when i feel that life isnt fair..and promptly thank god, when the feeling has passed..hehe….
    these phases usually also mean that i spend time staring at the sky, trying to fathom my place in the scheme of things – you know, earth out of billions of planets, india out of hundreds of countries, bangalore out of …..the purpose existence at all, and sometimes i wonder, is the purpose of life, living itself? are we trying to attribute too much to it……hmmmmm
    manuscrypts trivia
    picked this up from the same article i mentioned earlier – ” part of a fast-growing population of global souls who exist in many cultures all at once “and so fall in the cracks between them.”