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Thursday, August 25, 2005

Viola!

the heading is actually to be read as, why law?
and the question is subsequently answered.
Black and white. Wrong and right. Yin and Yang. Everything , will in the end be flattened to the same level like it happened after the deluge in Mumbai. The wrong will definitely be punished, the law of karma is ever binding.
This brings me to a question Nick asked me about why i chose law. I don't think i was equipped enough to answer the question then - because i started to blame the law.'A bad workman blames his tools.'
But now i feel i can answer the question satisfactorily.

Justice is truth.
Truth is reason.
Reason is whose mercy upon which we thrive.
Not that a written code of conduct is to be strictly folowed, but law helps in guiding your life straighter lines, which makes for your participation in society. We are in every way connected to other people, no man is an island. Society and its opinions are our yardsticks, whichever side of the line we're on. (For eg., we might be 'bad' only because everyone else has a higher degree of goodness)

Now, why law?
I'll try to answer that indirectly. A situation was placed before me, wherein a poor man direly in need of money murders this man who's well off and takes his money. Nick said justice would be if the poor man was availed money by different means, not if he was put behind bars.
I couldn't answer well then, but here is a good idea.
We are all born as we are, in our families, to our parents, as a result of 'chance'. The nation (a nation is only an abstract idea, scrape away people, and their values and it doesn't exist) is not liable for a person's birth, fate and his standing in society.
The government is only the elected representative promoting order and sorting out administrative difficulties, and being a leader when the people need one.
In this particular case, a man lost his life due to another's misery. In such a case, the law requires that both people be treated equally, for in the end that's all it came to, one, armed; the other- defenceless, and their monetary status was irrelevant at the point of murder. The poor man's logic is irrefutable - but so is the rich man's (bless his soul) - I procured my money, through hardwork or by inheritance. It's not my fault that the man is poor.
A combination of logistics then, based on whichever is more oriented towards the general, wide-angle view of normalcy in society triumphs.
For in the end, we survive on the banks of sanity - so we can prevent random and protect people from harm.
Law makes its entry here.
Where we need an impartial party, because if there is agreement, there is bound to be disagreement by virtue of them being two sides of the same coin. disputes need to be sorted, upheavals nullified - and somebody that looks upon a situation and only gives it the value and attention it deserves - objectively.
In another instance, if one person slaps another with weak teeth, and all his teeth fall out, the slapper is only held liable for the hurt caused due to the strike and not the falling off of his teeth. Because weak teeth aren't normal - and normalcy accounts for justice.
And it isn't that normalcy doesn't comply with reason.
In fact, normalcy is an offshoot of collective reason, and derives its definition from it.
And that's why, i guess, law.
Deciphering the cryptic code, untangling the twisted web of the human mind - applying a logic as clear cut as math in everyday life and situations. The joy of reasoning...finally i did justice to the question!

Sunday, August 21, 2005

i apologize - whether u like it or not.

i was wondering if i have enough sense to make the discretion between a private blog and one for the world to see, and i now realize i don't. So, preetika and if existent, any other visitor, please bear while i...let out.
It's actually by a great effort that i'm sitting myself down to type this out. and i dont think i'm gonna last till the point i wanna make.

I finally realized where we were different B, and it sort of saddens me that we didn't see that coming, and even if we did individually, we didn't talk it out so we could put it behind us. The two of you, if you've noticed, are much more cynical. And you think yourself strictly above some things, some of that strength you derive is from each other. Whereas with H and me, we don't entrust ourselves to each other. You remember you said, his problems might become my problems? well, they were, much before we met. We're pretty similar that way. We've given each other utmost freedom, so much so, even the slightest interference is deemed unhealthy. You might scoff at it in all probability - but i've seen you guys, and i've seen where your inherent weakness lies; i'm real sorry but i wouldn't wanna trade.
After my conversation with N today, i sought an answer to the question making rounds in my head - either way, one of us is gonna get hurt. If i come on so defensive, that it actually offends, you get hurt, but if i shut up and let you go on, i'll be real upset. I don't know if this is the way it should be.
And by all means, you shouldn't be reading this; you were part of an experiment that went horribly wrong. Horribly. But, my curiosity did get the better of me - i'm sorry, whether you like it or not.

Saturday, August 13, 2005

My theory - its still raw.

‘A guilty scion of some hopeless miscreants, I am’ – a line I’d used in a previous piece of poetry. But I don’t agree now, no. I’m not guilty.

I can’t help but feel that we are the scientists. Every one of us, save the few unwilling guinea pigs of course. We, the one writing this and the ones that’ll read it, belong to a millennium that holds great ties to the ones that discovered water, land, energy, food, transport, money, electricity, communication. We invented machinery, vehicles, gadgets, agriculture, and art and toyed with philosophical questions ethics, finesse and introspection and questions and more questions falling in an endless void of meaning and garble-babble in one mixed bag.

And finally we concluded that questioning was a benchmark of profoundness and erudition; that curiosity was the only thing that kept us going.

We took pride in not knowing, and rightly so. We had no other choice!

A lot of people shout themselves hoarse trying to bring to your notice the ruthless erosion we are making of the Earth’s cover, the cultivation and re-cultivation until a time comes where the land is rendered unfit for further use. Ask us to take steps to slow it down, bring down the mindless destruction – but their pleas fall on deaf ears.

Mine voice used to plead – now I’ve clogged my cochlea. And I’m better off this way, than the constant biting guilt – ugh, I finally grew out of it.

My theory is that we will continue to expand and erode at this very rate and maybe faster as the years go by, until we proverbially lie down in the coffins we built by beheading trees. Curiosity and the unending thirst to know, surpasses values and the mystery wrapped around concepts of divinity.

