Random Philosophy – Page 12 – Revering Thoughts

The half-read books

On February 2, 2017

The half-read books.

There are a couple dozen books in my makeshift-shelf. Lying there gathering a layer of dust with each passing day.

There was a time before I came to bangalore when I’d usually finish books in one sittings or in a couple of days. And then I became lazier than I was before.

If I envy any kind of people, then it is the bibliophiles. You are the kind who makes me want to become a wannabe, and feel good about it. People who read are the best people. Sadly, no matter how much I try, I just haven’t been able to get back to my old run-rate.

I take them over to my vacations and they come back with me. On days, when I’m not cycling to work, and I take Uber, I even keep them in my bag. And yet, all I do is, look out from the window and dive into my reveries.

There was a time when I’d be broke and not able to buy books and yet I was hungry for more. And now, at least at the start of the month, I’m not broke and I even buy those books, but all i do is scrape through a handful of pages and switch on the next “exciting” tv series.

Although, I do plan to start reading one (re-start) after finishing this episode of Suits.

The Books: “Yea, Right!”

How not to become what we hate?

By farooq

On February 1, 2017

In Random Philosophy

Do we become what we hate?

This is a question that occupies a fair amount of real estate in the thinking gardens of my head. It’s difficult to cross-check whether this is an actual question or a reflex of the fear generated by the mere thought of it.

On some level, the “hate” itself is manufactured by the fear of it, taking over. The hate is nothing but a protective shield to not let that fear form structures.

Fear can be for breaking societal decorum or simply carried forward ideologies. The inertia of moving away from an accepted notion by others or by ourselves in the past, is arduous.

Is it a blurred line we’re running from ?

Explaining the answer to, “why we hate something?” is critical. It brings clarity and tries to shake the foundation on which that hate stands for. You can apply this to any circumstance and it comes out with a form of certainty.

This is the easier part. The difficult part is to Un-hate.

Unhate. Because if we don’t do that, we gravitate towards those very pits which we hated in the first place. It doesn’t take much to become what we hate!

31 Days, 31 Posts!

By farooq

On January 31, 2017

In Random Philosophy

31 Days, 31 Posts!

Phew! I seriously thought it won’t be possible for me to do this. But then, what do I know ?

Thank you all for reading, commenting, sharing, liking or even disliking it. It means a lot.

From the first post which looked back at 2016 to a series of random philosophies that I penned down every-night, which can be weird sometime. But thanks anyways, for understanding those as well. I love the people who get those kinds of weird posts.

Over the course of doing this exercise…

Oh wait, let me tell you about the “exercise” first. I wanted to experiment with my writing (which I’ll continue doing) and hence decided to write for 30-minutes everyday. In these 30 minutes, I’ll write whatever I wanted to and post it directly, without giving it a second read. And yes, I did do that. In case, you’ve been reading, that would have come to your notice as well.

A lot of people also shared their valuable suggestions by explaining certain language issues or even grammatical errors. Thank you so much for that. You guys are awesome. Please continue to point out any other issues that you may find with my writing.

I received a lot of responses for this post of mine: (Click here) and I’m glad that people could connect with this.

I’ll be editing out the posts (the 31 posts!) over this month and would continue writing these 30-minute-no-edits posts and look forward to more suggestions from your side. I’m continuing with the same approach of no-edits with this post as well and have to post this soon before heading out for a movie. Rewarding myself for the hard-work 😛

Do share your Revering Thoughts on this.

Childhood diaries: Tantrums

By farooq

On January 28, 2017

In Random Philosophy

Growing up, I was a spoiled kid. The kind of kid who can roll around in the mud until his demands are met. The kind of kid who would cry-out-loud for the sake of it.

Being the first-born, you’re by default the favorite of your entire clan. You’re basically a superstar and most popular among neighbours and relatives. And I used to be this fat little kid who was crazy about Frooty and everything Cadbury. Everyday, while returning from school, Abbu would buy me that from small Indian Bakery outlet next to our shop. Everyday. While my dada would warn me of how this will harm my teeth, everyday.

I used to love throwing tantrums around and would go hide in the godown just to scare my Dadi, who will then shout at my parents and ensure that I get what I wanted in the first place.

One of my other regular tantrum was, “Aaj main khaana nahi khaunga” when there was some random vegetable cooked. I would be okay if they had a dessert at the end of it, otherwise my Raag Allap would begin.

You remember that kid from the Dhaara Ad, who runs away and his Dada would bring him back, with the promise of Jalebi ? Oh, he was my inspiration back then.

