comfort

"Money can't buy happiness... But somehow its more comfortable to cry in a BMW than smile on a bicycle".. This is an SMS forward I got from a friend. Somehow its all very ugly. This importance of 'comfort'. Why is comfort so important to people? It completely escapes me. Comfort should be optional, and life should be primary. It absolutely pains me to see people giving up brilliant opportunities, ignoring sublime beauty around to explore, just to continue floating in their continuum of comfort.
I can't stand people who would shy away from adventure, natural beauty for the sake of comfort. what kind of life do you see for yourself, if the objective of it becomes to lead a comfortable life? These people wouldn't even chase better comfort if the chase is uncomfortable. :P
reducing life to mere existence when you can do more. what would these folks do in time of depression, of hardship, of scarcities. all of a sudden, your purpose of being stripped away from you. what would you do?
I am reading and trying to understand Marshall Mcluhan these days. Is this behavior a result of the kind of media we are subjected? Is this behavior a result of increasing dominance of sedentary entertainment - TV, internet, video gaming. (and the marginalisation of live performances and earlier forms of entertainment that required active participation)
the role of body in being entertained is diminishing, as technology allows to bypass efforts, and gives direct access to senses. (hmm.. topic worthy of a paper? )Check out people on the dance floor. I don't know if people were a little more comfortable with their own bodies earlier or not, but sure as hell, many people now aren't sure of their own movements. May be, if they get their asses off seats a little more often to let go in the music, it would do them some good.

alien voice

If I talk in a lecture after having slept for a while, my voice seems alien to me. The voice and me saying it seems disconnected. I am almost afraid that what sounds may come might not be mine, they might start sounding different than what I intended.
There is a fear of loss of control or more accurately, never having had control, being dependent on some alien agency of permission. At any moment, me and my sound may part, ascribing to me thoughts that are not mine, utterances that are not mine...


P.s. - with these 2 posts, i hereby declare my descent through mediocrity and then below...

goosebumps

[upon re reading this, i realised that the thoughts i put here are half baked and not conclusive enough to make a strong argument.. nevertheless.... ]

Every time i hear the national anthem, i have goosebumps. the patriotic feeling that strong. I don't quite understand this, cause I feel the notion of nation to be quite artificial. Physical borders really don't make much sense where physical resources alone no longer are the only things of consequence. Distances have been dissolved in this electronic age. I might be friends to people anywhere in the world, and we might bond over music and hatred than over national patriotism. (hmm.. so is nationalism just another vehicle for channeling hatred (accelerated competitiveness).. cuz being humans, we need to hate something..don't we?)

We are global citizens, all our actions affect each other. As such, besides sports and some strategic geographical areas, there is no other avenue where notion of nation makes sense.

Elsewhere somewhere, I have talked of the possible nation states having had formed if the history had taken different turn, and the reactions there of. Lets play futures for a while.. (disclaimer: i am really bad with history here.. so my assumptions might be completely wrong. i am not doing my homework before writing this.. the point though is, if the situation would have been different and if we had been citizen of some imagined nation... if that possibility is so palpably relevant, why should the notion of nation be of consequent to our being at all?)
what if the 1857 mutiny had had been a success. what if we had been independent then. But then would India be the same India as now. Wouldn't instead there would have been small nation formations and resurgence of kingdoms. We would have had 7-8 (or more.... or less :P) nations with different geographies. Think! you with your friends who join together to sing the anthem, could have been now separated by nationality.
What if, the hindutva force that got a little stronger towards independence, had had its way.. how would the nation have had shaped up. There are numerous IFs like these, but sadly i am not qualified enough to explore them.
The point is, if we understand these possibilities, that India is really an imagined entity that we concurred upon, that India is just one possibility among many, then us holding on to this imagined notion for our identity is counter productive, misleading even.
May be, my goosebumps are not as much a reflection of my patriotism, but a manifestation of my agreeing with my identity. The concept of 'belongingness'. The globalisation is still notional afterall, i havent been out of India yet anyways. It gives me a strong enough an anchor to my identity which is hard for me to create myself.

we won a gold! :D

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