I can’t help myself. It’s pathetic. I am helpless with laughter.
Don’t ask me why, for how can I discredit our hard working law keepers.
Well, as we say in these parts any police man would bungle it up just once, and that is what the poor man did. Leave the poor guy alone, for god’s sake.
He was deputed for training on the safety of VVIP’s. The man was a little careless, as was natural; the unsuspecting guy went for a stroll leaving his bag on the seat of the bus he was in. An opportunist thief( would the god ever forgive him!) took advantage of it and stole the bag. The poor cop would certainly have kept mum about the whole incident no doubt, ( man, think about the shame!) but the problem was , the bag contained a service pistol issued to him for the purpose of training, and ammunition enough to shoot down a few honest citizens. Reluctantly he reported it to the concerned.
We the public was unaware that a loaded gun was amongst us threatening our very safety till the moron who stole the gun started showing off by pointing it at all and sundry and in open daylight. The ignorant people thought that it was a toy gun till the gun started making genuine gun noises. The guy was taken in and revealed the origin of the gun.
The poor officer is now under “you know what it is officially called”, and an investigation is on about the incident.
My doubt is, if these are guys entrusted with the security of our VVIP’s would they be safe even among children! The children could get hold of a gun easily from the body guards themselves…… and you know play a little dangerous trick with it……..Oh my, how the imagination runs. All because a poor honest hardworking law keeper bungled just once in his whole life! Think about the ingratitude, the man has done umpteen numbers of heroic deeds, for what else was he selected for this very special training.
Our poor man must be thinking about the hard facts of life while he is cooling his heels at his home.
Friday, March 28, 2008
Musings
Hatred is exhibited in many ways. There is class hatred, community hatred, and cultural hatred. On various occasions I had the good fortune to experience all of them. Yes I meant that. I can not but call it a good fortune, because it usually brings the real people out, their pettiness, their indefinable anger at others, their suspicions, and their fears. As a student of the human element I am happy to partake in such incidents even when I am at the receiving end of the shoddy behavior.
It also surprises me a little. Hate is mostly cowardice, it stems from fear rather than any observable external causes. It is repressed anger at being defeated in some way. That may be purely imaginary or fabricated. Years of mistrust of others lies beneath some of these incidents. People shut themselves off from others and that provides food for distrustful minds. But do they believe in it, that is, that all the others are out to get them? Not really, yes some very low lives acts as if they do, but that is out of the pure motive of material gain. But at times even the supposedly intelligent follows in their footsteps. That is what so surprising about this phenomenon.
The work place is definitely a cauldron where such callousness can be exhibited with barely a negligible amount of restraint. I have certain co workers whose only happiness in life seems to be the promotion of their own kind. We may call ourselves secular and open minded, but in reality we are no better than what we are. In India this is more so. There are historical reasons for such distrust. But that alone does not cause the behavior. In the case I mentioned above the fake anger is so wide spread that all sort of people are involved in it. It seems that there are no class motives at the superficial level. But nothing is farther from the truth than that. Certain very shrewd elements have threatened the others into submission and is utilizing them with impunity. The interesting thing about it is the industriousness the poor submissive creatures are exhibiting under duress. Al of them seems completely bereft of their reasoning faculties.
The attacks on the “others” have reached a proportion which these poor beings are finding quite suffocating to sustain. They are even resorting to histrionics to achieve their aim. But none seems to have succeeded. The real cause behind the failure is the lack of self belief among these unfortunate beings. They never practice what they preach. All of them are shady characters thirsting after lucre. Hard words but unfortunately true. Once they have got their hands on it they starts to perceive ghosts in the closets and are frightened that these would come out into the open sooner or later. The only option then is to fashion an all out adventure against whom they fear. At present yours truly is being given enough to think that these lofty “idealists” ( Ha Ha )and faulty practitioners have reached at the end of their tether. Fear is a frightening phenomenon, it makes people do things. It might make these poor beings do ignoble things.
