Wednesday, April 28, 2010

A life more ordinary

The below is a work of my imagination. You are free to draw any conclusions from it.
You are also free to conclude that I am an ass.

A life more ordinary.
No, this entry is in no way related to or adopted/influenced by Danny Boyle's 'A life less ordinary'.
However the recognition that this statement deserves is often scoffed at by people everyday, me included.
Why do I want a life more ordinary?
There is no straight answer. There has to be a huge explanation whether the readers like it or not.
If you think this is lecture, if you think this is philosophical, then exit.

For the survivors, the deal is like this :
I would say that there are only, yes, ONLY 2 truths in this world.
Every hour, every minute and every second is spent by every creature on the face of the planet in realizing one of the truths.
How?
Let me first harp a little on what the two truths are :
1. Emotion is supreme. EVERYTHING else is secondary.
2. The Cosmic truth will supercede Truth 1 (any emotion).

How on earth do these 2 lines make sense to anyone? I'll tell you how.

1st Truth :
When I say emotion, i will talk about human emotion because I consider myself human :)
Human emotion is the be all and end all of everything.
What does a human work for?
When he is a kid, he sees his friend who has a cricket bat. He too wants one.
He can use his friend's bat for playing, but he wants his own. Why? Because of the emotion which drives him.
When he finally manages to get a bat, he is satisfied.
There is nothing that compares with this emotion at this stage of his life
Checkpoint 1

Fast forward 10 years.
He is preparing for a board exam in 10th Standard. He is nervous. He thinks his life is complicated. He starts cursing the education system, hopes that his college building collapses, hopes that Pakistan declares war on India and his exams get cancelled.
Now, this is again his emotion which speaks for him. He is least bothered about what happens to the world, least bothered about India and Pakistan. All his emotion wants is postponement of exams.
This is also a kind of emotion.
There is nothing that compares with this emotion at this stage of his life
Checkpoint 2

Fast forward 5 years, he joins an engineering college.
Everything around him is new, he joins a college in a new city. He is new to college life. His adrenaline keeps him jumping 24*7.
He starts the first day, saying to himself : I will be the best student, make my parents proud.
But is that nature? Is it a law which nature has decided for you? Is that something that evolutionary cycle has decided for you?
No. He goes to his class. Sees a girl.. and instantly falls for her.
This is what evolution teaches a human.
Everything else that is human is only built around it by the society.
He goes to college before time everyday now, just to get a glimpse of her and maybe a quick chat before the classes begin for the day.
This liking for her, is emotion.
There is nothing that compares with this emotion at this stage of his life
Checkpoint 3

Fast forward another 5 years, he manages to get his dream job.
Here too, the opposite sex chapter remains open.. albeit for a short while.
Work piles on. He is taken advantage of by the greedy bosses.
He has to oblige. Smiles in front of them and mouths the choicest expletives once he is a few feet away.
He really does not care, does not see the big picture. He does not know the goals of the company or the unit he is working for.
All he knows is that his boss has given him a small job to do, once he is done, he leaves for the day. Life is so simple :).
For everything bad happening to his life, he has his boss to blame for.
Hating the boss. This is also an emotion. A real universal one.
There is nothing that compares with this emotion at this stage of his life
Checkpoint 4

Few more years down the line, he becomes more responsible at his job, maybe a tad over-committed. He works late for most days a month.
He spends time during lunch and tea time talking about work, his drive back home is boss-bitching time. He hates a few colleagues for the way they work.
He is ultimately tired of himself, tired of the routine he follows and finally wants to break free.
But cannot. Because this is what he does for a living.
Living in this highly commercial world is tough...
This internal ambition of breaking the shackles but developing cold feet at the time of execution is also an emotion.
There is nothing that compares with this emotion at this stage of his life
Checkpoint 5

This is just a sample cross section of an average human's life that I have put in front of you.
If you notice, all 5 check points here, have very very different and contrasting human emotions.
All these emotions are THE ONLY things that a human has and works towards.
If its a positive emotion, he works towards it, if its negative, he will display it.

Whatever it takes to achieve these emotions, is what we do everyday in our lives.

People work hard so that they can be achievers, they want to be achievers.
Being achievers solves 2 things. It gives them a status which is a happy emotion.
It also gives them a good rating in their appraisals. This gives them good money.
Good money helps them achieve the material pleasures.
This is again a happy emotion which everyone wants to achieve.

To get this, the human also overdoes things. Does things which the nature never prescribes. Tells lies, cheats, tries too hard.. to reach the top.

Come to think of it, all of this is man made. All of it is just a sugar coat that the society has built to continue life.

If we are just monkeys with an advanced brain, the nature would want us to be like that.
Eat & mate. Thats it. That's life.
Everything else is a sugar coat.

2nd Truth :
Cosmic truth.
This is a truth which is outside our control.
This is a truth which wiped out the dinosaurs.
This is a truth that none of our advanced monkey scientists can ever resolve.
This is a truth which says that every few million years, the earth will be wiped out.
This is a truth which turned the trees and dinosaurs into fossil fuel that we use today.
This could be a truth that would turn us into petrol.

This would mean an untimely death for all of us on this planet.
This truth is DEATH.

This would supercede all the other truths.

So I strongly feel there are only 2 truths.
One when you are alive, your emotions.

The second. The inevitable.

Once the second arrives, all the bats that you have accumulated, the colleges you have hated, the girls you have loved, the bosses you have hated and the shackles that you have wanted to break cease to exist.
It will all be a big void.

Ever wondered why animals dont go through this drama?
The homo sapien is also an animal.

They don't because they haven't evolved so much.
They really dont care if the financial ledgers dont tally in a bank. They really dont care if they get a good rating or a bad one. They dont care what their boss thinks of them.

All they care for is food and a partner.
Life becomes easy. Simple. Non politicized.

That's what I dream of.
A life which is easy, very simple and uncomplicated.
A life which I can live and be happy with my emotions which nature prescribes... before the 2nd truth catches up...
I dream of a life more mediocre...
A life more ordinary.

2 comments:

Vyankatesh said...

Uncomplicating things is a challenge!!

Maybe disconnecting once a while is a solution!!

Good Post Akshay!!

Akshay said...

Yes Vyanku... uncomplicating life is very difficult.
Insignificant things like sccs and scm are so hard to uncomplicate.. life toh door ki baat hai :D

Related Posts with Thumbnails