It was all dark..all quiet..no people around..no noise around..I was standing there by the window looking all around. I probably didn’t know which direction to look in. I had no idea why I was standing there. That is when I realized it was such a scary thing to be just like that..without anything in sight..without anything on mind..just that calm, serene and soothing night.
I was not sure how long I could sustain that calm. Luckily it started raining to add some noise to that calm. Clean, beautiful and enchanting rain. I started wondering if that rain started some noise or stopped all the noise inside me.. I wanted to know if that rain stopped all the chaos in me or started a new movement in me. Well, I knew there was no chance I was going to get these answers. Maybe that is what kept me going. It was getting even calmer with the wind blowing hard. That breeze was touching my face leaving so much freshness behind. I was naïve to handle it. I didn’t want it to leave me like that. That was a perfect arrangement of the events. I wanted to feel that night all by myself. It was such an intense desire to grab that beauty and lock it in my eyes. I just closed my eyes to hold it just like that..forever and forever…
That was the simplest thing I could do in the circumstances. But then what was bothering me? Why I was still struggling to close my eyes? I was tumbling at something which seemed more overwhelming to me. It was stopping me from going into my world of seclusion.. It was so ironical that I was not able to do what I thought was the simplest thing I could do. It felt terribly awful . At the same time I was falling for it. I wanted to take away that peace with me. I kept trying. Alas! It hit me again. Something was making it difficult for me. What was it? Was that night too mystic to hold or was it the day that would follow this night? The day which would be no different from usual. The early morning scramble for catching a train to work, the clatter of vehicles on streets, the rat race at work, those unstoppable phone calls at desk , the long lost day, the gloomy tea break, the empty 7o’clock, the struggle to get back home, the numb end of the day…Everything was right there..all intact..all live! I was striving to close my eyes to capture that night but there was already so much inside me that I could not just feel anything beyond that with my closed eyes…My closed eyes could only struggle to find some space there but all it could find was more and more encroachment!
I didn’t want to try anymore. I didn’t dare to fool myself anymore. I opened my eyes. I saw in every direction. It was still calm. It was still dark. It was still clean. I could breathe it. The air of freshness. The air of the moment.. The air of the ultimate truth..I was no more in a hurry to grab it or hold it. I was just experiencing it. It was so simple that way. I could feel that night much closely now..of course with my open eyes…
DEEPALI S. BASUR
Co-founder & Chief Editor,
http://www.ethinksharp.com/, an e-magazine dedicated to the 'YOUTH'.
Monday, October 5, 2009
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Misplaced Promptness
Misplaced Promptness
Today we live in a fast-paced age. We give so much importance to promptness that it comes as a virtue to us to live with. Promptness is reflected in our every gesture, be it taking any action or giving any reaction. While we can ensure at least some kind of rationality when we initiate any action, we cannot possibly do the same when it comes to reacting but still we focus a great deal on reacting. Is it always necessary to go beyond the sensation?
In a hurry to react we often forget to enquire into facts and figures of the action in first place. We seldom allow ourselves some time to let it sink in. Without doing that we hardly get aware of our emotions. Emotions, if not understood properly, get manifested in the negative feelings. Such negative ramifications never solve any problem as they just throw us off the focus. We go so far in giving vent to our feelings that we lose the sight of the issue. It just becomes the rapid fire game of action and reaction. Ironically it is about reconciliation and convergence. We are so used to lashing out that we hardly realize that all we need to do is exercise some restraint and spend some time in silence to analyze our emotions and its relevance to the core issue. Sometimes silence supersedes promptness. Whenever we come across any friction we undermine facts and figures and convert it into some kind of clatter born from personality-centric aggression. In that clatter we just find ourselves and our bête noire. Just like we don’t enquire into facts and figures we don’t look for ideas. We seek domination in the dialogue.
On a macro level, as we keep exploring new things in life we keep tweaking the status quo. If we change the dynamics of the society new challenges are bound to emerge on the new horizon. Everything else revolves around the set-up. In that case it is so futile to divide the society on the issue of this set-up. The democracy teaches us to collaborate and bring out the most efficient set-up for the society as a whole. Yes, we cannot be averse to the idea of debate. That is the whole purpose behind having the opposition in the system but it has to be in the context of idea building. Any kind of opposition should only prod us towards getting more efficient, consistent and smarter in our solution seeking efforts. We should all be focused on the focal point and not on the differences arising from different voices. It could be crescendo or symphony. The moot point is who is listening rather than who is shouting?