In the meanwhile the performances are definitely worth watching. Yes they are totally amateurish and lack the spark of real life events. But that does not drain the enjoyment of watching these cowardly figures battling it out for survival. I feel some amount of pity for them. Not too much though, because none of them have a worth while motive to hold aloft and because they have made a big chunk of money from it. I often think of bringing these shady deeds before the rest of the world but have refrained from it because of the possibility of encountering many such bad eggs in the endeavor. A lame excuse you may say but these characters are not without intelligence and are good at covering their tracks. The moment we try to do something about it the whole nasty establishment would be out to get you. The whole system is corrupt. This is a fact, at least in India, one we have to regretfully admit. If you move against the stream you are a “goner”. This could only do as a last resort, when they finally single you out for attack without it being caused by you. When that happens you need to be prepared, you need to have every document to prove your case at any of the social bodies. At such extremities whether the establishment turns against you or not pales into insignificance.
If I move against them now it would turn their petty hatred towards me. Not that I am afraid of it( I hope!) and not that they do not hate me already. They heartily do so as they do every honest person around. Oh don’t think that I am blowing my own trumpet, far from it, I know what my personal drawbacks are. But this petty desire for people’s money is not one of them thankfully. At the end of every financial year this same piece is enacted. My wonder is who they are trying to fool? No one is being fooled any way and their gain seems to be the simple feeling of temporary power of unity. A sort of sinner’s pact. Only the god knows how much they have amassed by way of swindling the masses. By the manner in which they are roping in even outsiders as guest artists for the performances they are really having a very god time at making hay while the sun shines.
One of the seedy characters in the play, does seem to have, some connection with the powers that be and is gleefully misusing it to gain his personal and caste-ist ends. Did I say caste-ist? Yes I did and in this “terribly” secular society that does not seem to be a drawback at all. On the other hand it is a sure way for survival and growth. This was an evil proposed to be cast out in our society. It still exists but in a very different form. In the earlier periods
It was the upper caste feeling that led the way . Now there has been a great turn around. The once submerged classes have become revived by the early secular society after the freedom struggle. Now these have become unified into different interest groups covertly helped by the political parties on various grounds. They all amount to one thing. Grasping at vote banks.
As these sectarian groups grew they devised a strategy of promoting themselves and their interests vigorously. It has reached a stage where one can not do anything in this land without considering its caste-ist ramifications. This individual I am talking about is an emotional cripple who has never grown up. He does not know the first thing about leading people and believes that the only known method is to harass every one intermittently, he is a caricature of megalomaniac.
But he would be the last to admit that he is ineffectual in most cases. Yet he is made much of by some of the staff because he is a member of their own community. At the beginning it was very much underplayed, now it is shamelessly exhibited by everyone belonging to that power group. Their recent revival has to do with the arrival of the present boss belonging to their power group.
I certainly seems to be very irked by the recent development in the workplace by going through what I wrote above. Or perhaps I am expressing what I had felt all along . Well, I’d better stop this before it sweeps me too off my feet and into the fold of some of the groups in operation!
It also surprises me a little. Hate is mostly cowardice, it stems from fear rather than any observable external causes. It is repressed anger at being defeated in some way. That may be purely imaginary or fabricated. Years of mistrust of others lies beneath some of these incidents. People shut themselves off from others and that provides food for distrustful minds. But do they believe in it, that is, that all the others are out to get them? Not really, yes some very low lives acts as if they do, but that is out of the pure motive of material gain. But at times even the supposedly intelligent follows in their footsteps. That is what so surprising about this phenomenon.
The work place is definitely a cauldron where such callousness can be exhibited with barely a negligible amount of restraint. I have certain co workers whose only happiness in life seems to be the promotion of their own kind. We may call ourselves secular and open minded, but in reality we are no better than what we are. In India this is more so. There are historical reasons for such distrust. But that alone does not cause the behavior. In the case I mentioned above the fake anger is so wide spread that all sort of people are involved in it. It seems that there are no class motives at the superficial level. But nothing is farther from the truth than that. Certain very shrewd elements have threatened the others into submission and is utilizing them with impunity. The interesting thing about it is the industriousness the poor submissive creatures are exhibiting under duress. Al of them seems completely bereft of their reasoning faculties.
