I view development in the form of revolutions. I don't have to take all of them individually to study their effects, i just need to see the bigger ones which are and have changed the world. I see them in the order Renaissance, Industrial revolution and then what i call Commercial revolution or you may also call it monetary revolution for clarity.
Renaissance was a creative revolution, it brought art, music, love, sensuality in the world. It showed us how beautiful things are. It gave artist oppourtunity to establish the value of his work.
But soon this was analysed by a few smart people who found a flavour in machines and within 100 years of end of renaissance, they turned these artists into proletaraits. Making them miserable and dependent on factories.
First of all i don't understand how a cultural movement could ever to come to an end?
Aren't we evolving anymore? Don't human societies and cultures change with time constantly influencing and learning from each other? If yes, how could you say that the period ended?
The problem with the society is that they are easy led. An individual mind is harder to bend but to bend the thought of masses, it just needs political statements on news. And we start believing them as truth without giving back a thought.
The industrial revolution made life of independent self-employed skilled people miserable. Then came the concept of jobs. Over a period of time these jobs were divided into fields and professions and universities and colleges were extensively set up to pursue these fields of sciences and engineering for producing better workers. And they did a good job at it. Industries grew to unprecedented extent with the help of technology.
New jobs were born, consumption was increased and then came the Commercial Revolution. People got focused on money. All the ever wanted to do was to earn more money. Some by working in the industries, some by investing in new areas and it all required consumption to be increased continually else everything will start falling apart.
Intelligent people were sent to market but with a different mindset this time. There was a time, you should ask from your father or grandfather, that they went to university to study. They had a passion for it. They would cross flooded streets and bad terrains to get the knowledge. Thats precisely what knowledge was meant to be for. But now the mindset has changed. You go to a good university, you earn more.
And the whole focus changed. Soon we would find more people who would not connect their knowledge with their work. More dissatisfied people hating their jobs. Almost everyone says they hate their jobs even if it pays them well. What does it all mean?
We are misled. These corporates earn profits by rendering us into confusion whole of our lives are spent thinking whether we could have done it differently? Would it have been a better thing?
These corporates made life easy by reducing risks for us but making us dependent.
Freedom of thought, if you know, come only with a cost and its the cost of risk.
What i am trying to say? What is my point?
Its straight forward. I can't see money as my motive for life. If want to be a writer, i will be a writer. Remember great people always say, pay attention to you work and do only that which you love to. And they are right. But don't we listen and ignore it after a few days.
How could so many people in the world are engineers and doctors and in finances?
Are there fields the only sustaining fields on earth? Where did the arts and philosophy go?
Where is the class and discipline of original thought?
Don't you think we need a new form of renaissance, a revolution bound around creativity and technology rather than profits. Don't you think this world has taken a wrong turn somewhere in the middle? Don't you think we have become so socially isolated that someday we might forget how actual human interaction feels like? Don't you think that our education should contribute value to our understanding of the world.
I would ask all of you to back and start reading the books of middle school and you would be amazed how much useful things are taught there. Why isn't it continued throughout?
Is it because of jobs? Is it because of money? Is it everything?
Sunday, February 27, 2011
Sunday, December 21, 2008
Faith
In regard to the previous post on God and Religion, my brother put forward an important point to think about. Human beings need to put faith in something to give them strength in their days of misery. Something which would make them believe that time will change and their turn will come soon. Something, which can tell them that, if they have done the right work they shall be rewarded. Something that would make them believe that sun will rise tomorrow for the good. What is harm in it? I certainly don’t object it but I wonder what if that object to put faith in or on be that person itself? I wonder how much difference it would create for a person at a psychological level. Of course the rest of the world would change drastically.
