Why we aint friends no more..

Have been blessed with good number of friends having diverse personalities - right from Ivy League scholars to the beautiful-hearted taporis. Most of these are the kinds of where - even when we talk after long time - the warmth, tone and mischief would still be the same when they yell, 'Anyaa!' and I reciprocate with equally endearing slang for his/her name.

However, I have observed that it is a tad tough to have a lasting friendships with certain peculiar kind of people - even though we believed them to be potential future life-long pals, at the outset. This blog post is, just me bloggin-aloud on my thoughts on why things go south with such people even without any discernable, tell-tale arguments or opinion differences.

Disclaimer: Before you read further, please note that this blog post is just my point of view on why people like me start going away from these kind of would-be pals. For these people - who drifted themselves from people like moi - that would be their own blog post in which they could enlighten others or keep to themselves. Not this post's concern.

After much pondering (and thereby missing out on an hour of playing with my kid), I have come to a belief that, there are very few people who can stand people with following traits, for long:

1. Talking down with people who are not of their standards:
Some may think this is a very idealistic/nondescript reason for drifting away. But for many in their right mind can never see themselves associated with people who put down others for reasons of riches/standards/race/religion/whatever. I, personally, would anyday prefer staying alone my whole life, then be seen with these kind of people who lack empathy and think of themselves as being just too good for others. I have actually seen these idiots uttering something to the effect that: we are born this way so we are entitled to this behaviour. Now, I have read enough history to have numerous examples of A-1 morons being born to the so-called blue-blooders and A-1 intellectuals and leaders born to disadvantaged, to really take this nonsense seriously.

2. Whiners:
I personally have had a pretty modest living as a kid and very well know of an extreme poverty in which rural India lives - to actually entertain anyone whining about the lesser number of chances he/she has got to strike gold in life. And to know that, most of these whiners are from pretty well-to-do families, is a further turn-off. They just lack patience and attitude to go that extra mile to get what they want. Now, don't get me wrong, I know the difference between these good-for-nothing whiners and the genuinely ambitious individuals who aim for higher goals and discuss with others when, for any reasons, they fail to achieve it.

3. The unnecessarily aggresive smartasses
Many of us find these types extremely obnoxious and repulsive to the core. Now, there is nothing wrong in being aggressive. Every one of us is aggressive in one or the other way - some are aggressive in achieving their career targets, some for earning loads of money, some for pataoing a girl, while some others are simply aggressive as that is the only way they can live their life.

The people I am talking about here are the ones:

a. Typical smartypants - who know deep down that they are not very smart but are hell bent on proving otherwise by unnecessary aggression.

b. My way or the highway - these people DO NOT have balanced views of any topic. If anything suits their purpose, they will aggressively advertise it as the only thing that is correct. Nevermind that others may point out number of follies in it. On top, they would act as complete douches, in proving how that thing is the greatest and best in the world. The examples are many in today's context: Apple fanboys, Droid nuts, political parties fanboys etc. It would never occur in their mind that, given a context, everyone's opinion might be correct at their place. No! For these guys, everyone else is dead wrong and they are the only beacon of correctness. These douches can be friends with only those who themselves subscribe to similar douche-ness. Not many can stand these types for very long.

While, each of us have different criteria - ranging from religious views to movies choices ;) - for choosing to abstain from getting into BFF kinda friendship with our newer pals; the above mentioned are the negative human traits most of us hope these newer pals wouldn't be adorned with. :)

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On personal note: I like to think of myself as a pretty balanced and rational individual. I would not hesitate to admit my mistake, if wrong and I wouldn't shy away from asking for forgiveness. But in all my common sense, I cant stand the kind of people mentioned above and just have to shrug them off in order to live a stress-free, simple life. I brutally believe in the philosophy of Karma. So to all those people who know that they belong to one of above categories, please take note and stop being douches. And when you do, I will be the first one to approach you myself without any unnecessary ego or pride. And I will be there for you - especially when the going is tough for you.

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Reincarnation

Disclaimer - I am no expert on this subject and I won't be going into any sorta nitty-gritties of the same. You could very well find the detailed information regarding it here or in your respective religious books! ;) This post is mostly my thoughts on a beautiful perspective of reincarnation painted in this movie 'Before Sunrise'.


I personally have had extremely cautious views about reincarnation - well, atleast that's what my rational side likes to believe! But over the years, I have learnt, that its fine to entertain certain ideas without actually agreeing with them wholeheartedly. And, reincarnation is one of 'em.

