The Mind and The Heart and The People

Whenever a group comes into being as a team, as a class or even as a work group, it's actually the coming together of people with different personalities. And whenever these different personalities are brought on a common platform, they tend to collide with each other. Most of the times, whenever I've been a part of a group I've always observed these group of people who tend to project themselves intentionally or unintentionally at a higher status than others. It's a very interesting phenomenon where these so called arrogant people and the so called humble souls gather and scorn at each other. To explain which, I use my favorite Heart Vs. Mind comparison.

People for me are broadly of two types, People of the heart and people of the mind. That is people who're governed by the heart or the mind.

The people of the heart are those who's humor is dumb, they won't mind making small compromises for some happiness and what they will say may be grammatically or politically incorrect but it will be true. People of the heart may or may not be successful but all they want at the end of every day, is to feel good and in harmony with their group.

The people of the mind are conventional definitions of success, up-to-date, go getters, successful and very proud about it in an arrogant way. Their humor is smart and their sarcasm is sharp, you can't get away with your grammatically incorrect lingo with them, act smart and they'll chew your sentimental heart like gum. People of the mind are mostly successful and even if they're not, they all want to stand out of the group in a way that the rest are projected lesser or below them.

The interesting thing is, the people of the mind click really quickly with people who're just like them and soon there is a group or a league of people within a larger group which tries to emit continuous vibes of arrogance as those disintegrated scattered "people of the heart" try to ignore it while head banging to their favorite song with the head phones plugged in.

The conclusion: Well, the people of the mind are on a pursuit of achieving constant brilliance that their egos are now addicted to. They get a small amount of happiness after every achievement soon after which they move on to the next pursuit, just like watching a bubble float in the air before bursting away and then watching another bubble going through the same.

The people of the heart on the other hand want to be achievers but they don't value achievements as much as they value experience. They'll fool around, make jokes about "people of the mind", try to make work like party. They'll just wish that the "people of the mind" chilled a little.

In the end, everyone reaches where they're supposed to reach. However, the people of the mind learn through petty pursuits of achievements and the people of the heart learn through the constant progression of experience. One of them is getting a more holistic learning that's way beyond competition and very much about individuality.

Who are you, the person of the mind or the heart ?

Heroes

I despise their heroes for they're all men who're not un-ordinary even in the slightest way. They're all men who've walked a favorable road of fortune to become admirable figures and worship-worthy Gods.

I despise their beliefs which create heroes out of ordinary men who're fortunate in many ways, who're unlike those in the dark gutters of the underground, being whipped by life every single day but still standing and surviving it all. Those silent sufferers are heroes nobody knows of. 

Where Are We Headed To ?

We, the youth, are the children of progress. With the fruits of modernity at our disposal we are abled in many ways. The entire concept of childhood has changed, and so has the way in which we grow up. We see more screens than faces; we always want to be over connected not in reality but through virtual mediums. Due to countless similar reasons it wouldn't be wrong to say that we, the children of progress are paralyzed by technology.

Today’s childhood does not involve adventures in the pool or the parks. There aren't stories of princesses, dwarfs and other innocent mysticism that once helped the budding imaginations to flower. The playfulness of children is limited by screens that hypnotize them. Children are not surrounded by familiar faces for each of the family members are out in the world chasing their dreams of fancy careers. The human element in raising children is absent and thus we’re raising children who’re developing a dependence on the so called technological aids, some things that eventually cage their lives in a virtual utopia.

The children who've graduated to become bread earners are constantly being influenced by a western lifestyle, an outcome of a booming economy that has led to migrations into the big cities where these newly arrived adults are experiencing and relishing their “big city lives”. Thus, there is a generation of young people who thrive on western sitcoms, drinking binges and an unawareness of the future. A generation that does not worry about the future and even neglects the worries of today, a generation that has left families behind and has found a sense of individuality, an individuality that lacks the virtue of responsibility.

Life is treated as a party, and thus there’s carelessness in this modern life. The paradox is that even after being so well informed about everything under the sun, we live without the basic ethics that our fore-fathers had. It’s this careless playfulness that is now progressing into marital relations and divorce is not much of a taboo for the Indians of today. Such changes are bound to happen. Cultural advocates will scorn at such a new way life but the fact is that material progress comes at the cost of cultural degradation. Progress woes people, affects their lifestyles and finally affects their beliefs, making cultural norms look like forgotten facts of a certain period back in time.

The youth today makes its own choices, its own rules and is on its way in creating a pseudo-culture, a culture that will be followed by generations to come. An eventual outcome will be a culture that is closely related to the western way of life. The Indian youth is on the road of progress. It has come really far but it is slowly forgetting where it once belonged.

The sun which once rose in the east,

Will eventually set in the west...

When the course of life,

Changes from east to west...

The Purposeless Pursuit

"Science has a purpose, art does not have any purpose"

                                         -Me

The following statement was uttered by me. And just like the ones who heard it, 99% of you would differ with me. I have demeaned art as a force I have called it without any purpose; I've somehow proved it worthless. But not many would think that art is without any purpose for it hides infinite purposes within it. It is worthless for it is cannot be weighed along with a specific worth.

Purpose is an end, a conclusive point of stagnation that ends a pursuit. That’s science it begins with an equation and ends with a well-defined result. And art… did it have any purpose? Does the beautiful Starry Night tell you of a purpose? Does the night watch give you a clear understanding of its random set up? It’s all beyond reasoning, beyond understanding and most of all beyond purpose.

