Showing posts with label philosophy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label philosophy. Show all posts

Sunday, April 8, 2012

The Exclusive Time Zone

"You live in a void, a time-zone an era that never existed. It's somewhere between today- tech-savvy, fast moving and yesterday- the time without this technology." 


Since I heard this evaluation of where I exist, I can't  help but keep playing the conversation in my head. Each time, I feel a bit more proud of it than before. Though this was supposed to be a reprimand, I can't help but take it as a compliment. I live in a exclusive time-zone. It is super-cool.

I was a child in the 80's. I knew a world without much of its advancements. A teenager in the 90's, the advancement started. I stared at them wide-eyed, and saw them enter my life so easily. I adapted I learned. An adult in the new millennium, advanced with all the mind-blowing advancements, yet yearning for the time when there was no advancement.

Putting it very-very simply. I know how to use a laptop/desktop/whatever-top, I write and send emails, check Facebook and all that jazz. Yet my emails are never what my letters used to be. Getting one, does not make me as happy as tearing open an envelope and reading a letter over and over again.

I maintain a blog, but what I write here, is not even close to what I wrote to my 'Dear diary'. Not even close.

I can type fairly well, but I can write faster. Pen and paper make the words flow. They are my magic. Writing on bits of scraps is more fulfilling than complete, saved word docs.

I read a lot online, it is never as good as reading from a book or a page. Books are beautiful. The print, the paper and the way it ruffles, that's what makes reading a pleasure. Turning pages in real has its own charm, you flow with the story, it could be a matter of life or death. Clicking next, does not do that to me.

An old book is more exciting. So many must have gone through these, now yellow, pages. They must have experienced all kinds of emotions and created mental images of the characters. When you pick up the book after years, you join this secret club. You take the same journey and you come out, feeling a little sad that it is over a bit too soon.

I am not too sure, if x number of page views give you a similar feeling. Maybe they do, and I am yet to feel them. Numbers, however are the anti-thesis of words. They are dead, cold, sometimes harsh. They tell the truth, rather they lash it out in your face.

This does not imply that I hate technology, or I am reluctant to embrace it. The reluctance comes in when I have to replace one with the other.

I don't want to. In my time zone or era, black and white co-exists with colour. Carriages and cars ply on  the same road. The writing pad and the iPad lie side-by-side. Google loads, while I rummage through a fat, dusty encyclopedia.

Okay, I am a hopeless romantic. I do wish that people talk, the way they did in Pride and Prejudice, and in my era they do. Some of you probably co-exist with me.

Hello! I think it's you, hiding behind an old, thumbed version of, lets see, a Dickens? 

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

SNATCH IT BACK

Finally I hit the basic funda of life. Am sure when i tell you what it is you will say hah! whats new about it? 30,000 people have hit it before you and have been hitting on it even after you hit it. So for all those who are going to say this to me don't read ahead.. No DON'T!
Now for the rest...

Well I found out how this world and maybe human relations function. Bentham said human beings are hedonistic by nature and of course he is right. That is why we quote him! Coming back to my theory. So we all want pleasure I think happiness is a better word.

So now if we divide this world into two spheres, one is us or you or me.. who want happiness. The other is they, her/him who also want happiness. Now, no one said that our happiness lies in different things. It coincides in some cases it clashes in others.

So now if a add a little bit of Marx to Bentham, you will find that there is dialectics. You want happiness and they want happiness and we take each others happiness. Human existence is all about getting happiness and taking someone elses.

I realised this when someone took away my happiness. Don't ask who. Someone just took it.
It made me angry! I wanted to scream, shout, exclaim! How can he/she take my happiness. Its mine! Since then i have been spending nights scheming and planning how to get my happiness back. Trust me, now that i know it is the crux of human existence i have to get it back.

In case you have also just realised that all the anger within you is because someone has taken away your happiness. Stop reading! go and get it back. Its yours! Run! snatch it back. It is all that matters!