A light-snot-green coloured face full of tentacles, neither living nor dead, cursed to exist forever—that is the devil of the sea, Davy Jones. Those of you who have seen the movie, The Pirates of the Caribbean, would know what I am talking about. But the question is why am I talking about it? What is the relevance of a mythical character from another time, in our world today?
Well, there is. You see, whether it was “Long, long ago”, the Victorian times, or the Stone Age, there was and there always will be the human emotion which people call love. Every fairy-tale that we have read, every story of crime, every war, every epic has the central theme as love. The love could be for various things—material or otherwise; but more often than not, it’s the romantic kind. And that kind is the most dangerous. Davy Jones, like a lot of us, learnt the same. But while lesser mortals like us tried to get over it (only to fall again in its trap later), Davy Jones came up with the most brilliant idea. He cut out his heart, placed the still beating heart in an iron chest, locked it up. And put it in a place far far away, where he could never reach. Now that’s a plan.
I think this is the best way to survive in this world. I am sure all of us, at some point, have been hurt, betrayed, and left alone. If you don’t have a heart, you will never be heart-broken. You needn’t kill yourself. You just need to kill the cause of all sorrows—your heart. Take it out and keep it away from yourself.
(Warning: You are not in a fable, so don’t try to carve out your heart with a knife; you need to do it metaphorically.) Lock your heart away in a heavy iron chest so that even you cannot hear it beating. Forget that there exists something in the world called love or warmth, friendship, care (all are manifestations of the same evil). You need to be cold and unfeeling. Achieve heartlessness. Neither living, nor dead. No wants or desires, no hopes or dreams, no wishes and no fears. That is how you should exist in this world. Because that is the only way you can survive. Just like the immortal Davy Jones.
Sunday, November 14, 2010
Thursday, August 12, 2010
Constant Change
Change is the only constant in life. Agreed. And more often than not, it is good too. Otherwise life would become too boring and monotonous. But what about constant change? Is that good too?
What if your entire life, you have been moving from place to place, never truly understanding the meaning of the word “hometown” or even “home”, for that matter? What if every 2-3 years, you had to move to a new city, a new home, got to a new school, make new friends, only to move to some other place and do it all over again?
You know how we have this habit of asking a new person we are getting introduced to, “Where are you from?” or “Which place do you belong to?”. I never really knew what to answer when faced with this question. Do I name the place from where I have recently moved? But I was only there for two years. Do I name the place where I have stayed for the longest duration? But that was a long time ago. Then, do I name the place where I was born? All these questions are triggered by that ONE question “Where are you from?”
Movement is good. You get to see different places. You are introduced to different societies, different cultures. And in this new barrier-less world, that’s a huge plus. It helps you get acclimatized very easily and also gives you a more cosmopolitan outlook. It also helps you become more social. Lets face it…a human being CANNOT live alone. He wasn’t meant to; so even if you don’t want, sooner or later you’ll have to talk to people (people you might not even like, to start with)for some query or assistance. This is especially the case when you move to a new city. And this single act of reaching out to people makes you more social.
The flip side—you are not attached to your roots. Hell, what roots? You don’t even know where you belong. Does that affect your sense of identity? You don’t get to have childhood buddies or life-long friends, simply because you did not get to grow up with them. You moved and they didn’t. You may make friends everywhere, but to truly nurture a friendship, or any bond, you need time. Long distance relationships can at most be maintained, not built. So, you leave behind unfinished associations, which given time could have developed into something more meaningful. You end up having lots of friends, but not a single “best friend”.
So, coming back to the original question—is it good? I guess the real question here is: Change is good, but how often and for how long?
What if your entire life, you have been moving from place to place, never truly understanding the meaning of the word “hometown” or even “home”, for that matter? What if every 2-3 years, you had to move to a new city, a new home, got to a new school, make new friends, only to move to some other place and do it all over again?
