Some times the experiences in church can be truly moving! I arrived in church a bit late. The sermon was going on. "You must help when you see people who are in need." 'Oh yeah' I thought as just the night before I had commented to my friend on facebook that it is dangerous to have a good heart and one had better hide it!
"But Jesus never said you wont have troubles" continued the priest. "He would give you strength to handle the troubles of each day and he has said not to worry about tomorrow as each day has enough troubles of its own. Just don't tire of doing good."
I was mellow now but was thinking, 'What's the use anyway of any good we do, any advice we give? It doesn't seem to be interesting to anybody.'
"Many people left Jesus saying that his teachings are too hard." continued the priest."Jesus was also insecure and asked his disciples, 'Will you also leave me?' He also said, 'When I come again will I find any faith?' Jesus even felt isolated from God while on his cross and cried to Him, 'Why have you abandoned me'. It is important that we rise above our anxieties and ask God in prayer '..protect us from all anxiety...'
The priest seemed to be answering my thoughts. I had been waking up many mornings feeling very anxious and uneasy. From a spate of experiences with a number of people, I had really formed a strong belief that it was bad to be good as the good seem to be considered 'the weak' and taken advantage of. Also there usually never has seemed to be an acknowledgement or awareness of the good done but often the good was returned with bad or even abandonment especially when you were in need.
What happened in church was totally unexpected and as the mass ended there was the song, "I just keep trusting my lord as I walk along. I just keep trusting my lord and he gives me a song.......He is a faithful friend....I can count on him, to the very end." That was it, my eyes filled up. This had been my favorite song since childhood.
He really proved a faithful friend to me in church today. Even if there seem no results of doing good, moments like these are enough to inspire not to tire doing what seems good and what seems right.
Saturday, February 26, 2011
Lakes and Trees
I love the sight of lakes, the natural contours of its shoreline surrounded by lush green trees and hills. I enjoyed the view of such a lake from an apartment in Puna. It was refreshing just to look out the window. Now in Bangalore I pass by a lake each day as I travel to and fro my work place. I must be so happy? Its just next to the road I travel really , but alas I cant see it!! I can glimpse portions of it if I am travelling by bus! The reason is that it is fenced, protected and there is a charge to visit it. Good thing, (considering the encroachment and deliberate filling of lakes that has been the fate of many of Bangalore's lakes), except that I can’t enjoy even the sight of it. Maybe, if fencing was unavoidable, a wired fence instead of cemented one or…well, stupid as it may seem but toughened glass fence would have been good so that people passing by could enjoy a pleasant sight to which they have every right. Am I being irrational? Maybe I should just visit the lake to enjoy it rather than cribbing that I can’t see it from the road. Well even inside, what with the construction next to it I really cant see it as a natural lake. With man having cornered lakes with constructions around it to make which allow us to sit by its side on chairs over a platform ... I really need imagination to see it as a natural lake and not a man made reservoir!(actually this lake was reduced to a puddle around seven years back due to encroachment and we have to thank fellowmen for salvaging it and protecting it, though I still believe that it should have been made to look more natural) Cant all these businesses go on but still retain the natural features around the lake to allow us to relish its full natural glory. Cant spare precious space for that I guess?
The other day I had to wait in front of a school for 20 minutues. There was a flyover work going on right in front. It was noon and I didn’t have an umbrella. I looked to the right and left for nature’s umbrellas, the trees but there were none. I was standing on the cement paving outside the school. I imagined trees being cut to pave the area in front of the school. Was it necessary to pave here? Who am I to decide it was not. Maybe it was necessary, but still ‘they’ could have paved round the trees leaving some trees for people who sometimes have to wait there in the sun? It used to be done like that in many other parts of bangalore as can be witnessed, trees standing inside concrete pavings...
An autowala who once drove me back from work, told me that when he was a kid, the area was lush with trees and the temperature never usually exceeded 20 degree. It was only after IT and the highway coming up that the temperature has been taking the upside as the trees were compromised. Well I enjoy the comforts of the highway and the accessibility but I enjoy trees and shade and 'even temperatures' too. Cant they coexist?
I had thought that it is population that is eating up the possibilities of coexistence of man and nature but I am thinking differently now. We make space and time for whatever we really value in life by compromising on things we don’t value as much. It is our misplaced priorities that are behind the mismanagement.
