Saturday, October 30, 2010

I don't think I need anything to read

Sometimes some trivial talks about just anything can take you to a place where you ultimately realise the fact that what you have got at the end of it all, is a thought to cherish in your lifetime. Such talks are even more trivial if they happen at a place like facebook or orkut or other social networking sites. These places are full of jerks (and it includes me too) who have nothing to do but to pass their time rather waste it in silly talks with friends. One such silly talk ended quite high for me today.
The thought to cherish for me didn't arrive during or just after the talk was over. It led to a flight of thoughts for me, a flight where one thought came after another and I just kept jumping from here and there. Ultimately, where I ended was never expected of a flight that started at such a trivial place like facebook. Hmmmmm. Sometimes even places like facebook can be quite beneficial!
Actually, what happened was a debate that was going on some friend's wall between two friends. The debate involved issues of spiritualism and the idea of happiness. It was a heated debate in between the two of them and being influenced by it, I managed to sneak into it. There were references from mythology and from literature. The debate somehow ended with a reference from Swami Vivekananda. With the debate ending, I closed the chapter, though, continuing to think something about that. It was then, I realised that I haven't read a thing from Vivekananda. I realised the fact that though I have read a lot about this man and his ideas, I haven't read nothing from him directly. Thinking continued and then, I realised that I haven't yet read nothing whatsoever literature or philosophy has to offer.
There was a feeling of guilt that appeared inside me for not having time for such works of art. As far as my reading is concerned, it is completely limited to coursebook ones. Where people read and get influenced by the ideas of Tolstoy, Nabokov, Tagore or Vivekananda, I have always preferred Robbins, Harrison and Schwartz. Then the thought of what's wrong with it came to me. So far as my reading the coursebooks are going to give me my earnings, I don't think anything is wrong with it. Then the thought of what can I get from reading the others arrived. They can give me a school of thought. They can give me some ideas to base my life upon, to extract from them my opinions on issues of my life and to look beyond my life. Hmmmm. Quite a plausible answer, a witty one too, but not that much to stop my flight of thoughts. Yes, It continued.
The last question that my mind asked me was the toughest one to answer for me. Do I really need such school of thoughts or such opinions which are based upon other's observation and inferences? Any person is driven in his/her life by many different ideas. These ideas are mostly imported from others sometimes willingly, most of the times, imposed. The education plays a great role in formulation of our ideas and opinions and this education involves the ever continued process of reading. Reading the works of art, literature, philosophy and so on. So, it started to seem like necessary to read things in order to get my ideas of life. Then, something struck me somewhere.
I was not feeling comfortable, at all, by inferring all this. The whole idea of borrowing my ideas from someone else looked ridiculous to me. If somebody else can think, can formulate his own ideas and opinions then why can't I? Am I born with some mental disorder so that I will have to borrow my ideas from others? No, I am not. I can have my own ideas, my own opinions. The whole flight of thought recapitulated inside my mind in a flash and then my belief in myself grew even firmer. Inspite of the fact that I haven't read nothing so far, If I am able to think and formulate my opinion on this very issue of reading, I don't think I need anything to read. I have a set of ideas of my own to govern my life. I have a set of opinions of my own on issues of my life. I can, with an insight of my own, look beyond my life. So, why should I let anybody to come and influence me with these. As long as, I have a conviction of my own and I can defend it with logic, I really don't need any influence!

  

Friday, October 29, 2010

The first time that isn't quite!

So, the first post by me on this very blog. This very blog might be new for me but I am not in anyway, new to blogging. I have been busy here for quite some time now. I started there with english posts, usually about movies both hindi and english. There were occasional posts on literature and then there were others somewhat personal. With time, something like an attraction towards hindi blogging came. The reason, I can't really ascertain, but must lie with the fact that hindi is my mother-tongue and have always felt more conversed and comfortable with that. Having said that, my english is then not that bad to completely leave it. There were occasional english posts also there but they looked somewhat alien. So, just a thought of independent blogs for the two languages came, and here I am with this one.
Maintaining one blog has been difficult at times for me and hence, maintaining two of them is not going to be anyhow easier. Will try to be regular here with my thoughts...