Vielleicht das nachste mal.

In a different era, a different time zone.

But we, are part of this era, this race which is doomed to imperfection. As we’re the unafraid lot – the stunt guys. We can see what has resulted of our impulses and our crudeness.

Mother nature will have to allow our mistakes this time, we were in the process of discovery – exploration. In our urge to ‘find out’ and unearth ideas of modern science, technology and the never ending arenas that capture the human mind day after day, we got a little too excited. Too much in too little time, I’d say. That we have conceptualized and envisaged neo-tech and science growing beyond reaches we can ever claim to have walked by. Our minds are, at the moment juggernauts waiting to crush. Maybe the juggernaut will launch itself into a self-deprecating avalanche and finally perish. But if it is to perish, it will do so in glory. With the jewels of the fresh and indigenous knowledge encrusted in our gravestones.

The ones that come later on, will have fewer instincts, urges, will lead more pacific lives.
But they’ll miss out on wondering as we did, just as we did with applied geography.


Thursday, August 11, 2005

ME aGaInsT tHe mOneY!!

I was at Coffee day with Nikhil today. (God, i used to wait for the time when i could say that casually) Yes, i spent my money on a chococino, and also wasted my fuel in riding uptil there, back to college, where i realized i didn't have my observation book and came back home. What a terrible waste of time and money (and here i am, blogging. Wah!)
I was thinking how easy it is for me to do things, experience 'the life' - lead a comfortable existence in the lap of luxury. With nothing much to worry about, save my academics - which had taken a severe beating at the beginning of the year...
I'm living a wonderful life. I'm well-off, intelligent, ambitious, fun-loving and you know...good. I'm doing what i wanna, and nobody seems to have a problem.

Sometimes, i try to make myself feel guilty for not being a little thrifty bout my moolah. Upon calculation, i just realized that i got 800 bucks this month! the month isn't yet up, and i haven't gotten the 800 full figure, but still...man, i gotta save atleast 350 out of it, or it'll be a crying shame. My money management skills have never been something you can write home about, infact i haven't even earned money properly, if you don't count the pittance which i get from vacuuming, and gardening and the domestic drudgery. I feel like i'm wasting most of my time, i have so many facilities, so many things to do, and i thought i didn't have the time. pish-posh. i have as much time as i can want to have, if i really want something done, i'll have to forego sleep, but then - it'll be done! I need to become more valuable - that's in an abstract sense though. well, i need to do more, when i can. When i have the time and opportunity, i shouldn't waste it and look at others who started off together wimme and ended up at the top while i'm still groping. Nopey! Full steam ahead i say! I got work to do.

Sunday, August 07, 2005

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxox

Beauty is truth - truth beauty.
Music and laughter, good food and drink. Interesting conversations with people - i sometimes wonder what more i want...really. Except for money, of course, which facilitates all of these, easily.
Music does encompass me. It fulfills me. Makes me feel happy for being alive - i have to, its a must, for me to listen to music, some form of it, everyday. Apart from myself humming random tunes in my head throughout the day, that doesn't count.
Drastically off topic,
but, i was at Yeshas's treat today - it was pretty okay. I was being myself - and people liked it, moreover, i did as well. There was no ambiguity as to what i was going to say next and all, i knew i would say the right thing, because i was allowing myself to say whatever i wanted. Turns out i'm not that rude, or that boring, or that overbearing and sensitive.
It was just me and a few guys. But we had fun, it wasn't like there was a clear demarcation.
People aren't dumb, we just make it harder for ourselves if we think so. and if it does get so hard, just remove yourself, its all in the mind.

Saturday, August 06, 2005

WHEW!!

VInoba Bhave said he'd like to be remembered as a person who did as he preached. As i go along the meandering path of self-discovery - i realize how hard it is to do that. I usually dismiss such things as bunkum, the affinity people have for the 'propah' and 'righteous' now, i gotta see what the other side actually is, and make new decisions accordingly. This i will allow myself, for this one year, whatever i am - whoever i be, will be a conscious volition.

Monday, August 01, 2005

why don't you see it?

look hard. think hard. seriously.

i hate it when we start considering it a duty to care for someone. We have choices, if we want to run away from someone, its our choice. If it would be potentially dangerous for either them or us, it might be wrong, but it still is our choice. If we are prepared to take the flak and justify what we did - its done. We needn't question our choices, we should contemplate the reasons for making them - that's all.
Most people I know, especially immediate family, seem to want to work towards making this a family. I don't agree with that approach, at all. It all becomes forced, and fake after a while. We start expecting, in fact, demanding favours. And additionally demand that they all be done without any hesitance or reluctance. No. I believe, everyone does everything for themselves. And there's nothing wrong with it anyway, but i'll look into that some other time.
We tend to engage in roleplay more often than not. It reduces the burden of thinking and planning originally to a large extent, which we are 'too tired' to do most of the time. And moreover these are tried and tested methods, with readymade solutions - we lose on our actual relations. I can't stand that fakeness, and anybody who blames me or gets pissed at me for being honest can take a hike. For me its one way or the other, i don't see the gray path.
Why do we take up events and subjects and view them from the point of view of what we're supposed to do with them? And not what we want to do? Because as long as it is really what we want, we can justify it with real sense.
I heard so many ridiculous statements being made by my mom yday; one of them went, "this is what a sister is supposed to do" when she asked me to advice my sis bout something and i refused. How does she know? How on earth can she claim to know better what i'm supposed to do than myself?
Frustration can turn you crazy sometimes. Frustration that comes out of not having done the right thing at the right time; and the only right thing is whatever you want to do. Period.