Perhaps... there is more...

Perhaps what I have not understood about this Saturday, perhaps what I have not realized about this day, perhaps what I had imagined of this day that has already passed, is something I always wonder about.

Here’s a magnificent though clichéd thought and I am sure you’ve heard this before. A basket of flowers: 45 dollars, food at the restaurant: 25 dollars, the nice tie you are going to sport tomorrow morning, 125 dollars, the moment that just passed by, priceless! Hackneyed? Give it a thought.

Just there, right now, a moment has gone by. It was right here to be had but when I realized it, it was gone. That set me thinking about the moments that I keep losing each day. How can I treasure each of these moments? How do I make each of them precious? What’s wrong with me? What’s this obsession with making life valuable?

Perhaps, life is something much simpler than I think. May be it is not about making a million dollars (err... I ‘d like a billion :)); perhaps it is about realizing the serene feeling that comes with a familiar touch. Take a moment, take a deep breath, you never know, the next moment might never be there.

If you imagine, your life is very entertaining for the director of this fantastically amazing movie called Life. Your sorrows, your life, your dilemmas and the climax of your life, is all imagination of this supremely imaginative God. Little do we realize that all these small parts of our life have been put in place meticulously by this director. He is the Master of all, tragedy, comedy, suspense, and thriller!

I think I might owe you an apology. I am not trained to be nice to people. Was this essay a splendidly distressing thought? I hope not. Even if it is, ignore it please, because these thoughts are mine, mine to keep and mine to hide, till death.

Before I finish this directionless crap, here is something that may sound unnecessarily esoteric to you, something that might definitely seem imprudent… but I think there may be another person on another earth, millions of light-years away, writing away scrupulously, not knowing that there is a counterpart he does not know exists! Or does he? Take it easy!

Good God!!

The following was derived from a discussion between myelf , Jeff ( Reverend), Sam (PhD), Haq (Engineer) and Don (PhD). I gave the backgrounds of these people as it might help understand their thoughts better.

God. Is he really there? Is it a he or a she? I am sure most of us have imagined God as a he. But it strikes me, as one would always be more comfortable to have someone like mom rather than dad to "feel more secure", which could be the very reason that compelled man to create God.

My good friend Haq from Bangladesh has better reasoning that supports what I have just said. According to him the fear in man, of his inability to find answers to questions like…. Where do we go after death? Where did we come from? How did we all evolve? Have we really evolved? (No holy book supports evolution) …. have lead man to create a superior power so that he could be at peace with himself. Once he believes that someone has made him and takes care of him, he is relieved because he has a support on whom he can rely on. Otherwise, he is alone. No matter how many people he has around him, the truth is that he is alone.

As we kept talking, we felt that someone, has created God (the concept) for support and we are just following him like sheep do. The closest thing people associate with God, at least those people who believe in God, is religion. Haq and I believe that religion is necessary to maintain the society, but it is in no way God’s own word, or anything close to God. I certainly believe that God and religion can be treated separately. But on the contrary, each religion claims to take it's followers to heaven. The biggest paradox is that we don’t even know if heaven exists. A greater paradox is that we have a choice to select any religion that we are comfortable with.

At this point, I would like to add my friend Sam’s thoughts about religion. He believes that religion is your way to God. He also believes that only one religion should be correct and the rest must be wrong. He believes there can never be two correct answers for a question. Now, I disagree because I believe that all religions could be different ways to the same destination. I am not sure, but I want to keep this option open because of two reasons, one, I don’t know what the truth is and two, I don’t want to rule out anyway of reaching God (if at all the concept of reaching God through religion actually exists).

At this stage the initiator and the moderator of this discussion Jeff needs to be mentioned. I have always felt that when you realize God, you experience an inner peace that comes only when you are content. Jeff has had this peace since he was eleven. What he also has is a wonderful explanation of the concept of God, which seems the best possible explanation of God for me. What is wonderful about this is that it is the simplest explanation that I have ever heard of. According to him, there is a hole in the body. The hole goes right through your body and how we are trying to do to fill this hole, differs from person to person. We are trying to push through the hole, a stick that has a square shaped end. He says that is why it is so difficult to fill this gap.

I can certainly feel the difficulty in filling up the gap. I have personally experienced a lot of tension and nerves since I have started thinking about God. Everybody seems to agree that it is good that I have started thinking (about God), everybody except me, that is! I think it is difficult to go through that commotion. That’s the reason I find Jeff’s explanation so correct.

Jeff goes on to say that in an effort to fill this gap, people join clubs and have parties, consume alcohol, take drugs but ultimately realize that the hole is still there. He believes that it is only through religion, good things and realizing God can anyone fill up this gap or hole. Well, again I might be leaning towards people who believe in God and I am trying to find the truth. So, please remember that these are only thoughts of different people and it is only an attempt by me to know more about the different concepts of God and to learn from others. I personally believe that these meetings I have been having with my friends might give me a solution to the question about the very concept of God.

Last but definitely not the least I would like to add Dan’s thoughts that added a philosophical dimension to this discussion. Dan seems more of a listener, which is good in a group with me, hehe. Dan shared his thoughts on suffering cast upon us by God.

We all have a concept of God, at least most of us do. Some see Him as a friend, some as a father, maybe some as a mother. If he is so good, what is the reason that he inflicts such pain and suffering on us? Sam would say that suffering is relative. He says that it is something that God has not cast on you. It is what you bring upon yourself because of laziness. I disagree here totally because something like a drought is not brought upon you because of not working or carelessness. Sam says that you have to look out for opportunities as they are always there to be taken. How will a person living in a small village without any touch with the outside world know about any opportunity that’s waiting for him, I ask! These people are ignorant and innocent. Some of them don’t leave their land although it can’t even give them drinking water just because they believe that that land is their mother and they can’t leave their mother. They are just following something that was taught by his elders. If you call them foolish you are opening the doors for me to call all those people who believe in the holy books as fools as your elders have created these books. Dan has an explanation that God might be showing us this suffering so that we can appreciate what is beautiful. But Jeff seemed to agree that this is something complex we are talking about. Sam still thinks it is carelessness that leads to suffering. I do not understand why anybody should suffer. The best reasoning that I could think of is Karma. What you do is what you get returned. If you also believe in rebirth, then karma would be the best explanation. You pay for your bad deeds you did in your previous birth.