We value material comforts more than we value aesthetic comforts. If we had prioritized aesthetic comforts we would have thought twice and avoided the placing of structures that are currently in the vicinity of the lake and built them with the objective not to lose the pristine look of the lake. If we had valued the comfort of a tree we would have avoided our need of claiming land by paving it. Is the damage irreversible? Well, we give more priority to money, if it hadn't been so then breaking down some structures and rearranging everything so that the lake looks natural and breaking up some of the paving so a tree can some day be accessed after every few meters.. wouldnt have been a far fetched thought. On the positive side though, I must say that on my way to work there is one other lake which I can view from a flyover and it has been spared its pristine look...thankfully.
A lake to look at and a tree to stand under, if not for these little things, what really is life for?
The other day I had to wait in front of a school for 20 minutues. There was a flyover work going on right in front. It was noon and I didn’t have an umbrella. I looked to the right and left for nature’s umbrellas, the trees but there were none. I was standing on the cement paving outside the school. I imagined trees being cut to pave the area in front of the school. Was it necessary to pave here? Who am I to decide it was not. Maybe it was necessary, but still ‘they’ could have paved round the trees leaving some trees for people who sometimes have to wait there in the sun? It used to be done like that in many other parts of bangalore as can be witnessed, trees standing inside concrete pavings...
An autowala who once drove me back from work, told me that when he was a kid, the area was lush with trees and the temperature never usually exceeded 20 degree. It was only after IT and the highway coming up that the temperature has been taking the upside as the trees were compromised. Well I enjoy the comforts of the highway and the accessibility but I enjoy trees and shade and 'even temperatures' too. Cant they coexist?
I had thought that it is population that is eating up the possibilities of coexistence of man and nature but I am thinking differently now. We make space and time for whatever we really value in life by compromising on things we don’t value as much. It is our misplaced priorities that are behind the mismanagement.
We value material comforts more than we value aesthetic comforts. If we had prioritized aesthetic comforts we would have thought twice and avoided the placing of structures that are currently in the vicinity of the lake and built them with the objective not to lose the pristine look of the lake. If we had valued the comfort of a tree we would have avoided our need of claiming land by paving it. Is the damage irreversible? Well, we give more priority to money, if it hadn't been so then breaking down some structures and rearranging everything so that the lake looks natural and breaking up some of the paving so a tree can some day be accessed after every few meters.. wouldnt have been a far fetched thought. On the positive side though, I must say that on my way to work there is one other lake which I can view from a flyover and it has been spared its pristine look...thankfully.
A lake to look at and a tree to stand under, if not for these little things, what really is life for?
Thursday, November 18, 2010
We the Monkeys....
I found an article in the paper dated Nov 17, 2010, The Times of India, very amusing indeed! It said that -Officials of the forest are considering Family Planning(Vasectomy) for messy monkeys who stray into the Malnad villages of Uttara Kannada, in order to contain their menace, destruction of arecanut, coconut, paddy and sugarcane crops.... Environmentalist Shylaja Gornamane, citing reasons for the serious problem, said monkeys are forced out of forests by people collecting minor forest produce like fruits.
Isn’t it so obvious who the real menace here really are! It is the overpopulated human race which doesn't even spare the fruits in the forest that is the food for the monkeys! . And then we want to "Family Plan" for the monkeys!
Here's some interesting statistics related to population. 'It took about 2 million years for the world population to become 1 billion (1830), 100 years for 2 billion (1930), 30 years for 3 billion (1960), 15 years for 4 billion (1986) and 11 years for 5 billion (1997). The world population stands at 6.3 billion (2000)and is estimated to be around four times of it around 22.5 billion in 2100. In context of India, Post -independent India in 35 years (1947-81)literally added a second India, i.e doubled it's population. When the population doubles, resources do not double and the critical condition in India is that it’s resources can no longer sustain this exploding population. In 2000 India’s population touched 1 billion mark whereas in 1901 it was around 238 million. Although India occupies only 2.4% of the world's land area, it supports over 15% of the world's population. The population growth rate of the world is around 1.1% and that of India is around 1.8%. To achieve population stabilization, the growth rate should be ideally brought below 0.5% which has been achieved by most developed countries.
What is the problem in our country that we cannot contain our population growth? There are actually some very funny reasons!!!