While I was a kid I didn’t knew about things much but I knew that there was something in the dark. My mother would fear that if I go in there some insect might bite me and I would get hurt. But kids are impish and curious. So to prevent me from going there she would instead say that devil lives in the dark. Now am scared, devil’s incredibly powerful how can I fight it? I simply can’t and so I don’t go in the dark anymore. But this devil starts to scare me even at night. I can’t go to piss at night; I can’t come out to look for stars, I can’t go on the roof alone and so on. Where ever there is dark, I would feel unsafe, insecure and fearful. I ask mother to help me out and then she tells me to pray! All of a sudden I am chanting and singing songs for this god. What a relief to that kid would it be!
Then next morning I go to school and I read moral sciences. I learn that god is a good man, he created this world, he punishes those who commit evil, those who don’t respect elders so on and so forth.
Everyday I would wake up and think of these two powerful images-the god and the devil. To fight the devil I need to please god and put my faith in him that he will save me. So I do everything that I can to make this object happier. And in response to my faith this god for certain and 100 percent of times saved me from devil (of course later I found out that there was and is no devil and hence no god) Now imagine how hard would it become for a person, who has known these objects from his childhood, to live without them. He would feel so much betrayed, lost and confused. Of course he has never seen any god or devil but wouldn’t it be devastating to find out that something he put so much faith in never actually was there to save him from whatever may come along. Certainly it would be. This psychology in people is much more a reason than anything else for the existence of god even in the 21st century, even in the age of science and technology.
Going back to the story of mother I wonder what if she had rather told me that I can fight the devil, that I am also incredibly powerful to stand up to him. What if the text books would have told me from the beginning that science created this world and that it is my conscience which makes me feel guilty when I commit sin or do something I shouldn’t have and so for well being I must conduct in a certain way. Wouldn’t it replace god? Wouldn’t it make every person incredibly powerful? Wouldn’t it wipe out religions and all the dirt with it?
Now since a long time I have believed that even if there is no god or devil but if millions of people start putting faith in something, even an object, it automatically becomes that much powerful. People put faith in Nelson Mandela, see what he has done. People put faith in Adolf Hitler, look what he has done. I may simply say one is god and other devil. But this is not what it actually is.
The game is whatever you start putting faith in becomes power. I just question why not empower yourself? And when we start to realize that we can, I believe it is the first step towards awakening.
While I was a kid I didn’t knew about things much but I knew that there was something in the dark. My mother would fear that if I go in there some insect might bite me and I would get hurt. But kids are impish and curious. So to prevent me from going there she would instead say that devil lives in the dark. Now am scared, devil’s incredibly powerful how can I fight it? I simply can’t and so I don’t go in the dark anymore. But this devil starts to scare me even at night. I can’t go to piss at night; I can’t come out to look for stars, I can’t go on the roof alone and so on. Where ever there is dark, I would feel unsafe, insecure and fearful. I ask mother to help me out and then she tells me to pray! All of a sudden I am chanting and singing songs for this god. What a relief to that kid would it be!
Then next morning I go to school and I read moral sciences. I learn that god is a good man, he created this world, he punishes those who commit evil, those who don’t respect elders so on and so forth.
Everyday I would wake up and think of these two powerful images-the god and the devil. To fight the devil I need to please god and put my faith in him that he will save me. So I do everything that I can to make this object happier. And in response to my faith this god for certain and 100 percent of times saved me from devil (of course later I found out that there was and is no devil and hence no god) Now imagine how hard would it become for a person, who has known these objects from his childhood, to live without them. He would feel so much betrayed, lost and confused. Of course he has never seen any god or devil but wouldn’t it be devastating to find out that something he put so much faith in never actually was there to save him from whatever may come along. Certainly it would be. This psychology in people is much more a reason than anything else for the existence of god even in the 21st century, even in the age of science and technology.
Going back to the story of mother I wonder what if she had rather told me that I can fight the devil, that I am also incredibly powerful to stand up to him. What if the text books would have told me from the beginning that science created this world and that it is my conscience which makes me feel guilty when I commit sin or do something I shouldn’t have and so for well being I must conduct in a certain way. Wouldn’t it replace god? Wouldn’t it make every person incredibly powerful? Wouldn’t it wipe out religions and all the dirt with it?
