"TRUE" LOVE

Being a teacher has its advantages. One gets to look at a wide swathe of humanity. From winners to whiners, you see them all. Recently, I heard of a piece of news that left me amused, angry, disappointed and just plain sick. A boy had hit a girl with his belt so hard that the girl fainted. Such an act cannot be justified no matter what the provocation. Well, there had to be a provocation for that if that had been a random occurrence. But it was not so. The boy and the girl were "lovers" (what that term means no one knows, its becoming such a cliche.. sheesh) it seems. And they were "sincerely" loving each other (another cliché). "Everyone" believed that their "love" would succeed. (I do not know what success they meant) There was just one fly in the ointment.

The boy had a peculiar habit. Every now and then he would thrash the girl to show his "love" for her. And the girl would bear it without a sound to show her "love". Once he had actually made her bleed. What a pair! Wah! Wah! This is "true love". (I thought that people considered love itself as true, never knew that there were categories like true love and untrue love. Maybe they are going to define "true love" as the feeling that contains 99% "love" and 1% impurities) Well, I am digressing.. To come back to the story, the girl has been admitted to a hospital and is receiving medical aid. The boy's parents came to college and secured his transfer certificate.

How stupid can people get? Well, that is a good question. The problem with stupidity is that you cant define a lower limit. People seem to revel in pushing it still lower. It is natural to fall in a crush at 18. If you do not fall, you are not human. But you should be able to identify a crush as a crush. How this girl kept on in an abusive relationship remains a secret. But why she kept on is no secret. She was following the typical portrayal of women in the visual media. Or in other words, she was plain dumb.

Last heard : She is still thinking about the boy and his "love". God help her.

On Being Alone

Many is the time we feel the urge to be alone (as opposed to being lonely). We want to be away from everyone and everything. Probably relish the company of Nature. I understood this recently while on vacation in Kodaikanal. I was in the company of friends. But what I liked best was rising early in the morning and wandering out in the early morning mist with just my faint shadow for company. It was mentally refreshing. No wonder many holy men walked into the jungle to pursue meditation. Better than any coffee that can be brewed up, the crisp air refreshed me to no end. And with no one to disturb me with chatter, I revelled in the solitude.

I do not mean that friends are a disturbance. But I feel that we are at peace with ourselves when we are alone. We learn to admire Nature in her pristine glory, think about how mechanical our lives have become. We just need to view the starry sky on a clear night to realize that we are just a speck living on a speck. Yet we think the world of ourselves. (Some think the universe of themselves) All around us, life is moving on. The spider does not know that we exist. It knows only the difference between the touch of a raindrop or the footfall of an insect on its web. Yet we seek attention all the time.


Yet, how many times has one looked up at the sky? We SEE, but we do not OBSERVE. A man was walking through an art gallery with a bored expression on his face. He bumped into an artist. "Sorry", he said "I wasn't looking." Seeing his bored expression the artist said, "Maybe you SHOULD LOOK".

The story doesn't end there. The first guy continued. "At what?" he asked casually. The artist looked around at the riot of colour around him and said, "if only I could lend you my eyes."

I would advise everyone to take a Mental Health Day, i.e, a day alone, a date with Dame Nature. I assure you, you wont regret it.

The Scope of it..

There are many scopes in existence that help humankind, viz., telescope, periscope, microscope, endoscope, even the kaleidoscope to name a few. Yet there is one scope specially designed by humans, the principal aim of which is the downfall of as many humans that believe in it. Its reputation is still growing strong even after all this scientific progress. It is the mighty HORRORSCOPE, er.. sorry, whoroscope, oops.. sorry sorry, the horoscope.

There are umpteen numbers of swamis who claim that they can talk to Jupiter in person and ask it to shift a few lakh kilometres so that it lands in an auspicious 'square '. Or to Saturn and request it to stop revolving for a year or so. These horoscopes are the idiot's answer to astronomical treatises. My argument is that there was once a fool, a man so completely bereft of brains that the entire village/town/city where he lived in ridiculed him. However he had one great ambition-to study astronomy. However, the study of astronomy required lot of grey matter inside the cranium and our friend did not possess even a gram of it. But he thought of a way. He began to borrow palm leaves from the students who had taken up astronomy and began to read them. Whenever he was caught doing that, he was teased. Yet he did not give up. But a little knowledge is a dangerous thing. With no one to explain gravity to him, he came up with his own answers. The planets and the stars were influencing us. They were influencing our lives. Voila, Eureka.. and so on. A new 'science' was born. Astrology-the study of the cosmos (with emphasis on the universe's influence on humans).

Overnight he founded an institution and imparted his new found knowledge to fool and idiot alike. It still persists today. People, even educated ones, believe that the planets and the stars influence us, as if they have no other work. They let the horoscope and its so called predictions run their lives. They consult it when they have to make important decisions. Yet when a truck is about to run them over, they do not consult it to see if its auspicious to jump out of harm's way. Is not that an important decision. Maybe the truck's licence number is lucky for them and will send them straight to heaven.

