Rant & Reason

If you're a Netflix binger, you'll find a few similarities in most of the highly watched shows, one being imperfect people. One character goes all out for another character despite their clear and apparent flaws and screwups (some whom they don't ever give up on). Entire shows are based on them forgiving someone for what are clearly gross excesses, repeatedly. Arguably, this shows the simpler fragile human sides in us that so need patience, compassion, and kindness to become our best selves - so much that the world (and the other people in it) can burn till the random individual we happen to love and care about gets there.  We also see the opposite, punishing those who don't stay in line so that chaos is avoided - trying to make people perfect to the collective design: perfect institutions. They keep order so that things don't fall apart (which is necessary to some extent). These are permanent, static cornerstones of society that hold us together - law, parenthood, ...

When I talk with people of other persuasions than me, I get a common type of answer. People who have minor differences in religious views with mine say, "Go and ask God. He will tell you". People with whom I have political differences, after discussing public information about an issue, says, "We can go back and forth on this. Let's wait and see." It's not an open-minded let's wait and see . It's a just wait and you'll see perfectly what I mean. I don't understand it myself, but hey, when you see you'll just know . I'd be over the moon if all the answers we ever wanted fell straight from the sky and made perfect sense in a second, but let's look at a some actual realities that have to be dealt with till that happens. I know the whole world is in search of the Truth, about everything - life, love, God, health, and every other thing that spins life safely on its axis. We desperately want to know enough so that we don't have to ...

All of our lives we draw lines, some very clearly and some not. One of these lines that we draw so very often, that's anything but thin, defines the sacred on one side, and profane on the other. Every realm of ideas - religion, nationalism, identity, and so many more - that we engage in passionately has this line that demarcates these two. The only exceptions: a precious few that dare to walk where angels fear to tread (a fear that defines the rest) Sacred: Untouchable, holy, a god-level we will never reach which we should aspire to and revere.  Profane: Having the audacity to attempt to reach the sacred level and anything remotely beyond that line of thought and action In usage If you grew up obsessed with a particular band, you will always think their music is "sacred" i.e. untouchable, even if the latest one on the scene is far better by a far stretch of the imagination. Any attempt to decry your favourite band is plain sacrilege, at least to you....

Discipline is what our lives begin with and lead into. We are driven into it from the day we're born: a long set of rules that are 'good' for us. It starts when we're way young. Fold the blanket. Do the chores. Get up regardless at a certain early hour, and many more. The theme follows through with set times using set things that are sold to (or enforced on) us. Fast forward and you'll find that these habits enable you to easily fit into a set world (which explains the "good" thing about them). It seems that the whole idea is to fall in line early so that we don't have a tough time fitting in when we need to later. It helps us get up early for school/college/work, keeps our rooms neat, and makes better use of our time and resources, and they don't just stop there. This kind of order also brings in some form of justice and merit - like rewarding the trouble taken to be early with first come first serve where people actually keep to queues. It allow...

COVID-19 has turned around everything it touches. We've  so far changed the nature of human interaction, roles at the house, hygiene at all levels and an economy obsession, among the lot. It has given us time to stop and rethink about everything that was the norm, if we would only be so bold. Coming so far in such short a time, we may as well go the way and end this transformation with that big bang - kindness.  Kindness is bigger than it seems. It involves so many touchpoints that most of these smaller changes will flow with the ease. It requires us to respond to someone's pain without judgement. It asks that we accept someone else's truth without condescence. It requests us to tell people that they can reach out when we know that they are not at their best. It sometimes asks us to do more and just give anyway, because woe can, even if it means squeezing our own resources at times.  Depending on whether you needed a lot of kindness or never blinked wh...

The irony of a industralised work-based era is that it is driven and has roots its very nemesis: rest. Both go head to head. We work as hard as we do so that we can rest. Rest is the natural state; we are born and bred into it. It's the optimum state we seek. Look at the freedom we get when we are younger to just be, and enjoy our lives. Work doesn't even come close in comparison. We are abruptly required to make the sudden shift, once we're older and work is inevitable because money doesn't fall from the sky (at least for most of us). It is much less an option for most people.  Enter passion : that you've got to love what you do. The idea makes sense. What's love got to do with it? Nothing except that we don't have spend the better part of our days like we hate how we spend it. Love and work are a happy couple. Love is happily single and work feels crappily single without love. But this whole fairy tale romance ends once we have achieved the quota we need f...

I've uncovered a pet peeve and I'm coming at anyone who waves it in front of my face. Not because of my personal ego, but because it's about the personal ego of those people who have been scarring children since when man officially turned stupid. And here I fire.  Some values are celebrated across the spectrums of religion and society, and one of them is spanking children i.e. giving them a good thrashing. Apparently, it's the only way that children will learn and they will become disciplined adults, rant back some uncles, aunties and (surprisingly) some young people too. Now sit back and watch me tear apart this nonsense that has seeped so deep into our thinking that it's normal.  "It's the only way they'll obey", say some of these other strange people, "and you'll know when you have one." Let's consider obedience. It's another of those values that have been accepted across the spectrums. Everybody wants someone to obey the...