The attacks on the “others” have reached a proportion which these poor beings are finding quite suffocating to sustain. They are even resorting to histrionics to achieve their aim. But none seems to have succeeded. The real cause behind the failure is the lack of self belief among these unfortunate beings. They never practice what they preach. All of them are shady characters thirsting after lucre. Hard words but unfortunately true. Once they have got their hands on it they starts to perceive ghosts in the closets and are frightened that these would come out into the open sooner or later. The only option then is to fashion an all out adventure against whom they fear. At present yours truly is being given enough to think that these lofty “idealists” ( Ha Ha )and faulty practitioners have reached at the end of their tether. Fear is a frightening phenomenon, it makes people do things. It might make these poor beings do ignoble things.
In the meanwhile the performances are definitely worth watching. Yes they are totally amateurish and lack the spark of real life events. But that does not drain the enjoyment of watching these cowardly figures battling it out for survival. I feel some amount of pity for them. Not too much though, because none of them have a worth while motive to hold aloft and because they have made a big chunk of money from it. I often think of bringing these shady deeds before the rest of the world but have refrained from it because of the possibility of encountering many such bad eggs in the endeavor. A lame excuse you may say but these characters are not without intelligence and are good at covering their tracks. The moment we try to do something about it the whole nasty establishment would be out to get you. The whole system is corrupt. This is a fact, at least in India, one we have to regretfully admit. If you move against the stream you are a “goner”. This could only do as a last resort, when they finally single you out for attack without it being caused by you. When that happens you need to be prepared, you need to have every document to prove your case at any of the social bodies. At such extremities whether the establishment turns against you or not pales into insignificance.
If I move against them now it would turn their petty hatred towards me. Not that I am afraid of it( I hope!) and not that they do not hate me already. They heartily do so as they do every honest person around. Oh don’t think that I am blowing my own trumpet, far from it, I know what my personal drawbacks are. But this petty desire for people’s money is not one of them thankfully. At the end of every financial year this same piece is enacted. My wonder is who they are trying to fool? No one is being fooled any way and their gain seems to be the simple feeling of temporary power of unity. A sort of sinner’s pact. Only the god knows how much they have amassed by way of swindling the masses. By the manner in which they are roping in even outsiders as guest artists for the performances they are really having a very god time at making hay while the sun shines.
One of the seedy characters in the play, does seem to have, some connection with the powers that be and is gleefully misusing it to gain his personal and caste-ist ends. Did I say caste-ist? Yes I did and in this “terribly” secular society that does not seem to be a drawback at all. On the other hand it is a sure way for survival and growth. This was an evil proposed to be cast out in our society. It still exists but in a very different form. In the earlier periods
It was the upper caste feeling that led the way . Now there has been a great turn around. The once submerged classes have become revived by the early secular society after the freedom struggle. Now these have become unified into different interest groups covertly helped by the political parties on various grounds. They all amount to one thing. Grasping at vote banks.
As these sectarian groups grew they devised a strategy of promoting themselves and their interests vigorously. It has reached a stage where one can not do anything in this land without considering its caste-ist ramifications. This individual I am talking about is an emotional cripple who has never grown up. He does not know the first thing about leading people and believes that the only known method is to harass every one intermittently, he is a caricature of megalomaniac.
But he would be the last to admit that he is ineffectual in most cases. Yet he is made much of by some of the staff because he is a member of their own community. At the beginning it was very much underplayed, now it is shamelessly exhibited by everyone belonging to that power group. Their recent revival has to do with the arrival of the present boss belonging to their power group.
I certainly seems to be very irked by the recent development in the workplace by going through what I wrote above. Or perhaps I am expressing what I had felt all along . Well, I’d better stop this before it sweeps me too off my feet and into the fold of some of the groups in operation!