Unfortunately we make ourselves so vulnerable to discord that we don’t allow any other possibility to reach us. Success of any dialogue depends on the exact opposite process. If we stop any discord from reaching us we become receptive only to new ideas, new solutions and new synergies. The ideology then is to either stay intact or get better. No other outcome can reach us then. It is rightly said that to be aware of our emotions and direct it towards health is a part of enlightened living. Let’s first be aware of our emotions both on micro and macro level. We have paced enough. Let’s pause for a while and reach peace and equilibrium!
DEEPALI S. BASUR
Co-founder & Chief Editor,
www.ethinksharp.com, an e-magazine dedicated to the 'YOUTH'.
Today we live in a fast-paced age. We give so much importance to promptness that it comes as a virtue to us to live with. Promptness is reflected in our every gesture, be it taking any action or giving any reaction. While we can ensure at least some kind of rationality when we initiate any action, we cannot possibly do the same when it comes to reacting but still we focus a great deal on reacting. Is it always necessary to go beyond the sensation?
In a hurry to react we often forget to enquire into facts and figures of the action in first place. We seldom allow ourselves some time to let it sink in. Without doing that we hardly get aware of our emotions. Emotions, if not understood properly, get manifested in the negative feelings. Such negative ramifications never solve any problem as they just throw us off the focus. We go so far in giving vent to our feelings that we lose the sight of the issue. It just becomes the rapid fire game of action and reaction. Ironically it is about reconciliation and convergence. We are so used to lashing out that we hardly realize that all we need to do is exercise some restraint and spend some time in silence to analyze our emotions and its relevance to the core issue. Sometimes silence supersedes promptness. Whenever we come across any friction we undermine facts and figures and convert it into some kind of clatter born from personality-centric aggression. In that clatter we just find ourselves and our bête noire. Just like we don’t enquire into facts and figures we don’t look for ideas. We seek domination in the dialogue.
On a macro level, as we keep exploring new things in life we keep tweaking the status quo. If we change the dynamics of the society new challenges are bound to emerge on the new horizon. Everything else revolves around the set-up. In that case it is so futile to divide the society on the issue of this set-up. The democracy teaches us to collaborate and bring out the most efficient set-up for the society as a whole. Yes, we cannot be averse to the idea of debate. That is the whole purpose behind having the opposition in the system but it has to be in the context of idea building. Any kind of opposition should only prod us towards getting more efficient, consistent and smarter in our solution seeking efforts. We should all be focused on the focal point and not on the differences arising from different voices. It could be crescendo or symphony. The moot point is who is listening rather than who is shouting?
Unfortunately we make ourselves so vulnerable to discord that we don’t allow any other possibility to reach us. Success of any dialogue depends on the exact opposite process. If we stop any discord from reaching us we become receptive only to new ideas, new solutions and new synergies. The ideology then is to either stay intact or get better. No other outcome can reach us then. It is rightly said that to be aware of our emotions and direct it towards health is a part of enlightened living. Let’s first be aware of our emotions both on micro and macro level. We have paced enough. Let’s pause for a while and reach peace and equilibrium!
DEEPALI S. BASUR
Co-founder & Chief Editor,
www.ethinksharp.com, an e-magazine dedicated to the 'YOUTH'.
Friday, July 10, 2009
Let's move on....
Let’s move on…..
Ever wondered about social dynamics? Social dynamics means the ability of a society to react to inner and outer changes and deals with its regulation mechanisms. Let’s keep it simple. Let’s observe it through our daily life.
How much life do we live everyday? Probably negative. What are we? Some identity? Or some dogma? Or some memories? We start our day with the baggage of these three things. The sentimental platitudes attached to it are so overwhelming that we never allow any room for any deviation. We live everyday as a conformity. This fundamental immobility stops us from reaching any inflection point let alone going beyond it.
History shows that we are doomed whenever we go against the nature and this nature shows that the most beautiful things on earth are always in action. The beauty of water is enthralling when it culminates itself in the form of a waterfall and the same water is dead the moment it stops in the form of a pond! We all meet different kinds of people everyday. We see them, we speak to them. In this whole exercise we are so over wrapped in ourselves that we just don’t realize that some voice is trying to speak to us. We fail to hear that voice. We are so judgemental about everyone and everything around us that we just don’t see things as they are. We never experience the events in their original form. We don’t allow ourselves a fair chance of growing to the next level. We are the same everyday. We do carry on but we never move on! This very fact makes us unreceptive to any changes happening around. We expect others too not to move on. Soon we find that we are not in equilibrium…neither with our inner world nor with the outer world…As an end result of it we, as a whole society, have a very poor frequency bandwidth!. We never realize that to exist is to change, to change is to mature, to mature is to go on creating oneself endlessly. We are always something and we never want to be everything.