You know how we have this habit of asking a new person we are getting introduced to, “Where are you from?” or “Which place do you belong to?”. I never really knew what to answer when faced with this question. Do I name the place from where I have recently moved? But I was only there for two years. Do I name the place where I have stayed for the longest duration? But that was a long time ago. Then, do I name the place where I was born? All these questions are triggered by that ONE question “Where are you from?”
Movement is good. You get to see different places. You are introduced to different societies, different cultures. And in this new barrier-less world, that’s a huge plus. It helps you get acclimatized very easily and also gives you a more cosmopolitan outlook. It also helps you become more social. Lets face it…a human being CANNOT live alone. He wasn’t meant to; so even if you don’t want, sooner or later you’ll have to talk to people (people you might not even like, to start with)for some query or assistance. This is especially the case when you move to a new city. And this single act of reaching out to people makes you more social.
The flip side—you are not attached to your roots. Hell, what roots? You don’t even know where you belong. Does that affect your sense of identity? You don’t get to have childhood buddies or life-long friends, simply because you did not get to grow up with them. You moved and they didn’t. You may make friends everywhere, but to truly nurture a friendship, or any bond, you need time. Long distance relationships can at most be maintained, not built. So, you leave behind unfinished associations, which given time could have developed into something more meaningful. You end up having lots of friends, but not a single “best friend”.
So, coming back to the original question—is it good? I guess the real question here is: Change is good, but how often and for how long?
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
Music--food for the soul
After all the introductions, I thought it was high time I actually wrote about something. Enough of this vagueness and nothingness. I kept thinking what should I start with? Generally, its very easy for me to write if I feel very strongly about any particular subject—be it the state of “customer service” in our country, or the so-called democracy, or people in their various masks. And then it hit me, all these are things I dislike. Why is it that we always express our negative feelings more vociferously than the good ones? Well, I won’t want to do that, at least not today. So, customer service can wait. Today I want to write about what makes me happy.
So, what does make me happy? Cozy nights under a warm blanket with a hot cup of coffee; watching the rains from my balcony on cold grey mornings; going on a long drive under clear blue skies—and someone to share all this with. Music. Someone rightly said, “Music gives soul to the universe
Wings to the mind
Flight to the imagination
And life to everything”.
There’s a tune for every occasion, for every feeling, for every mood. Some of the most beautiful songs are the ones which everyone can relate to. I bet all of us have felt at some point or another, “Oh my god! This song was meant for me”. Or “this is exactly how I feel today”.
Nothing better to put me in an upbeat mood than Cliff Richards on a Sunday morning—Bachelor Boy, Dancing Shoes, Summer Holiday, and it goes on. For those long lonely afternoons, there’s Eddie Vedder with Guaranteed, Society or Hard Sun. If you are in love, there are a countless songs you feel like listening to. Same is the story for the heart-broken souls. Music can give you joy, sometimes move you to tears, motivate you and tell you not to give up, make you dance and even make you sleep. Can you think of any other single thing in this world that can do so much for you?
My favourite group, The Beatles—you can always go to them for anything you need, they have a song for every feeling you can imagine. From the romantic Baby Its You, to the dreamy Strawberry Fields, from the sad Yesterday to the chirpy Octupus’s Garden, from the first feelings of love in If I Fell or I’ve Just Seen a Face to the heart-broken While My Guitar Gently Weeps—the list is endless. I can go on about them, maybe I should write a separate post for them.
Generations have been built on music. Revolutions have raged throughout the world based on music. Can anyone forget the Hippies with their slogan of flower power—love, peace, music? Bob Dylan’s songs became the anthems for civil rights and anti-war movements in the 1960s’ USA. Reggae artist Eddy Grant’s Gimme Hope Jo’anna became the most popular theme for anti-apartheid all over the world. Have we ever thought why we have a national anthem or song? Why not have a national poem, instead? Why is it that we sing “Happy Birthday”, and also have ‘bhajans’ or ‘keertans’ when someone dies?
