"Know Thyself"

"Know thyself"

A Delphic Maxim from Ancient Greece. A truth thousands of years old yet still valid; a fact which may seem strange in this modern world of multiple and metamorphosing truths where tomorrow's lie is today's truth and vice versa, or in some cases the truth merely becomes an unconfirmed rumor, one of many millions that throng the 'news' channels of today. Though to be fair, I am comparing a philosophical (perhaps psychological, too) truth to the truths of the news that we see today and being from different fields perhaps comparing the two would be as fair as comparing an aircraft with a bike, or a pile of poop as would be apt for some 'news' agencies.

The context, usage and factors that influence vary a lot. 

Ranting apart: Know thyself, this little truth is oft repeated in the simple everyday philosophies espoused by others, be it people of a particular school of thought or self help authors or philosopher-authors like Paulo Cohelo (of this last last mention I am a bit unsure, though a reading of one of his books leads me to believe he may in truth espouse all I say he may espouse). People preach "love yourself", but to do so you must know well and truly who you are, and what you are to love oneself truly rather than in the narcissistic manner that one comes across so often in others, even the traitorous self to some extent. 

And yet, despite this popular knowledge, acceptance and demand people find it tough to do so. It's as though we have a mental block in our heads, not unlike the DMRC Diversion signs found so commonly in Delhi just a few years back (and even presently if you traverse certain areas of the national capital), that says "Nope. No way you want to go down there buster. Why not rather think of that awesome book you read, or that show you watched, or perhaps drool a little and relive that ice cream binge in your head?" If you somehow make it past these blockades and begin to actually analyse yourself, collecting tidbits of information contained in scraps of memory and echoes of long forgotten incidents, events momentous and mundane now lost in the dusty old annals of ancient history, sooner or later the Trojan Horse will turn up.

What is this Trojan Horse? Well, it is the severe self-criticism of your actions that hides behind the benign mask of going over past mistakes to understand and prevent a recap in the future. "Oh, a helpful dose of self-analysis" you go and let it in and when you turn away to return to your job at the forensics lab of old deeds and memories the horse opens up and out comes the treacherous worm.

"Self-analysis huh?", it goes (I guess) "Well, how about this treasure trove of stupid things you did and shouldn't even forgive yourself for? Here, go beat yourself over the head with all this"

After which, mission accomplished, it promptly vanishes lest some eager gardener, caretaker of the mind's twisted little green patch of floral delights, come over to whack it over the head and 'vanish' it for good.

Those who make it past the first stage oft falter at this second one and it takes a tremendous will of effort to do so. For some twisted reason our 'hearts' find it easier to forgive others than it does itself (and a real interesting piece somewhat related to this can be found at the blog of a rather outspoken and talented (and also quite delightful) lady by the name of Minal- http://rainbowsandrape.blogspot.in/2014/01/2014.html)*.

Does it derive from some inherent fault in our 'Emotional Mind', is it related to self-esteem issues, or is it something else altogether? I know not. What I do know is that it can be fought and that only when you crush that wicked little worm that'd have you ranting against yourself will you be able to know yourself truly, accept yourself, and perhaps change yourself for the better, thus attaining that little modicum of peace we so covet.

I myself have oft tried and have as frequently failed to make it past one or the other. Though sometimes I do take a few steps away from that serpentine menace and gain a little more insight, but the modicum of peace I mentioned above? It still eludes me. 

Don't let it elude you.


*EDIT: The lady in question has long since deactivated her original blog. To those who have but recently read this piece: I am sorry but I'm afraid that piece is no longer accessible to us denizens of the World Wide Web. 

The Artist's Dishonesty

All artists and poets do is represent the ordinary in a different light, through a different perspective or lens; as something extraordinary by blithely plucking it out of context; and in all this we are dishonest.

 A man gifted with the brush can paint alive an apple seemingly under more pressure than poor Atlas as he endeavors to hold up the heavens, the celestial sphere. Another gifted with words would make of a cup of tea something of such beauty as to rival Aphrodite herself or of the act of travelling to work such a an ordeal as to challenge even the most celebrated epics. Yet are these objects and acts all that we portray them to be? We would like to think so, yes, yet it does not mean that they are so.

Some things can be worthy of such praise and oft these talents do unlock and reveal new interpretations of life, useful or truly moving ones; as in a fallen leaf one can see a microcosm of death, hope, and a sort of rebirth- the cycle of life, while in an abandoned toy by a dusty old veranda one may be brought back to the nostalgic past and made to remember all given up in the haste to grow up and then abandoned leaving one foundation-less, lost and wondering where innocence went and why it won't return.