10000 is not easy
After applauding Sehwag for his effort, it would be dastardly to ignore the achievement of a rare gentleman in the Indian squad, Rahul Dravid, the former Indian captain.
I had my doubts on Dravid’s captaincy. I thought he was unfit for the job. Time proved me right. He was not able to cope with the pressures and he quit, a good thing that is. A few wins are not enough to make a good captain, there is a thing called staying power. In the cruel and highly publicized world of international cricket, only the toughest or the lamest would outlast others.
Take Ganguly for example, he was tough; he had the qualities of leadership. He was fit for the job and he made a good captain. On the other end of the spectrum there was Azharuddin. A passive and unemotional man, he had the selectors with him, for he rarely fought with them. Both outlasted many others in the game, one for the qualities inherent in him of being a leader and the other because of the total absence of these very qualities.
Dravid was very middleclass in his approach, an out and out gentleman, he was nice to all and to the other teams, he had very intelligent and interesting notions about captaincy, but they lacked the gut instinct of a real leader. Not every intelligent decision would win points in a game like cricket. It is played with mental strength rather than pure acumen. If considered on the basis of pure talent, there could be any number of players fit to play at the highest level of the game. But most of them fail because of the lack of this inner determination, this hidden talent to handle pressure.
And that is what required of a good international player. If he can translate it into his captaincy he would become a good captain. Dravid did not have the knack to convert his “Great wall of India” effect into his captaincy. He crumbled when real pressure struck. This was but natural, his nice qualities made him a below average captain. People like me had a sort of inkling that this would happen.
But this one flaw does not make him anything other than the greatest player in the game now on technical lines. He plays out of the book every time he is out in the middle. Most other players in the game lack his technique and finesse. He is a little slow at times. But his role is just that, curb the onslaught of the opponents, and make it possible for others to take over.
Yet he has reached the pinnacle. He has now 10000 runs in his kitty. This is no mean achievement. It requires years of hard work and determination and playing form. It is a mammoth achievement for any batsman in international cricket. His greatness may be overshadowed by that of Sachin Tendulkar’s and Ganguly’s and other international greats.
He was a bit low when he quit captaincy. He was out of form for a while and had even the indignity of being dropped from the one day squad, which of course he did not deserve. Yet he came back and made good runs for the team at home and overseas. His determination has finally paid off and now he has earned a place among the very greats of the game.
Well done Dravid, keep up the good work, you are still young and there are a few years of cricket left in you still. You may not capture the interest of the lay persons who believe cricket is all about putting a bowler to the sword. To us one of your good defensive shots is as good as any glorious cover drives that you play.
It has been great watching you play. We cherish those memories. Thank you for giving us such pleasure over the years! 10000 runs are not easy but you made them look easy.
I had my doubts on Dravid’s captaincy. I thought he was unfit for the job. Time proved me right. He was not able to cope with the pressures and he quit, a good thing that is. A few wins are not enough to make a good captain, there is a thing called staying power. In the cruel and highly publicized world of international cricket, only the toughest or the lamest would outlast others.
Take Ganguly for example, he was tough; he had the qualities of leadership. He was fit for the job and he made a good captain. On the other end of the spectrum there was Azharuddin. A passive and unemotional man, he had the selectors with him, for he rarely fought with them. Both outlasted many others in the game, one for the qualities inherent in him of being a leader and the other because of the total absence of these very qualities.
Dravid was very middleclass in his approach, an out and out gentleman, he was nice to all and to the other teams, he had very intelligent and interesting notions about captaincy, but they lacked the gut instinct of a real leader. Not every intelligent decision would win points in a game like cricket. It is played with mental strength rather than pure acumen. If considered on the basis of pure talent, there could be any number of players fit to play at the highest level of the game. But most of them fail because of the lack of this inner determination, this hidden talent to handle pressure.