Catholic priests are advising parishioners to have three or more kids as the catholic population in India seems to be reducing. What a way to increase people in a particular faith. Just reproduce more!
One of the Hindu fundamentalist group Bajrangdal dal, during the religion linked riots in Orissa in sept 2008, was reportedly against conversions to Christianity mainly because it would reduce Hindus to a minority and how can that be allowed when according to Hindutva philosophy, India is a land of Hindus!
Muslims reportedly prefer having five or more kids primarily because they want to increase the muslim population!
This attitude of trying to preserve a good measure of one's own religious population is the peculiar bane of the Indian Society. Really now, is our individual religion the only thing worthy of preserving? The land on which we stand, the water that we drink, the air that we breathe, ...don't we owe something to it? How can we claim to love a God we do not see when we cannot love the environment that we can see is suffering from the plunder and exhaustion of resources, and excessive pollution solely because of over population and mindless development of the Human Race.
Now what can the common Indian do to check population growth. Of course reproduction is the right of every Individual, and of course we need not follow any stringent norms like China did. But lets just not let our choice be determined by our religious leanings…Education of women and higher age of marriage has proved to be successful in keeping a low population growth rate in Kerala so far, and it has been an example for the rest of India to follow. But education is often no match to personal religious persuasions. We have to decide our priority here. Lets not let false religious sentiments deviate us from our one true responsibility to humanity and to humanity's only provider…the amazing creation of god called Earth. We owe it to our God to preserve it's most beautiful creation, the Earth, no not the umpteen religions which man created just so he won't die of boredom with nothing to argue about.....
Isn’t it so obvious who the real menace here really are! It is the overpopulated human race which doesn't even spare the fruits in the forest that is the food for the monkeys! . And then we want to "Family Plan" for the monkeys!
Here's some interesting statistics related to population. 'It took about 2 million years for the world population to become 1 billion (1830), 100 years for 2 billion (1930), 30 years for 3 billion (1960), 15 years for 4 billion (1986) and 11 years for 5 billion (1997). The world population stands at 6.3 billion (2000)and is estimated to be around four times of it around 22.5 billion in 2100. In context of India, Post -independent India in 35 years (1947-81)literally added a second India, i.e doubled it's population. When the population doubles, resources do not double and the critical condition in India is that it’s resources can no longer sustain this exploding population. In 2000 India’s population touched 1 billion mark whereas in 1901 it was around 238 million. Although India occupies only 2.4% of the world's land area, it supports over 15% of the world's population. The population growth rate of the world is around 1.1% and that of India is around 1.8%. To achieve population stabilization, the growth rate should be ideally brought below 0.5% which has been achieved by most developed countries.
What is the problem in our country that we cannot contain our population growth? There are actually some very funny reasons!!!
Catholic priests are advising parishioners to have three or more kids as the catholic population in India seems to be reducing. What a way to increase people in a particular faith. Just reproduce more!
One of the Hindu fundamentalist group Bajrangdal dal, during the religion linked riots in Orissa in sept 2008, was reportedly against conversions to Christianity mainly because it would reduce Hindus to a minority and how can that be allowed when according to Hindutva philosophy, India is a land of Hindus!
Muslims reportedly prefer having five or more kids primarily because they want to increase the muslim population!
This attitude of trying to preserve a good measure of one's own religious population is the peculiar bane of the Indian Society. Really now, is our individual religion the only thing worthy of preserving? The land on which we stand, the water that we drink, the air that we breathe, ...don't we owe something to it? How can we claim to love a God we do not see when we cannot love the environment that we can see is suffering from the plunder and exhaustion of resources, and excessive pollution solely because of over population and mindless development of the Human Race.
Now what can the common Indian do to check population growth. Of course reproduction is the right of every Individual, and of course we need not follow any stringent norms like China did. But lets just not let our choice be determined by our religious leanings…Education of women and higher age of marriage has proved to be successful in keeping a low population growth rate in Kerala so far, and it has been an example for the rest of India to follow. But education is often no match to personal religious persuasions. We have to decide our priority here. Lets not let false religious sentiments deviate us from our one true responsibility to humanity and to humanity's only provider…the amazing creation of god called Earth. We owe it to our God to preserve it's most beautiful creation, the Earth, no not the umpteen religions which man created just so he won't die of boredom with nothing to argue about.....