Although, this topic has always fascinated me in some way, I never really took it too seriously or thought about it with much vigor, for obvious reasons. That was, until last weekend that I saw a beautiful movie 'Before Sunrise', in which its protagonist explains his thoughts on reincarnation, albeit in a vague manner. And for some reasons, it made complete sense to me and sounded suchha neat and possible idea! I soo hoped that we had a technology that could somehow put some more light on this concept, if not completely decipher it.

In one particular scene, 'Jesse', played by the charming Ethan Hawke, trying mostly to impress Céline, comes up with this neat perspective on reincarnation. Intially, it sounds a bit vague. But as you ponder over it deeply with some really active imagination, you realise that it is actually a very fresh angle on the subject!

So here it goes -->


Jesse: Um, do you believe in reincarnation?

Céline: Yeah, yeah, its interesting.

Jesse: Most people, you know, a lot of people talk about the past lives, and things like that, you know, and even if they don't believe in it in some specific way, you know, people have some kind of notion of an eternal soul, right?

Céline: Yeah.

Jesse: Okay. Well, this is my thought. Fifty thousand years ago, there are not even a million people on the planet. Ten thousand years ago, there's like two million people on the planet. Now, there's between five and six billion people on the planet, right? Now, if we all have our own, like, individual, unique soul, right, where do they all come from? Are modern souls only a fraction of the original souls?. Because if they are, that represents a five thousand-to-one split of each soul in just the last fifty thousand years, which is like a blip in the earth's time. You know, so, at best, we're like these tiny fractions of people, you know, walking... I mean, is that why we're all so scattered? You know, is that why we're all so specialized?

Céline: Wait a minute, I'm not sure I...I don't....

Jesse: Hang on, I know, I know, its a totally scattered thought, which is kind of why it makes sense.

Céline: Yeah... (unsure, but laughing.) I agree with you.

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My first reaction on his interesting take on 'reincarnation' was: what if we could somehow develop such a technology that would be able to trigger that fraction of our DNA, which we evidently share with an ancestor who lived, say in 1050 A.D, to metaphorically play/experience the events that he experienced in his times! Wouldn't this in someway similar to re-incarnation?

I am not much sure of the consequences and applications of such a technology, if any. But it would indeed be something akin to a time-travel in the past (not in a physical sense but in the consciousness)! And, since the humans won't physically time-travel into the past, they won't be around to screw-up the past-timeline to create any time-travel related paradoxes! ;)

Please feel free to share your thoughts on this topic. 

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Greatness. Nothing official about it.

Disclaimer: This post is a culmination of random thoughts in my brain mostly fed by the stories I have read of truly inspirational figures throughout the history of this planet. 

What is it in some individuals that makes them achieve that elusive greatness in their respective fields? A silver spoon, one might say. Some may say, an urge to be better than others. While some more would say, that the challenge of doing something unattainable acts as a drug that motivates some to go that extra mile to achieve greatness.

If you ask me, I believe, most people who attain that elusive 'eternal' greatness, never actually go looking for it. These people are driven to desperation by the circumstances, defeated by the fate and looked down upon by the fellow humans of their times, only to finally achieve the impossible, by their sheer-will to make a difference that is invariably admired by the future generations to come.

I read somewhere: you become what you continually act as and believe in it. In my opinion, this works well if you are looking at the short term gain - mostly selfish in nature - trying to impress without actually aiming to make any real difference in the lives of others. Most times, in such cases, there is no real motivation, no 'real' reason to sustain that 'act', which makes sure that such individuals fade into oblivion just as millions of their fellow human beings.

I have always wondered, with envy I must add, as to how some prodigies are gifted with all the special ingredients to make it really big, unlike us mere mortals. But then if you observe, the percentage of these prodigies going on to do anything worthwhile, to be remembered by the people - other than their close-knit admirers - is extremely less. At most, they would be hailed by their parents/siblings/friends for their individual achievements. That's about it. What could be the reason for this? The primary reason that comes to my mind is, these prodigies are too content with this appreciation/pamper of their well-wishers (and rightly so!), to actually think of a greater good. This eventually leads to the non-attainment of that ultimate accomplishment, that could have been achieved by their immeasurable talents.

I believe, that the nature plays a wicked game here. On one hand, it gifts some with envious talents with no circumstances to fight against, hence lacking the motivation to use it to its potential. And on the other, it gifts ordinary humans with circumstances that makes them work hard to stretch their limited potential, that is, if they do wish to change these for the betterment of the future generations. In both cases, I feel, the nature likes to taunt us to somehow break the shackles and face something extraordinary with the ordinary gifts or face something ordinary with extraordinary gifts. Nature knows for sure that, very few would be able to stand up to these taunts. And those who do, are the worthy candidates of the greatness that follows their actions.