Now since a long time I have believed that even if there is no god or devil but if millions of people start putting faith in something, even an object, it automatically becomes that much powerful. People put faith in Nelson Mandela, see what he has done. People put faith in Adolf Hitler, look what he has done. I may simply say one is god and other devil. But this is not what it actually is.
The game is whatever you start putting faith in becomes power. I just question why not empower yourself? And when we start to realize that we can, I believe it is the first step towards awakening.
Friday, December 19, 2008
Honest and Unmerciful
New Year’s Eve is coming and I celebrate it in quite the same fashion every time. On that evening I can either be located in the most deserted part of the world or I am on a train journey. One more thing that has not changed is, I make a resolve every year and I try to keep it, at least for the first few months.
For this year my resolve was to speak truth. No more games just speak truth. And to be honest I did a pretty good job at it. I told only one big lie and that was to my sister.
In the beginning I was scared that I might get in a difficult situation, I wouldn’t know how to deal with. But to my surprise speaking truth is not as tough as it sounds. I had all these thoughts that my relations with friends, family, relatives and strangers might get effected but nothing like that happened. It was easy going for most of the part and a shocking realizing was that the people around make the job much easier for you. The truth behind truth is that no wants to hear it. People are just happy with what they know; they don’t want to know anything that in any sense might sound real. They are all happy with the lies they have lived with.
In this time I have spoken about true events and feelings that I have experienced, to people and I found that those close to you have their own preconceptions and thoughts about you and they don’t like to change it at any cost so they just avoid or forget whatever truth you speak to them. Strangers are the ones who are really freaked out. If you meet someone and give them a taste of truth they think of only two things, either you are crazy or you are a dumb person. So they are the hardest to tell. Because no one expects you to be honest and so no believes you even if you are actually being honest.
Since another year is at verge of end and I have to make another resolution so I started thinking about it when I happened to watch the movie “”almost famous”. In the movie there is a character that says to the lead character that if you really want to be a good friend to people then be honest and unmerciful with them. And coincidently on the same day I watched a documentary on Jack Wlech. He is writer of some famous management books. He said that in human societies there exists a practice called fake kindness. People don’t tell other people how bad they are until they run into trouble and it’s already too late. Now this is an evil practice because you are trying to be nice to that person by hiding his/her shortcomings and not speaking the truth and so not giving them a chance to correct themselves. I have done this fake kindness in my life and every time the results have been devastating not only to them but to me also.
So for the coming year I have decided that I will be honest and unmerciful. No fake kindness. I am pretty sure that this is going to be a very tough year for my friends. All, who didn’t want to ask the truth will now be beaten by it and see I can’t help.
Cheers to Honesy and Unmercifulness!
All the wishes!
For this year my resolve was to speak truth. No more games just speak truth. And to be honest I did a pretty good job at it. I told only one big lie and that was to my sister.
In the beginning I was scared that I might get in a difficult situation, I wouldn’t know how to deal with. But to my surprise speaking truth is not as tough as it sounds. I had all these thoughts that my relations with friends, family, relatives and strangers might get effected but nothing like that happened. It was easy going for most of the part and a shocking realizing was that the people around make the job much easier for you. The truth behind truth is that no wants to hear it. People are just happy with what they know; they don’t want to know anything that in any sense might sound real. They are all happy with the lies they have lived with.
In this time I have spoken about true events and feelings that I have experienced, to people and I found that those close to you have their own preconceptions and thoughts about you and they don’t like to change it at any cost so they just avoid or forget whatever truth you speak to them. Strangers are the ones who are really freaked out. If you meet someone and give them a taste of truth they think of only two things, either you are crazy or you are a dumb person. So they are the hardest to tell. Because no one expects you to be honest and so no believes you even if you are actually being honest.
