That-sticky-post-alerting-thingy
Have you seen Gaizabontlets? Anorexic version of Gaizabonts!
The greater gift to humankind is the ability to remember. But, the greatest gift to humankind is the ability forget.
We live our life surrounded by memories. Good ones, bad ones, and some really ugly ones.
There is something about the melancholy nature in us that often denies us the forgetting of bad memories. We somehow become slave to them. They keep popping up at the most inopportune times, moving us from a state of low-spirits to dejection.
At that precise moment however, the good memories that will alleviate the feeling of despair, never seem to surface. They remain submerged, blurred, like under the uniform blue of a deep ocean.
Maybe it is a lesson for us in life, we have to be able to string together the good ones, on a very short string too, and keep them on the top of the stack. Keep them accesible. Because the more bad and ugly things that you remember about someone or something or someplace, the more concrete your perception about it. In recent time I have found it amusing, how we use the negative memories as evidence in our arguments that are against. They are almost like facts. Memories aren’t algebraic in that, a good memory does not cancel a bad one. Even if you assume that you have equal number of good and bad memories, the bad ones seem to float better.
Pain, caused by a bad memory, possibly leaves a deeper and pronounced scar that is difficult to ignore. Perhaps it is about letting go, perhaps it is about forgiving. I do not know. But I know this: it is definitely about forgetting – the bad ones.
The greater gift to humankind is the ability to remember. But, the greatest gift to humankind is the ability forget.
We need to remember to forget, to live a better life.
The idea was to crunch every month in a claustrophobic post. Last time I did it, it was in May. And I have done only one before the one in May this year.
There’s a problem.
If you try hard, use a magnifying glass to see the divider between two months, you may not find any.
And in any case, if that’s the idea, these posts should be called Remains of the Month. But, I have often being accused of being a rebel against structure. I have never known how to react to that accusation; for often I have been accused of being a slave to structure.
It amuses me to no end.
A nagging thought has been clawing the inside walls of my head, but scratchy-scribbles on the inside of your skull don’t make for good posts.
An ancient conversation has been slashing and struggling its way up from a grave covered by dry and rotting leaves of time. It is vying to be alive again. The concluding question of that conversation was: if (theoretically speaking) you attain perfection, will anything ever inspire you?
Years have passed, since.
Perfection, however, or even trying to get an inch closer to it, is démodé. Mediocrity has been a silent virus that has become an epidemic of sorts. And like the liquid glass that wraps Neo in The Matrix, mediocrity covers you completely, leaving no scope to wash it away, to deny it; unless you are inspired.
Then, I find this Blog Challenge by Lorelle: Where Do You Consistently Find Inspiration? As I was reading the challenge, almost instantly, WordPress and the Automattic Team came to mind. They inspire. I shall elaborate in the remainder of the post.
Which does bring us to a rather difficult question that have been hurling at a few folks last few days: What is the opposite of inspiration?
It has stumped quite a few, though I was especially impressed by this comment on this post. While it seems to be right on target, I am still looking for the word that does the exact opposite of inspiring. Perhaps, a definition of what I mean by inspiration will help.
For me, an external trigger that causes you to change your own standard to improve or create something new, is inspiring. This is just the base of what it means, however. There are further characteristics that define an inspiration:
- That which inspires has to awaken a “romantic” quality within, to improve your own standards, in your own mind and soul. To copy the one who has revised the standard is not to be inspired: that’s following. Having been with WordPress for a few years now, I have seen this service from its basic form to what it is today. So what is about this team that inspires? Is it the platform that they have created? Yes, but not quite. The platform is super, but not rocket science, and if you ask me, does not have high entry barriers. Looking at WordPress does not make me feel like creating a blogging platform like WordPress. What inspires is how the team thinks and nurtures the platform and the people who use their platform. I follow nearly every Automattician blog, and it gives a great insight about how these people care for things and how creative they are.
- That which inspires has to have a long-term vision, big or small. And importantly, stay true to the vision. If you have been with WordPress for a while, you will have noticed the changes they have made to the platform. They don’t really need to. A year ago, WordPress was quite amazing. Their diligence and commitment to what they have built is beyond the ordinary. If you see their about page, their vision is simplest yet grandest of them all:
“…a handful of people passionate about making the web a better place.”
And in making the web a better place, you have to experience their support. Seldom required, but when you get support from these folks, it changes your expectations about how support should be handled.
- That which inspires has a dynamic standard And it seems almost ingrained in the ethic of WordPress folks as the very basis of what defines them. One good reason of not setting a target is to ensure that there is never any complacency in what you do. The question always is: why stop here? Why stop anywhere?
And while it may come across as irritating to a few worshippers of mediocrity, there has to be some amount of enforcement of your standards.
There you have it. That’s how much I am able to define what inspiration is. But it’s annoying that I haven’t yet found an antonym for inspiration, as I see it. And that word is important, because it needs an identity; because we need to be able to identify it when we encounter it.