And that is what required of a good international player. If he can translate it into his captaincy he would become a good captain. Dravid did not have the knack to convert his “Great wall of India” effect into his captaincy. He crumbled when real pressure struck. This was but natural, his nice qualities made him a below average captain. People like me had a sort of inkling that this would happen.
But this one flaw does not make him anything other than the greatest player in the game now on technical lines. He plays out of the book every time he is out in the middle. Most other players in the game lack his technique and finesse. He is a little slow at times. But his role is just that, curb the onslaught of the opponents, and make it possible for others to take over.
Yet he has reached the pinnacle. He has now 10000 runs in his kitty. This is no mean achievement. It requires years of hard work and determination and playing form. It is a mammoth achievement for any batsman in international cricket. His greatness may be overshadowed by that of Sachin Tendulkar’s and Ganguly’s and other international greats.
He was a bit low when he quit captaincy. He was out of form for a while and had even the indignity of being dropped from the one day squad, which of course he did not deserve. Yet he came back and made good runs for the team at home and overseas. His determination has finally paid off and now he has earned a place among the very greats of the game.
Well done Dravid, keep up the good work, you are still young and there are a few years of cricket left in you still. You may not capture the interest of the lay persons who believe cricket is all about putting a bowler to the sword. To us one of your good defensive shots is as good as any glorious cover drives that you play.
It has been great watching you play. We cherish those memories. Thank you for giving us such pleasure over the years! 10000 runs are not easy but you made them look easy.
Sehwag Does it again
It was pathetic watching the guy being interviewed same time last year. His face had the look of a haunted human being. I was all for the guy notwithstanding his poor run of form. Any one who could wield the cricket bat like him needs to be accommodated in a side. The selectors thought other wise and the poor man was dropped.
If it was not for Kumble and to a lesser extant Dravid he would still be cooling his heels in his home town. His re entry was not very noteworthy. He was struggling for some time before he started to find big runs. Now he is back in his grove. I could not watch him play at Madras, but bearing the killing heat in mind, he must have played like a real champion.
The guy is also useful as a team man. Does a little bit of thinking on the sides and comes up with good suggestions for the teams cause. A striking example is the manner in which he insisted in giving one more over to the tiring Ishant Sharma the young and up coming fast bowler against Ricky Ponting the Australian bat and their captain. The ploy worked and Ponting bowed out to the spirited Indian bowler. That turned the table on the Aussies and made an impossible win possible for the Indians.
You do not drop such a destructive batsman from the side. I saw his 2004 innings on TV , his first Triple Century. It was lethal. The Pak bowlers and fielders stood watching while the man brutally mauled them. It was not all power. He is not a Chris cairns or Mat Hyden. He is a touch player really with a penchant for taking the attack to the bowlers. When this man is on song there is nothing better to watch in cricket. He may not be the “copy book” style of batsman. But he is exiting, as Geoff Boycot himself would vouch safe.
Incidentally the Boycot is a great fan of the man.
Kudos Sehwag. Hope you come up with many such innings.
If it was not for Kumble and to a lesser extant Dravid he would still be cooling his heels in his home town. His re entry was not very noteworthy. He was struggling for some time before he started to find big runs. Now he is back in his grove. I could not watch him play at Madras, but bearing the killing heat in mind, he must have played like a real champion.
The guy is also useful as a team man. Does a little bit of thinking on the sides and comes up with good suggestions for the teams cause. A striking example is the manner in which he insisted in giving one more over to the tiring Ishant Sharma the young and up coming fast bowler against Ricky Ponting the Australian bat and their captain. The ploy worked and Ponting bowed out to the spirited Indian bowler. That turned the table on the Aussies and made an impossible win possible for the Indians.
You do not drop such a destructive batsman from the side. I saw his 2004 innings on TV , his first Triple Century. It was lethal. The Pak bowlers and fielders stood watching while the man brutally mauled them. It was not all power. He is not a Chris cairns or Mat Hyden. He is a touch player really with a penchant for taking the attack to the bowlers. When this man is on song there is nothing better to watch in cricket. He may not be the “copy book” style of batsman. But he is exiting, as Geoff Boycot himself would vouch safe.