Yet not all things are so, and yet armed with my words and my camera I do often paint them to be more than they are, create, at least in my head, epics and tragedies revolving around mere twigs or iron bars, bent old beams and mannequins, and even mundane events like a class in college to a hour long wait.

And in this, I am dishonest.

NOTE: That I use 'we' as though I were one myself may seem presumptuous to many, yet we all are artists, some of words, some with paint, some use light and some music; while others are of sports, or of legalese and logic, and even of skin and blood. The only difference is that in many the artist but slumbers, or is made to, and thus seems non-existent while mine only half slumbers, and walks about in my head, in a semi-aware daze.

Life

Life...

A gift, a puzzle eternal

To the common man, but to

The kittens that are our philosophers

A monumental ball of yarn to play with,

While faking, for others, knowledgeable airs

And employing pompous syntax to theorise

Some ridiculous theories again and again

With long winded statements; paragons

Of the syntactically, grammatically

Complex; veiling simple, even

Absurd ideas. All in all:

A farce.

Life, is but a wonder, a gift.

    A gift much too beautiful,                      much too simple, and yet complex

To be tarnished by the farce is the ‘intellectual’ drivel

 Hiding behind the mask of sophistication

That reduces everything to instances of

   Perception and perceptions of perceptions

   In an endless word-game that starts nowhere

     Leads to nothingness and has no purpose and aim.

Another piece revolving around philosophy and stuff... but then again, that, among many other things, IS what this blog is about.  :D   <-That's a grin, in case you're wondering.

'Shady' Characters - A Little Ranting, Theorising and Conjecture

We all have come across them sometime or the other, some of us may have joined their 'shady' ranks for a bit in between, some people you know are perhaps part of this 'elite' gang yet none of this makes them as less of a mystery to us good old regular kids. Who am I talking about? Well, none other than the 'coolest' crowd ever: Those who wear shades... indoors!

This elite crowd is one that I have never fully understood, but recently, armed with my half-baked knowledge of psychology and philosophy, thanks to the half-read books on Freud and Kant and excerpts from other thinker's texts, and my own personal knowledge and ideas about some of these wonderful people whom I have the (mis)fortune of counting in my group of friends/people-I-know and fueled by the questions of the masses, I decided to take the plunge and try to figure out what makes these people tick, what is it that makes them who they are... and what is the reasoning or tradition that lies behind this occult cult.

First off I decided to go and question a person I knew about this strange act of wearing these shades indoors, during the twilight hours and even at night and the answer I got was staggering in its revelatory powers. This person (anonymous by choice) said, "Dude. It looks kewl". Yes, you read that right. It looks KEWL, that one thing everyone one of us aims (not) to be, that tag we all (don't) aspire to, the one that (thankfully) seems out of our reach... and it is so easy to attain. After all, who wants (not) to be just plain old cool, humorous and well-versed in English. Those days are gone, so yesterday as some might say (or is it ystrdy now?). Anyhow, that was but the first in a series of revelations.

However, not all the people seem to fall into the category of these kewl people. Some of them actually turned our to be part of the (in)famous Dude gang who wear this not only to look like the wannabe-cool-movie/sports-star imbeciles (if you're a Dude reading this, that is another term of affection) but also to go 'sight-seeing', or 'bird-watching', as some of them call it, without getting noticed or caught. But these dudes are another species altogether, hence I shall leave them alone for now. They deserve more than a mere mention in this piece (they deserve a thorough beating).

Coming back to the topic, I shall now proceed with a little theorising about these 'shady' people using my own personal knowledge of those few I know and the many that I have observed.

The first theory, of course, is none other than the theory of 'kewlness' and picking up girls. I believe that most people you see probably are acting as per this very (il)logical and (un)sound theory. It goes somewhat like this: if you wear cool looking shades inside a mall or some other fashionable place (or anywhere else for that matter) you look more 'fashionable' and hence have a higher chance of picking up 'fashionable' gals or guys, whichever your gender/preference dictates.

This narrows down the playing field for them a bit as this 'elite' crowd, as the word 'elite' suggests, is not a very common or easy to mingle with crowd, but then again it is worth it, right? After all, who wants to hang* with people who are so outdated and foolish as to consider the act of wearing shades dumb. I mean, they're meant to be worn. Sun or no sun, indoors or outdoors, nightclub or mall, they just have to be worn, right? Sun-shades/ sunglasses? Aw, c'mon, that's just a name, a silly, old tag from the stone ages and as The Bard once wrote, 'What's in a name?'.

