The days that were...and will never be !

The medium that a child learns from are many; a child’s brain picks random stuff and interprets it in the way beneficial to it. The major expose to a child’s mind in the current period is the television and movies. The osmosis of the knowledge and the comprehension of the world into a child’s mind is something which occurs unimpeded. It is onto the so called ‘learned, all knowing elders’ to administer and supervise on this assimilation, but how much can a guardian/ parent take charge of the various media to which the child has access to.

We, as children had limited access to television, the hours and the content both rationed, not that there were too many options when it came to the available programs. The Doordarshan was what we were entertained with and, I still remember the informative and educational programmes on the air then. Who, from our age group will forget, ‘ Anekta mein Ekta’ a song so well animated, that it was way ahead of the technology then. The children’s programs were entertaining as well as educative in the right way.

However, the children of this day are spoilt for choices on the list of the channels and programmes available on them. Though, how good they are for them is a question that needs lot of scrutiny. Times change and with that inevitable change are also that of the moral and values which we are imparting. For instance, take the advertisements. The new Macdonald’s advertisement teaches our kids that it pays to blackmail; the fasttrack ad teaches our teens that it’s the ‘in thing’ and ‘cool’ to cheat and have multiple partners, that emotions and relations are worth but a rat’s fart.

There was a time only when school bags and shoes needed children in them, now almost every advertisement has to have a kid in it. Even for a car, which that kid will be able to drive for the next decade and half!! The children need their parents to have a car, because some kid on the television makes it appear cool. Its not just with the car, it starts from something as insignificant as detergent or toothpaste and goes all the way to real estate! Then we have reality shows that mean more then school curriculum to our children.

There were times, when ‘pastime’ and ‘hobbies’ were activities other then parking the asses on the couch and surfing the channels on the television or the Internet. ‘Games’ meant coming back sweaty, dirty and dark from the sun. My parents, when nostalgic talk of their fun childhood days and I feel my childhood was not as exciting as theirs; now I see the growing generation and feel they will never have the kind of the days I did.

My mother, to this day reminisces of the upbringing her parents gave her and that she couldn’t even bequeath a fraction of it onto me and my brother, while on the other hand, I feel I was bestowed with the best by my parents. They brought me up well, or at the least I want believe that I turned out a fine lady, with proper values and with my heart in the right place. But the ongoing trends of living and the upbringing makes me wonder if our generation has anything worthwhile to look forward to procreation!!

There are things that pass through generations, there are pearls of wisdom, there are words of experience and then there are some nostalgic thoughts that pour out at random moments that turn precious. The days of the innocent childhood now are something that I will cherish forever and it’s a gloomy realization that ‘innocence’ and ‘childhood’ aren’t together anymore.

Religion an Me : A never ending Saga/ A journey through life....

I was born and thus became a follower of a certain religion. One of the first initial few things thought to me in motor skills was folding my hands in a ‘namste’ , bowing my head before the idols and frames in the sacred room and prostrating before the ‘ holy-man’. The first few words thought, included the God’s name and the first few rhymes and jingles included short versions of long Sanskrit prayers. I have also witnessed the pride and delights on the elder’s face, when they made me show case my pious talents as a toddler. Ofcourse , they were equally, if not more delighted and proud when they heard me recite my alphabets, numerical and rhymes about twinkling stars and black sheep and equally amused with my histrionics of a fat moon faced man falling from a wall. I am told, I was a charming story teller too.

Believed whatever was told and followed the same with religious regularity, until ‘reasoning’ started to seep into the blissful mind. When asked as to why and if’s was told that was the way of life and God would only bestow his blessings on the religious and faithful follower. As times flew and I was no longer a child but a teen, my mind travelled, at infrequent intervals to understand the difference between a follower and believer, in their true sense and their interpretation in realism, all the while still following though with unexpressed skepticism. When wanting to air my thoughts, to some elder, was told I would be punished for my disbelief and if I did not redeem, would have to live in hell, in my afterlife. Thus rebuked and coupled with my inability to articulate my thoughts, I did not venture out to understand God, religion, faith. Meanwhile, I followed the rituals of the religion, with an occasional question on certain rituals and their meaning, origins, significance, sometimes getting no answers, and at times an unsatisfactory answer. The most repeated answer was that we have to follow them, since the generations before us had done so.

Then, I became a bit more read, with new words in my vocabulary and new thoughts in my head. Reasoning, took a predominant position in my actions. My logic was unsure as to how the rituals to an idol gave us benefits. I could not get myself to believe the idols, the rituals. There may be certain power, but I do not see it in any idols. The idols are just idles in my sight and people worship them are probably doing so to refraine from being idle. Although, I always wonder how professedly, religion has become fused with idolatry of the so called Gods figurines and as though we do not have sufficient number of the heavenly Gods, people worship their idols (read superstars of Filmdom), who have attained the status of deities or are probably placed on a higher pedestal.

