What's on your mind, what's happening, etc.

Social media has very often been projected in many ways. But here, the point I’m trying to make is how social media actually makes us altruistic.  And no, I’m not talking about those pictures you can share to save an elephant’s life or that like button you can hit to kick a corrupt police officer. I am talking about how social media has made every event and moment in our lives worth sharing.

When you see a beautiful landscape, you no more sit back and enjoy it as the selfish you in the pre-social media era would. Instead you incessantly click pictures to show the world how beautiful the scenery is. Such is our unselfishness that we don’t just show them one or two pictures but 700 pictures of the same place. And we don’t stop at places. We know the sufferings of those who can’t enjoy the same delicacies as us, so we instagram their pictures, add a filter and click pictures of coffee to help them overcome the boredom inflicted by 700 pictures of the same place.

We are so inclusive even in our celebrations that when the football team we support scores, we don’t just selfishly celebrate at home, we celebrate with the world by tweeting “YESSS!!!“  or putting up a facebook status like ‘What a goal!!!’ Or even better, we like or comment on such statuses to join the party. We are now in an era where we like things we used to merely acknowledge before. That’s how concerned we are about other’s feelings.

Some people take benevolence to another level altogether by helping their toddlers and pets express themselves and share their experiences (or what is believed to be their experiences) through specially opened accounts for them. The other day a friend’s 2 year old son replied to one of my tweets. The kid has grown so fast! Now if only, my friend would.

Our compassion breaks all boundaries and touches an all new high when we even acknowledge the needs of stalkers. While walking into a restaurant, we just don’t walk in. We put up updates on Foursquare as a noble gesture. Because we understand that stalkers too, have feelings.

Inclusiveness is the key in today’s world. Meeting one person does not make us forget the rest of the world. We continue chatting with the rest of the world on our smartphones after greeting that person. Our lives are not just our lives, they are several parallel Big Boss/Big Brother shows that play non-stop on computer and smart phone screens across the globe. And it is our duty to do everything possible to keep it entertaining and fun as a service to mankind.

Now that I’m done with penning down my personal views, I will go ahead and do a selfless act of shouting about it on all possible social media. Thanks for reading. Please join the selflessness by sharing.

Me

Since when did I turn a deaf year to the tides.
Since when did Sunset become a stranger.
I don’t remember our last conversation.
But since when did I stop talking to me?

Was I running behind dreams
or fighting my insecurities?
Either way, I was stuck in a vicious circle.
But why did I turn a deaf ear to me?

Friends became facebook profiles
and numbers I never dialled.
I have no complaints, I was always a loner.
But I wonder when I ‘unfriended’ me.

Lethal agreement

Srijith hereafter referred to as 'I' or 'me' as the case may be, is as of now and or ticked off by the overusage of words in or and legal documentation and hereby expresses dismay at the verbose and loquacious agreements (with additional clauses in brackets to accentuate the complexity) and is pissed off at the usage of in and or instead of punctuation marks to lengthen sentences with no reason whatsoever and herewith agrees not to agree to anything hereto.

Further, I admits that he, time to time, is in complete awe and admiration of the art of documenting clauses that lis pendens if and of complicate and make redundant, sentences and trap one in a verbal labyrinth hereof therefore causing the Reader to hereby forget the beginning of the sentence as and of s/he reaches the end of the clause herewith.

Me solemnly agrees that any unencumbered lis pendens herewith is unencumbered. It is further agreed upon that despite the innumerable inexplicable clauses mentioned herewith and the extent of valuable time conspicuously consumed in vain whilst reading and or writing the above, anything and or everything aforementioned remains subject to change.

An unconscious effort

Have you ever wondered how stories help kids sleep? Even ones that make no sense, whatsoever. Sometimes you can make up stories and watch them sleep away happily. The funny part however, is that we continue doing it even once we grow; at least I do. Perhaps we don't get someone else to read out stories or don't even read them ourselves. We just form pictures in our head that follow to form a story, again one that makes no sense whatsoever. And then in due course of time, we'd be snoring our way to glory.

Recently I was trying to draw such pictures in my mind and in turn doze off. I was dead tired that day as I had been travelling the whole day. Surprisingly, I found that it was easier for me to imagine a picture when I was physically and mentally drained as compared to several earlier occasions where I had failed. What caught my attention was the fact that it was actually easier to imagine pictures when the mind and body were tired.