The above paragraph of digression apart, this theory works the other way round as well. In this second (and perhaps unintentionally successful) case it works as per the wounded bird principle which applies to some girls. Looking at these poor chaps shambling about a mall or a busy street with their hopeless attempts at looking 'kewl' some of these girls (or guys), at times, take pity on the idiocy of these deluded souls and decided to take them under their wing and nurse them back to a delusion-free, sane world.

The second theory is that of unbearable brilliance. Some poor souls probably find these fancy modern places too much for themselves to handle and hence where these shades to protect their eyes from the brilliance of all the modernity, however, these few star-struck souls are but a minority if the attitude is anything to go by and most of those who don't subscribe to the 'kewlness' theory only wear shades for the common good, i.e. they help people identify realise that they are in the presence of sheer awesomeness

How? Well, they say that the eyes are the gateway to a person's soul (or his optic nerves at any rate), and the brilliance of these few souls is such that it shines through their eyes so blindingly bright that they need to wear shades to make sure they don't damage the eyesight of  the crowd around them. Thus the shades mark them and set them apart from other mere mortals, kind of like Cyclops from X-Men.

Of course, all these long-winded theories are but the result of mere speculation, and the end result may be much simpler: Low self-esteem, which can only be healed by looking 'cool' all the time, or Narcissism and low IQ that demands they wear this eye-wear everywhere and instantly assume they look awesome for doing so.

UPDATE:
Another theory I've just come across, suggested to me by the insightful externalexpressions^ (http://eternalexpressions.wordpress.com/), is that these supreme "kewl-propagandists" are simply functioning at a higher plane of thought and communication, aided by the "kewl"-est of accessories - Shades. This mysterious plane could perhaps be one of those extra dimensions that all those propagators of the string theory talk about. Or something else all together. Who knows? We mere mortals can but watch on in awe and keep conjecturing while these 'supreme'-beings stride into realms unfathomable to the uninitiated, shade-less masses. 

_____________________________________________________________________

*hang with- ... : A rather silly phrase I feel. Every time someone says that, I picture them hanging side by side from the gallows, or trussed up by some cannibals; who aren't planning to eat them, as they may get indigestion due to the sheer weight of  'kewlness' in them, but will sacrifice them instead to some mystic god or another (who will naturally have a better, stronger, digestive system).

^and this mysterious eternalexpressions, as it turns out, is none other than the inimitable Amrith Nayak, champion of expressions and witty word play.

Empty

Friend in need

To those who trust,

A thought suddenly strikes me:

Am I what I am,

So eager to help,

Out of sheer necessity?

Is it but because

On the inside I feel,

At times,

So strangely,

Frighteningly,

Empty?

Timely Thoughts

Sitting in the dhaba outside the campus I can’t help but feel a bit restless and irritated as time ticks by while I wait for my order to arrive. It’s become a new affliction of sorts that I seem to suffer from. Some days I can sleep all day, doing nothing, almost as though I’m in a state of hibernation without a worry. But some days I can’t sit still and tend to get terribly annoyed and frustrated if I can’t find something to do. Compounding this problem is the wide area of interest that I’ve cultivated over time and the unruly chaotic mass of the variety of ideas and techniques I’ve been planning to implement in each of my varied interests. Add to this the varied deterring circumstances, back-to-back classes and that nefarious, unwelcome guest called the ‘writer’s block’ and you have a recipe for a nuclear meltdown of me wee little head.

So I twitch and shift continuously in my seat thinking about why I’m afflicted by this strange new ailment and I suddenly realise, maybe it’s because all those quotes, articles and books have finally penetrated the dense, thick fog of silliness and general idiocy that surround my brain like a protective blanket, preserving the innermost cogs that drive my craziness from corruption and corrosion from any external agents and have begun their sinister work.

Perhaps for the first time I truly appreciate the quote that my English language professor, Dr. L Kavitha Nair has displayed on the walls of her cabin. It goes somewhat like this “To put days into life is ageing but to put life into days in living.” And perhaps I now appreciate why Richard Dawkins stresses the fact that contrary to what people say to discredit atheistic people, that their lack of belief in divinity is but an excuse to shirk the responsibility of living a good life, the fact that you don’t believe in an afterlife, in some continuation of existence or in rebirth means you have this one chance, just one go at doing what you want to do and doing it right, this one chance to play whatever role you choose and actually making a positive impact, for there is no other life for you to repent for your sins and balance the scales of misdeeds of one life in another life or realm. Talking in terms of biology, he explains how that one sperm in a million that got through and made us may just as easily have been another out of those same millions, and thus being the lucky one out of those million possible people to actually exist, we have a greater responsibility to live up to our true potential.