Since another year is at verge of end and I have to make another resolution so I started thinking about it when I happened to watch the movie “”almost famous”. In the movie there is a character that says to the lead character that if you really want to be a good friend to people then be honest and unmerciful with them. And coincidently on the same day I watched a documentary on Jack Wlech. He is writer of some famous management books. He said that in human societies there exists a practice called fake kindness. People don’t tell other people how bad they are until they run into trouble and it’s already too late. Now this is an evil practice because you are trying to be nice to that person by hiding his/her shortcomings and not speaking the truth and so not giving them a chance to correct themselves. I have done this fake kindness in my life and every time the results have been devastating not only to them but to me also.
So for the coming year I have decided that I will be honest and unmerciful. No fake kindness. I am pretty sure that this is going to be a very tough year for my friends. All, who didn’t want to ask the truth will now be beaten by it and see I can’t help.
Cheers to Honesy and Unmercifulness!
All the wishes!
Monday, December 15, 2008
The Secret-A Documentary
I watched the documentary- "The Secret" and I was literally taken aback by the revelations. The assertions within the documentary are not only scientifically correct but also support the spiritual beliefs. And to me this is really important because it provides a link between the objective world and the subjective world.
It must have happened with many of us that sometimes the song that we are humming, we suddenly find, someone else starts singing. Now I would always wonder why is it so? And it happened so many times that it frustrated me because whenever I was humming my favorite song and wanted to sing it loud I would realize someone else doing the same.
One of the greatest findings of 20th century explains this by demonstrating that all our thoughts are associated with unique frequencies at which they are transmitted in the universe. Now lets say am transmitting the thought of singing 'stairway to heaven' in the universe then am acting as a transmitter and there is a chance that someone is able to receive this frequency, decode the thought in its brain and without knowing what actually happened start singing the same song. This person becomes the acceptor. So in this way all the brains in the world become transmitter-receiver sets and by default we are always tuned into some frequency-a state which we refer to as mood. We can always change this mood by transmitting a different frequency or thought. Now the documentary says that the kind of thoughts I emit attracts the same kind of things to me. In science we know similar thing-frequencies with same phase interfere constructively and hence enhancing the combined effect. The same thing happens with the thoughts as well. As we know that feelings can generate thoughts (and vice-versa) so if I feel happy, I attract more happiness. If I feel wealthy, I attract more wealth. And so on. They call this phenomenon as the law of attraction i.e. like things attracts each other. This is one of the reasons why we find groups in the society. Groups of rich, poor, happy, sad etc. So it's really up to us what we want to attract and to get it just grab the opportunities which will also be attracted in the same way.
Today many, many scientific theories explain these phenomenons. Three, that am familiar with are wave-particle duality, the quantum mechanics and the mass-energy conversion. The Einstein's theory claims that all the matter in the universe in convertible into energy or we can simply say that matter is a form of energy. And according to the first two theories, there is no limit or boundary of matter. They in the form of waves can just travel anywhere and interfere with anything. Now this means that our bodies are sources of infinite energy free to roam and affect anything, reaffirming what the documentary says. Since all these lumps of energy continuously interact with each other, they act as one single system or one energy. And a system fighting itself is doomed to fail.
In real life it’s hard to believe that we are limitless, that we are infinitely powerful, that we are omnipresent, that we are the god and that we are one because right from our birth we are taught about limitations and boundaries. We are told that we are weak, that there are strings controlling our actions, that there are empirical rules to follow and all the rubbish. Now am not asking you to believe anything blindly but let us just sit and give a little thought to it. Lets just ponder if it is possible.
It must have happened with many of us that sometimes the song that we are humming, we suddenly find, someone else starts singing. Now I would always wonder why is it so? And it happened so many times that it frustrated me because whenever I was humming my favorite song and wanted to sing it loud I would realize someone else doing the same.
