I am very interesting
And quite useless
Much like trivia
I am on my way
Neither willing nor able to stop
Much like a rolling ball
I am speaking
If or not I make sense or meaning
Much like art
I am grateful for love
I am waiting to pass it on
Much like a teenaged tree
Much like an eye looking
At image on the misty mirror
I am seeking
Thursday, 26 February 2009
Monday, 23 February 2009
Things we teach our kids, and why?
My young cousin recently mentioned that according to the doctors he is expected to be around 6 feet tall; and somehow I wanted to hug him and say, "It doesn't really matter how tall you are, there are things far more important that - things that really need working at."
But saying that would have been wrong at two levels.
Firstly, because I am not quite sure if that would have been true. I am not sure where the line lies, but there are people who command your attention simply by the way they carry themselves, or simply by having the kind of looks that they do. I think the world makes it easier for some people to be at peace with their bodies, others have to work harder at it.
Secondly, and this is the more important reason, because it had been me, along with the rest of my dear family, who had told him in the first place that being tall is oh-so-important. Somehow it had been the easier thing to do at that time, easier to make him go outside and play and eat properly, easier than trying to explain that discipline in life helps, easier than trying to explain how our thoughts and our control of them works. It had been easier to explain that we fail only because of the lack of our efforts and by corollary that we succeed only by our own efforts - than telling him that we only have control over our efforts, and in the long run that is all that matters. That the most important success in life is to understand our own selves, and to understand what is truly valuable in life; and not to understand how to manipulate the systems of the world only to get what is considered valuable in the world.
But he is just a kid now, and a thinking one at that - perhaps he doesn't need me to tell him anything, and he already understands that simplifications also have a place in learning. We just climb higher a step at a time; that with every step the same scene looks different.
But saying that would have been wrong at two levels.
Firstly, because I am not quite sure if that would have been true. I am not sure where the line lies, but there are people who command your attention simply by the way they carry themselves, or simply by having the kind of looks that they do. I think the world makes it easier for some people to be at peace with their bodies, others have to work harder at it.
Secondly, and this is the more important reason, because it had been me, along with the rest of my dear family, who had told him in the first place that being tall is oh-so-important. Somehow it had been the easier thing to do at that time, easier to make him go outside and play and eat properly, easier than trying to explain that discipline in life helps, easier than trying to explain how our thoughts and our control of them works. It had been easier to explain that we fail only because of the lack of our efforts and by corollary that we succeed only by our own efforts - than telling him that we only have control over our efforts, and in the long run that is all that matters. That the most important success in life is to understand our own selves, and to understand what is truly valuable in life; and not to understand how to manipulate the systems of the world only to get what is considered valuable in the world.
But he is just a kid now, and a thinking one at that - perhaps he doesn't need me to tell him anything, and he already understands that simplifications also have a place in learning. We just climb higher a step at a time; that with every step the same scene looks different.
Sunday, 15 February 2009
Tag - I'll have 25 of those please
You are supposed to write a note with 25 random things, facts, habits, or goals about you.
1. I have been wanting to put up a tag on my blog for a while now, and I was quite excited when I saw someone come up with this one on facebook.
2. I try to wiggle my feet into my shoes without opening the laces or buckles.
3. I am very fussy about haircuts, or atleast my haircuts.
4. My housemates keyboard doesn't have a fuctional Ctrl key, because of which I can't use shortcuts - that annoys me no end!
5. I find facebook (and other internet links) confusing; I seem to know a fair few of someone's personal details but I am still not really their friend. Someday I'll the will have the will power to get myself off it.
6. People often find me smiling, but I am not sure if it is a plesant smile or a kind of botoxed gaping one.
7. I think some people quite literally light up the room!
8. I like blogs better than facebook;
9. I am quite happy with and proud of BlinksView.
10. I think most things can be explained by habits.
11. I would never like to go back in time; whatever is truely valuable is always going to be around.
12. I hate mess.
13. I can't work in completely sanitised environment, I like personalised space. A bit of a chaotic mess.
14. I like people using please and thank yous.
15. I have carried an orange and a pink mobile phone, because the one I owned was sent to the factory. My first mobile phone was navy blue, and the latest one is black.