And while I have yet to find that word, I know what causes it (opposite of inspiration).
Complacency, casualness, and carelessness.
Wishing you all a very Happy Diwali and a Prosperous New Year.
There are many reasons in this world why love (or a marriage, therefore) doesn’t happen. It quite doesn’t matter who says no, but the reasons are always interesting.
1. I am not in love with you (whether I am in love with someone else is incidental)
The simplest, I think, but a bit rare. Half the people don’t quite know what love is, the other half believe something else to be love. The remaining – don’t bother to be truthful.
2. My parents will never agree
Yes, it’s my parents who need to spend the rest of their life with you, I am just a via between, and well, if they don’t quite like you, we shouldn’t get married. In any case, they are done having kids in this lifetime. This, I believe is the ultimate killer. In India at least.
3. Your parents will never agree
Same as above – just change the roles.
4. I never thought of you that way
I love this one! Never ceased to amaze me. It somehow means that you were (or are) a backup plan. This reason is often used in combination with Reason # 5. Reason # 5 is the true backup. Often affects those who have been in a long relationship. High school or college friends. Is one of the painful ones because of the high intimacy that already exists.
5. I have always thought of you as a friend (Usually followed by, We can remain friends can’t we?)
Classic backup case. If Reason # 4 has kicked in without Reason # 5, then it means there is another person in the equation. If Reason # 4 is used with Reason #5, then it means that “I am waiting for someone better to come along, but I’ll have you if that is what I have to settle for.” Victim almost always remains a friend – perpetrator almost always doesn’t.
6. Our horoscopes don’t match
I have never understood this one. It hasn’t been used with me, but I know a few who have been victims of celestial conspiracy. A difficult one to argue against unless you have a friendly depraved astrologer willing to give with a fresh astrological identity. It’s the same as what Jason Bourne and his likes do, they go for new passports and such, you go for a new place and time of birth.
7. I am gay/lesbian
If you get this one, I blame you. Period. You asked for it. If you didn’t see this coming, you need to be banished from love-land. Unless of course you are willing to have a sex-change or whatever that may still work.
8. I am/We should be focusing on my/our career now.
I like this one. See, when they go out on dates and all that, the career can go jump in a lake. It’s almost saying that if they get married or into a more serious/formal relationship, a career won’t happen. I like this one, I really do. Wonder how people get out of this one. Bury themselves in their own career?
9. Because you drink/smoke/gamble/womanize/etc
This is understandable. To an extent. It means that I like parts of you – not you, as such. So if I could just customize you the way I want to – that would be perfect. I like this one, because it gives a fairly clear message and if you are the types you believes in their own life in a way that makes you feel happy about it, it’s as good as being told – I don’t love you. Like Reason # 1, but packaged differently. Reason # 9 is actually Reason # 1 for the not so brave.
The last one is my favorite. It is really rare; I have never figured this one out. It haunts me.
10. You are too good for me.
Is this supposed to make you feel good about yourself or make you feel worse? I have never understood this one. So if I was a bit of an idiot, that would have worked? Or if I promise, not to be as good, will you then love me/marry me? I have never heard of anyone following this Reason with a comment like, “I’ll try and be as good as your are, so that we are equals, sort of.” Perhaps it is supposed to make the perpetrator look good – I leave you for someone else (who is as good). Something like, “You will find someone who will make you happier.” (Often also used as a follow-up on Reason # 5). Right. You obviously have a better idea of what will make me happy. But, the main question remains: Is this supposed to make you feel good about yourself or make you feel worse?
Any favourites I have missed?
Some views are easily forgotten. Some remain. Some come back to you easily, as soon as you are in the same place — like that day, long ago.
You may choose to walk away from some things, some things however, never leave. They are always there for you and have the same warm feeling they had, yesterday.
I am enjoying the cosmic conspiracy — whether it exists or not. The message is clear, but I am not yet ready to pronounce it. They are still conspiring to see how to get me to that. I met with a couple of people for a formal drink. Conversation made it a social drink, and becoming friends removed any adjectives associated with drink.
One more time, repeat after me: responsibility is the ability to respond. I have said it before and I will say it again — till you know that these aren’t just words. How you act on this defines your understanding. No, is a perfectly acceptable answer. Yes, is, even.
Being judgemental is not wrong. Not allowing your judgement to change, is wrong. If, with time and circumstance, you do not allow your old judgement to change, then you are biased to parameters which you understand. Your weights and measures are limited, and so are you.
I love my Mac.
Someday, when no wires exist to bring you connectivity or power, who will you find fault with? If things still go wrong, how will you repair wireless?
Family rocks.
Being together for twenty-five years rocks too. Especially if no one can tell you have been together for twenty-five years. For a few, each month shows up as a discernible wrinkle. For the select few, time softens the wrinkles of compromises, arguments, anger and frustration.
Government doesn’t have good intent towards the people. A recent flyover that opened without fanfare stands tall as the epitome of this mal-intention.
