China regulates Buddhist reincarnation

This is really hilarious. This jams my brain with such "nothingness" that I am speechless. I'd rather act as a linker to Scott Adam's amusing post on this.

The beginning of the end of this blog

In a couple of weeks, I begin a new life. My life in school. It has been an exciting albeit a "sweat" and "tears" journey all this while. I can't say I enjoyed all of it but I definitely feel fulfilled with my outcome. And as I transition, I have finally come to terms that I will not be writing here for long. People who know me well - know that I have a more professional-like blog going on and I am going to move on with that. There is always a sense of joy, a sense of longing, a sense of pathos all attached when something gets completed. So here it is. I am going to declare this adventure with my blog complete, by the end of this month. Those of you have regularly read this space - thank you so much for being a part in my life. Thanks for all the offline sharing. Good luck and Good Bye!

Reminiscing Auden in face of school

As I begin school in a month, I am reminded of these lines from a W.H. Auden poem. The lines were set in bold by me - lines that hit my strongest chord.

Thou shalt not do as the dean pleases,
Thou shalt not write thy doctor’s thesis
On education,
Thou shalt not worship projects nor
Shalt thou or thine bow down before
Administration.

Thou shalt not answer questionnaires
Or quizzes upon World-Affairs,
Nor with compliance
Take any test. Thou shalt not sit
With statisticians nor commit
A social science.

Thou shalt not be on friendly terms
With guys in advertising firms,
Nor speak with such
As read the Bible for its prose,
Nor, above all, make love to those
Who wash too much.

Thou shalt not live within thy means
Nor on plain water and raw greens.
If thou must choose
Between the chances, choose the odd;
Read The New Yorker, trust in God;
And take short views.

Bergman and Antonioni

Bergman and then Antonioni. Within a few hours, two of my favorite film makers put down their curtains on their final scenes. They are dead. No more playing "chess with death." What a coincidence. It is not a surprise so to say - both of them were in their ripe ages. It is not that they were about to produce any new masterpiece. But, their passing away does punctuates my daily routine and forces me into a reflection. What they have created, how it has impacted me, what would have happened if they were just another Joes. What would be like living in a world without Seventh Seal, Scenes from a marriage, Wild Strawberries, La Notte, L'Aventura, and Blow up. There are many enduring films that are made, but very very few are in this league. Films that are not only timeless, but also act as powerful indicators of my own personal evolution and maturity. In other words, (with due respect to Gaugin) - where did I come from, what am I, where am I going. How my interpretations of these movies change over time reflects the change in my own personal preferences and how my view of life (come experience, come maturity, come bitterness) evolves. For example, Italian director Fellini is my favorite right from the point I first saw his movie, but then I found Antonioni to be so slow and disconnected. But in recent years, I am simply appalled and can say have just started to peel the first layers of Antonioni's greatness and have started liking him. His trilogy which highlights how emotionally disconnected we have gotten is summarized in this dialogue in La Notte - “Each time I have tried to communicate with someone, love has disappeared.”

As far as Bergman, I have written before. I am a not a film technician - so I am ignorant about camera work and other technicalities of Bergman but his screenplay, handling of complex subjects, and rivetting storytelling is beyond explanation.

My life is incomplete without their films. I can safely say along with few other things these films make life worth living. It reminds amidst everything that even though death is the final outcome, life is not all that bad. That some human beings have the power to create such wonderful works for ordinary mortals like me to enjoy. Someone who speaks our deppest thoughts and converts them into visual images. People who show us that what I think, feel, or go through is not unique. That we are connected. Swedish, Italian, or Indian - we can feel the same way and in doing so helps us tide our own insularity and loneliness. I am grateful. RIP - Bergman, RIP - Antonioni.

[Update - I have been scanning obituaries around the leading dailies and all comparisons put aside, there are only few worth the mention. I found the one in The Guardian. Bergman and Antonioni]

Great Clips: Here

Rating Chemistry?