Incidentally the Boycot is a great fan of the man.
Kudos Sehwag. Hope you come up with many such innings.
Thursday, March 27, 2008
Psyche
There are phantoms in our psyche. They hunt us down in the most stealthy and silent manner. Often we are not even aware that they exist- but they do- and they are powerful.
The psyche is a god in its own right; it ruthlessly overwrites the dictates of intellect, ruling it over like a malevolent despot. In the most crucial moments of our existence, the psyche takes charge and brings us down to our knees, making it clear who is in the ascendancy. We then are helpless, like infants, fearful of the strange environment that we are in. The psyche is not transparent, it is partially obscure and its hidden parts are the most lethal of its instruments.
They are dangerous because of our total lack of knowledge about them. Where do they come from? No one knows for certain. There are theories, both ancient and modern, but none of them have been proved. Some say the psyche is the sum total of the experience a particular genus has, and some say it is the encoded knowledge in our subtle senses. Whatever may be the case, its debilitating influence on human actions is desultory, and other than compromising a situation it achieves little.
The phantoms of the psyche are known to attack us covertly, in the most unwanted of moments, making us useless, demure and defenseless, bowing to the iron dictates of this inscrutable of all phenomena. It dons on the garb of culture sometimes, making it impossible for us to digest even the slightest of variations in an alien culture. We are stricken with wonder when we hear of the inbreeding in Tamil families where dad’s brother is the approved groom for a girl; we abhor it, yet are not averse to accepting a different variation where matriarchy is concerned. These practices have definite cultural and economic origin without doubt, but those have faded into the background establishing a bizarre custom as a social necessity.
Perhaps the psyche is that part in beings that furthers the will to live, it nevertheless decapitates ones intelligence sooner or later, substituting it with something else, more basic and more instinctual. Hence is the origin of differences in life positions. Some of us believe a certain way of life would lead towards salvation; some others contemn it as destructive. These are stances of the mind, superimposing itself over the more reliable faculty of intelligence.
When carefully considered, our life has minimum to do with the aspects of wisdom, we are more in- tuned towards physical survival rather than spiritual uplifting. That is but natural, yet this has certain obvious pitfalls, namely the limits of the freedom that we envisage for us and others. We probably would go all out for unlimited opportunity as regards our own affairs, but would we advocate the same for the rest?
This is the crux of the problem, the stand we take is determined by our mental environment, and the doubts that we have regarding others in our neighborhood. This is an impasse, all efforts to resolve this issue have been fruitless. This is where psyche enters the frame, with all its instruments of terror, catching us unawares, forcing us to bend to its promptings. Thus even the greatest of secularist takes up arms against “the others”, saying he has run out of options. This of course is a lame excuse but nevertheless an inevitable one.
But, why, you might ask. The answer is not that simple. The shrinks say there are definite divisions to our mind; most of the activities are influenced by the outer portions of our personality, which is termed as consciousness. This segment is considered to be miniscule in comparison to the other two portions of the mind, the sub-conscious and the unconscious.
The control of the unconscious is not easily observable, but it is thought to be a store house of unlimited data from time immemorial, Karl Gustave Yung for example had a definite belief that this gigantic storage is filled with archetypes or coded threat signatures, gathered during the evolutionary process. Thus the archetype of the falcon is encoded in the consciousness of the chick, directing its movements when it espies such an adversary.
If this is the case, pressure of survival assumes importance over all other aspects of life making the pacifist to take up the cudgel and brandish it in the face of his opponent. The content of our psyche is violent; it usurps rather than assumes charge. It’s a covert operative, instead of a polished negotiator.
Thus there shall always be phantoms in our minds whether we like them or not.