I prefer putting it in slightly easier to understand terms. The responsibility that he says we are supposed to live up to gets multi-plied manifold when you consider the millions of people out there in the world who don’t have the same chances and choices as you do, to live their lives to their fullest potential. Forget freedom, many of these unfortunate souls don’t even get a chance to live due to diseases, wars and numerous other causes that run them into the ground. Very few amongst them find a chance to be truly happy, even for a brief moment in time.

In light of all this, I feel that moping and wasting one’s life away is not just an act of wanton self-destruction, it is gross negligence bordering on the criminal and an insult to the freedoms that are you possess. Freedoms that millions, nay, billions can only dream of. Not that I’m expecting every one of you to become the next Mother Teresa or Van Gogh or Mozart. No, expecting that from everyone, or from anyone for that matter, would be just plain idiocy. Instead what I request is that we make our lives better, that we actually utilise what little freedoms we have instead of leaving them on a shelf as a display piece to show off to those who don’t possess them. Live your life to the fullest, become a musician, become an artist, a doctor, a lawyer, just another worker in some big company or be whatever else you may wish to be. Do whatever you wish to do, be it ordinary, mundane tasks or something different and exciting. Whatever you become, whatever you do, utilising your freedoms and your skills is up to you. The only thing I’d ask is at the end of your life you shouldn’t have reason look back and think with regret those thoughts starting with “If only…”. For even the simple act of actually living as opposed to ageing will be a sort of a tribute to those who don’t have a chance.

Perhaps it is these thoughts spinning through my head that now war with my off and on, depressed lethargy, that get me so keyed up and bouncy all day. Perhaps one day I’ll learn to control these thoughts and channel all this jittery, frustrated eagerness and annoyance into something constructive, use this as a fuel to drive me on further down the paths I choose to take.

"I think therefore I am" ... or am I?

“I think therefore I am” quipped Descartes all those hundreds of years ago, and is now condemned to being quoted (and misquoted) again and again in arguments/debates/theses pertaining to the question of existence and reality and many other similar fancy hoity-toity topics where one of the conceited philosopher wannabes finds an opening, especially when someone wants to sound enigmatic and knowledgeable.

But paradoxically the more I think, the less I am, or rather, the less I seem to be. I know, it seems really confusing and contradictory, especially when one refers to the opening quote, but think about it, I mean really think.

The more one thinks about one’s existence, the origin of the universe and other such nonsensical stuff about which our knowledge is little enough for us to feel confident enough in our ignorance so as to engage others in debate; even if the other is just a contrary splinter-self, separated from the main self like in those multiple/split personality disorder cases, who likes to contradict everything the other self, or selves if the subject is a far-gone case, say or believe just for the heck of it, or because they conflict with its own set of beliefs; the more the number of possible reasons and explanations one can offer for the existence of the universe, ranging from the tired old argument of a supreme being who in his complete belief in our capability to survive our own destructive nature created an entire universe for us to occupy steadily over a span of time and is always watching over us (and its more moderate versions) and the deistic version where some chappie created this little universe (but not especially for us only) and now is snoozing away (or observing from a distance) to equally crazy beliefs like our universe being but a simulation program or even a sim-game being run by some higher dimensional beings on their super-duper-computers, like the popular game SimCity only this’ll be more like Sim-Universe and will involve more awesome hardware and possibly higher dimensions, or that we’re all just figments of imagination in the dreams of some higher dimensional being and so on and so forth. Do note that each reason raises a yet more important question: “What caused/led-to/created the random event/being/super-duper computer which created this universe/simulation of a universe which we reside in?" 

So, ranging from the ‘we-are-real-beings-in-every-sense-and-in-every-dimension’ to the ‘we’re-just-figments-of-something’s-imagination’ or the even more unthinkable ‘we’re-just-virtual-characters’, albeit virtual characters with higher thinking capabilities (which one could blame on more advanced coding and algorithms), each explanation is just passing the buck as we still don't know the universe started, sure it was created lets say, but who created the creators or if it was just the result of a random event, what triggered it?And so the questions go on and on. Still, assume that one of these explanations has the potential to solve this cosmic riddle, now what proof do we have that our point of view is correct? Each explanation has an almost equal amount of concrete evidence in favour as well as against it: none...  make that almost none, for the sake of accuracy.

