I've never been good at taking care of my things. For instance, my computer doesn't obey me on anything and downloads stuff according to its own whims, my cell (which was one N72) got soaked in water twice before it decided that I don't deserve a display and later worked only when I startled it by hitting it with a hard object twice... but I lost that mobile along with my dear bag at some place I can't remember just before I broke my sun glasses and lost my bike key... I have never had a pen for more than a week in my entire life and my clothes are always stained and crumpled (especially now as I have to do my own laundry).
But I've got an ipod (which I got exchanged, because I messed up the original one) which really understands me. It's a small apple shuffle and I hold it dear because of a lot of reasons. Over the months it has become one of my closest friends. I put a selection of songs in it and kept it in the 'shuffle' mode because it's like the roller-coaster. You don't know what to expect next. The orderly playing of songs is just like a merry go round, you know whats coming and it just goes round and round. So, as I said this ipod really empathises with me.....When I am in a hurry and have to walk fast, it lets Chester cry 'I become so numb' and I find myself galloping. When I'm tired and walking slowly at the end of a long day, it gets SPB into the act and he melts into 'munpaniya, muthal mazhaiya' or Sonu Nigam eases his honey coated voice into 'kal ho na ho'. When I'm walking to classes, it introduces James Blunt and when I'm alone in buses admiring the countryside, it launches the genius of Rahman. He starts song after song, goes into a myriad of instrumental magic, builds up the momentum and ends up in symphonic style, drenching your heart out. But there are times when my ipod has its glum moments (after all it is a being too, and it has its mood swings!!). For instance, when I finish talking wonderfully with my girlfriend and can't control the smile on my face, it plays Bob Dylan or 'yeh jo des hai tera'. But then I don't change the song because I don't want to interfere in its free will and force my thoughts into it. I try talking to it but sometimes it's just not in the mood to listen. But I feel that it has the right to be like this because only a few days back, when I felt I had to let out my anger, it came up with 'time to play the game' and 'behold the king, the king of kings...on your knees dog' by Motorhead. I had ended up becoming artificially mean and it had cheered me up and I had thanked the little shuffle with all my heart. So after such a performance I felt I had to bear with the 'bob dylan' indulgences of my shuffle, because I honestly felt that it has earned it.
So we have our good days together and not so good days, but the thing is, it's always there for me (unless it runs out of battery). So I charge it up and it charges me up and we both pull it off at the end. It never worries about the dress I'm wearing or the things I did that day or what would I think of it if it didn't say hi. All it asks is that I pay a visit to it once in a while, plug it in my ears and spend some quality time with it. When no one else is there, it is always around to get my feet back on the ground, to make me smile and to make me feel, to finish a day off in solitude or to start one with vigour.
So, cheers - to shuffle and and its load of songs...
Oct 30, 2009
Oct 13, 2009
General notes and disclaimers
1. When I say things like 'honesty is the best policy' or 'life is worthless', I mean it as only my opinion. I don't include phrases like 'I feel', or 'according to me', just to keep the sentence crisp and to avoid redundancy.
2. When you find lines like 'man is a social animal' or 'a person makes a choice and he pays for it', it means 'human beings are social animals' and when a 'person chooses, he/she pays for it'.
Note: I'm not sexually biased or male chauvinistic, I follow this because of convention. Personal apologies to feminists.
3. The intention of my posts is not to bring someone round to my way of thinking but to just put my point across. I'm open to ideas and discussions and even the strongest of my ideas or theories can be dismantled and scrutinized.
4. I may consciously or unconsciously borrow some ideas from other sources like books or films. I've tried to put references whenever possible. But since this is not a professionally edited blog, I apologise if my ideas unintentionally seem to overlap with anyone else's. I don't believe that 'creativity is to know how to hide your sources'. I think creativity lies in forming our own interpretations of what we read. I believe strongly in crediting others when I borrow their ideas. So don't sue this blog for plagiarism!! :)
REFERENCES:
1. always around to get my feet back on the ground (on having an i-pod) - westlife song - 'seasons in the sun'
2. roller coaster, merry go round - comparison (on having an i-pod) - idea from movie 'Parenthood'.