At the end of the three days, I saw Inglourious Basterds (Review) on Sunday. One thing Google cannot find for you is if a movie is interesting because it is interesting or because of the people you see it with. Or can it? You will never know.
Most things you will never know.
And that doesn’t kill you.
For some reason September is a very interesting month. It has been for a while now.
If the moon so chooses, end-August and September are generally festive months, so there is colour and sound and flavour that injects the atmosphere. The sound can get irritating at times, but is mostly forgiven in the festive spirit.
September, if you didn’t know, wasn’t always the ninth month in the year. It was the seventh. Thank God they added January and February before I was born, else I would have been born monthless.
September, three years ago, is also the month when I made my shift from Blogger to WordPress — a place I have come to respect and love for the last three years. And, September, I realised, is also the month when some very interesting posts have come up for me. Introspective, reminiscent, and jingling with hope. Here is a prize selection from the last six years.
2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009
A scrutiny across six Septembers.
Here’s the word: iltijā
Here’s the question: When was this word most recently used in a Hindi film-song? (Song name and year)
Use the comment box below.
It was a lazy Saturday evening, a few years ago, when my father said, “God entered his being and made him write this, this is not a human act.” He was his usual relaxed Saturday-self, pacing slowly around the house listening to Geet Ramayan, written by G. D. Madgulkar, and composed and rendered by Sudhir Phadke.
I was old enough to understand that this was an exaggeration of sorts and I told him so. (Not that I was old enough, but that I understand he meant that this is a divine composition). He did not relent, he insisted that he meant it literally. I relented — the sceptic that I was. The message was important to take note of, I said to myself. Very soon, I was to be a convert to that sort thinking.
Years passed, and my love for Simon & Garfunkel and Paul Simon compositions grew and assumed a near-fanatico-religious status. My musical journey meandered through many valleys.
Yesterday, a smallish Twitter conversation ensued about the concept of divinity in music.
Amit links to his post about “Touch of Divinity” based on this couplet:
दिव्यत्वाची जेथे प्रचिती
तेथे कर माझे जुळती… [YouTube]
He has a different take than the intended meaning of this couplet and is a recommended read (actually, his entire blog is a recommended read, if you don’t already). For me, however, in context of our Twitter talk, this took on a different meaning. I accessed my Marathi encyclopaedia (also known as Mom), about the song and it’s meaning.
Music that make a direct connection to God (and where I use the word God in this post, I do not mean a religious connotation, to what I say here, I mean it as a divine entity – something beyond the known self) is always beautiful. It is beyond human composition. As Paul Simon says in an interview, echoing, what my father said a few years ago, you make a direct connection and you get it. It is your expression, but someone is helping you form it. Does that reduce an artist to just a medium of communication for God? I doubt. If that be true, then any one of could be the divine cellphone. There is more to being the divine cellphone — and I suspect it has to do with your need to express and an inherent skill to communicate.
I have been struggling with my own meaning of art and it’s relationship with artists, trying to understand what role does an artist play in the creation itself.
C. G. Jung defines two modes of artistic creation: psychological and visionary. For the visionary mode he says:
“The experience that furnishes the material for artistic expression is no longer familiar. It is something strange that derives its existence from the hinterland of man’s mind, as it it had emerged from the abyss of prehuman ages, or from a super-human world of contrasting light and darkness. It is a primordial experience which surpasses man’s understanding and to which in his weakness he may easily succumb.”
Is this how beauty comes to being?
Consider:
संधीकाली या अशा, धुंदल्या दिशा दिशा, चांद येई अंबरी
चांद राती रम्य या, संगती सखी प्रिया, प्रीत होई बावरी.
For me, there can be never a better way to express love than this song. My apologies, I dare not translate it. This is a very refined song, an epitome of romantic expression. But refinement is not the characteristic of divine intervention — it can be crude — but it has to be heartfelt and pure, like A Beautiful Prayer.
Oddly enough, where divinity interferes, social morality isn’t a determining factor and even alcohol becomes the metaphor for expressing passion, as in Madhushala. Grossly misinterpreted, though, how does a human compose such a beautiful statement of passion drawing only available experiences from reality?
It may seem that the divine intervention takes away everything from the artist. It is not so. Divine intervention is not like lightening and does not strike randomly. It waits for the right person and the right time.
And if I am wrong, why is beauty and divine art so uncommon?
Update: This Twitter conversation was extended to blogs, with Amit’s post about The Musical Language and Mahendra’s post about What the Hell is Divinity?
Notes & Links:
- [The interview with Paul Simon is a 56 minute video, and worth a watch -- especially if you are Paul Simon fan. If not, skip to the 39th minute, to see his comment about being plugged into a force and being a conduit.]
- The excerpt from C. G. Jung is taken from the book, “The Spirit in Man, Art and Literature, Carl Gustav Jung, Routledge, ISBN: 9780415304399”
