One must always speak one's heart!

Is that really a good idea? I often ask myself, and immediately get a reply,"Get real, dude!"

Well, many times I have to stop myself from uttering that swear word as a retaliation to some unwanted stimulus. And every time I manage to do that, I cause my guts to come boiling to my mouth and then go back down to where they belong, in the process setting everything on fire inside. I tell you, it's not that nice really! $*&#$@. The involuntary exposure of your palate to the acrid bile juices can be pyschologically disorienting.

However, there are those soft moments when you can't also afford to unleash the beast within. As the chinese proverb appropriately says,"Patience in a moment of anger can save you a 100 years of misery." which is in fact very accurate. Some years back such a fit of rage had nearly cost me my neck (metaphorically speaking; literally it was my job). Yet, there are times, when you gotta let it out. Otherwise, it can wreck you.

Now the question is how to decide when it should stay within and when it should come out?

Over the past four years, I have undergone one helluva of catharsis. And it was a one multilayered, multidimensional and multifaceted catharsis. I transformed from an enthusiastic young boy to a grave adult; from a "bursting-with-enthusiasm" engineer to a seasoned professional; from a romantic to a skeptic; from a dreamer to a doer; from a thinker to a philosopher; and to sum it all up from sublime to ridiculous. Well, why I say that is because as long as you are the part of the Universe and you don't question your existence, you can live happily with what you are. But when you start questioning your existence, it is a whole new ball game.

Whenever there is a challenge, there is a conflict and whenever there is a conflict you are affected. So, it is quite natural to be overwhelmed by strong emotions and that is usually when the conflict is multiplied because now you are not only bothered about the original conflict but also by the conflict of how you should react. And the most important factor in deciding how you should react is, what is your position in this situation. What role are you playing int he conflict? Are you the source of the conflict or are you the victim? Or worse yet, are you a mere audience?

Cantankerous Clatter - 2

After I wrote the Part-I, I thought I would very soon write the Part-II and my plan was to explain the obvious contradiction in my post that I was on one hand criticizing the use of bombastic words and on the other hand using them myself. The idea was to gerenate the curiosity and then explain that we actually don't need bombastic words to explain something, irrespective of how complex that something might be.

However, immediately after writing that post, I had to go through a job change, a painful relocation and heart-wrenching farewells...blah blah blah... So finally I could never bring myself upto writing the second part as I had intended.

But yeah I am planning to be more regular now onwards...so let's see how it goes.

Cantankerous Clatter - 1

Cantankerous Clatter!

What in hell does that mean!!!!!!!

Well, nothing really, it is just a combination of some less commonly used words. If we were to translate it, it would mean, an obstructive and distractive noise, which can lead to irritation and restlessness.

But why use such phrases or words?

In today's world of pretenses we generally measure competence by one's ability to project onself as someone much greater and much more capable than the reality. And that is why our existence has become a multi-layered existence. The simplicity of human life no longer exists, it gets more and more complicated by the day. And we are losing the fundamental value of our existence.

I have recently taken up writing very seriously and I am maintaining a blog (http://neoriz-musings.blogspot.com/). Since, I started writing my own blog (i.e. without anyone editing it) I got more and more anxious to know who my peers were, the contemporary writers who existed in the blog-world, and what all did they write about? I was more curious to measure (actually judge) the calibre of these writers in comparison with mine. And then to my dismay (but eventually to my pleasure because it helped me ideftify my areas of improvement) I realized that I stood no where when it came to ingenuinity,to faithful reproduction of thoughts on paper (or e-paper if you are a perfection freak!) It is an art from which I was completely unaware.
As I rummaged through the tons and tons of blogs on the net I realized that there is so much of talent around the world and so much for me to learn. But then suddenly I started coming across a different breed of writers,who had a fantabulous vocab and a bombastic style of writing but no content. And that is what made me think about the existence of intellectual anomalies in the world. The ones who are in fact the Cantankerous Clatter of this world.

I call them intellectual anomalies, because these people who write in good language and with a brilliant style are indeed intellectuals, for without intellect they couldn't have written in such a good manner and wouldn't have acquired such a remarkable style. But they are anomalies too, because what they focus on is not the art of writing but the art of presentation. In my opinion the art of writing has an important basis, which is the gravity of the subject that is being written about.