Whenever we go through some experiences or happenings in our lives we just go all out to seek an accomplishment. It ought to be like that. Then it is very obvious that whatever follows after that is just a lingering taste of it. It would be absolutely futile to try to go back and hold on to that accomplishment as our mind gets stuck if we don’t relieve it from the dead events. This stillness captures our memory also as we all know that our memory is a derivative of our attitude & our attitude is an expression of our mind. How can we get better if the most powerful thing, our mind, is put into fetters and is never allowed to leap forward!
We always fear to start afresh with a cleansed mind and a cleansed memory. It is so much easier for us to allow our past to endorse our notions about everybody and everything around us than showing the courage to break free….from all pre-conceived notions, all yesterdays and all experiences. If we don’t break free we go against the law of evolution. We undoubtedly become unsuitable for any movement or action. We end up with the stagnated self & the stagnated self never attracts any life!
Mahatma Gandhi once said, “When you make yourself into zero, your power becomes invincible.” Our baggage will only make our journey tiresome, lackluster and most importantly regressive. Let’s lose it and gain that zero…Let’s create that invincible power….Let’s keep creating ourselves endlessly…..
DEEPALI S. BASUR
Co-founder & Chief Editor,
www.ethinksharp.com, an e-magazine dedicated to the 'YOUTH'.
Ever wondered about social dynamics? Social dynamics means the ability of a society to react to inner and outer changes and deals with its regulation mechanisms. Let’s keep it simple. Let’s observe it through our daily life.
How much life do we live everyday? Probably negative. What are we? Some identity? Or some dogma? Or some memories? We start our day with the baggage of these three things. The sentimental platitudes attached to it are so overwhelming that we never allow any room for any deviation. We live everyday as a conformity. This fundamental immobility stops us from reaching any inflection point let alone going beyond it.
History shows that we are doomed whenever we go against the nature and this nature shows that the most beautiful things on earth are always in action. The beauty of water is enthralling when it culminates itself in the form of a waterfall and the same water is dead the moment it stops in the form of a pond! We all meet different kinds of people everyday. We see them, we speak to them. In this whole exercise we are so over wrapped in ourselves that we just don’t realize that some voice is trying to speak to us. We fail to hear that voice. We are so judgemental about everyone and everything around us that we just don’t see things as they are. We never experience the events in their original form. We don’t allow ourselves a fair chance of growing to the next level. We are the same everyday. We do carry on but we never move on! This very fact makes us unreceptive to any changes happening around. We expect others too not to move on. Soon we find that we are not in equilibrium…neither with our inner world nor with the outer world…As an end result of it we, as a whole society, have a very poor frequency bandwidth!. We never realize that to exist is to change, to change is to mature, to mature is to go on creating oneself endlessly. We are always something and we never want to be everything.
Whenever we go through some experiences or happenings in our lives we just go all out to seek an accomplishment. It ought to be like that. Then it is very obvious that whatever follows after that is just a lingering taste of it. It would be absolutely futile to try to go back and hold on to that accomplishment as our mind gets stuck if we don’t relieve it from the dead events. This stillness captures our memory also as we all know that our memory is a derivative of our attitude & our attitude is an expression of our mind. How can we get better if the most powerful thing, our mind, is put into fetters and is never allowed to leap forward!
We always fear to start afresh with a cleansed mind and a cleansed memory. It is so much easier for us to allow our past to endorse our notions about everybody and everything around us than showing the courage to break free….from all pre-conceived notions, all yesterdays and all experiences. If we don’t break free we go against the law of evolution. We undoubtedly become unsuitable for any movement or action. We end up with the stagnated self & the stagnated self never attracts any life!
Mahatma Gandhi once said, “When you make yourself into zero, your power becomes invincible.” Our baggage will only make our journey tiresome, lackluster and most importantly regressive. Let’s lose it and gain that zero…Let’s create that invincible power….Let’s keep creating ourselves endlessly…..
DEEPALI S. BASUR
Co-founder & Chief Editor,
www.ethinksharp.com, an e-magazine dedicated to the 'YOUTH'.
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
Who am I?
Who am I?
I am not a God
I am not a legend
I am a 'human being'
the struggle between 'be' and 'become'!
I am not an era
I am not a myth
I've always been here
like a flowing river!
I am not sacred
I am not special
I am just the truth
dying not to be real!
I am not a God
I am not a legend
I am a 'human being'
the struggle between 'be' and 'become'!
I am not an era
I am not a myth
I've always been here
like a flowing river!
I am not sacred
I am not special
I am just the truth
dying not to be real!