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
The Ultimate Killer Control- called Ingratitude
I was reading a well written, passionate book related to environment (Our Environment by Laeeq Futehally) and certain thoughts were triggered on reading.. how in a forest all the plants and animals are present in relation to the dominant species! For example in a typical rain forest an almost solid roof is formed by the tops of large trees. The dense mass of leaf material makes a permanent ceiling for the entire forest (since the trees are not deciduous). This prevents direct sunlight from reaching the ground, which means that there is little undergrowth.
It is obvious that because of the dominant tree canopy through out the year, only shade loving plants flourish except in pockets where a tree has fallen and sunlight enters in till the space is filled up again. It is also obvious that according to the dominant flora of a habitat are the fauna that survive in these habitats (animals etc dependent on the plants prevalent in a habitat).So the climax condition in any habitat is very much in accordance with the dominant species.
Nature has always been rearranging itself over its course of evolution according to the dominant species of each time frame. I wouldn’t say therefore that the destruction that has happened of nature is not natural!This may seem an odd statement, but consider this; It is nature’s course to create the environment as per the dominant species, which currently for the largest habitat Earth is Man..
Man has been altering the habitat Earth as per his whims and fancies. Which is in fact quite natural considering that nature created man an intelligent species which had the capability to overcome it’s natural enemies. Though all species occupy their own niche in a habitat in equilibrium, not encroaching on another's territory or food, still it would be wrong to say that it is on account of an all embracing charecteristic of the wild species. There is behind this undeniably the law of the survival of the fittest,which is quite a 'me first'or in other words a selfish charecteristic.In fact two species cannot occupy the same niche (role) for a long time because it results in competition which in turn results in the survival of the fittest and elimination of the other. Selfishness is also therefore a natural trait and each species' populaton is checked by each other's selfishness(more often than not).
Moreover a species that is introduced in an environment where it has no natural enemies, spreads uncontrollably, eating away resources that were for all the inhabitants of the habitat. Like the water hyacinth which is a native of South America brought to India as a garden plant. Having no natural enemies in India, it multiplies at a tremendous rate, and soon covers all of the water surfaces. It is a greedy plant that drinks up all the water of the lake on which it grows quite like man exhausting all the resources that it survives on.. The only difference about Man from the hyacinth, is that Man is a species that has overcome its enemies and therefore has grown in population to such a proportion that it has sapped the life out of its own environment. The plants and animals that can survive are only the one’s that man the dominant species allows to survive, quite like how only shade loving trees can flourish in forest with a thick canopy(although the dominant trees have their own natural controls intact unlike man who has brought under control all it's enemies).
Natural again definitely considering Man's Intelligence, but our intelligence also shows us that unless we check our population and recede our encroaching uncaring steps, we will exhaust the very resources we survive on. For example if the rate at which we consume bamboo for paper is slower than the rate at which we replenish it by planting, then soon we would have to do without paper. Our intelligence is putting efforts to prevent further harm to environment, but the effort is feable compared to the relentless and enormous damage to environment that we do collectively everyday.
Now the ultimate control has to be therefore with nature alone that created all this mess by creating Man. Our dominance of nature has not been against the natural growth and climax in natural habitats, and so it is only natural that there has to be a check not far off in future that is predestined for a species like ours. Aren’t we the dominant species altering our habitat making it unsuitable for our own survival which is what does happen naturally in succession (called reaction) in habitats which eliminates that errant species? Nature has never been helpless;it always has a check for everything, however slow in coming. The exhausting resources will itself check the population growth. Nature may be too loving to do anything overt, it only just recedes to non existence due to lack of love of its inhabitants.
The Natural Killer Control of the Intelligent, powerful, dominating, thoughtless and selfish species therefore,... is it's own ungratefulness! The end of such a greedy species such as water hyacinth and man is in the exhaustion and so destruction…of both; the habitat (nature) and consequently the ungrateful species. This end also looks natural in the whole scheme of things. Everything that has a beginning has a natural end.
Ungratefulness is the ultimate killer, or lets say the ultimate control. It saps the life blood out of the parent, the provider and finally with its death dies the dependent too.. The provider dies a slow death unloved, unappreciated, uncared and abused. Even if we cannot learn to be grateful, still, if we the self loving species have to save ourselves, we have to stop abusing and spitting on our one and only provider, the mother Earth..But then at this uncontrolled pace of human progress we do seem to have gone beyond the point of a ‘comeback’...For there is no killer like the killer called ingratitude. It has a life, movement and all devouring pace of its own that is not checked even by self love.