A person may never understand calculus, but he or she readily understands numerology - the study of numbers. No, this is not an offshoot of number theory. This has sprung from the loins of horoscope. It gave birth to many different idiotic beliefs. Perhaps no one gave it family planning advice. There is a gem of a theory-gemology. They examine your horoscope and advice you to buy a gem, viz., diamond, pearl depending on your sun sign or moon sign. Never knew that the sun and moon had signatures. Then there's another champion-nameology, the science of changing your name or choosing different name because it supposedly gives you good luck. Perhaps people would one day name themselves BIG SHIT, because its value is the lucky number 1. Please excuse me while I vomit.

Grain from the Chaff

Most people are able to separate the "grain from the chaff", i.e, the real talented ones from the "untalented" ones. Yet, many support the "chaff" just because the "chaff" belongs to their community or religion or other discriminating criteria that people put to use. They would rather that a "chaff" of their chosen criteria wins the prize, recognition, position than a grain belonging to other rejected, not accepted criteria. I think that by now you would have understood what I am talking about. I am not giving a talk on harvesting techniques. I am talking about the blind support that we give to some issues or people without allowing for their drawbacks or faults. When someone else points out their lacunae we become defensive and sometimes downright stubborn and rude in seeking to support our "pet".

Recently I attended a music competition. Seated behind me were, as was quite obvious from their vociferation, were the supporters of a participant. On hearing their hurrahs one naturally thought that the participant in question was highly talented. Alas. That participant was a nincompoop. His performance did not even take off, to the say the least. Yet, his supporters persisted in their hollering. That was really good of them. In an age where loyalty is thought of as a relic of a bygone era, their loyalty even to a dying cause was and is commendable. However, what happened next was totally unacceptable.

The next performer, a girl, stole the show with her dance moves and superb voice modulations. Added to that her song selection was impeccable which enabled her to showcase the entire gamut of her vocal range. If the Les Miserables behind me had appreciated her performance and given it its due credit, they would have transmogrified into gentlemen. They didn't.

They began catcalling and verbally abusing the participant in effort to dishearten or even intimidate her. It became so bad that the organisers had to warn them to desist else they would ask the bouncers to carry out their duty. They quietened after that.

The question is why did they do it in the first place? Why couldn't they accept the fact that there was another candidate who was visibly better than their candidate? Is the victory at all costs gluttony so infectious? I leave the debate open....

A Fair Exchange!!

Today, people seem to change their partners (lovers, spouses, "friends") so fast that they sometimes forget who their current partner is. And sometimes an exchange can take place. While overhearing gossip recently, I was given to understand that a particular Ms. X was currently seeing Mr. B, while Mr. A was currently on very friendly terms with Ms. Y. Very good. Natural. But wait, was not it a few months ago that Mr. A was seeing Ms. X and Mr. B seeing Ms. Y? What happened to that? Oh.. Mutual Exchange. Maybe they should think of constructing a 'Love' Exchange where people can trade partners and also know which partners are in greatest demand.

Time to move on

When does one feel that one has been staying at a place too long.. as they say past one's welcome date? Signals could be anything from a cold shoulder to complete disregard. How would one feel when the toil, the work one put in over many years was disregarded and and one was made to feel very unwelcome. I understood the feeling recently. I believe it comes as a shock. You are made to realize that some people have no feelings or brains or a mind whatsoever. For them all that matters is that the pretence that all is well must go on. They do not care if you have served ten years or twenty. If you have outlived your usefulness, they have no more use for you and chuck you out. They justify it in the name of business. But knowing them, one can very safely say that they know naught about the business. They just want it their way. One can try advising that Plan A would be better, but they do not want plan A, they want a total nonsensical plan. Fine, have it your way. Your money, your plan.

Meaning of Good and Evil.

How does one define good? or for that matter evil? Many people have a shallow idea of good and evil. They are quick to jump to a conclusion. Quick to point accusatory fingers. They have no idea that good and evil are in fact relative. "one man's food is another man's poison", so the saying goes. Likewise, an evil for X may be good for Y. People expect good things to happen to them because they do good. That is they treat goodness as an investment, with a selfish motive deep at heart. Help should be anonymous. But today most people advertise their help or help with an eye on the camera. More concerned with the publicity they may receive than the gratitude they are sure to receive. They forget that doing good is right only if it is done for the right reasons. Helping a pretty girl because you think that she might fall in love is a disgusting thought. However, this is what is prevalent in today's world. One should, of course, help others. But it should be done for your satisfaction not for cheap publicity.

Supposing one day God announces that He will not reward those who help others but rather He will decide through a lottery one wonders how many people will continue their 'help'. Many say that they try to do their best. But do they know how what their limit is, their best is? They set a 'best' for themselves and they do not try to excel that, because that is their limit! They forget that the surest way to change the world is through one random act of kindness a day. You also need to know who to help. You are only so strong. During medieval times, doctors treating war wounded would first assess the injuries to see if the person could be helped. If not, they just opened an artery and moved on. No wasting precious resources and time. This is not hardheartedness. This is practicality. People do not understand this too. And just offer help to keep their conscience quiet. How else can one explain the tons of cash given to temples and churches?

Help. But because you want to. Not because have to.