Catharsis

I don't have the guts to break away from the rut and do something different. I don't even know what different is anymore. Somehow it was easier to define when I gave it much less thought. Being a JK Rowling is different? I don't know but I have this funny feeling that my blog will help me break away. I don't know how. I have this funny feeling though.

Advancement in technology has brought people closer? Virtually or whatever. I am not happy with this new world. It's like a crowded street. The oxygen is getting sucked out and its giving me a headache. I lived in a small world. I liked that. I don't like this new world. Everyone knows what everyone else is doing. That is gratifying for a couple of minutes but it kills the spark. The spark in new conversations lies in discovery. With all the crap floating around and you know how everyone look, looks and will look and did, does and will do, there's nothing new to find anymore.

I mean if Columbus were given a picture of how all the world looks, it would have killed him. May give him a jolt or a kick for a minute but then the pain of knowing that everything to find is already mapped is annoying.

We'll probably become like the wildbeasts migrating across the serengeti. (okay, punctuations are annoying me now so less and less of them) living the cycle of life by moving away from dry land - to the rains - to the lions - to parenting - to the leap of faith - to the crocodiles - to death to some and ageing to others.

Boredom

This need to minimize uncertainty leads to small bits of happiness, gratification in rewards at work, compliments from the boss, admiration of the peers and the intensity of each of these little things diminish over the years because they become routine and present less and less of a challenge. You either look at everyday as an opportunity to find a happy moment or as a challenge to minimize unhappy moments.

I nailed the spikes of facebook phobia. I don't hate it but there's too much noise for my liking. I enjoy my solitude. its easy and peaceful. It's less painful to live in your own of expectations and likes. Whatever keeps you happy lets you sleep at night. it doesn't matter if you spent your day swabbing away a toilet.

Listening

The idea of listening to life closely is compelling. The idea of fate is compelling. Every turn can be attributed to an incident. You never expected the incident or planned for it but it set your bowling ball on a very different lane. Sometimes you missed the pins completely, sometimes you did okay, sometimes good but the only thing that probably still matters is you still don't have a strike. The pins are formidable and you wait for years to get the perfect shot. It is the perfect shot that eludes you. Probably because the idea of perfection changes continually.

Inertia

It's been more than a year since I posted here. I guess I chickened out in between. I didn't have the guts to be judged. Maybe I got bored of the intellectual masturbation. A lot of water has flown under the bridge since.

I was becoming too boring to myself. I couldn't think outside my work. I want to get back to reading and writing. Its like a note only I enjoy. The fewer the readers, the better. I am happier to be secretly admired by few than be berated and admired by many. Its a quieter life.

Long time

I am afraid of taking risks. Therefore I seek instant gratification

For all the men who seek smart women - Go for the one you can write a book with

J.K. Rowling at Harvard

http://harvardmagazine.com/commencement/the-fringe-benefits-failure-the-importance-imagination?
J.K. Rowling delivers an Address, “The Fringe Benefits of Failure, and the Importance of Imagination,” at the Annual Meeting of the Harvard Alumni Association.The choice of words, use of language, tone of voice and unsophisticated delivery. As magical and captivating as her novels.

My favorite snippet - "You might never fail on the scale I did, but some failure in life is inevitable. It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all – in which case, you fail by default."

India's B-schools

Good article on the top Indian B-Schools
http://www.ankit9doshi.com/dope-on-b-schools-in-india-mba-1/placements-at-b-schools-in-india

Images of words

the distant green, a field in fall,
the remains of a hurried man
a streak of bright light oblivious to covers
a jittery bird by the sill, brown, ruffled
the artist commits colours to images
the poet commits images to words

Kahlil Gibran on...

My favorite snippet from Kahlil Gibran's poet, madman....

....Children

Your children are not your children.

They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself.

They come through you but not from you,

And though they are with you, yet they belong not to you.

You may give them your love but not your thoughts.

For they have their own thoughts.

You may house their bodies but not their souls,

For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow, which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.

You may strive to be like them, but seek not to make them like you.

For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.
You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth

The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite, and He bends you with His might that His arrows may go swift and far.

Let your bending in the archer's hand be for gladness;
For even as He loves the arrow that flies, so He loves also the bow that is stable.

... Marriage

You were born together, and together you shall be forevermore.

You shall be together when the white wings of death scatter your days.

Ay, you shall be together even in the silent memory of God.

But let there be spaces in your togetherness,And let the winds of the heavens dance between you.

Love one another, but make not a bond of love:

Let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls.

Fill each other's cup but drink not from one cup.

Give one another of your bread but eat not from the same loaf

Sing and dance together and be joyous, but let each one of you be alone,

Even as the strings of a lute are alone though they quiver with the same music.

Give your hearts, but not into each other's keeping.

For only the hand of Life can contain your hearts.

And stand together yet not too near together:For the pillars of the temple stand apart,

And the oak tree and the cypress grow not in each other's shadow.

Innocence

Zipping across the lawns of fantasy and reality
The little child, unaware, darts and jumps
bounces back two decades later and zips
across the lawns of fantasy and reality, unaware