It is obvious that because of the dominant tree canopy through out the year, only shade loving plants flourish except in pockets where a tree has fallen and sunlight enters in till the space is filled up again. It is also obvious that according to the dominant flora of a habitat are the fauna that survive in these habitats (animals etc dependent on the plants prevalent in a habitat).So the climax condition in any habitat is very much in accordance with the dominant species.
Nature has always been rearranging itself over its course of evolution according to the dominant species of each time frame. I wouldn’t say therefore that the destruction that has happened of nature is not natural!This may seem an odd statement, but consider this; It is nature’s course to create the environment as per the dominant species, which currently for the largest habitat Earth is Man..
Man has been altering the habitat Earth as per his whims and fancies. Which is in fact quite natural considering that nature created man an intelligent species which had the capability to overcome it’s natural enemies. Though all species occupy their own niche in a habitat in equilibrium, not encroaching on another's territory or food, still it would be wrong to say that it is on account of an all embracing charecteristic of the wild species. There is behind this undeniably the law of the survival of the fittest,which is quite a 'me first'or in other words a selfish charecteristic.In fact two species cannot occupy the same niche (role) for a long time because it results in competition which in turn results in the survival of the fittest and elimination of the other. Selfishness is also therefore a natural trait and each species' populaton is checked by each other's selfishness(more often than not).
Moreover a species that is introduced in an environment where it has no natural enemies, spreads uncontrollably, eating away resources that were for all the inhabitants of the habitat. Like the water hyacinth which is a native of South America brought to India as a garden plant. Having no natural enemies in India, it multiplies at a tremendous rate, and soon covers all of the water surfaces. It is a greedy plant that drinks up all the water of the lake on which it grows quite like man exhausting all the resources that it survives on.. The only difference about Man from the hyacinth, is that Man is a species that has overcome its enemies and therefore has grown in population to such a proportion that it has sapped the life out of its own environment. The plants and animals that can survive are only the one’s that man the dominant species allows to survive, quite like how only shade loving trees can flourish in forest with a thick canopy(although the dominant trees have their own natural controls intact unlike man who has brought under control all it's enemies).
Natural again definitely considering Man's Intelligence, but our intelligence also shows us that unless we check our population and recede our encroaching uncaring steps, we will exhaust the very resources we survive on. For example if the rate at which we consume bamboo for paper is slower than the rate at which we replenish it by planting, then soon we would have to do without paper. Our intelligence is putting efforts to prevent further harm to environment, but the effort is feable compared to the relentless and enormous damage to environment that we do collectively everyday.
Now the ultimate control has to be therefore with nature alone that created all this mess by creating Man. Our dominance of nature has not been against the natural growth and climax in natural habitats, and so it is only natural that there has to be a check not far off in future that is predestined for a species like ours. Aren’t we the dominant species altering our habitat making it unsuitable for our own survival which is what does happen naturally in succession (called reaction) in habitats which eliminates that errant species? Nature has never been helpless;it always has a check for everything, however slow in coming. The exhausting resources will itself check the population growth. Nature may be too loving to do anything overt, it only just recedes to non existence due to lack of love of its inhabitants.
The Natural Killer Control of the Intelligent, powerful, dominating, thoughtless and selfish species therefore,... is it's own ungratefulness! The end of such a greedy species such as water hyacinth and man is in the exhaustion and so destruction…of both; the habitat (nature) and consequently the ungrateful species. This end also looks natural in the whole scheme of things. Everything that has a beginning has a natural end.
Ungratefulness is the ultimate killer, or lets say the ultimate control. It saps the life blood out of the parent, the provider and finally with its death dies the dependent too.. The provider dies a slow death unloved, unappreciated, uncared and abused. Even if we cannot learn to be grateful, still, if we the self loving species have to save ourselves, we have to stop abusing and spitting on our one and only provider, the mother Earth..But then at this uncontrolled pace of human progress we do seem to have gone beyond the point of a ‘comeback’...For there is no killer like the killer called ingratitude. It has a life, movement and all devouring pace of its own that is not checked even by self love.
