Thanks to NPR - thisibelive

My love for Radio has been a rewarding one. I continue to be reminded of the "indru oru thagaval" stories now and then and reminding myself of the right thing to do in many situation.

So i was not surprised to see another section in NPR which i have begun to follow very closely and look forward everyweek, No its not wait wait dont tell me. Its the Thisibelive essays. Its a worthy essays with a new person everyweek. From this week i liked theses sentences a lot. they make a lot of sense.

"But then I remember balancing a behavioral checkbook is detrimental to my happiness. If I’m constantly keeping count of what I feel I’m entitled to, I may never be satisfied. If I’m blessed beyond what I deserve I might never feel worthy. I must remind myself that I know better. "

The Journey - Louis Vuitton Ad

Of all the people LV came up with an excellent Ad. It was a nice little poem.

What is a journey ?

A journey is not a trip

Its not Vacation

Its a process. A discovery

Its a process of Self discovery

A journey brings us face to face - With ourselves

A journey shows us not only the world

but how we fit in

Does the person create the journey ?

Or does the journey create the person ?

The journey is life itself

Where will Life take you ?

The Invention of Morality - Precursor

When i was in my 10th grade i was introduced to Mahatma Gandhi's "My experiments with truth" and i think i was more troubled by it that anything. If i ever meet Gandhi i always wanted to ask him why did he call his book that way ? "Experiments". As i grow up, i think ( a huge assumption) i understand why he called it that way. Because there is nothing like an ultimate truth, there is nothing like an ultimate singular moral life to be lived.

Everybody will face a situation when they will have to Invent their own morality. Our choices invent our morality. We do it everyday when we choose to hide the truth from the people we love so that we dont hurt them. We do it when we are proud of our military. We do it when we buy that very expensive dress/gadget we have been longing for ages when we know there are people dieing of starvation. And many more ways we haven't yet realized. Yes i am an hypocrite.

The problem is that we dont have a book of right and wrong. Nobody knows about it, Nobody is perfect, no situation is perfect, no relationship is perfect.(geek alert) There is no perfect single crystal in existance.

The invention of morality happens in those moments of life when things are beyond our control. These would be my short stories to depict some of those situations, that bound only by the hard choices people have to make. The morality is in the eyes of the beholder, beyond those purple glasses and the grey mask he is wearing.

What is happiness?

An excerpt from Paulo cohelo's Blog. http://paulocoelhoblog.com/2009/07/08/what-is-happiness/

I recall the words of Jorge Luis Borges: “I will not be happy any more, but that doesn’t matter, / there are many other things in this world”.

Multiple worlds

Yesterday i was talking to A and D while watching the movie Alien Vs Predator. and both of them were saying that Scifi Movies are a boring type of movies which doesn't make any sense. And things like Starwars and X men are crap. I have always had a group of friends who like them and who doesnt. I think i can like them/dislike them at the same time. What does that make me? Thats a question for another day.

Growing up in a big city in india or living in newyork makes you appriciate how diverse the world is. And one of the diverse things which we miss to see is not just the diverse culture but the diverse Taste/viewpoints/interests of people(maybe of the same culture). And i guess the Taste/viewpoints/interests depends on what kind of experience u had when u grew up.

We cannot have all of that experience in our small life, is too short for that. When we brand things and draw Strict walls against stuff it shrink's ur perspective and ends the possibility of seeing a whole new world. When we say this is what i like and not that ,do we close a door to see an another new world ? May be we saw it and we did not like it, then what does "like" actually mean. "Like" is the opinions we have formed based upon our experiences. Experience > Opinions> likes/dislikes it just seems like a big circle. When i have a different experience my opinions will change and when i have a different opinion i will experience the same situation in a different way.
It is a gift to have the ability to see the world through the eyes of others. Because when we do there is not just one world anymore.

A basket of memories

The fluttering flame

Vanishing light of a dieing candle

Guiding light of a light house

Seeds of consequence

Consequences of the seeds

Disappearing darkness of the sunrise.

Creeping darkness of the susnset.

The victory march

The aftermath

A basket of memories

The bottomless pit.

Rain or No rain

It was the summer of 2001. There was a severe drought in chennai and we did not have any water in our wells. Every drop of water had to come from outside from a common borewell pump. So i had to pump water mannually and bring them on cycle to my home. It was one of the worst times, and i remember how everybody in my family suffered and spent so much time to have water in the house. It was so much demaning physically and emotionally as everybody in the street is competing for the limited water.

I wished for rain so much that, it was the only thing i prayed for.

It is the Fall of 2008. Fall has done its magic and the leaves had turned into multiple colors, job well donw fall. But then something happened which ruined it all. It had rained for the last couple of days and due to the rain the dry leaves of fall had fallen down faster than usual. The trees are not as beautiful now.


And then i said "stupid rain it spoiled the whole fall colors !!! " before i realised the irony.

I guess thats life. I was thinking about the usual confution , When people from two nations in war pray for a win what does GOD do ?