I always thought ‘Faith’ and ‘Belief’ were necessary to follow any religion. However, all people need is the assurances of the continuity of the blessings, prosperity, security and the prospect of even better living after their deaths. And we have those few, who worship to get some redemption from their misdeeds, committed or yet to be committed. The new amazement is how religion and the belief system are the new products on the shelf to be bought and sold, how it is a conversation starter, ice-breaker of sorts in the parties. It is now fashionable to be religious.

If I have no faith, what is the use of prostrating before anything? A non-believer , though I am, I still do prostrate, bow, fold hands in the sacred room of my home and why I do that, is just to ensure no emotional and frayed temperaments in the home. I do help my mother in her yearly religious ceremonies, only to be of some assistance not because I believe that, whatever she does is ensuring the longevity of my dad’s life or prosperity of the family. At times, I do enjoy certain religious ceremonies, because I get to meet relatives, cousins and get to make merry. I also say “OH!! MY God”!! as a usage, just like I say ‘S***’ and ‘F****’!
There may be certain “something” up above or way below, but haven’t sensed it, well not yet!!. People tell me I have to be a believer to senses the divine power. Am yet to receive the gift of faith then, I guess. Until then, I will continue to be a religiously religious skeptic.

The road that need not be trodden

Why does a human being feel the need of assurances, approvals and the vertical nods of the heads from the society for their actions? Are they looking for some indicatives for assurances that, whatever they are doing is the thing they were supposed to be doing, as per norms established by do not know whom. Or are they not looking for nothing more than the normal mundane life., moving on the paths laid by the traveler before themselves on those paths and think of those indicatives as the directions to reach a destination, in all probabilities not even theirs, since they did not pause in life to look, observe, think, learn,…to set their own destinations. They probably found the destination and success story of a past traveler more appealing.
Why do we fear to surge new paths, to discover our own selves? We need not lay the path, for any later traveler, rather let them find themselves in their own sweet lifetime. Why waste ours, following the road to a destination that is not ours and waste further in laying a road that should need be travelled by anybody later? Live and let live, I truly understand the meaning of these terms in its entirety now.
The road to somewhere, anywhere, nowhere, probably there…just go and explore. Life is not a destination, it’s the journey to the destination , from where probably begins another chapter, (atleast for those who believe in after life).
Do we really need a purpose to live, a goal to survive, an aim to be achieved? Can we not just live, enjoy the living in our own way, do what brings us joy, may be just momentary? Few may call it passive living, a purposeless life of no use to anybody..but so what?
Living because I am born…in a manner that suits me, suits me just fine, atleast for now. All that matters right now is to be able to see into those eyes staring back at you from the mirror and not feel let down. There may come a time, when this perception towards life may change, for now I am good, thank you.

i wonder

i wonder as to why i wonder? its just probably being born in the species called humans.
humans unlike other animals on this planet earth, THINK. whether what we think is fruitful or not, we just think..thinking is in our genes, we cannot avoid it.
but how different or akin is THINKing to WONDERing?
thinking might me be with and/or for a specific purpose, you almost know the outcome at the end of your thinking session. Thats how thinking differs from wondering.
Wondering, like wandering is pretty aimless..without a direction. And then you might in some eventuality end up having answers for some long forgotten questions.
Wondering helps you let your imagination run and think out of box., and so does thinking, right?
probably its just how the usage of certain terms end up having certain connotations over a period of time.
well..the dictionary meaning of the two words vary, the occasion of usage of the two varies, though they sometimes are used interchangeably.
However WONDERing somehow sounds more sonorous than THINKing. WONDERing somehow lets your brain and heart do the job of seeking simultaneously, whereas THINKing sounds so straight jacketed and mundane.
well for now i wonder why we think?
So long theen...

WHY

AH! Finally i am here...a commendable effort for a procrastinator.

I welcome myself to the world of blogging.

WHY am i here? curiosity. Curiosity to know, all about blogging. Curiosity to know if people out there are free to read my thoughts. Curiosity to know if i can write and write well. Curiosity to know if i can translate my thoughts to words. Curiosity to know how many out there will follow my blog (the entries and updates in which, i feel are going to be at long intervals, as i am a religious procrastinator).Also to chronicle my thoughts for future reference.

WHY do humans feel the need to be known, need to know, need to write, need to be published, need to be read...the list of needs is indeed an infinite one.

WHY am a Vagabond on the Wondering Path? I am a restless person with a brain that thinks a bit too much. I Wonder most times at most everything, which the next person might not even notice and most times am so lost in my wondering zone that i am out of tune with the world.

Before i sign off on this...WHY is it called blog/ blogging?