So depending on which view seems more convincing to you, you could be more or less real than you were at the beginning of the long-winded-fatuous thought processes that brought you to this point. Or if you found multiple arguments equally convincing you could very possibly existing in multiple levels of realism at the same time, a thought which, if pursued further, could very well shred to pieces what little sanity you lay claim to faster than food disappears down the gullet of dear little Daisy, my dog; though bitch is the grammatically correct term yet cannot be used due to social taboos and stuff, an issue I may write on at length later.

Digressions apart, another thought that one must consider is the fact that most terms we use are but relative. Time is relative to whatever reference a person/specie is using for their convenience, the ease of climbing up a staircase is relative not just to age but fitness as well (a fact proven by a few septuagenarians I know whose ability to climb multiple flights of stairs would put most of my college mates to shame), the obviousness of the fatuous nature of most debates, particularly philosophical ones, is relative, the relativity of an object/occurrence is relative and thus even reality is but relative. Compared to a comic book character or a simulated character in a game we’re probably pretty real, compared to some higher dimensional being with a different sense of perspective we may be nothing more than stick figures.

Thus in the end the only conclusion one can safely draw is that reality just is. The entire idea of debating the concept of reality and seeing how real we are and if we truly exist and other such high-fi philosophical topics is truly fatuous, conceited even if one pretends that one has the one true answer to these conundrums.

So after all this heavy thinking the one modification I’d make to Descartes famous quote is “I think therefore I realise that I may be or may not be real and that it all comes down to a question of which theory of the universe’s existence, and hence my own existence, is true and that the lack of proof in favour of any particular theory can but lead one to the conclusion that this entire question is but an futile exercise in philosophical thought and that I just am”, or in short, “ I think, therefore I am”, or rather, “I just am”.

Now if you've reached this far in the article you've probably realised what a farce this is, albeit a rather high level and thought provoking and a bit moderately well thought-through farce. But then again most meta-physical philosophical thoughts and theses are but farces to some extent (note: I’m only referring to meta-physics) Anyway, for being such faithful readers and for suffering through this pseudo-intellectual piece of mine you deserve a reward. So go treat yourselves to a toffee or an ice cream if your mind feels really boggled.

The Rat Race

Rats chase rats in an endless loop, and self-righteous posers, hypocrites that they are, discretely stoop to wretched, rotten means to gain advantage all the while preaching their fatuous righteousness from their pedestals standing high above the rest of the crowd upon a pile of their own rubbish and garbage that lays claim to the title of ‘serious thought’ but is nothing more than a haphazard collection of flatulent ideas based on superstitions and prejudices dating back not just to the medieval ages but even further back to the time before the invention of these pretentious modern religions when humans worshipped fire and lightning and believed that the stars were the droplets of spilt milk from a god’s glass and that the sun revolved around the earth, propelled by a heavenly chariot.

What is more surprising is that the more flatulent and stupid the ideas the stronger is the conviction of their truth in the minds of those unfortunate sods who actually believe it, so much so that the most stupidest of ideas have the staunchest of supporters, supporters who won’t be swayed by any argument or proof, scientific or otherwise, even when the contradiction of their beliefs comes up and slaps them in the face. Sad thing is that such people are very often in the majority, or in positions that ensure that even their being a minority will cause them no major inconvenience, in fact, more often than not this causes a major inconvenience to the majority instead.

Almost makes one lose faith in the human faculties of thought, even in human society as such, for clear thinking people are indeed very few. Even I for one may not count in the crowd of those who can see through most mumbo-jumbo and can truly win this rat race by the only means possible, a means that not many people even bother considering: to get out of it.

Hello

Well, thought I'd first pop in and say hello to whoever has enough free time on his/her hands to actually be viewing this blog and also give them fair warning as to the content of this page.

Warning first; the posts you shall see herein will deal with the varied topics and themes ranging from the most abstract and frivolous themes to the heavier and more philosophical-ish stuff but all with a healthy dose of humour or just regular weirdness that should make it more palatable to your fine sensibilities. But if your sensibilities are too fine (say you're touchy on the topics of religion, or some other similar stuff) well, stay well away, or if you can;;t resist, don't curse me excessively (the usual little bit is ok) for you HAVE been warned, and try to respect the views of anyone else who by mistake happens to post a comment voicing their own opinions.

And before I forget altogether, here comes the fulfilment of the primary objective of this post: Hello!