Then what was art? Art was nothing fixed. It was an infinite dive towards the unknown, feeling a thousand and one emotions, passing by innumerable thoughts. It was free from purpose. It was like happiness, like an orgasm, unaffected by anything, without any purpose, not reaching a conclusive point but breaking free through a free-fall of liberation.

They all argue, then why do movies have a message? I say those movies aren’t art, they’re an amalgamation of art and science, the science of psychology, of passing a message to the minds in return for the green paper of materialistic powers. This amalgamation is necessary in the worldly environment, and it works at times when the ruling element is art and not the science of generating psychological appeal (read “making money”)

So the next time, you’re giving a purpose to art. Think again. You may have reduced it to a science that dies the death of purpose.

Barren Lands of Art

In an attempt to revive this blog which has remained dead for a while now, I thought of answering a question which I stumbled upon while trying to live my life. The question asked me, “Why isn’t art valued in India?” and for a moment which turned out to be very long I was scratching my head while I recollected the sad state of affairs of art and artists here.

My attempt to find an answer told me about things that tried to form a reason. As Indians, We live a calculative life. There is an age for education (which is of a lower time period for those lucky women-folk), an age for the disguised devastation of a marital association, an age to announce the good news and not feel as if you’d scored. Then there is the culture keeping us in place, arranging us like sheep of a herd, heading blindly to a single direction. And while at home, we’re busy calculating the rising commodity prices as we weep for our pockets. Yes, an Indian life is highly mathematical, governed by constants. But how can people living by “constants” understand something as infinite as art?

All of us are busy moving, like gears of machinery. Not being able to wander, to fly. The ideal career again has to abide a constant. So half of the potential artists die a death of sacrifice, they want to fly but “No” say their Indian lives, “Go into that cage and live chained to the constants that you’re bound to abide”. But the artistic soul always breathes in them, so they play a gamble some time later in life. They break their cages of careers and try to fly. A few of them attain a flight but many crash. They see the masses, relishing a circus in the name of art. They’re happy with a stagnant song and dance of glamorous personas and true artists are left ignored in the corners. So many artists face disappointment and surrender to their cages again because it’s too late then, as the system demands them to take care of the children they've made, even the advocates of culture threaten them to abide by the code. And when they turn old, sitting on their rocking chairs, they reflect about a life that never happened while they were busy in trying to fit in a calculative existence.

This is the story of these barren artistic lands that we live in.

Bridges

There is a bridge between your future and your present. The strength of this bridge is highly dependent on your monetary well-being. Even though the bridge is highly dependent on money, one cannot guarantee if the bridge will fall off at any point of time or no. Here’s where luck twists the situation, it adds the unpredictability and leaves the ultimate outcome of the bridge confidential and uncertain.

Luck may hold the ultimate outcome, but financial security means a stronger bridge and a fake sense of security that can keep you unaffected and numb to the uncertainties of life.

Money makes your journey smooth even though it doesn’t guarantee an outcome. But unfortunately the outcome is just a momentary aspect and it’s only the journey that lasts and has a greater effect on one’s life.

This proves that money isn’t everything but is definitely something crucial. It may not conquer the cosmos but effectively rules the materialistic world that we’ve created.

And hence the rich brats can go on with their parties without the slightest concern or worry, while the middle class has to slog, make adjustments, and live his/her life in glimpses. A life that sometimes gets lost between all the worries, anxiety and fear of an utterly uncertain life. That’s how, lack of wealth makes you live with the reality and walk a weak bridge made up of ropes and wealth makes you walk a concrete bridge.

In the end, both bridges can fall but the person walking the latter bridge might go down with a little less regret than the people belonging to the former class.

The Drunkard's Sermon

Alcohol, the secret love affair of many. The love affair with such a beautiful thing is kept in secrecy since it is shunned by the worldly protocol. Most people will hide their love for alcohol as they’ve been told by family, religion and even society as a whole, that it is a downright bad thing. But then, what do they know?

The preachers and the family men will point fingers at alcohol since they feel complete with what they have. A family life or a religious approach to life may not be the answer for everyone. We all are different, different people with different lives. That’s why one cannot create same rules of living for everyone. That’s where societal guidelines and religions fall short. Such things forcefully impose principles without understanding the hardships of life that are largely subjective. So yeah, what do they know?

The politically correct minds will advocate their righteousness by stating that alcohol is the cause of family feuds and alcoholism is very much responsible for the devastation of many individuals. I cannot help but agree with them but that does not give me enough reason to completely zero down alcohol as something destructive. Excessive indulgence in anything invites disaster, and alcohol is not an exception. But their minds are extensively tamed and are afraid to think freely thus they will not cease to have blind opinions. In the end, it’s the same question which concludes it for me, what do they know?

If alcohol is just limited to some sips and some drinks. It is a boon; it quenches the thirst of a thirsty soul that feels helpless sometimes, it fills the perennial voids of life for some time and lastly it makes the less fortunate a little numb to their misfortunes. When I’m advocating this subject I know that I can be proved wrong by infinite proportions of people in the world, from the religious ones, to the successful ones and even the family oriented ones. It just proves that people can only talk and their opinions are poorly judged since we humans do not have the ability to feel someone else’s emotions, emptiness and feelings. We judge everything by our own life and every life does not make the same individual out of everyone. That’s why, what do they know?

As humans, the unchangeable roads of our lives remain the same. Some of us are walking terrains that are very rough. We may find ourselves helpless and that’s when a few sips of this bitter blessing will be our helping hand. While the people point fingers, talk and look down upon our blessing, we will keep surviving our life and with a drunk grin we will silently ask ourselves, what do they know?