3. pass the parcel - idea from the movie - 'History boys'
4. there is just so much beauty around, my heart just caves in and I feel I can't take it anymore. (Why words and beauty) - movie, American beauty.
more to be added...
2. When you find lines like 'man is a social animal' or 'a person makes a choice and he pays for it', it means 'human beings are social animals' and when a 'person chooses, he/she pays for it'.
Note: I'm not sexually biased or male chauvinistic, I follow this because of convention. Personal apologies to feminists.
3. The intention of my posts is not to bring someone round to my way of thinking but to just put my point across. I'm open to ideas and discussions and even the strongest of my ideas or theories can be dismantled and scrutinized.
4. I may consciously or unconsciously borrow some ideas from other sources like books or films. I've tried to put references whenever possible. But since this is not a professionally edited blog, I apologise if my ideas unintentionally seem to overlap with anyone else's. I don't believe that 'creativity is to know how to hide your sources'. I think creativity lies in forming our own interpretations of what we read. I believe strongly in crediting others when I borrow their ideas. So don't sue this blog for plagiarism!! :)
REFERENCES:
1. always around to get my feet back on the ground (on having an i-pod) - westlife song - 'seasons in the sun'
2. roller coaster, merry go round - comparison (on having an i-pod) - idea from movie 'Parenthood'.
3. pass the parcel - idea from the movie - 'History boys'
4. there is just so much beauty around, my heart just caves in and I feel I can't take it anymore. (Why words and beauty) - movie, American beauty.
more to be added...
The way of the heart!!
What is this thing people call values? What is honour? What is the difference between a guy who cheats on his wife and the guy who is true to his love? Does it make sense to die for something? I can't for the life of me understand guys who die for their country, guys who'd rather starve to death than steal or people who'd rather take a bullet between their eyes than disgrace their family. Well what are they trying to say? Do they think they're better than the guy who uses his opportunities, gets up the ladder in the crookedest of ways and then conceals his past to rule a great organisation or some country?
Well, I think there are three ways to live. The way of the senses, the way of the heart and the way of the mind. The way of the senses, according to me, is the worst way a person can live. He does what his senses tell him and then perishes - much like an insect or an animal. The way of the mind is to take your opportunities, put values aside, analyse your options and choose the best one. Such a person gets high up in the ladder but he never really lives, he just exists. He is like a computer.
The way of the heart is the way to live. It doesn't matter if we are right or wrong. What matters is we stand for what we believe. For truth keeps taking very many forms and rules change every fortnight but values are timeless. Values are the juice of this earth. We are all gonna die in a few years and the dust from our bones will be gone in a couple of centuries but the values will remain. When people die for a value, there is something heroic and poetic in it. Of course, heroes become dust too, but in that dust is a richer dust concealed.
When Hardy (english poet) writes about an ordinary soldier who dies for his country (Hodge the drummer) in battle (Yet an unknown piece of that land will Hodge forever be,
his northern brain and breasts grow to some southern tree;
and strange eyed constellations reign his stars eternally), an entire generation of youngsters realise the vanity of war and yet appreciate the valour of a drummer who braved the cannon when his motherland called for help. People with values die more often earlier than those who don't have one, but in their dying they tell the world that they didn't give up. They died believing and thus they pass on an idea - an idea of upholding values, of honour, of valour, of courage, of a way of life. Sometimes that's the best we can do. Believe in a value, live it, pass it on... take it, feel it, pass it on... Just, pass the parcel.
Well, I think there are three ways to live. The way of the senses, the way of the heart and the way of the mind. The way of the senses, according to me, is the worst way a person can live. He does what his senses tell him and then perishes - much like an insect or an animal. The way of the mind is to take your opportunities, put values aside, analyse your options and choose the best one. Such a person gets high up in the ladder but he never really lives, he just exists. He is like a computer.