Saturday, October 23, 2010
Hopelessly flawed
I switched on the TV and heard a character in a Movie saying 'We are all hopelessly flawed'. It hit a chord because I had been in a hopeless mood regarding my own flaws… the flaws of having an overactive brain, of being a critic, of being opinionated, philosophical, of having an ego, of being laid back (or call it lazy), maybe even talkative, maybe possessing intensity that draws intense situations(!), slightly obssessive compulsive… and many more flaws, that seem to be an obstruction to peace, within and without.
The character in the Movie then broke into a poem which in essence asked nature to keep its pristine perfection to itself and give him (the poet) the crowded city!! The poem seemed to reassure me that I need not strive to be perfect or have a perfect life. The world has a place for imperfection too...When it comes to relationships; it is really unrealistic to ask for perfection. At best we can be sincere in our approach to others....in our own unique imperfect way...
Come to think of it, the world in fact has never been perfect especially when we look at all things with our perspective. Then we notice that, the woods usually don’t come without biting insects and blood sucking mosquitoes, the city with its comforts does not come without its crowd and pollution; or consider this, youth has so little in terms of essential maturity, whereas wisdom and maturity more often doesn’t have the glory of youth. Even virtues are attached with vice, for example, it has been noted that intelligent people also tend to be aggressive. So just see what that spells for close relationships! It would mean an intelligent partner will often be uncomfortably aggressive, a simple person could prove boring, a wise partner may seem too proud and preachy, a beautiful partner too arrogant, a talkative one could cause discord while a silent one could exasperate you. Show me a virtue and I will show you the attached vice! (...has somebody already said that?).Even in terms of what we seek, if it is an excess of money, we give up the joys of leisure, if it is an excess of knowledge we give up blissful ignorance. (Yes!.. even knowledge is not for the weak hearted as knowing and perceiving can hurt, and so it can be a vice rather than virtue to possess {if you value peace more} unless you are emotionally strong enough).
Recently I saw the movie ‘A beautiful life’ which shows how a father helps his son through a war. He does not reveal to him that it is a real war going on around him, rather he says that it is a game and for all the precautions that he makes his son take, he tells him that there are points, and the more points he makes, the more the chances of winning the game. The result is that the son survives the war … totally emotionally unscathed! The imperfect situation of war was converted into a beautiful game. Isn’t that how we should deal with all the imperfections within and around us….closing our mind to its interpretation as an imperfection and seeing it rather as that factor which makes life the beautiful game it really is.
So cheers to my imperfections, as that is what makes me what I am. Peace or no peace, valued or not valued, understood or not understood, tolerated or not tolerated, I am still perfect in my imperfections.
I too appreciate people according to their sincerity, not perfection as I genuinely feel perfection is totally overrated. Imperfection is quite obviously the real nature, beauty and individuality of everything that constitutes the perceived world and perfection could actually make the world too predictable and so boring. So everything is really hopelessly and ……actually thankfully …. flawed.
The character in the Movie then broke into a poem which in essence asked nature to keep its pristine perfection to itself and give him (the poet) the crowded city!! The poem seemed to reassure me that I need not strive to be perfect or have a perfect life. The world has a place for imperfection too...When it comes to relationships; it is really unrealistic to ask for perfection. At best we can be sincere in our approach to others....in our own unique imperfect way...
Come to think of it, the world in fact has never been perfect especially when we look at all things with our perspective. Then we notice that, the woods usually don’t come without biting insects and blood sucking mosquitoes, the city with its comforts does not come without its crowd and pollution; or consider this, youth has so little in terms of essential maturity, whereas wisdom and maturity more often doesn’t have the glory of youth. Even virtues are attached with vice, for example, it has been noted that intelligent people also tend to be aggressive. So just see what that spells for close relationships! It would mean an intelligent partner will often be uncomfortably aggressive, a simple person could prove boring, a wise partner may seem too proud and preachy, a beautiful partner too arrogant, a talkative one could cause discord while a silent one could exasperate you. Show me a virtue and I will show you the attached vice! (...has somebody already said that?).Even in terms of what we seek, if it is an excess of money, we give up the joys of leisure, if it is an excess of knowledge we give up blissful ignorance. (Yes!.. even knowledge is not for the weak hearted as knowing and perceiving can hurt, and so it can be a vice rather than virtue to possess {if you value peace more} unless you are emotionally strong enough).