I just want you to spare sometime to think about all those unfortunate people, who are suffering. (Some might not call them unfortunate). But one thing is for sure, a huge part of humanity is suffering. I feel those people without food; water and clothes must be taken care of, by us. We have to do something! We are so busy with pursuing our desires that we never think of these people. Even if we do, we don’t act. I am a culprit too. I don’t know what to do. I am looking for a miracle, which would end all suffering. They say Jesus will come, they say Kalki will come, they say Prophet will come. I don’t care who comes but I pray that some one should come soon and fill this world with happiness. Again the paradox is… whom am I praying to when I don’t have complete faith in Him! It is a vicious circle.

This article or discussion is in no way intended to offend anyone or support anyone for that matter. These thoughts are mine…. mine to keep and mine to hide till death!

Thanks for reading and please forgive me if I made a mistake in understanding what my friends might have said or for misinterpreting their words or for my mistakes in my writing. If you have any suggestions for me, please convey them to me. Thanks again!

The IMUS mess!!

The public is mad! Mad at Don Imus! Really? For what? For saying “Nappy lil hos”? The magic words have been repeated a gazillion times on all different channels by all the media's men. One radio host on NPR was the only person who showed he had some common sense in the Imus episode, when he asked his guest not to use the magic words again as they have been said enough! For others from Jesse Jackson to Al Sharpton, Glenn Beck to Keith Olbermann, seemed to be rambling on and on to push their ratings higher and higher, not for a moment bothering to stop and think, if they made any sense in what they spoke. And finally, the nail in the coffin came from Oprah, which finally seemed to have sealed Imus’ career. Well congratulations! American people have succeeded in one more attempt of directing their anger at the wrong person! As long as this mad anger continues, the media will continue ‘playing with public mind’, as I like to call it, as they did in the case of the three young Duke athletes who were unreasonably accused of rape. Imus said the wrong thing; he said the wrong words, well yes, how could one not agree?

But did he need to be fired, especially when the hip-hop culture has inundated this world with the use of n word, f word, ho word? I am convinced there is absolutely no hypocrisy, no double standards in America!

Final Analysis: Broadcasters had a nice topic to talk about, media got what it wants always, made this a huge event and had it’s fun and as for Imus’ future…my verdict is…. Don Imus is going nowhere! Make no mistake about it; it is just a matter of time!

MIB, You’ve just gone too far (Article on Indian cricket team!)

A public apology is the least that we can expect from the captain and the other two stalwarts of the game, who have let down one of the most remarkable cricketing nations in the world! Of what has been a pathetic woeful display of irresponsibility, of what has been easily the worst performance ever by an Indian team at the World cup, the Indian team seems to learn, not even a hint of what we have seen again and again – shaky legs, withering courage and nail biting (literally, Rahul Dravid) under pressure from fear. Fear of what, I ask! Kapil Dev, the man who led India to it’s only World Cup victory once said “Its no use that a batsman has immense talent, what matters is, do you have the heart to go out there and play”. As hackneyed as it may seem, applies to the Indian team more than ever before as I write my comment in this state of growing rage and utter helplessness.

And now, the performance by the entire Indian team, which lacks everything except hefty paychecks, needs to be chlorinated with penalties for lost matches, punishments for underperformances and finally, a lesson that would tutor them how not to wilt like delicate flowers under the sun on the field! For God’s sake, you are sportsmen!

Look! What are those??… They look like chickens running with their heads cut off… oh I know! They are Indian fielders! And then they claim... claim to be one of the better teams! Trust me… you men in blue… if you still talk about winning… you are freakin morons!

In as much as what we have seen of you in the past few series, you have no honor! Honor is what we need more than coaches, more than practice sessions, more than the sponsor symbols on you jersey and bat. (Which was intended to hit the ball initially, but now has a different purpose! Talk about cricketing intelligence!).

Sachin Tendulkar… Now Sir, with all the respect due to you, it is high time for introspection and assess why you never perform when we need you the most. While it is understandable that you are not a machine and can’t dish out scintillating performances each time you are out there, it is perfectly sane to question your indescribable ability of not performing under crunch conditions! To add to your pathetic run of lackluster performances, I heard you, as you spat through your teeth, words of utter shamelessness, that you consider playing even in the next world cup! With all the politics that still keeps Ajit Agarkar in the team, one can only wish for a miracle, to believe India might win any world cup, or any cup in the future (unless we play Bermuda! I used to say Bangladesh!).

After all the emotional lows that we have gone through, there is absolutely nothing to be surprised about when this bunch of losers come out screaming with their noses red, that it was all the pressure that they succumbed to! Use that as an excuse till you die! I pity you, men in blue! For crying out loud, have mercy, if not honor! It is improper to think pressure caused this debacle, because you know that all we ask is for is proper entertainment! Had you lost like South Africa in 1999, we would have welcomed you liked Heroes!

It's just that I can’t simply understand! You’ve gone too far! Now, you need to reclaim your place in the hearts of the Indian people, that you have some concern, some resolve at the bottom of your hearts to cater to the expectations of a billion people who have you to look up to, in times of utter stress and distress. In this condition of downright shock, I am KO, God Luck! Coz I know only God can save us!