Sunday, November 18, 2012

To Desire Is To Exist !









This weekend was different – A city which never sleeps was tucked away in complete silence. As  Arnab Goswami goes on with his marathon coverage of the demise of Mr. Bal Thackeray , the TV screen looks as if someone has poked a huge beehive,  as millions of people take to the streets to bid The Man a final goodbye.

Since I had lot of time today , I happened to speak with a old intelligent friend of mine, one of those few people I like to debate with – and somehow we got drifted into a mini debate about  “Materialism versus Spiritualism” .  In his attempt to score a run, he made a statement (good one) ...Which got me thinking --- “Every man of desire is silenced by the truth of death.”


After the call, a thought crossed my mind – Is death the end of desires, or end of desires – a death. 

There was a period in my life , where I had chosen the easiest way of living – The Mode of denial . From Art of Living , to giving up colors as preached by Brahmakumaris.  On comparatively lesser extremist days , I was also amongst those who would  commonly misuse and abuse the word – materialistic .  I did it because, it was the easiest excuse to quickly suppress any inherent need of achievement. Denial of need is denial of effort, and hence it’s one of the most popular concepts.  However as I stepped out of that world, I have started to believe firmly – To desire is To Exist. 

We all are pretty much a product of desire. To start with, we were born because of someone’s desires.  As a child we desire love , as a student we desire marks, as an employee we desire salary hikes, as a businessman we desire profits, as a politician we desire power,  as a parent we desire a “desirable” child, as a old man we desire respect . Even saints desire "moksha"....

The simplest meaning of materialism is attachment. Whether it is to money, life , urge for affirmations and admirations, performance appraisals, power,  cars, promotions,  business profits, it still is under the umbrella of “being material”. Now most people have issues not with being materialistic, but accepting that they are one.  The reason is, we are somehow conditioned to believe – it’s not the right thing to do. The ones who condition us are also the ones who lived in complacency, fear and denials. 

I asked myself a simple question - aren’t all religions of the world and spiritual schools propagated to fulfill their desire of acceptance in the world? Aren’t rallies of Kejriwal and Anna Hazare a product of their “desire” to do good for the nation? Aren’t Dalai Lama’s efforts for preserving human rights in Tibet, a desire to protect his people? Don’t we all argue to satisfy our desire to win an argument? Infact as I am writing this blog, I have an inherent desire to put my thoughts across.

Desires need not be destroyed, denied or suppressed. It only needs to be purified, accepted and be channelized for someone’s good.  We all are men and women of desires and it’s perfectly all right to be so. I believe – Spirituality and Materialism is not mutually exclusive. In fact the fundamental of being spiritual is to be in “a state of awareness” and Acceptance is the first step towards awareness.

If there is a divide, it’s only of one type – The ones who can accept and ones who can escape. I am proud  of my desires and for me its acceptance is existence.  

Saturday, October 6, 2012

The Two Halves

 

The cricketing season madness has overtaken this part of the globe. I am not a sports enthusiast, but if you are in India – unless you are dumb, deaf and blind – all three at the same time -you would know that a cricket match is on.

The  other day, I stopped  over for a quick bite at a Bandra cafĂ©  and by the time I had finished eating 57% of my Vegetarian Spaghetti Bolognese, a group of well dressed men  arrived and grabbed the table next to me . Until then, I wasn’t aware I was sitting on one of the most strategically well placed tables and the second half of the “match” was just about to start. In a moment, men of all castes, creeds, language, color, sizes appeared from nowhere. The bodies pressing against each other, mouths open, pupils dilated and beads of sweat rolling down from behind their ear pinna speeding south towards their Louis Philippe collars.


During the next 43% of my meal, I heard – “Kya yaar, itna simple tha”…."Yaar kya catch choda”….”Yeh sab fixed hai...aaj dekh India haarega”…”Kya C*****pa  hai yaar”. On my BBM  and Facebook, many status messages read the similar expert opinions.
I looked at the LED Screen and looked back at the crowd on the other side and a thought crossed my mind …

We live in a world clearly divided into two halves. One half is where there are people with lots of opinions , men and women who specialize in commentary and shout and dance like monkeys  – their enthusiasm is very high , may be they are much more well read and experienced too-  but they exploit their potential only to an extent of  giving free advice on afternoons like these.

The other half is those few  who choose to take a step ahead and leave this crowd behind . Those who choose to be deaf to the world and practiced on the field on many scorching afternoons while the “experts” contributed to their belly fat sitting on a couch eating potato chips . 

On a lighter note I thought we do need people on both sides – employers and employees, thinkers and doers, people who spend lives questioning and people who spend lives finding answers, cowards and warriors, the people who play and those who clap at the end. 

I don’t know what exactly I discovered that afternoon, but one thing just got clearer – One can either spend life building opinions or building success.

As I finished the spaghetti and paid the bill, I already knew which side I want to be in …

Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Not a Post !


Today, I was just going through the little pieces of work in my blog. I began to think why I have not been able to write much off late.

A little bit of introspection helped. I realized that whenever I created a thought to write- the end user (reader)  was always in my mind. The reader in this case- was a reflection of who I was as a person- a fabric of pessimism, complacency, and an ardent fan of the depth of sorrow! 

A quick calculation showed me more than 95% of my posts belonged to this category. I belonged there few months back - from coffee table conversations to chit chat in local trains- it was always about “a crib “. And trust me – this SELLS. No wonder people liked my work …its easier for them to associate with.

Off late, life is changing …changing for good! A journey has started from a cynic to a believer.  From a person who constantly had reasons to whine to a person with reasons to smile ! The probability equations of life are slowly changing. I am choosing to choose my sunshine.From now on , I may not give you a good read- my market segment is changing !

This certainly is not my blog post today, but a conversation with myself about those things in life which I once thought were “so-not-me”. I still can’t put few thoughts here – because the thoughts I carry today will sound like gyaan …you are better off with self-help books in that case. My USP is gone , and I am glad about it . I declare to choose my new  fabrics now J

This is a mere change of reflection when I looked into my blog today - which I want to capture forever … in my blogosphere as  my bookmark! 





Saturday, April 14, 2012

Er·ro·ne·ous


Neither pain, nor a need to heal

Neither Life, nor a zeal to live

Neither love, nor a need to feel

Neither dead, nor afraid to decay

Neither truth, nor a reason to prove

Neither greed, nor an urge to dream

Neither smiles, nor a tear to drop

Neither silence, nor a word to seek

Neither past, nor a present to believe

Neither shadows, nor a memory to leave

Heartless, a heart without a beat…

this is u and this is me.