Well, with this thought I would like to come to a more general extrapolation of this fortuitous epidemic that is spreading around the world. Today's world is that of street smarts, in fact they have come to inherit it. In any sphere of life you throw a glance at, you see hustlers everywhere. If you are capable of getting things done, you are a hero. You are an achiever. And nobody cares, how well established your thought or design is. What counts is an action that may bring some fruit, in short term or long. That's why we see so many people making it to the top echelons today. Being successful is no longer a dream these days, it's walk-your-way-through-to reality. The only thing you have to take care of is to step on the right stones and keep moving ahead. But are we in fact moving ahead?

Many people refute the prophecies that claim self-annihilation of human race as inevitable. And the reason they give is that human beings are gaining more knowledge therefore more intellegence therefore more senstivity therefore a better perception and finally a common goal. So when the goals are common the chances self destruction are very few. If you minutely observe this statement you will surely see the inherent contradiction. For human beings, the common goal has always ensured an increase in competition and not collaboration (unless it is forced). So there is your pattern. The proof that we are indeed moving towards the point of irreversible degeneration.

And why so? Because we are no more the followers of fundamentals. We don't like to question ourselves anymore as to "Why do we want to do what we want to do?" What we do care to ask is, "What we want?" and "How to get it?" Because these two questions are good enough to keep us busy for the rest of our lives, to keep our pockets loaded and to let us buy that dream home or that luxury car. Like these brilliant but superficial writers that you will find in the blog-world. All they know or care is to write a blog. Some do it for public attentions, some for proving profeciency of language and some for apparently no reason at all. They just do it. But nobody cares to think why should they write in the first place.

If there is no fundamental purpose for them to write, they shouldn't write. But they will. And nobody can stop them. Again, Cantankerous Clatter!

What makes me worry is the sudden spread of this lack of fundmental motives in people from all segments of society. Even the real intellectuals are not left unaffected by it.

To be continued...

You merely have to write!

I met, not long ago, a young man
who aspired to become a novelist.

Knowing that I was in the profession,
he asked me to tell him how he should set to work to realize his ambition.

I did my best to explain.

'The first thing,'I said,
'is to buy quite a lot of paper, a bottle of ink, and a pen.

After that you merely have to write.'

-Aldous Huxley, novelist (1894-1963)

Free thinking is Freedom of Thinking!

All you have to do is to think.

Not because of something.
Not based on something.
Not about something.
Not for something.

Just think!

That is the Freedom of Thinking.

That is Free Thinking.

This Some Funny Psycho Test Site!!!

Der Resistance Achtung! You are 7% brainwashworthy, 36% antitolerant, and 57% blindly patriotic

Welcome to the Resistance (Der Widerstand)! You believe in freedom, justice, equality, and your country, and you can't be converted to the the dark side. Breakdown: Your Blind Patriotism levels are borderline unhealthy, but you show such a love of people from everywhere and a natural resistance to brainwashing, you would probably focus your energy to fight Fuehrer with furor, so to speak. Conclusion: Born and raised in Germany in the early 1930's, you would have taken up ARMS against the oppressors. Or even your friends' oppressors. Congratulations! Less than 5% of all test takers earn a spot in Der Resistance!

My trust is not your right, but a privilege!

In the relationships these days, there is an ongoing debate on the element of "Trust".

"You don't trust me, how can you love me." Commonly heard statement these days...
The root lies in the freedom of execution of one's will. When we declare our independence in this world, we break away from the notions that are passed on to us as heritage.

But, I would try to argue that this is an illogical conclusion drawn on a fallacious premise, because Trust and Love are not interdependent.

I have come to accept myself as a possessive person when it comes to relationships, and it is not out of regret but out of pride. Because I consider controlled possessiveness an outcome of passionate attachment with somebody or something.

Today's generation is complete contradiction to what it was 10 years back. Therefore, the definition of a man-woman relationship also becomes susceptible to change. However, I am not going to discuss on the new identity of our generation.

My focus lies on the commonly (ab)used term in relationships today: TRUST.

Well one of my girlfriends used to feel offended by my possessiveness because whenever I confronted her, she told me that I have a habit of overreacting and that " I don't 'TRUST' her..." so, "...how can I love her."

