Of parting ways...

Every one wants a partner in crime. Though no crime may actually be involved but just knowing that a friend, a best friend, would be there ready to share your punishment, ready to take the blame! And life is so simple cause you have a person, in the same predicament, contemplating on the same choices, apprehensive about the same decisions, and skeptical of the happiness coming his/her way. Its like walking hand in hand towards the sun, just that there is no real hand holding involved.

I guess the worst part of growing up is that at each junction of life, you lose a co-passenger. Sometimes to distance, sometimes to fate, sometimes to time itself. And it leaves behind that void, the loss of a person who could be in your shoes and tell you that your socks smell bad! In short a person with whom you share life, not always by choice, but more so because your fates are intertwined in some unfathomable way. The presence of so many such people in the same predicament is what, I guess, makes school and college lives so easy, and professional life progressively harder. Chopra was my partner in crime since the time I can remember. Tomorrow, we'd have parted ways, to different paths. And though he is and shall remain my best friend for life, I'd miss the times when he made my part of the shit feel better just by telling he was in it too. All the best mate. Good luck and God bless. Love u!

Tagore's letter to the viceroy.

Posting it as an example of beautifully written English. The message ain't too bad either!

All that glitters is gold

So I finally had the chance to visit my native land. Punjab, the land of five rivers. To be honest, I am actually quite wary of true "Punjabis", typically I find their pompousness and exuberance scary at times. And Golden Temple sounded like the perfect example of the Punjabi psyche which would go something like - "Ofcourse marble is expensive but Gold is even more expensive, so while people make temples of marble lets make a temple where we put Gold over marble".

Hmmmmmmmmmmmm....

Well, my personal interactions with the golden color though rather infrequent, have been enough to convince me of its paucity in making things prettier, especially when used in large amounts. In fact, my trip to the golden temple was triggered more by spiritual reasons and the fact that after a long time our family was on vacation together. But, golden temple or the darbar sahib as it is called by the locals, is one place where the sikh pompousness has payed off. The sight of the golden island swimming on the lake is stunning and the contrast of the golden colors encircled by white colored temples is the same as what would be between us mortals and the almighty. Thats all I have to say. Do go there when you can. If nothing else, just the sight of all the pilgrims would make you respect the holy Grantha Sahib, and suddenly you will confess to yourself what you never thought possible. Suddenly you'll feel, as I did, that somehow it makes more sense to respect and worship a book that preaches conduct, than a divine human being born in the times of our ancestors.

Think about it :)

The Dunning Kruger effect

The Dunning-Kruger effect is the phenomenon wherein people who have little knowledge think that they know more than others who have much more knowledge.

Coming soon!

So who decides what you deserve?

POLAND—Teresa, a child in a residence for disturbed children, grew up in a concentration camp. She has drawn a picture of “home” on the blackboard, 1948. © David Seymour

I feel the fear of tomorrow in people around me. I feel the need to perform within them. It was perfectly fine if they were doing things for themselves. But instead, typical reason given for it is that you get only one life and you don't want to end up getting less than what you deserve.

My question is, who decides what you deserve? What makes one ask for more and feel he deserves more? You may feel that life is not fair, that God is against you, that your fate is screwed up and this is is not what you were entitled to. But what exactly are you entitled to? Where in the offer document of life is there a promise it would be fair? Can you justify the things you were born with, and the things you now take for granted, never questioning, just assuming their perennial presence? If not, then how can life be called unjust?

I think it is unfair to call life unfair till you take into account all the things you were born with. I guess its a human limitation that it is unresponsive to the absolute quantity and can only recognize change. Just as the human mind doesn't recognize speed but feels acceleration, doesn't feel heat but can tell when it flows in or out. The human mind can recognize only deltas. And, I guess, this limitation makes us utter crazy things that "life has not been fair". Look around, be thankful for the senses, for the mind, for the beauty. In this great plan of the cosmos don't ask for fairness, don't question what you deserve, just enjoy the ride. Have a great time !