Ofcourse, there are those rare times when nature screws up and presents an insurmountable, slurpy challenge to the extraordinarily gifted individuals. And in these cases, more often than not - these fortunates march on to create a massive history and a legend for themselves. But, this is a rarity.

To conclude, I believe, 'competition' is very rarely a strong catalyst to achieve the real greatness. It is invariably achieved by the people who find their true calling, overcome the obstacles and work towards the solution for greater good by following their heart rather than following that oft-beaten path undertaken by their past/current generations. And to these great men, we, as a human race, should be perennially indebted.

Do share your thoughts. :)

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Long time...

Just a filler this is, its been a long long time since I blogged last. Busy making a career.

Watch out this space.

I-will-be-back. :D

Aniket

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Aaaayeeee Peeeee Yeeellll (I P L)

How can I be left behind when giga and tera bytes of bandwidth is being wasted on discussing the newly formed IPL, its repercussions on the traditional forms of cricket, long term effects of auctioning cricketers like commodities, and such.
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On second thoughts, I would spare our time and would just say: a lot has been discussed by news channels, various blogs and experts regarding this IPL. Now lets just get on with the game and see how the spectacle unfolds!

And yes, Mumbai is going to kick the asses of all the other city's teams..(never mind that we have the lamest of all the teams on the paper!)

Gooooo Muuumbhaaaaaaii!!! Gooooo Saaachiiiiiin!!!!!

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Monkey Business!

And the Land of snakes and elephants strikes back! Aussies(certain Andrew Symonds to be particular) gets the taste of their own medicine! Look out oz, this is new and improved India! India shining anyone? New and Improved India?? Yeah right!

If calling one of the most prolific and outstanding International cricketer some animal names is what one thinks of as the proof of India shining bright and white, then screw it, I would rather be part of the old India, where they knew how to treat the guests et al. This is rather unfortunate that, abusive, reckless, racial, cocky, aggressive behaviour is seen as the traits of the emerging superpower-a new India. I always thought, that the people who were best in the business believed in modesty, restraint and humble mannerisms, but may be being all tht is just not so cool anymore. May be, being on your face is the current trend or a fad, if you may call it so. Some may think, hell, aussies are like that, so why should we be blamed for aping them? Well, aussies are tht, agreed, but they are also a economic powerhouse, sports champs(and not just cricket, but swimming, athletics, tennis, x-games, you name it!), cleanliness freaks and many such things. Moreover, is it necessary that, we have to ape someone to prove that we are as good as them? This shows a lot of insecurity, immaturity and inferiority complex among us Indians, that we have to adopt someone else's behaviour and attitude to show off our new found confidence. And anyways, it is really weird and childish to assume that by being aggressive, cocky and abusive you would necessarily be efficient, intelligent and the one who delivers when it matters most.

I just hope that, this type of behavior portraying the new India, is limited to people like Sreesanth and those few wannabes in the Wankhede stadium. Controlled agression is anytime a boon and adds to the personality but when it goes over the top and gets personal(like that racial slur), it is nothing more than a sign of immaturity, ignorance and incompetance.

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Politically incorrect?

Is this just me or others too feel that the commotion around Lord Ram's existence is needless and pathetic to say the least? Do these politicians take the Indians as some sort of misguided morons. Ok, may be misguided, to some extent, with the media playing the big role in it by being biased to certain section. But morons? Shut up!
Seriously, does it even matter, whether Lord Ram existed or not? Does tht issue in any way diminish his importance as to the lessons learnt by his actions in the Ramayana written by Valmiki? And BJP, whom I actually believed to be the reformative party, during tht media blitz of 'India Shining', seems to have become so freakin' desperate, that they are using such inane issues to corner the ruling regime? And to know that, it was actually BJP which initiated the plan for the demolition of Ram Setu way back in 2002! Such hypocrites!
Does this say tht, BJP has actually ran out of ideas to corner the goverment or is it tht the goverment really is doing so well, that BJP has to resort to such farcical issues to shake it?
Inspite of the large section of media going for an all out war against the goverment regarding the reservation issue, have to admit that, this goverment has held its own quite well against communists and unfriendly media breathing down on its neck!
Anyways, I sincerely hope tht the good sense prevails and for once, the political parties start respecting the common man's intelligence.

P.S: If at all they had to corner this govt., they would have been better off protesting the nuclear deal much more aggresively, because if some of the communist posters are to be believed, this nuclear agreement might just turn out be one of the biggest blunder in India's history! Alas, but this wouldnt have mobilised the ordinary man to protest as he barely knows the intricacies of such a deal, right? So all this fuss, I guess. But, I say again, do not underestimate the common man's sense of right n wrong...else, we may witness a case of a big foot being firmly entrenched into a big mouth of these jokers, again!

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