But what she didn't realize was that my lack of trust (was not my lack of feelings for her) but was a temporary insecurity induced by her actions. Isn't it true that Actions do indeed speak louder than words! The reason for my being insecure was that I was hoping for a long term relationship and not a fling. Some of you might argue that had I trusted her I would have seen her acitons as acts of innocense. But to such people I would like to say, "Get real!" Because Trust in any relation has to be built by both the parties. And a lot of committment and effort is required by both sides to make that relationship based on trust to last long.

For instance, let's take a relationship which is considered a sacred bond of love and mutual trust; that of parent and child. Although, the latter is born of the former, the trust between both the parties grows or diminshes based on their experience with each other over the time.

When you hear a mother say, "I know that my son/daughter can never be wrong." It is based on the past experience. If a child has been a docile and emotionally moderate through the childhood, he is trusted more as he grows up to become an adult. However, a child who has thrown enough tantrums and is temperamental over small things never gains enough trust of his/her parents even as an adult because of the parents' past experience with the child. Yet, we all know that parents love their children irrespective of what they are. Similarly, the kids who have experienced physical, mental or emotional abuse by their parents never tend to forgive them for it and thus can never trust them when in need. Nevertheless, a child always respects and adores his/her parents. And this true in most of the cases, let's not get into the exceptions. So we see that trust and love are not interdependent, even in the most basic and primordial relationship.

Similarly, in a man woman relationship, both the parties need to work on building the trust in each other. I am sure you have been nagged by your partners and you have not liked certain characteristic of your significant other some time or the other, but the fact that you are still together is a proof enough that you are being loved by them.

Remember, don't allow Trust to become the other person's responsibility. People who use this trap on their loved one's (a lot) are most of the times up to something. If you hear from your partner or think for your partner, "You don't trust me. How can you love me?", often that means, you/your partner are/is not happy in the relationship and want(s) to move out permanently or may be need(s) a break to think it over.

Well, this state doesn't always signify that the person who is complaining about the trust is actually interested in somebody else or plainly not intrerested in you anymore, but I can tell you for sure that if it continues for long, he/she will certainly grow out of the relationship.

So, trust is not a baseline for love as is commonly believed. Trust is a baseline for feeling secure. Trust is a prerequisite for taking your relationship a step further but not for starting one because trust comes with time. You can fall in love with someon with or without trusting them. Because love is an emotional need, however, security is a physical and social need.

Hence whenever you are being pushed, remember to stand up for yourself, and say "My trust in is not your right, but a privilege!" And it (the privilege) holds good only until both the persons are committed to keeping that trust intact. However, it is also your responsibility to not to interpret your partner's actions incorrectly or doubt them excessively. When you don't understand your partner's actions all you need to do is ask for an explanation with an open mind. And remember, asking for an explanation does not show a lack of trust. It is an indication that if the situation is not understood comprehensively and dealt with by both the parties, it could lead to decline in the mutual trust.

Remember, being curious and jealous in limits doesn't make you an obssessive paranoid but a loving and caring partner. So don't hesitate to confront your partner, coz if they are for real, they will never hide anything (significant) from you.

One more thing I would like to tell you, sometimes one needs to filter out the facts and doctor them based on the sensitivity of the situation, so to save yourself from extra burden and agony, stop being overly suspicious. Afterall what is the fun in living if you don't have challenges to keep you occupied. And the challenge here is to anticipate your partner's move without being nosy about it. And like for all other things in life, if you give it some time your relationship can shine through without your feeling the need to think about the mutual trust or the lack of it.

To reiterate, trust is a mutual agreement and it takes two to build it or destroy it.

Don't take life too seriously.

Gibberish: For Whatever It Is Worth

HERE I am writting another poem,
Cause I am a poet, or at least I think I am.
Or what the hell, even if I am not?
I can write what I please,
And call it a special plot.
Outgrowth of my unnatural Imagination or Sycophancy,
For whatever it is worth.

HERE I am singing a song,
Of my eternal experiences of some five years and a score ,
Playing on the harp.What's wrong and right?
To love and be wise, exceeds man's might.
Let's inflate the eternal love affair of our lives,
With The solitude of destinies.
Or The platitude.
And throw away our plight.
May be I am wrong...may be,right!
For whatever it is worth.