One of the greatest findings of 20th century explains this by demonstrating that all our thoughts are associated with unique frequencies at which they are transmitted in the universe. Now lets say am transmitting the thought of singing 'stairway to heaven' in the universe then am acting as a transmitter and there is a chance that someone is able to receive this frequency, decode the thought in its brain and without knowing what actually happened start singing the same song. This person becomes the acceptor. So in this way all the brains in the world become transmitter-receiver sets and by default we are always tuned into some frequency-a state which we refer to as mood. We can always change this mood by transmitting a different frequency or thought. Now the documentary says that the kind of thoughts I emit attracts the same kind of things to me. In science we know similar thing-frequencies with same phase interfere constructively and hence enhancing the combined effect. The same thing happens with the thoughts as well. As we know that feelings can generate thoughts (and vice-versa) so if I feel happy, I attract more happiness. If I feel wealthy, I attract more wealth. And so on. They call this phenomenon as the law of attraction i.e. like things attracts each other. This is one of the reasons why we find groups in the society. Groups of rich, poor, happy, sad etc. So it's really up to us what we want to attract and to get it just grab the opportunities which will also be attracted in the same way.
Today many, many scientific theories explain these phenomenons. Three, that am familiar with are wave-particle duality, the quantum mechanics and the mass-energy conversion. The Einstein's theory claims that all the matter in the universe in convertible into energy or we can simply say that matter is a form of energy. And according to the first two theories, there is no limit or boundary of matter. They in the form of waves can just travel anywhere and interfere with anything. Now this means that our bodies are sources of infinite energy free to roam and affect anything, reaffirming what the documentary says. Since all these lumps of energy continuously interact with each other, they act as one single system or one energy. And a system fighting itself is doomed to fail.
In real life it’s hard to believe that we are limitless, that we are infinitely powerful, that we are omnipresent, that we are the god and that we are one because right from our birth we are taught about limitations and boundaries. We are told that we are weak, that there are strings controlling our actions, that there are empirical rules to follow and all the rubbish. Now am not asking you to believe anything blindly but let us just sit and give a little thought to it. Lets just ponder if it is possible.
Friday, December 12, 2008
The Fraud of God and Religion
When I was a kid I watched the great Hindu epics like Ramayana and Mahabharata, I saw the movies on Christ and I also got the chance to learn about different religions and gods from time to time. Back then world was too big to me to understand. But these gods definitely left their impact on me. Usually I do not question things but if some guy claims to have extraordinary and unbelievable powers so much so that he can stop the time, die and resurrect, turn cursed human beings from stones, and can bring rain at his whim, then I’ve got to question that man. And I have got to question the authority and institution that supports it.
When I think of Superman and any God say Krishna. I see they both do good work, they both want welfare of people and they both use extraordinary powers for the good and against the evil. The differences are that the institution that supports Superman is not as big as Krishna's, hence the followers are less and most importantly superman is not old enough to be the God. My point is Krishna was a Superman of his age and had a strong following, who liked his funny acts, but ultimately he is a product of fiction and nothing more. Why can't people see that these gods are just too much to be real?
Today religion stands as the most corrupt organization in the world. In India British set the example of how handful men can rule the entire nation i.e.by divide and rule. Religions did exactly the same. When the kings had understood that the people cannot be divided easily against his atrocities, they through politicians established the organizations called religion and a leader of the same known as God. It was a gamble but it worked, all over the world, very well. So well that the people of one religion do not deny the existence of other gods and they believe that there are all but the same and one. But then they kill people in the name of the same religion. Religions are paradoxical in practice and ridiculous in themselves.
Religions make people insecure, dependent and weak. No religion ever sets anyone free because there is always some guy with the hold of rope against your neck. Who is God to tell you what is right or wrong? How does he know what is right or wrong? He has got extraordinary powers and can bend any reality into illusion and any illusion into reality. How can I trust him when he says this is right and this is wrong? This is all his game, how do I know he is not playing a trick against me or that he is not lying? If there is any god in any religion then he is the most corrupt, selfish and cynic person in the world because he has got all the power and he can do anything with it and you will never know.