It got me thinking about how conscience actually hampers our imagination. We all experience that its easier to come up with more creative thoughts and better jokes when we're with our best of friends and not in front of say, bosses. Isn't that because we're less 'conscious'? Isn't it precisely why kids come up with the most creative thoughts. In fact the most creative of people are those who remain child-like despite showing the world they've grown up. We all have sensed our brains thinks wilder when intoxicated. It's rather fascinating how a tired brain seems to work more than an alert one.

I found one probable answer in Aldous Huxley's essay, the doors of perception. It states-
In one of his studies eminent Cambridge philosopher, Dr. C.D. Broad states "The function of the brain and nervous system and sense organs is in the main eliminative and not productive. The function of the brain and nervous system is to protect us from being overwhelmed and confused by this mass of largely useless and irrelevant knowledge, by shutting out most of what we should otherwise perceive or remember at any moment, and leaving only that very small and special selection which is likely to be practically useful."Quite a revelation. Isn't it.

That might answer why the less conscious brain opens up more to imagination. But having said that, how do we channelise our thoughts and remember or note them, if not through a conscious mind? Well, there goes yet another confusion of a restless mind.

The pursuit of pain

The heart pursues pain wholeheartedly

makes me wonder why such vehemence

Every low in life is just an excuse

to unleash a chain of pain

You scratch open old wounds

Just to feel the heart bleed again

and then wonder why it wouldn't heal

and yet don't realise, it didn't come uninvited

Happiness causes such discomfort

The absence of turbulence is scary

The heart once heavy, clears all dilemma

and makes everything rest in pain

The truth is pain is a friend for life we can't live without

If it doesn't find you, you find it

Nothing to say

It’s surprising but as the year comes to end, I just realised that I've had nothing to post in months. My life has been through so much; good and bad phases. A lot has happened in this period. Still I find it hard to believe I couldn't come across a thought or an observation to bring up here.

One of my writer friends and a senior at one of my earlier companies once was discussing about the joy of writing and how he would go about it. During the conversation, he told me that an effective way to get around a ‘writer’s block’ is to write about it. So here I am, writing about ... well, nothing.

Isn’t nothingness strange? I guess it is a key emotion that we never acknowledge. It could take forms of bliss and later on, boredom. But it certainly forms an essential part of our lives, doesn’t it? It could make you see the beauty of life and miss it at the same time.

Incidentally, nothingness could also be a big void in a train of thoughts. The mind probably works like a train and you need to take out one thought in order to let another come and play. So probably getting out the nothingness might make way for somethingness. I really hope that made sense.

Now that I really have nothing to write about and have probably stopped to make sense, I'd just conclude by saying that there might be many more similar writings on ‘nothing to write about’ coming up. Anyways, here’s hoping I wouldn't need any.

The Great Indian Pendrive

They say education aims at making us better humans. But how effective is it, if it makes us underconfident, prejudiced and practical failures. Welcome to India, where education aims at making you nothing but another brick in the wall, to put it in the words of Pink Floyd. Even though that was a generalised take on education, I'd just like to add that it personifies India like no other.

Since the days of the gurukul education system, we've only been made to memorise and recite like parrots. Reasoning and questioning is never encouraged by parents or teachers. But in this era of google.com and virtual reality, isn't memorising a job that's just left to pendrives?

Talking about education as a whole, it is not a process that just starts at school. It starts from home. And our teachers and elders have the perfect ways of killing any interest that a kid may cultivate. We're so insecure as a nation and society. This insecurity combined with false pride and ego takes a toll on a kid's future. Job security rates higher than passion and the kid is made an instrument for parents' ego.

We would like to believe in chasing excellence in stead of success. But the truth remains that we succumb to "what has scope" and to "what our neighbour's son does". Just for the record, India would be one of the very few nations in the world where people want to become engineers for the fear of not getting another job that suits their "position in the society" otherwise.

We teach our kids to believe in idols, century old scriptures, holy books and superstitions. But make it a point to NEVER teach them to believe in themselves. A post graduate in India goes around asking help to fill a resume while even a kid in the west would know how to sell himself. The same theory of "give a man a fish and he'll eat for a day, teach him how to fish and he'll eat for a lifetime" applies here. But unfortunately, we're least interested in learning how to fish. We're glad being highly educated, complacent and less readier to face the world.

Albert Einstein once said that Education is what remains after one has forgotten everything he learned in school. And here in India, once an exam is over, we're formatted pendrives.