Then there are memories. You always tend to associate a song with someone or some period or a specific day in your life. Whenever I listen to Cliff or Elvis, it always takes me back to my sunny childhood days when Sundays meant watching TV, no studying, Mom running behind us to go take a bath, and having something special for breakfast and lunch. Ghulam Ali, Jagjit Singh and Kishore Kumar remind me of Dad, every single time I hear them. The first song I learnt to perform was Raindrops on Roses from Sound of Music. Then there are the Bollywood songs which me and my sister were crazy about during our teen-years. Even though we are miles away now, we can still have an hour long chat over the phone interspersed with songs from those days. I still remember the song which my first crush had sung for me. And all the songs which ‘that someone special’ had dedicated to me, at different points in life.
Sometimes I wonder, will a road trip be as enjoyable if you don’t have a Country Roads or Life is a Highway, playing in the background? Won’t those lonely nights be sadder if you didn’t have Frank Sinatra croon to you? Imagine how boring housework will be if there’s no happy beat in the background. Or what about a romantic evening without music—wouldn’t it feel as if something’s missing?
I wake up every morning to music, a song plays on in my head all day, and the last thing I do before I sleep at night is….you guessed it right…music again. I have a theme song which talks about my deepest beliefs, and I have a ‘me’ song which describes me accurately. Am I mad about music? Or are there millions and millions of people in the world who do the same? My guess would be the latter. Are you one of them?
So, what does make me happy? Cozy nights under a warm blanket with a hot cup of coffee; watching the rains from my balcony on cold grey mornings; going on a long drive under clear blue skies—and someone to share all this with. Music. Someone rightly said, “Music gives soul to the universe
Wings to the mind
Flight to the imagination
And life to everything”.
There’s a tune for every occasion, for every feeling, for every mood. Some of the most beautiful songs are the ones which everyone can relate to. I bet all of us have felt at some point or another, “Oh my god! This song was meant for me”. Or “this is exactly how I feel today”.
Nothing better to put me in an upbeat mood than Cliff Richards on a Sunday morning—Bachelor Boy, Dancing Shoes, Summer Holiday, and it goes on. For those long lonely afternoons, there’s Eddie Vedder with Guaranteed, Society or Hard Sun. If you are in love, there are a countless songs you feel like listening to. Same is the story for the heart-broken souls. Music can give you joy, sometimes move you to tears, motivate you and tell you not to give up, make you dance and even make you sleep. Can you think of any other single thing in this world that can do so much for you?
My favourite group, The Beatles—you can always go to them for anything you need, they have a song for every feeling you can imagine. From the romantic Baby Its You, to the dreamy Strawberry Fields, from the sad Yesterday to the chirpy Octupus’s Garden, from the first feelings of love in If I Fell or I’ve Just Seen a Face to the heart-broken While My Guitar Gently Weeps—the list is endless. I can go on about them, maybe I should write a separate post for them.
Generations have been built on music. Revolutions have raged throughout the world based on music. Can anyone forget the Hippies with their slogan of flower power—love, peace, music? Bob Dylan’s songs became the anthems for civil rights and anti-war movements in the 1960s’ USA. Reggae artist Eddy Grant’s Gimme Hope Jo’anna became the most popular theme for anti-apartheid all over the world. Have we ever thought why we have a national anthem or song? Why not have a national poem, instead? Why is it that we sing “Happy Birthday”, and also have ‘bhajans’ or ‘keertans’ when someone dies?
Then there are memories. You always tend to associate a song with someone or some period or a specific day in your life. Whenever I listen to Cliff or Elvis, it always takes me back to my sunny childhood days when Sundays meant watching TV, no studying, Mom running behind us to go take a bath, and having something special for breakfast and lunch. Ghulam Ali, Jagjit Singh and Kishore Kumar remind me of Dad, every single time I hear them. The first song I learnt to perform was Raindrops on Roses from Sound of Music. Then there are the Bollywood songs which me and my sister were crazy about during our teen-years. Even though we are miles away now, we can still have an hour long chat over the phone interspersed with songs from those days. I still remember the song which my first crush had sung for me. And all the songs which ‘that someone special’ had dedicated to me, at different points in life.