The way of the heart is the way to live. It doesn't matter if we are right or wrong. What matters is we stand for what we believe. For truth keeps taking very many forms and rules change every fortnight but values are timeless. Values are the juice of this earth. We are all gonna die in a few years and the dust from our bones will be gone in a couple of centuries but the values will remain. When people die for a value, there is something heroic and poetic in it. Of course, heroes become dust too, but in that dust is a richer dust concealed.
When Hardy (english poet) writes about an ordinary soldier who dies for his country (Hodge the drummer) in battle (Yet an unknown piece of that land will Hodge forever be,
his northern brain and breasts grow to some southern tree;
and strange eyed constellations reign his stars eternally), an entire generation of youngsters realise the vanity of war and yet appreciate the valour of a drummer who braved the cannon when his motherland called for help. People with values die more often earlier than those who don't have one, but in their dying they tell the world that they didn't give up. They died believing and thus they pass on an idea - an idea of upholding values, of honour, of valour, of courage, of a way of life. Sometimes that's the best we can do. Believe in a value, live it, pass it on... take it, feel it, pass it on... Just, pass the parcel.
Why 'words and beauty'?
I often used to think - What's life? What is all this about? And each time I thought about it, I came up with a different answer. But the inner me kept saying that there is no purpose to this thing we call our life. And the more I thought about it, the more convinced I got that there is no plan in this planet. It's all chaos and accidents. May be that's how life itself began, by some unplanned accident of a couple of amino acids. But then here I am now, with the whole of my life before me, and what am I supposed to do with it? Well, most of the time I feel alive when I see beauty. And then I realised that there is beauty all around me.
When a guy in a simple dress tells you he's cool by the way he carries it off- without the slightest hint of self-consciousness, the way a girl looks at a boy with love in her eyes when she knows that the boy is being intelligently or foolishly foolish just to get her attention, the way a great footballer puts the simplest of passes but with so much elegance that you are raised to some stratospheric heights of bliss, the way a cat walks, the way a dog wags its tail, the way some guy lets go of an argument he knows he can win, when some unexpected incident makes you realise that you were in the wrong side of things... All of these are just some examples but there are so many day-to-day incidents that are so beautiful, if only we can open our eyes and see them. Sometimes there is just so much beauty around, you feel your heart caving in and you know you are at peace with the world. So according to me, living life is to feel that beauty. Because life is...well, beautiful. Since I can put my feelings into words here, I call this blog 'words and beauty'.
But i'm just beginning to realise a lot of things and I have no talent for certainty. I keep learning, unlearning and re-learning and I might contradict myself in the next blog or press upon my point more. Whatever I do, the viewers of this democratic blog have all the freedom to argue, condemn or agree with what I write.
So come on in....WELCOME to http://wordsandbeauty.blogspot.com/.
When a guy in a simple dress tells you he's cool by the way he carries it off- without the slightest hint of self-consciousness, the way a girl looks at a boy with love in her eyes when she knows that the boy is being intelligently or foolishly foolish just to get her attention, the way a great footballer puts the simplest of passes but with so much elegance that you are raised to some stratospheric heights of bliss, the way a cat walks, the way a dog wags its tail, the way some guy lets go of an argument he knows he can win, when some unexpected incident makes you realise that you were in the wrong side of things... All of these are just some examples but there are so many day-to-day incidents that are so beautiful, if only we can open our eyes and see them. Sometimes there is just so much beauty around, you feel your heart caving in and you know you are at peace with the world. So according to me, living life is to feel that beauty. Because life is...well, beautiful. Since I can put my feelings into words here, I call this blog 'words and beauty'.
But i'm just beginning to realise a lot of things and I have no talent for certainty. I keep learning, unlearning and re-learning and I might contradict myself in the next blog or press upon my point more. Whatever I do, the viewers of this democratic blog have all the freedom to argue, condemn or agree with what I write.
So come on in....WELCOME to http://wordsandbeauty.blogspot.com/.
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