Recently I saw the movie ‘A beautiful life’ which shows how a father helps his son through a war. He does not reveal to him that it is a real war going on around him, rather he says that it is a game and for all the precautions that he makes his son take, he tells him that there are points, and the more points he makes, the more the chances of winning the game. The result is that the son survives the war … totally emotionally unscathed! The imperfect situation of war was converted into a beautiful game. Isn’t that how we should deal with all the imperfections within and around us….closing our mind to its interpretation as an imperfection and seeing it rather as that factor which makes life the beautiful game it really is.
So cheers to my imperfections, as that is what makes me what I am. Peace or no peace, valued or not valued, understood or not understood, tolerated or not tolerated, I am still perfect in my imperfections.
I too appreciate people according to their sincerity, not perfection as I genuinely feel perfection is totally overrated. Imperfection is quite obviously the real nature, beauty and individuality of everything that constitutes the perceived world and perfection could actually make the world too predictable and so boring. So everything is really hopelessly and ……actually thankfully …. flawed.
Sunday, October 3, 2010
Taking Calculated Risks
"Fear of Danger is ten thousand times more terrifying than Danger itself" Daniel Defoe
But it is important to take 'calculated' risks. There is no denying that the environment we live in today is very polluted. The air we breathe, the food we eat, the cosmetics we use etc are all taking away years from our lives...
But we forget that at the same time the immense progress made in medicine, discovery of cures and prevention for formerly fatal diseases(like TB)...all this has added years to our life...
In the year 1900, the average life expectancy of the world was 30yrs, and by 1985 it was 62yrs. Now 2010 estimate stands at 67 years.
What I am intending to say is we have an extra 30 or so years gifted by developments in science.... then is it really important to be paranoid about the toxins that we take in? We may increase say two years to our life by the care we take to keep away the toxins...like...not buying grapes and apples fearing they are coated with pesticides, scared of the white cauliflower (must be dipped in Malathion) scared of even medicines and supplements knowing that they too contain preservatives that could be very harmful, could possibly accumulate in tissues, not using any cosmetics at all, worried about the chlorine in the swimming pool, the UV at noon....But look at it this way...Don't we reduce comparatively, say four years from our life by the paranoia and stress concerned with all the caution and care! Aren't we thus compromising on the joys of life and added years in life that can come only from being a bit care free? Not a good deal..is it? Isn't it then better to adopt the midway...that is even use 'caution' in moderation?
So lets be careful .... but lets also not overdo it. Lets take reasonable care but lets also be reasonably carefree.......
Friday, August 27, 2010
The climate characteristic!
Having lived in a number of climatic conditions...like parts of punjab, bengal, rajasthan, ..and having seen the peculiarities of the people of each region, I have been drawing conclusions which have finally taken a definite form in my mind with my recent visit to another of the regions in maharashra. I am putting the view down finally in words.
In Kottayam, I have often felt that it's particular kind of heat can get to the head. Recently I have been wondering whether heat, head, and high rate of suicides in kerala have any link? Can a type of heat make one feel more suicidal than just the push of circumstances.
The peculiarly unrelenting dry heat of some regions (heat even in evenings) also can effect adversely the intelligence of the people of those regions and so I doubt it can make people dumb (especially the poorer sections which stay outdoors more often or lack a good house.
Whereas some other regions like in Jodhpur, I have felt that the cooler evening air gifts a calming peace on the people of the region, making them quite easy going.
One obvious thing is that people of different regions share similar physical charecteristics, language and even some similarities in terms of their natures. Having stayed in many regions I have experienced that I have been different too in each region. Some of it I accord to my age at each place...but I couldn't strike out the possibility of climatic characters effecting me.
People of some region show vigour and zest for life whereas another region may show a lazy and careless attitude, while others of some regions are very serious and proper about life. In some regions people show lack of depth. They show love and friendliness but it is merely like a surface reflex, whereas their innermost feelings are not fathomable by their surface expressions and behaviour.
One of the biggest blessings in life is staying in different places. It is like opening a new and different window of the mind at each place and becoming open minded, understanding and accepting.
People who have moved around in their formative years are the people who show more rounded personalities. People who have all their life stayed in one place are less accommodating.
Then think of climate change and how it can effect the general civilization! Climate holds more secret powers than we have cared to notice. History, the present and the future have been shaped and is shaped by some known ways and some even unimagined ways by the powerful forces of climate...I am sure.
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