One more interesting thing about gods is that no god of the east ever went to the west to help out the people there and neither did any god of the west is known to have come to the east. So a god who is omnipresent, can see everything and walks with you 24/7 loves regionalism or may be he was a racist. Or may be he was simply a human being projected deliberately and thus having a limited so called kingdom.
Sometimes I laugh when people talk about science and god and how they both are contradictory. I wonder if there was a god then why he never did works of science? Why he couldn’t have just stood and passed over the technology of computers in his speeches? Why he didn’t teach us relativity? God knew everything and, as we all know, he was very kind so when he landed on earth why he didn’t tell that one there will be deadly diseases like cancer and aids and then you must take so and so medicine to cure it.
Why God always had to be born with a book of morals and principles?
Why?
The idea of god has to do more with politics, greed, slavery, violence and imperialism than with anything else and each one of us needs to know about it.
When I think of Superman and any God say Krishna. I see they both do good work, they both want welfare of people and they both use extraordinary powers for the good and against the evil. The differences are that the institution that supports Superman is not as big as Krishna's, hence the followers are less and most importantly superman is not old enough to be the God. My point is Krishna was a Superman of his age and had a strong following, who liked his funny acts, but ultimately he is a product of fiction and nothing more. Why can't people see that these gods are just too much to be real?
Today religion stands as the most corrupt organization in the world. In India British set the example of how handful men can rule the entire nation i.e.by divide and rule. Religions did exactly the same. When the kings had understood that the people cannot be divided easily against his atrocities, they through politicians established the organizations called religion and a leader of the same known as God. It was a gamble but it worked, all over the world, very well. So well that the people of one religion do not deny the existence of other gods and they believe that there are all but the same and one. But then they kill people in the name of the same religion. Religions are paradoxical in practice and ridiculous in themselves.
Religions make people insecure, dependent and weak. No religion ever sets anyone free because there is always some guy with the hold of rope against your neck. Who is God to tell you what is right or wrong? How does he know what is right or wrong? He has got extraordinary powers and can bend any reality into illusion and any illusion into reality. How can I trust him when he says this is right and this is wrong? This is all his game, how do I know he is not playing a trick against me or that he is not lying? If there is any god in any religion then he is the most corrupt, selfish and cynic person in the world because he has got all the power and he can do anything with it and you will never know.
One more interesting thing about gods is that no god of the east ever went to the west to help out the people there and neither did any god of the west is known to have come to the east. So a god who is omnipresent, can see everything and walks with you 24/7 loves regionalism or may be he was a racist. Or may be he was simply a human being projected deliberately and thus having a limited so called kingdom.
Sometimes I laugh when people talk about science and god and how they both are contradictory. I wonder if there was a god then why he never did works of science? Why he couldn’t have just stood and passed over the technology of computers in his speeches? Why he didn’t teach us relativity? God knew everything and, as we all know, he was very kind so when he landed on earth why he didn’t tell that one there will be deadly diseases like cancer and aids and then you must take so and so medicine to cure it.
Why God always had to be born with a book of morals and principles?
Why?
The idea of god has to do more with politics, greed, slavery, violence and imperialism than with anything else and each one of us needs to know about it.
Beyond The Seen
A gentle push, distinctive noises breaking the silence of air, one confident breath, thrust, flare and click! This is all it takes to capture the world in pulp. Simple it sounds, profound it is.