Sometimes I wonder, will a road trip be as enjoyable if you don’t have a Country Roads or Life is a Highway, playing in the background? Won’t those lonely nights be sadder if you didn’t have Frank Sinatra croon to you? Imagine how boring housework will be if there’s no happy beat in the background. Or what about a romantic evening without music—wouldn’t it feel as if something’s missing?
I wake up every morning to music, a song plays on in my head all day, and the last thing I do before I sleep at night is….you guessed it right…music again. I have a theme song which talks about my deepest beliefs, and I have a ‘me’ song which describes me accurately. Am I mad about music? Or are there millions and millions of people in the world who do the same? My guess would be the latter. Are you one of them?
Monday, August 9, 2010
Much to write about nothing
George Eliot once said, “Blessed is the man who, having nothing to say, abstains from giving worthy evidence of the fact.” Well…I don’t quite agree.
So here I am, having absolutely no clue what I am going to write about, but giving it a shot anyway. Boredom is the mother of all invention…that’s what I always say. What do you do when you have nothing to do? Have you ever thought about that? Neither did I…until now.
When you have too many things going on in your head, your best friend is the pen (or the keyboard, as is in my case). Just keep writing; who knows what will come out—a solution to your biggest problem, dark secrets about yourself even you did not know, your deepest feelings and desires or maybe a creation fit for the Nobel Prize in Literature.
So, here goes nothing….
So here I am, having absolutely no clue what I am going to write about, but giving it a shot anyway. Boredom is the mother of all invention…that’s what I always say. What do you do when you have nothing to do? Have you ever thought about that? Neither did I…until now.
When you have too many things going on in your head, your best friend is the pen (or the keyboard, as is in my case). Just keep writing; who knows what will come out—a solution to your biggest problem, dark secrets about yourself even you did not know, your deepest feelings and desires or maybe a creation fit for the Nobel Prize in Literature.
So, here goes nothing….
Friday, August 6, 2010
Hope Floats
This is not the first time I have started a blog. I started blogging around three years back. My first blog had the same name—A Perfect Mess. It started off as a nice fun thing, but slowly kept getting more and more bitter. What we write is only a reflection of what we feel. As the world I knew came crashing down around me, I started feeling more alienated from society. There was a general mistrust in the nature of human beings, and I decide to take a break from society. I didn’t want to be in touch with the world in any form. And so I deleted my blog as well.
Recharged, here I am, after six months, and I am thinking of giving it another go. We do a lot of things at the heat of the moment. Sometimes we do not realize it, since the moment lasts so long—we think it was a well thought-out decision. In hindsight, I do feel bad that I don’t have a copy of anything I wrote. After all, they were my creations. Good or bad, you do tend to develop a kind of motherly sentiment towards them. I will try to recreate some of them, as and when I feel like. I know they wouldn’t exactly be the same, but I would still want to have some remnants of them, whichever form they might be in. After a while, all memories become good memories.
So, here comes my comeback. Hopefully, it will be a good journey and I wouldn’t need to delete it ever again. As a saying goes, “Hope, deceitful as it is, serves at least to lead us to the end of our lives by an agreeable route.” Here’s to hope and to agreeable routes…
Recharged, here I am, after six months, and I am thinking of giving it another go. We do a lot of things at the heat of the moment. Sometimes we do not realize it, since the moment lasts so long—we think it was a well thought-out decision. In hindsight, I do feel bad that I don’t have a copy of anything I wrote. After all, they were my creations. Good or bad, you do tend to develop a kind of motherly sentiment towards them. I will try to recreate some of them, as and when I feel like. I know they wouldn’t exactly be the same, but I would still want to have some remnants of them, whichever form they might be in. After a while, all memories become good memories.
So, here comes my comeback. Hopefully, it will be a good journey and I wouldn’t need to delete it ever again. As a saying goes, “Hope, deceitful as it is, serves at least to lead us to the end of our lives by an agreeable route.” Here’s to hope and to agreeable routes…
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