The second chance

Come on, you HAVE to nail this exam or your whole life is in jeopardy. Ring a bell? Yes I am talking about the misplaced emphasis on the final chance. The one opportunity which would make or break our life. Is that really true? Or is it just a misplaced myth?

I truly believe there is no such thing as the last chance to turn it around or make it or whatever terms one uses to denote success. For every last chance there is yet another chance waiting in the wings provided you are strong enough to find it.

So go on take the chance and give it the best you got, the worst thing that will happen is that another chance will just come a begging.

Patriotism

Aug 15:

The one day of the year where I see my entire Facebook feed filled with nationalistic sentiments, quotes and the whole I miss my India speech. The other possible exception being when we win some cricket match we go all gaga over India. Is this patriotism or just another Facebook wall post like happy *everything* day ( Substitute everything for well everything)

Is patriotism really relevant in these materialistic times? I miss my place but aren't those feelings mostly associated with people( friends, families and the like). I feel there is a misplaced sense of patriotism among the youth today. We are struggling to identify who we are and where we belong and feel a need to be publicly patriotic to prove to ourselves that we are patriotic. ( No offence)

In the global scheme of things though we are just another person in this big wide and increasingly flat world where nationalities seldom seem to matter in the grand scheme of things.

Change

Change is the most powerful thing in life. Its bigger than anything else happening around us. Things change so rapidly and with such ferocity that we are left in its wake constantly with no idea where it is going to lead.

Is change good? Sometimes. Is change bad? Sometimes again. But it is inevitable.

PS: The break from blogging is done and I am now at a new place and in a new role all ready to learn and experience more.

A life is a life

A friend of mine recently watched Phone booth and came up with a question which I was surprised I did not think of when I watched this movie. Why did the pizza guy and the pimp have to die? So they just died so that this guy can be morally corrected? Isn't there any value for their lives?

The more disturbing fact was that it did not seem to affect me. Sure the pizza guy was probably just in the wrong place at the wrong time but the Pimp was murdered in cold blood and it didn't really strike at the heart because of what he does and what he represents.

Is that how we are tuned to be? We value a life of a saint and an achiever more than that of a violent offender or just someone insignificant. Doesn't that seem rather inhumane? Isn't a life still a life?

A related quote from the lord of the rings after the felling of an 'evil' soldier:
Faramir: [from the Extended Edition] The enemy? His sense of duty was no less than yours, I deem. You wonder what his name is, where he comes from, and if he really was evil at heart. What lies or threats led him on this long march from home, and would he not rather have stayed there... in peace? War will make corpses of us all. 

How do *they* do it?

Something about firemen, the police, lifeguards, army and practically every man and woman who put their life on the line to save someone else just does not make sense to me. Even more so when that someone else is whom they bear no relation to or have no idea who they are.

How can they abandon all thoughts of their own lives, their own families, their dreams and aspirations and risk it all for a faceless person. How can they walk in every single day of their lives to work knowing it could be their last. How does one even begin to comprehend that sort of pressure and sacrifice.

But then maybe we are not meant to understand. It is beyond mortal comprehension. Maybe these are the gods we mortals should be praying and idolizing because every minute of every day they are all that stands between one of us and the far beyond.

I still don't get it. How do they do it?

Home!!!

So here I am visiting home after nearly a couple of years. The place I yearned to go all these days and do all the things I used to do.

In fact I was so excited that I was beaming like a little kid when my flight crossed into Indian territorial waters and even cheered aloud when I landed in Bangalore.

I am having a great time no doubt but I cant help but notice that people have drifted apart. I called my friends whose numbers I knew by heart and half their numbers had changed and the other half was nowhere to be found. That was my first indication.

I visited my old haunts but somehow these places were just empty chairs and a few cherished memories. People and not places are what count in the end is what dawned on me. The beach, the old restaurant are just places. Their souls have gone missing.

But then that's what family is there for, the pleasing familiarity is what sets them apart and somehow they always seem to be there. As do a few close friends who are well almost family.

The power of 'The one'

An interesting aside came to me as I was reading about the holocaust. We often hear each other say what can we as an individual do? We are just one man against the might of society. How will we succeed where others have failed.

Thats a gross underestimation of the power of the individual spirit. In the holocaust's case all it took was one man's hatred to turn an entire country against a particular group of people. The cold efficacy with which one man's willing was carried out is a strong testament to the power of the one. I could have chosen the example of Mahatma Gandhi or Nelson Mandela but somehow the fact that the power of the one can cause so much destruction drives the point home just that bit harder.

Furthermore, imagine if someone had to stand up against such hatred the refrain again would have been what can one man do? But then you were up against the one man propagated through all these people he had manipulated.

Harness the power of the one within you to do some good. Its way stronger than you can ever imagine it to be.

PS: This is one video which somehow emphasized the point even more. Read about it:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tank_Man