Yes, I am in search of a relationship. Every person I come in touch with, I simply cannot avoid the passing thought that she could be the one. I end up gazing, talking, and then - it happens one way or the other - either I give clear indications that - yes, I am interested in going to the next logical step - meeting somewhere or doing something that clearly indicates I am interested or I just go by. How I decide on what to do? What goes on in me? What are my ways of exclusion. Hmm... mind or heart? Rationality or feelings? What are my roots that stems my "meanings" or "interpretations". How she looks; is she attractive; is she dressed the way I like; is she pretentious? Is she hiding exactly something that is so obviously visible to me.

So what is this process of automatic screening? Is it what I characterize as chemistry? Or, attraction.

Maybe yes. But, here's probably the important part whhich bothers me. Yes, it bothers me. Screening people based on "chemistry" seems to be so natural and more so "valid" - isn't so? Look at the deluge of conversation that goes on about the importance of "chemistry" and "attraction" in a good solid relationship. So much so - no one will even question me (forget challenge me) I know if I say that I am not interested in this person anymore since I am not attracted to her. What does that mean usually for me? It means that I am not getting the warm fuzzy racy feeling the same way I get with some other person with whom I would love to go and talk, get her number, go out on date, and even contemplate having babies with.

Like it or not, I am being dictated by the way certain sensations are being generated by the presence of someone else. I am putting the burden on the other person to make me feel in a certain way. That's a scary thought. Not because it is wrong or anything, but because it seems I am not really in charge of things. I am relying on my environment to be the source of the feelings that are generated. Imagine - I like someone, and fast forward 3 years - I am in a steady relationship - will I still be searching or hoping for that racy feeling? Am I going to keep asking my mind - "Am I getting it?" And if the answer is "no", which by the way, happens when we "think" or logically deconstruct our feelings - what am I going to do? Blame the other person or simply resign in frustration - saying, "Our love life has become cold" - and pay a ton of money on self-help books or hire a life coach or attend workshops.

Now I ask - is this practical? Is it the only way we need to get attraction and factor attraction into our lives? Let's go on a tangent as ask - Am I attracted the same way to music, poetry, photography, architecture, books, sushi etc. These are things that I am passionate about and in a way can be argued as things I cannot live without. How much of Elliot's poetry did I like the first time. I don't even know when i read it the first time? How much of Monet's waterlilies or Cezzane's fruits I could appreciate when I first saw them. How much did I like listening La Donne Mobile the first time I heard it. Very little. Well, what am I saying here? There is whole world out there that I am passionate about and am attracted to that was completely acquired. Tastes acquired from practice. From doing more of the same. Acquired from others who I thought did knew more and showed me a different perspective. Things that I have loved and appreciated in organic continium - a process of discovery of the object as well as a part of me that I did not know that I could like certain things. It is like reading a William Blake poem in layers and keep going as much as I possibly can to the point of "all figured out". So - why cant the same apply for developing likeness for a person. Who knows - why not?

One thing I know is my mind (and most likely yours) gets swayed by what it continually and persistently hears. Right now, it hears and I am afraid it is "written in stone" that - unless I am getting the rockety oozy juicy feeling - miss - you are out of contention. And from the voices around me that's all legit. What if we are bombarded that each person may stink like sushi the first time - but as we keep discovering bit by bit - she may turn out to be the most wonderful experience I ever had. How about believing that - inspite of what others say about "attraction" and "chemistry" - it can be acquired. How about considering that just like our sense of taste develops the taste and starts liking the food we had never eaten or even hated the first time - we can begin cherishing the other person - develop our hearts run faster with each meeting. How about seriously convincing ourselves that - well, chemistry may be overrated - and love can exist, nurture, and grow - the more we get to know a person.

Nappies for donkeys

I can't resist linking to this piece of news. Enjoy...

Just Musing

If people who believe in religion look down on people who dont and people who dont look down on people who do then who is above whom...