Literally speaking, a photograph is nothing but a representation of person, place, scene or thing in a convenient form-print, digital or slide-with the help of a device called camera. But beneath those dead frames of exaggerated reality lies a whole breathing world. Ever fresh and alive! What we know in our very familiar words as, memories. Our memories, their memories and the memories of the world itself! For most of the people photographs are a way to peek into their own past and watch them selves in times-happy, sad or fun. But more often than not photographs become impersonal objects depicting everything from a leaf falling off the tree to the smile of the beloved ones, who we don’t even know but can somehow connect very well through this medium. When we go on a trip, we keep capturing the roads, trees, skies, flowers, mountains, houses and people because somewhere on the back of our minds we know that this world and this time is not going to last in our lives for long and we all are subconsciously attached to it and want to keep a piece of it safe in our heart, in our memories-the face of the world, as it was, beautiful, pure and pacific.
For me photographs are like adventure trips where you can not only discover the object under focus but you can also enjoy the thrills of the vicinity. For me they are the stills showing the change in the world. For me they are like personal feelings in shared spaces. For me they are like little secrets kept in a stash. And sometimes, on rare occasions, they are a mystery with an aura of their own. It is something originated beyond the camera, photographer, films and lights. It is an idea consciously provoked, unconsciously originated or subconsciously present in the mind of the photographer. And it is the beauty of this very thought that keeps me lingering to them.
Photography has brought a revolution in the world and with time it has, silently, got so ingrained in every ones life that we seldom think and talk about it. But that photograph with a little emotion and thought behind it is certainly the most amazing thing you have had in your hands. It is like diving into the past and coming out alive in a moment, kept, so perfectly safe and intact to its very essence, for ever.
Literally speaking, a photograph is nothing but a representation of person, place, scene or thing in a convenient form-print, digital or slide-with the help of a device called camera. But beneath those dead frames of exaggerated reality lies a whole breathing world. Ever fresh and alive! What we know in our very familiar words as, memories. Our memories, their memories and the memories of the world itself! For most of the people photographs are a way to peek into their own past and watch them selves in times-happy, sad or fun. But more often than not photographs become impersonal objects depicting everything from a leaf falling off the tree to the smile of the beloved ones, who we don’t even know but can somehow connect very well through this medium. When we go on a trip, we keep capturing the roads, trees, skies, flowers, mountains, houses and people because somewhere on the back of our minds we know that this world and this time is not going to last in our lives for long and we all are subconsciously attached to it and want to keep a piece of it safe in our heart, in our memories-the face of the world, as it was, beautiful, pure and pacific.
For me photographs are like adventure trips where you can not only discover the object under focus but you can also enjoy the thrills of the vicinity. For me they are the stills showing the change in the world. For me they are like personal feelings in shared spaces. For me they are like little secrets kept in a stash. And sometimes, on rare occasions, they are a mystery with an aura of their own. It is something originated beyond the camera, photographer, films and lights. It is an idea consciously provoked, unconsciously originated or subconsciously present in the mind of the photographer. And it is the beauty of this very thought that keeps me lingering to them.
Photography has brought a revolution in the world and with time it has, silently, got so ingrained in every ones life that we seldom think and talk about it. But that photograph with a little emotion and thought behind it is certainly the most amazing thing you have had in your hands. It is like diving into the past and coming out alive in a moment, kept, so perfectly safe and intact to its very essence, for ever.
Monday, December 1, 2008
Me, Steve Jobs and The Legends
Today i had a discussion, with my friend Prateek, concerned with the people i admire. Out of fourteen odd names the one that clicked me was Steve Jobs- the CEO of Apple Corp.
The question forth me was, why do i admire him?
The simple answer was because of his achievements and struggle that he had successfully faced in life without letting himself down. But that's everyone's reason and it simply did not seem enough. What if he is just one lucky guy in this world? What if everything just happened to be right for him when for other billion's not? In such a case, would i make him a hero? or should i?
The question got even bigger now. Can i trust my hero? Is it safe to assume that whatever he says is true? that if he has made his fortune by digging i-pods, following his teachings will make me Steve Jobs too? Well, no.
