Peace like Mongoose:
In cobra country a mongoose was born one day who didn't want to fight cobras or anything else. The word spread from mongoose to mongoose that there was a mongoose who didn't want to fight cobras.
If he didn't want to fight anything else, it was his own business, but it was the duty of every mongoose to kill cobras or be killed by cobras.
"Why?"asked the peacelike mongoose, and the word went round that the strange new mongoose was not only pro-cobra and anti-mongoose but intellectually curious and against the ideals and traditions of mongoosism.
"He is crazy,"cried the young's mongoose's father.
"He's sick, "said his mother.
"He is a coward,"shouted his brothers.
"He's a mongoosexual,"whispered his sisters.
Strangers who had never laid eyes on the peacelike mongoose remembered that they had seen him crawling on his stomach, or trying cobra hoods, or plotting the violent overthrow of Mongoodia.
"I am trying to use reason and intelligence,"said the strange new mongoose.
"Reason is six-sevenths of treason," said one of his neighbours.
"Intelligence is what the enemy uses,"said another.
Finally the rumour spread that the mongoose had venom in his sting, like a cobra, and he was tried, convicted by a show of paws, and condemned to banishment.
Moral:
Ashes to ashes, and clay to clay,
if the enemy doesn't get you your own folks may.
EOP (End Of Parable)
suspicion
Today seems to be a day of extremes for my restless mind! Crazy parable and these are exactly the kind of conclusive morals that seem to help people justify their own acts. The world out there is bad, if you have to survive you have to learn to deal with it and manipulate it and find your way through it. How many times do we communicate this to our children? How we slowly make them wary and conscious and suspicious of everything around.
age and experience
Buchamma once strongly reprimanded me for repeating once too often that she was older than me so it was OK if she was rude to me. "Beware of age and experience!" she said. With age come fears and apprehensions and incorrect generalizations based on specific experiences. And old people insist on transferring fears, their judgements to the young and in this process propagate them.
distrust
Naseeruddin Shah's character in Sai Paranjpe's Katha says. "main taala-sanskruti ke bilkul virruddh hoon!". And of course gets taken for a ride all through the movie even until the end.
Have been trying to rebel against the "taala-sanskruti" with little success within myself. But I would like to believe there is more distrust in the world than untrustworthy people..Hope I am still able to transfer this learning when I acquire the requisite age and experience so someone is willing to listen!!
Saturday 28 July 2007
agnostic no more???
or like Anand says, if we consider only a moment of time in our life, we are always hypocrites as we are away from what we aspire to be (which is what we typically profess). but if we are consciously on the way towards being what we aspire to, we can safely say we are not hypocrites :)
today morning I don't feel like an agnostic :)
today morning I don't feel like an agnostic :)
the impossibility of limiting greed!
sold the Scorpio last month (though like Martin says, I should have given it away, or rather paid for someone to relieve me of the guilt:).
it took me 6+ months to actually do the deed. despite the fact that it did not make practical sense to own such a huge vehicle, considering it was used mostly only by me, that it guzzled fuel, that it occupied an unjust amount of road space, that it has been demonstrably dangerous for people outside the vehicle, that it was one of the many representations of what I profess not to believe in (economic inequity, being an environmental hazard, ostentation, creates a physical cocoon that limits our visibility to the world outside and a painful overload on the already screaming crowd and traffic in cities! but why then did it take more than 6 months to decide.
because I was caught in a comfort zone and was actually thinking how life would be without a car! How would I commute to work? What if it rained? Our house is fairly remote, away from civilization. Would riding a bike make me more vulnerable to being mugged, would bike commutes be more tiring? This really was distressing.
I realized how complexed life had become. And finally the trigger for the actual act was to see how I could simplify my life. Not be driven by the watch and distances and comfort. Is it possible for me to take life easy? Do I want to continue to be this workaholic manager rushing about from one place to another and not slowing down and reflecting and nursing this sinking feeling in my heart that has become a habit almost!
A decade ago I would have scoffed at the thought that I would actually deem to buy 2 cars and be hesitant to let go of one. That I was beyond temptation and it was not possible for me to succumb to this kind of vulnerability, of being obsessed with some things that I would find it difficult to let go. That material things did not matter to me, that there is a limit to the conveniences human beings need and I could stop at a point that I was completely aware of even then!
My needs are so limited. I did never have more than 8-10 shirts, not more than 4-5 trousers, i can eat at any place, all I need is food, enough clothing, basic shelter, love, music and friends...but how things creep in! Before I knew there were elements of our lifestyle that at best could be called atrocious for a 2 member family! a 2000 sq feet house, 2 cars, 2 bikes, a home theater, cassettes, CDs, movies, more furniture than our house can handle...
