...simply be his friend.: May 2008

Sunday, May 25, 2008

My SPIC Farewell...

Today was a red letter day.
We (the senior members) knew we were in for something nice and worthy of space in our internal memory registers. And I must say, the thass, the people, the coming together, the music, the admin, the college, the balls, the grass, the misunderstood wicked tree (not necessarily in that order), all made sure it was just that.

Life I've always felt is prone to 'degenerate'(?) into a sequence of oscillations.
In every single plane of human sensitivity, there is scope for many extremes. And I believe its easy to get carried away towards one, and then come rushing back in a desperate attempt to maintain sanity, and in turn overshoot to the opposite end.
Events such as the day that was today, have the power to push one in a particular way with absolutely no limits. And in spite of the relative un-advisability of extreme living, I think such 'spikes' in the (relatively) moribund curves of our individual existences ARE important.

For due to the inertial nature of our consciousness, it is again very easy to slip into any given comfort zone, upon sufficient continuous exposure.
Today's event serves to wake oneself from the 'comfort' zone of a routined life which is 'doomed' to an existence of passive spectator-ship. Today was the symbol of all things alive and abounding; of energy and a sense of comfortable ease bursting at its seams; of a thought simple in its airs, but with the might to shake a thousand earths.

While all the love was all too evident, so was the sense of potent mortality. The transience that underlines our every role in life; the fact that nothing (except hopefully this(!)) really will survive the test of "infinite-dimensional time"; the unnerving feeling that this indeed is one of THE last times that I'll meet you, ABC dearest; the sense of an inevitable shift in all life coordinates fast approaching, all these diversely (and BEAUTIFULLY) hued emotions were beautifully etched on the perfection that was lived today.

Indeed, today really IS all one has between a (potentially) nagging past and a (potentially) unreal, uncertain, unknown future. More on this later.

For now, today was simply, very, very beautiful.

Sigh.. So much love.

Aanandam...

Thursday, May 1, 2008

The Greatest Gift of all...

What is the best treat one can give to oneself? I shall not venture into gift ideas for friends, simply because thats fraught with risks of subjectivity, specific likings, relationship levels, et al, very very et al.

To arrive at the answer that I have in my head already, here is my concocted derivation.

The aim of our every action is to experience happiness &/or bliss. It goes without saying, that not all lead to instant gratification, but to an extent, the hope for the future can be seen as part of today's joy in the face of difficulty.

Anyhow...
Now I turn our attention to the world we live in today. Being a member of the privileged sections of society, we are prone (dutifully?) to be buried under heaps of hecticity. In the cocktail of exams, parties, TV, Email, SMS, Man_U and other such, one is often forced to mould oneself in a way so as to accommodate all said activities. Living in a world thats growing faster and faster, its easy to lose sight of one's self from time to time.

So, you've just found out you've won the FGH Thingamajig. You're at home, all alone. Or at least, the moment you found out said news, you were alone in essence. In that one moment, what is the single most valuable thing you can gift yourself?

I feel, the answer is VELLAPANA.
I say so because I believe being vella and indulging in thass goes beyond the externalities of sheer time pass et al. Being vella, in effect is being alone with your self. Your self being, more often than not, the most neglected member of your social circle.
Imagine, upon finding out the news, just feasting on a double serving of vella; doing what you really want, to be happy, irresponsible if need be; to listen to music, to read up on randomness, or even to write this post.

Yes, the social functions of a get-together followed by gorging and guzzling are important. They're part of our social-ness I guess. But before we entertain anyone else in the world, is it too much to ask, to spare a moment for your own self? (Here of course the dynamics of time are such that a moment may effectively be equivalent to hours and hours of unbridled thass...)

I hypothesize, that a social celebration without adequate merriment with the self would invariably lead to a hollow(er) experience overall.

Thus, I'd request all of you to try your hands at good ol' fashioned "nothing-in-particular"ness, the next time you feel the need to splurge.

I can assure you, this gift isn't as easy to present as one might think. The challenges in sticking to one's void guns are surprisingly tough.

Good Night!
Catching up on sleep is next on my list of things to do, after 'nothing'.

Cheers!