16. My first laptop lasted me 4 years; the record since then has been a bit dismal, as one got taken away, and 2 got stolen (on the same night).
17. I have had my bicycle stolen, my laptops stolen and have had someone break into my office, and into my home once. I have had my wallet returned to me twice by strangers - once at a cafe; and once at a food court in the shopping mall.
18. I like bike-riding, the mechanical one.
19. I think Canberra would be nicer by having a few more late night cafes, lounges and ice cream bars.
20. I wish Charles Dickens would have finished The Mystery of Edwin Drood before he died.
21. I wonder if Russians have ever written a proper comedy.
22. I always have a to-do list scribbled up.
23. I think Google has raised the bar very high for a user friendly interface.
24. I am a bit short on patience, but I think when I really have to, I do manage to persist.
25. I like Peanuts; but dont enjoy Archies.
1. I have been wanting to put up a tag on my blog for a while now, and I was quite excited when I saw someone come up with this one on facebook.
2. I try to wiggle my feet into my shoes without opening the laces or buckles.
3. I am very fussy about haircuts, or atleast my haircuts.
4. My housemates keyboard doesn't have a fuctional Ctrl key, because of which I can't use shortcuts - that annoys me no end!
5. I find facebook (and other internet links) confusing; I seem to know a fair few of someone's personal details but I am still not really their friend. Someday I'll the will have the will power to get myself off it.
6. People often find me smiling, but I am not sure if it is a plesant smile or a kind of botoxed gaping one.
7. I think some people quite literally light up the room!
8. I like blogs better than facebook;
9. I am quite happy with and proud of BlinksView.
10. I think most things can be explained by habits.
11. I would never like to go back in time; whatever is truely valuable is always going to be around.
12. I hate mess.
13. I can't work in completely sanitised environment, I like personalised space. A bit of a chaotic mess.
14. I like people using please and thank yous.
15. I have carried an orange and a pink mobile phone, because the one I owned was sent to the factory. My first mobile phone was navy blue, and the latest one is black.
16. My first laptop lasted me 4 years; the record since then has been a bit dismal, as one got taken away, and 2 got stolen (on the same night).
17. I have had my bicycle stolen, my laptops stolen and have had someone break into my office, and into my home once. I have had my wallet returned to me twice by strangers - once at a cafe; and once at a food court in the shopping mall.
18. I like bike-riding, the mechanical one.
19. I think Canberra would be nicer by having a few more late night cafes, lounges and ice cream bars.
20. I wish Charles Dickens would have finished The Mystery of Edwin Drood before he died.
21. I wonder if Russians have ever written a proper comedy.
22. I always have a to-do list scribbled up.
23. I think Google has raised the bar very high for a user friendly interface.
24. I am a bit short on patience, but I think when I really have to, I do manage to persist.
25. I like Peanuts; but dont enjoy Archies.
Friday, 13 February 2009
Perfect thought, Perfect mind; and the love thereof
I just came across a very readable interview of Peter Porter (poet, aged 80) by Craig Sherborne on The Age. It has a rather wonderful title, 'Love of the perfected thought' – which while enough to lead me to meditation on the idea of a perfect thought; also brings to mind my gorgeous niece, Ihaana, whose name means ‘most perfect condition a mind can be in.’ Most perfect state of the mind? I always thought was that of no-mind, the non existence of mind. The mind, I have always read, is like a river of thoughts. A calm mind, one that is not restless, is a still mind. But who has heard of the river being made of still waters? A still river is a pool and it soon dries up – a perfect mind is no mind.