HERE I am making art out of naught.
And calling it my style.
Poets maketh nay Metre, Metre maketh them.
Bolstering the fog of pretense,
Clouding the world with deceit.
Perhaps not by design,
By accident,
But let's stop it here and die.
For whatever it is worth.

She Is Pregnant

The fear of impregnation,
That anticipation of hue and cry.
For the feeblness of her existence,
Had no precedence of that accord.

The slowly rising infatuation,
Devil's outcry.
The unpreparedness of her demeanure,
And lack of hope to live it through.

Left me so wanting to seed her with ecstasy,
But I dare not use the ploy,
It is unnecessary to reiterate it,
As she is pregnant,
Pregnant with joy.

Objectivism is the way of life!

The world portrayed by Ayn Rand in Atlas Shrugged can be real!

I come across people like Jim Taggart and Hank Rearden very often in my life. And I think that it is the same world around us that is slightly exaggerated in Atlas Shrugged only to highlight the significance of the point the author is trying to make, in an otherwise mundanely unobserving world.

I think, we all contain some fragments of one character or the other from Atlas Shrugged. It may be hard to accept since sometimes it may make us realize some of our negative traits, but actually we are all governed by the same basic rules defined by Ms. Rand.

Objectivism is the most puritanical way to life.

Riding the "BRAND" Wagon.

I have always maintained that I am my own brand. It's me who defines myself and not the brands that I wear, or use in any other consumer sense. For example, does my wearing Armani make me a better me, than my wearing a local Tailor-made suit, that has a fabric of my choice and body fit that highlights(or hides) the parts my physique in an appropriate manner?
Likewise, do I gain a social status if I shop at Shopper's Stop instead of some local readymade garment shop where I get better variety and my taste.

Why is the current generation so crazy after brands, irrespective of the quality of service and customization provided by them.

I fear, this brand dependence is going to make our younger generations slaves of these brand mongers. And eventually loose their true identity, and the concept of individualism.

Neoriz.
"Victory of Mind over Matter." Will newer generations ever achieve it?

To Love A Woman!

Excerpt:

If you tell a beautiful woman that she is beautiful, what have you given her? It's no more than a fact and it has cost you nothing.But if you tell an ugly woman that she is beautiful, you offer her the great homage of corrupting the concept of beauty. To love a woman for her virtues is meaningless. She's earned it, it's a payment, not a gift. But to love her for her vices is a real gift, unearned and undeserved. To love her for her vices is to defile all virtue for her sake -- and that is a real tribute of love, because you sacrifice your conscience, your reason, your integrity and your invaluable self-esteem.

Ayn Rand in "Atlas Shrugged", through the character of Lillian.

Musings:

This is a profound statement offered by the character of Lillian, who is an unloved and unattended wife of Hank Rearden, the Steel Giant. She is devoid of all the love and attention she expects from her husband to satisfy her vanities. At least in the context of the book it appears to be a cry for acknowledgement from a remorseful wife.

However, the underlying concept of loving your woman (I am talking from the perspective of a man since I belong to this gender and thus am not offering a generalized or biased view in any sense of the word whatsoever) is essentially the act of creating a mystical world of fairy tale where your beloved is the central character and the entire world revolves around her. This is not to say that you should call an ugly woman beautiful, no sir! A woman (of substance that is) will take anything but a dishonest flattery. Because a woman knows herself the best, inside out. So to tell a woman how she looks like or what she wants is like teaching water how to flow. But if you do fall in love with a woman (without caring about her physical appearance) what you must do is make her believe what it is that you really fell for. And show her her true beauty. Even if it means showing water how to flow. You have to understand one thing, a woman's true nature is to blend into the true nature of her surroundings. She is more mutable than a man, and not in necessarily in a negative sense. A higher mutability is also a sign of higher adaptability (professionally, personally and psychologically).

I have digressed from the main course of discussion (without regrets of course because it was meant to be.) So, here the character of Lillian is suffering from insecurity and neglect but she deserves it by all means. She tries to use the status of her husband as an instrument for her social progression, but is not willing to appreciate the fact that her husband has put his mind, body and soul into his work and thus has reached a social status that can afford the extravagant lifestyle of his family.