Going by how people's mind work, everyone who makes it big becomes a legend in their eyes when in fact it might have been just a result of serendipitous fall of events and nothing more. Or it could have been the work of sheer luck. When i put a little more thought, it makes perfect sense. In the past all of us, at different levels, have been the heroes of something and we had our own group of followers who would trust no one but us, who would ask no one but us, who would listen no one but us. We were their role models. We were Steve Jobs for them. But how many of them are successful this day because of us? And the most important thing is, did we ever really knew the right thing to say to them? Isn't it possible that we might have mislead more people that not? All of this is possible and with that the question gets even bigger.
Who is my hero?
There is no hero. Lets say that most of the great people born on the earth simply happened to be great not by work but by chance. If you can believe it's possible then in that case the personal experiences of these legends and their biographies make no sense because everything was a work of luck and so all the golden words these legends spoke of render meaningless. And so its ridiculous to make their life our law. So when this guy says that, do your work believing that the dots will somehow connect in future, why should i believe that? If i make four dots on a white sheet of paper what is the probability that a painter will make a beautiful painting out of it? 100 pc. But what is the probability that i will make a painting out of it? zero pc. So why should i believe that i can do anything assuming that the dots will connect in future? I shouldn't. I shouldn't follow what he says. I should think listen to myself and follow what i believe is right for me. I should be my leader. I should be my hero because i know myself better than that man with jobs even in his name!
Now, anyone can say that this bullshit is based on the assumption that the idols we know, Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Gandhi, the Google people etc were born with good luck but my argument is even more simple. The life stories of these people are going to be amongst the most amazing stories you are ever probably going to listen in your lifetime but if someone become Che Guevara by roaming in the continent, it does not mean that by doing the same you will become one too.
The question forth me was, why do i admire him?
The simple answer was because of his achievements and struggle that he had successfully faced in life without letting himself down. But that's everyone's reason and it simply did not seem enough. What if he is just one lucky guy in this world? What if everything just happened to be right for him when for other billion's not? In such a case, would i make him a hero? or should i?
The question got even bigger now. Can i trust my hero? Is it safe to assume that whatever he says is true? that if he has made his fortune by digging i-pods, following his teachings will make me Steve Jobs too? Well, no.
Going by how people's mind work, everyone who makes it big becomes a legend in their eyes when in fact it might have been just a result of serendipitous fall of events and nothing more. Or it could have been the work of sheer luck. When i put a little more thought, it makes perfect sense. In the past all of us, at different levels, have been the heroes of something and we had our own group of followers who would trust no one but us, who would ask no one but us, who would listen no one but us. We were their role models. We were Steve Jobs for them. But how many of them are successful this day because of us? And the most important thing is, did we ever really knew the right thing to say to them? Isn't it possible that we might have mislead more people that not? All of this is possible and with that the question gets even bigger.
Who is my hero?
There is no hero. Lets say that most of the great people born on the earth simply happened to be great not by work but by chance. If you can believe it's possible then in that case the personal experiences of these legends and their biographies make no sense because everything was a work of luck and so all the golden words these legends spoke of render meaningless. And so its ridiculous to make their life our law. So when this guy says that, do your work believing that the dots will somehow connect in future, why should i believe that? If i make four dots on a white sheet of paper what is the probability that a painter will make a beautiful painting out of it? 100 pc. But what is the probability that i will make a painting out of it? zero pc. So why should i believe that i can do anything assuming that the dots will connect in future? I shouldn't. I shouldn't follow what he says. I should think listen to myself and follow what i believe is right for me. I should be my leader. I should be my hero because i know myself better than that man with jobs even in his name!
Now, anyone can say that this bullshit is based on the assumption that the idols we know, Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Gandhi, the Google people etc were born with good luck but my argument is even more simple. The life stories of these people are going to be amongst the most amazing stories you are ever probably going to listen in your lifetime but if someone become Che Guevara by roaming in the continent, it does not mean that by doing the same you will become one too.
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