So, the idea of the perfect thought… again, whatever do you mean by a perfect thought? A thought is just a thought – “the forest is big”, is a thought – how is it perfect or imperfect? It is the series which is of interest to most of us (those of the, yet, imperfect mind) – ‘the forest is big’, followed by, ‘so I could cut it and get a lot of wood from it’ or followed by, ‘which is rather rare.’ It is the nature of the following thought that is the difference in the different people. It is not what you think, but how you think that matters.
And that is just the title!
The interview itself contains some very quotable quotes, of this kind - “Sometimes I think poetry exists to provide novelists with their titles."
And this is something else that I am going to try and use, “And his routine remains this: write 40 poems a year, of which 10 survive his end-of-year culling.” I might do that with my blog, go thru the end of year culling, so that, blog remains something that can be visited again sometimes. By keeping the bad with the good, I realise, I end up deleting the rare good ones as well… which is sad.
So, I say Aye to end of year culling! And now go and read the interview!
So, the idea of the perfect thought… again, whatever do you mean by a perfect thought? A thought is just a thought – “the forest is big”, is a thought – how is it perfect or imperfect? It is the series which is of interest to most of us (those of the, yet, imperfect mind) – ‘the forest is big’, followed by, ‘so I could cut it and get a lot of wood from it’ or followed by, ‘which is rather rare.’ It is the nature of the following thought that is the difference in the different people. It is not what you think, but how you think that matters.
And that is just the title!
The interview itself contains some very quotable quotes, of this kind - “Sometimes I think poetry exists to provide novelists with their titles."
And this is something else that I am going to try and use, “And his routine remains this: write 40 poems a year, of which 10 survive his end-of-year culling.” I might do that with my blog, go thru the end of year culling, so that, blog remains something that can be visited again sometimes. By keeping the bad with the good, I realise, I end up deleting the rare good ones as well… which is sad.
So, I say Aye to end of year culling! And now go and read the interview!
Thursday, 5 February 2009
A Poem
Come, come!
I do have something to say
It is not written in words, just yet
Or even fully formed in thoughts,
But it is there… it is there.
At the back of my mind, somewhere
Troubled, restless, worried mind
With an urge to speak, but tongue tied
Come sit here and hear
Let silence speak and time unveil,
The ideas that might just be common place
Which I now utter as confused sentences
Not meaning what I said
Not saying what I meant
And definitely not what you think
I said
Being friends can be such a joy,
To talk about nothing and laugh together
Maybe that is what my restless mind would like
To -
I do have something to say
It is not written in words, just yet
Or even fully formed in thoughts,
But it is there… it is there.
At the back of my mind, somewhere
Troubled, restless, worried mind
With an urge to speak, but tongue tied
Come sit here and hear
Let silence speak and time unveil,
The ideas that might just be common place
Which I now utter as confused sentences
Not meaning what I said
Not saying what I meant
And definitely not what you think
I said
Being friends can be such a joy,
To talk about nothing and laugh together
Maybe that is what my restless mind would like
To -
Tuesday, 3 February 2009
Learn a new language
I just recently observed that the difference between a native speaker of a language (or a particular dialect of a language) and a person who has picked it up at a later stage is not of vocabulary or even of grammar - but of idioms. A native speaker has access to irrational (or what have, by now, come to be irrational) idioms.
Take for instance 'twinkle in one's eye' and 'stars in one's eyes'. Idioms for a native speaker are just a long word.
Among the things I'd like to do are -
a) Learn a new language - vocabulary, grammar, idioms, and all
b) Learn how to play a musical instrument
c) Learn how to swim
d) Be really really REALLY good at something... anything... anything useful.
Take for instance 'twinkle in one's eye' and 'stars in one's eyes'. Idioms for a native speaker are just a long word.
Among the things I'd like to do are -
a) Learn a new language - vocabulary, grammar, idioms, and all
b) Learn how to play a musical instrument
c) Learn how to swim
d) Be really really REALLY good at something... anything... anything useful.
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