The psyche is a god in its own right; it ruthlessly overwrites the dictates of intellect, ruling it over like a malevolent despot. In the most crucial moments of our existence, the psyche takes charge and brings us down to our knees, making it clear who is in the ascendancy. We then are helpless, like infants, fearful of the strange environment that we are in. The psyche is not transparent, it is partially obscure and its hidden parts are the most lethal of its instruments.
They are dangerous because of our total lack of knowledge about them. Where do they come from? No one knows for certain. There are theories, both ancient and modern, but none of them have been proved. Some say the psyche is the sum total of the experience a particular genus has, and some say it is the encoded knowledge in our subtle senses. Whatever may be the case, its debilitating influence on human actions is desultory, and other than compromising a situation it achieves little.
The phantoms of the psyche are known to attack us covertly, in the most unwanted of moments, making us useless, demure and defenseless, bowing to the iron dictates of this inscrutable of all phenomena. It dons on the garb of culture sometimes, making it impossible for us to digest even the slightest of variations in an alien culture. We are stricken with wonder when we hear of the inbreeding in Tamil families where dad’s brother is the approved groom for a girl; we abhor it, yet are not averse to accepting a different variation where matriarchy is concerned. These practices have definite cultural and economic origin without doubt, but those have faded into the background establishing a bizarre custom as a social necessity.
Perhaps the psyche is that part in beings that furthers the will to live, it nevertheless decapitates ones intelligence sooner or later, substituting it with something else, more basic and more instinctual. Hence is the origin of differences in life positions. Some of us believe a certain way of life would lead towards salvation; some others contemn it as destructive. These are stances of the mind, superimposing itself over the more reliable faculty of intelligence.
When carefully considered, our life has minimum to do with the aspects of wisdom, we are more in- tuned towards physical survival rather than spiritual uplifting. That is but natural, yet this has certain obvious pitfalls, namely the limits of the freedom that we envisage for us and others. We probably would go all out for unlimited opportunity as regards our own affairs, but would we advocate the same for the rest?
This is the crux of the problem, the stand we take is determined by our mental environment, and the doubts that we have regarding others in our neighborhood. This is an impasse, all efforts to resolve this issue have been fruitless. This is where psyche enters the frame, with all its instruments of terror, catching us unawares, forcing us to bend to its promptings. Thus even the greatest of secularist takes up arms against “the others”, saying he has run out of options. This of course is a lame excuse but nevertheless an inevitable one.
But, why, you might ask. The answer is not that simple. The shrinks say there are definite divisions to our mind; most of the activities are influenced by the outer portions of our personality, which is termed as consciousness. This segment is considered to be miniscule in comparison to the other two portions of the mind, the sub-conscious and the unconscious.
The control of the unconscious is not easily observable, but it is thought to be a store house of unlimited data from time immemorial, Karl Gustave Yung for example had a definite belief that this gigantic storage is filled with archetypes or coded threat signatures, gathered during the evolutionary process. Thus the archetype of the falcon is encoded in the consciousness of the chick, directing its movements when it espies such an adversary.
If this is the case, pressure of survival assumes importance over all other aspects of life making the pacifist to take up the cudgel and brandish it in the face of his opponent. The content of our psyche is violent; it usurps rather than assumes charge. It’s a covert operative, instead of a polished negotiator.
Thus there shall always be phantoms in our minds whether we like them or not.
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Days
The mornings could be the same, a hectic rush to finish toilet, get dressed, and start for the work place; however, as the day progresses other events will take place, altering the nature of the day, making it whole or incomplete. The days have characters, faces as it were, physical as well as psychical. They have moods, tempers and temperaments.
The day’s are like people, sharing their emotional life, behaving like individuals and dying like mortals. Yet, there is something grand in the demise of a day; even the most flimsy of them dies gracefully, leaving us with a sense of longing, or a vague sense of apprehension. Perhaps they remind us of our own mortality, our own insufficiency, our own utter isolation from everyone and everything else.
The days have life; they are often vibrant and colorful, dull and morose. The day’s take on the hues of the seasons, immersing in them, acting them out. They are idiosyncratic, every day different from others, distinct.