I am not far
I am not close
I am right there..in you
just like a mirror!
I am not right
I am not wrong
I am just an expression
of life and death going together!
I am not resting,
I am not running
I am just an expression
of life and death going together!
I am not resting,
I am not running
I am just living
living like i'll never live it again!
living like i'll never live it again!
I am not seen
I am not heard,
I am so beautifully lost
between 'smiles' and 'tears'!
DEEPALI S. BASUR
Co-founder & Chief Editor,
www.ethinksharp.com, an e-magazine dedicated to the 'YOUTH'.
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Failure of Intellect
Failure of Intellect
We define intellect as the mind’s power of reasoning & acquiring knowledge. Knowledge is facts that someone knows. It could be about a subject or a person. Intellect decides the quality of our intelligence. This is the base for all the decisions we make in our life.
There are times in life where we fail to understand the situations. We realize that we are confronted with difficult experiences which demand much more intellect from us. We have been so much used to convenient conditioning of our mind that our intelligence gets manipulated. The flow from intellect to intelligence is distorted. We are so smartly obsessed with customization that we jib at the fact that some things are born sacrosanct. In fact we are miserable the moment we try to interfere with our intellect.
Actually we don’t interfere with our intellect, we cover up the failure of our intellect with something more overwhelming. And that is intolerance. Yes, failure of intellect is glorified into something which we hail as a heroic spirit. What are hate speeches? We attack personalities when we can’t take real issues head-on. No wonder today’s politics is all about aggression. Any form of intolerance is deplorable. Terrorism is a classic example of it. Our mental incapability make us feel insecure & we take safe shelter under the aegis of these self-proclaimed groups. Collective might is even more dangerous here as we don’t fight the issues , we just fight everything & anything which is outside that community. Then where is the scope for independent & creative thinking? All we are supposed to do is protect our ‘elite’ groups. We don’t converge on the fundamentals. In fact we just stick together to resist it. All we have is tremendous might but whopping derth of intellect. No wonder we can’t see Adam Smith’s ‘invisible’ hand here !
Let’s not confuse intolerance with courage. Intolerance is born from incapability & courage is born from capability. Intolerance aims at negation & courage aims at creation. Courage is so powerful that it vents out glamourously & we call it ‘evolution’!..Evolution of intellect!..
Intolerance is a sign of the weak. Let’s show the courage to challenge our intellect. Let’s grow stronger… intellectually.. fundamentally.. After all it is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it! We salute Aristotle!
DEEPALI S. BASUR
Co-founder & Chief Editor,
www.ethinksharp.com, an e-magazine dedicated to the 'YOUTH'.
We define intellect as the mind’s power of reasoning & acquiring knowledge. Knowledge is facts that someone knows. It could be about a subject or a person. Intellect decides the quality of our intelligence. This is the base for all the decisions we make in our life.
There are times in life where we fail to understand the situations. We realize that we are confronted with difficult experiences which demand much more intellect from us. We have been so much used to convenient conditioning of our mind that our intelligence gets manipulated. The flow from intellect to intelligence is distorted. We are so smartly obsessed with customization that we jib at the fact that some things are born sacrosanct. In fact we are miserable the moment we try to interfere with our intellect.
Actually we don’t interfere with our intellect, we cover up the failure of our intellect with something more overwhelming. And that is intolerance. Yes, failure of intellect is glorified into something which we hail as a heroic spirit. What are hate speeches? We attack personalities when we can’t take real issues head-on. No wonder today’s politics is all about aggression. Any form of intolerance is deplorable. Terrorism is a classic example of it. Our mental incapability make us feel insecure & we take safe shelter under the aegis of these self-proclaimed groups. Collective might is even more dangerous here as we don’t fight the issues , we just fight everything & anything which is outside that community. Then where is the scope for independent & creative thinking? All we are supposed to do is protect our ‘elite’ groups. We don’t converge on the fundamentals. In fact we just stick together to resist it. All we have is tremendous might but whopping derth of intellect. No wonder we can’t see Adam Smith’s ‘invisible’ hand here !
Let’s not confuse intolerance with courage. Intolerance is born from incapability & courage is born from capability. Intolerance aims at negation & courage aims at creation. Courage is so powerful that it vents out glamourously & we call it ‘evolution’!..Evolution of intellect!..
Intolerance is a sign of the weak. Let’s show the courage to challenge our intellect. Let’s grow stronger… intellectually.. fundamentally.. After all it is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it! We salute Aristotle!
DEEPALI S. BASUR
Co-founder & Chief Editor,
www.ethinksharp.com, an e-magazine dedicated to the 'YOUTH'.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)