I thought “limited greed”, though I had not heard of the phrase then, was possible. am beginning to realize it is an oxymoron. Greed is there or it ain't . It is only limited by our capabilities to acquire (that doesn't only include physical or mental capabilities but also the amount of guilt our conscience is capable of gulping and forgetting), and that limitation is a frustrated one. the slightest opportunity we get, we strive to attain more! And then some of us graciously let go a bit to assuage the bruised conscience...like “selling” the second car and bragging (blogging) about it !
it took me 6+ months to actually do the deed. despite the fact that it did not make practical sense to own such a huge vehicle, considering it was used mostly only by me, that it guzzled fuel, that it occupied an unjust amount of road space, that it has been demonstrably dangerous for people outside the vehicle, that it was one of the many representations of what I profess not to believe in (economic inequity, being an environmental hazard, ostentation, creates a physical cocoon that limits our visibility to the world outside and a painful overload on the already screaming crowd and traffic in cities! but why then did it take more than 6 months to decide.
because I was caught in a comfort zone and was actually thinking how life would be without a car! How would I commute to work? What if it rained? Our house is fairly remote, away from civilization. Would riding a bike make me more vulnerable to being mugged, would bike commutes be more tiring? This really was distressing.
I realized how complexed life had become. And finally the trigger for the actual act was to see how I could simplify my life. Not be driven by the watch and distances and comfort. Is it possible for me to take life easy? Do I want to continue to be this workaholic manager rushing about from one place to another and not slowing down and reflecting and nursing this sinking feeling in my heart that has become a habit almost!
A decade ago I would have scoffed at the thought that I would actually deem to buy 2 cars and be hesitant to let go of one. That I was beyond temptation and it was not possible for me to succumb to this kind of vulnerability, of being obsessed with some things that I would find it difficult to let go. That material things did not matter to me, that there is a limit to the conveniences human beings need and I could stop at a point that I was completely aware of even then!
My needs are so limited. I did never have more than 8-10 shirts, not more than 4-5 trousers, i can eat at any place, all I need is food, enough clothing, basic shelter, love, music and friends...but how things creep in! Before I knew there were elements of our lifestyle that at best could be called atrocious for a 2 member family! a 2000 sq feet house, 2 cars, 2 bikes, a home theater, cassettes, CDs, movies, more furniture than our house can handle...
I thought “limited greed”, though I had not heard of the phrase then, was possible. am beginning to realize it is an oxymoron. Greed is there or it ain't . It is only limited by our capabilities to acquire (that doesn't only include physical or mental capabilities but also the amount of guilt our conscience is capable of gulping and forgetting), and that limitation is a frustrated one. the slightest opportunity we get, we strive to attain more! And then some of us graciously let go a bit to assuage the bruised conscience...like “selling” the second car and bragging (blogging) about it !
Sunday 15 July 2007
if sharks were people...
"If sharks were people," his landlady's little daughter asked Mr. K, "would they be nicer to the little fish?" "Of course," he said, "if sharks were people, they would have strong boxes built in the sea for little fish. There they would put in all sorts of food plants and little animals, too. They would see to it that the boxes always had fresh water, and they would take absolutely every sort of sanitary measure. When, for example, a little fish would injure his fin, it would be immediately bandaged so that he would not die on the sharks before his time had come. In order that the little fish would never be sad, there would be big water parties from time to time; for happy fish taste better than sad ones.
Of course, there would be schools in the big boxes as well. There the little fish would learn how to swim into the mouths of the sharks. They would need, for example, geography so that they could find the sharks, lazing around somewhere. The main subject would naturally be the moral education of the little fish. They would be taught that the grandest, most beautiful thing is for a little fish to offer himself happily, and that they must all believe in the sharks, above all when they say that they will provide for a beautiful future. One would let the little fish know that this future is only assured when they learn obedience....
If sharks were people, there would of course be arts as well. There would he beautiful pictures of sharks' teeth, all in magnificent colours, of their mouths and throats as pure playgrounds where one can tumble and play. The theatres on the bottom of the sea would offer plays showing heroic little fish swimming enthusiastically down the throats of the sharks.... There would certainly be religion. It would teach that true life begins in the sharks' bellies... In short, there could only be culture in the sea if sharks were people."
From 'Kalendergeschichten' by Bertolt Brecht.
Of course, there would be schools in the big boxes as well. There the little fish would learn how to swim into the mouths of the sharks. They would need, for example, geography so that they could find the sharks, lazing around somewhere. The main subject would naturally be the moral education of the little fish. They would be taught that the grandest, most beautiful thing is for a little fish to offer himself happily, and that they must all believe in the sharks, above all when they say that they will provide for a beautiful future. One would let the little fish know that this future is only assured when they learn obedience....
If sharks were people, there would of course be arts as well. There would he beautiful pictures of sharks' teeth, all in magnificent colours, of their mouths and throats as pure playgrounds where one can tumble and play. The theatres on the bottom of the sea would offer plays showing heroic little fish swimming enthusiastically down the throats of the sharks.... There would certainly be religion. It would teach that true life begins in the sharks' bellies... In short, there could only be culture in the sea if sharks were people."
From 'Kalendergeschichten' by Bertolt Brecht.
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