This woman expects a lot but is not willing to understand her husband and his ambitions. So in such case a woman is not worthy of your love or affection. But most of the times, a woman who really loves you (although she may not understand you) is willing to learn about you and she may happily spend her life trying to be the best woman for you, but for that what is required of you is to give her a position that you have given no one else. The position to influence your decisions, the position to interrupt you at any given time and the position to speak for you when you are not there to speak for yourself. Of course, a real woman of substance is one, who appreciates the importance being placed at such a positions and executes her rights and privileges in a just and sensible manner.

If you find such a woman (which is highly hypothetical) and she may not be the most beautiful woman in the world, and she may not know how too make herself look sexy for you and she may not know how to understand your language without words, the only way you can love her is by loving her for her vices, for defiling the concept of virtues and vices. By corrupting the idea of beauty and by sacrificing your self esteem and conscientiousness.

To love a woman is to forget everything else.

Birth and Death of an Idea!

Humans are the most efficient super computers with excellent cognition skills. This is as much a curse as it is a blessing. Our minds are capable of generating brilliant ideas and at the same time we can think of all the adverse conditions that may prove to be stumbling blocks in the pursuit of those ideas. And many big ideas have been scrapped because of the fear of failure.

I would like to debate for the point of view that these over-cautious tenedencies in human beings are the most unwanted attributes and once we learn to conquer these traits, we may be able to achieve more than we can currently dream of.

I have been gifted with an above average imagination and since childhood I have had plenty of ideas. Unfortunately, most of my ideas were laughed upon, ending up in discouragement and self imposed humiliation. It was not until recently, (about 5 years back) when I realized that my ideas are my brainchildren and thus don't need anybody's approval or disapproval. That is when I started keeping my ideas to myself and stopped sharing them with anybody. The reason for my conduct was that I thought I would implement my ideas myself and then the significance of those ideas would be acknowledged by this world.

Over the years of struggle and experimentation, I have now come to realize that not all of us who can dream, are capable of accomplishing their dreams by themselves, even when they give their hundred percent. And the reason for that is, we can not be an expert on everything. We have to depend on the social structure in order to fulfil our dreams. And thus whether we want it or not, we have to depend on others up to some extent to accomplish what we set out for.

Now, the most important thing that needs to be taken care of, is how to share or express your dreams in order to be taken seriously, in order to gerenate faith in people whose assistance you will require, in order to be heard and understood exactly as you intend to.

There are a few practices that you need to imbibe so that you become effective in pursuing your goals. Following are some points that you must focus on before moving ahead towards realizing your dreams.

1. Take time to think and re-think on your ideas. Haste makes waste.
2. Try to put them down on paper, to the very minutest detail level that you can think of.
3. Focus and Identify the "must-haves" and keep aside the "nice-to-haves" when you begin.
4. Identify contingencies as early as possible, because that will allow you to think about a holistic mitigation plans.
5. Never let your enthusiasm be bogged down by the skepticism, of others or your own.
6. Don't confine on your ideas by the resources you have. It will be practical to slice your entire idea in to small phases or modules ( if there is a shortage of resources) but never slash an idea because of a current unavailability of resources. Tomorrow when you have more resources you can work on the next phase or module, but if you cut down today, tomorrow you will regret it.
7. Don't be scared to think radically. People who think like others have never made a difference and they never will. Be original.
8. Don't fight for your idea, fight for your beliefs. Because it is your belief that will give you strength and inspiration, not your ideas per se.
9. Never set a limit to what you can achieve, only set a time limit for every achievement.
10. Don't give up. Because you will never know how close or far you were from your goal.
11. Don't let others define for you what you can achieve.
12. Listen to others' point of views only as if you were reading a newspaper, to retain what makes sense to you and to ignore what doesn't.
13. Have the strength to break all the rules, including the ones mentioned above.

I believe if these basic guidelines are kept in mind one can become self-reliant and can understand the importance of his/her own ideas. I have seen many great people go down with their brilliant ideas, just because they couldn't follow their hearts and stand up for their beliefs. I have spent a considerable amount of time trying to put in words, what makes the brilliant ideas be born and die without ever being noticed.

Don't let your ideas die prematurely.

Wishing you good luck.

Regards,

Neoriz,

"Victory of Mind over Matter."