In summer, the day absorbs the energy of the sun, illuminating and intensifying feelings, and defining events vividly as clear cut frames of reference. Summer days have a life of their own that is intense, defiant and brazen. Even in the tropics where the heat carves out its own separate domain, ruling like a fearsome despot, with red eyes and glistening saber, the day performs the miracle of life, infusing enthusiasm even in invalids.
Every day is magical in the sense it ushers in new hopes, desires and new aspirations. Even those on the way out falters for a moment, fearing of having made the wrong decision. They may have lost all hope, but every new day ignites some hidden fire in them, reviving them as it were.
- felt like writing a poem, but not being blessed by the goddess of muse in that sense, I have to make do with the above.
The day’s are like people, sharing their emotional life, behaving like individuals and dying like mortals. Yet, there is something grand in the demise of a day; even the most flimsy of them dies gracefully, leaving us with a sense of longing, or a vague sense of apprehension. Perhaps they remind us of our own mortality, our own insufficiency, our own utter isolation from everyone and everything else.
The days have life; they are often vibrant and colorful, dull and morose. The day’s take on the hues of the seasons, immersing in them, acting them out. They are idiosyncratic, every day different from others, distinct.
In summer, the day absorbs the energy of the sun, illuminating and intensifying feelings, and defining events vividly as clear cut frames of reference. Summer days have a life of their own that is intense, defiant and brazen. Even in the tropics where the heat carves out its own separate domain, ruling like a fearsome despot, with red eyes and glistening saber, the day performs the miracle of life, infusing enthusiasm even in invalids.
Every day is magical in the sense it ushers in new hopes, desires and new aspirations. Even those on the way out falters for a moment, fearing of having made the wrong decision. They may have lost all hope, but every new day ignites some hidden fire in them, reviving them as it were.
- felt like writing a poem, but not being blessed by the goddess of muse in that sense, I have to make do with the above.
Monday, March 24, 2008
Axing Away
The kind Mr. Dhoni was helpfully illuminative,
He revealed that he had decided to,
“Axe them”
He was supposedly talking about dropping a few senior players from the squad for the one dyer’s in Australia.
But who knew there was more to it than it seemed!
It appears that immediately after returning victorious from down under he did put something else to the axe.
A “live goat” to wit! Not by himself of course, he had it done at a temple near his home.
No I am not making it up.
Animal sacrifices are still discreetly practiced in some parts of the land, though banned by law. Kalighat at Kolkotha was famous for it before the ban came.
Dhoni seems to be an old believer, though he rides modern BMW’s!
This is the land where the great Budha walked. He compassionately took a lamb up while it was being led to such a sacrifice and carried it there.
Not to haste it to its end, but to save it by his presence.
No, I am not being sanctimonious, I love lamb chops like my neighbors.
There is a saying,
“Eat that which you kill and your sin will be absolved”
To kill to eat seems natural if not necessary.
But to kill to spill blood, well that is another matter altogether.
He revealed that he had decided to,
“Axe them”
He was supposedly talking about dropping a few senior players from the squad for the one dyer’s in Australia.
But who knew there was more to it than it seemed!
It appears that immediately after returning victorious from down under he did put something else to the axe.
A “live goat” to wit! Not by himself of course, he had it done at a temple near his home.
No I am not making it up.
Animal sacrifices are still discreetly practiced in some parts of the land, though banned by law. Kalighat at Kolkotha was famous for it before the ban came.
Dhoni seems to be an old believer, though he rides modern BMW’s!
This is the land where the great Budha walked. He compassionately took a lamb up while it was being led to such a sacrifice and carried it there.
Not to haste it to its end, but to save it by his presence.
No, I am not being sanctimonious, I love lamb chops like my neighbors.
There is a saying,
“Eat that which you kill and your sin will be absolved”
To kill to eat seems natural if not necessary.
But to kill to spill blood, well that is another matter altogether.
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