lethargy

I don’t know what to call this post.

Frankly, whenever I start writing, its always the title which I begin with. They are mostly rip-offs from songs or movie names or something. This time, I am writing this all blank.

There was this training session at office today. Not a great one if you ask me. Because it concerned something I have lost faith on…the Performance Management System.

Nevertheless, I continued in the session and there was this one part where the trainer tried co-relating the personal and my professional life. And that, struck a chord. My personal goals were as important. So I have decided, atleast one post a week.

Agreed, that I may not have such life changing experiences as some of the famous bloggers do everyday. But what the heck, i realized, writing is one of the things I enjoy the most.

Right from the time, I was in my 1^st standard till now, inherently, there was always this guy who wanted to write something. Something which would probably help some one else get rid of their demons.

Right now, as I sit here, typing these lines, half drunk and fully frustrated, I realize, I need to write for my own sake. A catharsis which I oh so frequently need.

I will write from now on, not for some one else, but for my own joy.

I still haven’t decided what to call this. ‘Rebirth’ would be too strong…I have kind of messed up with the sanctity of that word.  After all, there is only a limited number of times a person can be reborn.

I just read something which I had written on the walls of my room. I don’t know the relevance of it to the post, but right now, it just fits.

Utterly Meaningless Post- Part II

January 30^th, 2011. whoa!!

I never realized it had been so many days since my last post. Thank you Shr for reminding me and also recommending it to the last remnants of my friends in Hyderabad.

Lots has happened with the world since then. The jasmine revolution (or was it named after some other fancy flower??), another valentines day, another international womens day, another end of a financial year, another (and this one was pending for long) win of the world cup, another scandal, another trip to Khakhraland….and I still don’t have anything to say.

Two of my acquaintances got engaged. They wanted to keep it a ‘low key’ affair with only ‘close friends’ and family and hence this matter shall not be elaborated upon. Their identity shall be known only to the people who read my fb status msg.

I have been officially branded ‘hater of the Roadies culture’. Frankly, what is there to like in the Roadies/ Splitsvilla/ Dare 2 Date/ Date my folks/ Date my forefathers type of TV programs and people.

Khakhraland was ok. Went out with people other than the usual three. Saw some stuff which reminded me Ahmedabad had more to it than snobby, fat oozing, cash counting, pan masala eating gujjus.

I think I was planning to write something on women’s day. What the heck. We’ll write it next year. The moment so to say ‘is gone’.

People are interesting. The more you meet, the more you realize there is hardly any stereotype. Each of them has a story to tell, a reason why they became what they really are. The chaiwala, my laundry guy, the watchman whom ive dropped a number of times to the main gate, my colleagues, people I go out with, people I think about going out with…I sometimes think of having a real one-to-one conversation with them over a cup of chai (or beer if you prefer). But then I think, what would these people say to a guy they hardly know. This is where the ‘ego’ kicks in.

Think about it, how much do you know about a guy you’ve been working with for the past year? How much do you know about your past friends whom you haven’t met in the last decade. Such ‘friends’ of mine posted batch photos from our school on fb. You had to be there to realize, what these people have become.

In HIMYM, one of the characters explains this to his friend- ‘you know! In 5 years, we all become our own doppelgangers’.

All of this might seem pretentious, all philosophical, brainy or whatever. But don’t you know all of this?

I finished reading 1984. If anyone hasn’t read it, please don’t.  that book will make you feel miserable like nothing else will. Im still recuperating from the last line of that book ‘he finally loved big brother’.

Part Time Philosopher

I remember the idea for this post, came during one of my drinking orgies at spikey’s place. And like all the other ideas…it vaporized the next morning.

I should try writing when I am drunk. But that’s an issue we will not elaborate on.

Jumping straight to the point (for those who know…pun is absolutely intended!!), we have heard and quoted people like Shakespeare, Karl Marx, Aristotle, Freud even. But have we ever thought, what made these guys so quotable?

A cursory glance through some of the status messages posted on fb and twitter, makes you think there is a philosopher hiding in everyone of us. Each one of us knows how to live their life, each of us has a set of rules by which we define ourselves. Then why doesn’t anyone quote us?

Frankly, do we just need to get a book published filled with our ideologies which people would read and then bam!! You are now officially branded as a philosopher.

In one of my previous posts, I lamented the lack of content in the bottom left corner of the ToI’s editorial page,. What does one have to do if we wanted to post our feelings in that column? Is there an entrance exam of some sort which you have to pass to be called a philosopher and get your ramblings published? Or have these ‘well learned’ people passed a course where you were fed a steady diet of salman rushdie and shobhaa de?

Look at blogs, which we all write and read. Doesn’t a blog provide a window to a person’s mind? On what basis do you judge that a particular post could qualify as a good philosophical read?

One of my college seniors authors a blog which has received 2,50,000 plus hits. I mean, this guy was just a year older to me. We studied in the same environment. What level of enlightenment could he have reached to become so well read?

What the heck, I think sometimes. May be each of these philosophers had a personal Ellsworth Toohey, who made them famous. May be these guys were not so great after all, atleast no greater than us.

Each of us has found his/her own personal wonder in this life. Each of us has pondered on the answer to the ultimate question and many other smaller questions and we have received our own personal answers.

What is it that makes some answers more acceptable and the others not so. What makes these full time thinkers greater than us part time philosophers?

PS: Dhr, Chatur, Mudit and Sharad- i have disabled the automatic notifications...if i am to be read, i will be  read by choice.