As of now, even I don’t remember most of those things I did and got away with. People from my family, colony and relatives, often remember it when they meet me now with, “Kitna badmaash tha ye pehle..”.

..not looking back..

By farooq

On January 26, 2017

In Random Philosophy

For a large part of my life, I’ve remained the guy who has tried maintain a healthy relationship with everyone. It has always been tough to outrightly hate anyone whom I know.

And even if I find people irritating and difficult to hangout or even work with, it isn’t easy to show that openly.

I believe this is something that I’ve picked up from my parents, who have always tried to maintain a “high-approval” rating among their relatives, neighbors, and friends.

Cutting off ties with people who have only given us trouble has never been easy for my parents. And I guess, I had followed the same.

Over the last year, I realized this needed to change. It is essential to clean out the weed from your crops to have healthy produce. Cannot say, I’ve been very successful in that either.

And it isn’t only the people who irritate you or are just not worth the trouble, this also includes the people with whom you’ve once shared a good rapport. Things change over time. And so do people. And we should too.

People who intend on making things work will definitely put an effort. And those who don’t, why get stuck with them?

There’s no point in looking back at things in the hopes of reliving something that is not present now.

Selling Patriotism

By farooq

On January 25, 2017

In Random Philosophy

It so happens that I’ve ended up deleting all the songs on my phone. So when I am trying to avoid talking at work or trying to not let the traffic irritate me too much, I’m mostly switching between Radio channels.

Apart from the songs, the jingle-filled ads, there’s one interesting pattern I noticed. The pattern of using nationalism in the ads! And no, I’m not just talking about Baba Ramdev’s Patanjali which is sort of a torch-bearer for this.

There are many ads which try to somehow connect the dots of patriotism and commercialization. And believe ve me, it’s tempting.

Even when we “aspire” for everything foreign and even our definition of “development” is based on the parameters of those very foreign nations, a sales strategy of patriotism, seems to be working.

Even movie choices are decided based on these parameter now. Going to watch a movie in itself is a statement!

But aren’t we all suckers for patriotism? I mean, even the instrumental tune of the national anthem gives us goosebumps! Damn!

And our very proactive government is also in the process of even making the disabled people respect the national anthem. Equality, right?

So, all you marketers out there, find the dotted line and connect your product with patriotism, it’s a recipe for success.

The What-ifs

By farooq

On January 24, 2017

In Random Philosophy

I just watched “Baar Baar Dekho”. And yes, it is not a good movie. And no, this is not a movie review.

The story is about mending mistakes from our pasts and is a play on “what-ifs”. A thought that is so central to our entire living process. We love to glorify the past and regularly utter, “Kaash.. maine aisa kiya hota”.

“Only if I had done this…” “or a that..” “then this would have happened”, “or not happened”. And lines we like to use on loop.

We all wish things to happen in a certain way. According to our plan.

When we realize things are not happening according to the plan in our head, we try to find reasons. We blame that reason and then move on using those, “Ifs”, yet again.

There’s nothing wrong in analyzing our own lives and looking back in time. And it is even amazing when we can learn our lessons from those past happenings.

But what’s more important here is the acceptance of the time gone by. Acceptance that it all happens for the better. Even when it doesn’t go according to our plan, it is still fine. It is all a zero-sum game, anyway.

Like this movie I just watched (ironically called Baar Baar Dekho!), without bad movies like these, how can one appreciate the good ones? We should always be thankful to the bad movies.

Sunrises vs Sunsets

By farooq

On January 22, 2017

In Random Philosophy

I’ve always preferred Sunsets over sunrises on beaches. Of course, being lazy enough to not get off the bed early, is one reason.However, the bigger reason is “the sense of completion” that they bring along with them.

Sunrises bring-in a certain pseudo-optimism and they help you in envisioning aspects which you’d like to see a change in. A list of to-do things that you would want to better, a range of motivation-filled emotions and a will to achieve something. But everything is still a “plan” which is not always what we end up doing.

Sunsets are not about the goals or ticking off any to-do lists. It doesn’t believe in any evaluation process. It tells you, “It’s okay. Tu ab chill maar”. It is that friend of yours, who will say, “Abey theek hai.. Sab theek hojaega” even when you’re in deep trouble. Sunset knows your troubles but it just wants you to relax. If you achieve something, good. Good, even when you didn’t.

Of course, we need the sunrises as well as the Sunsets. But then, we always have a favorite. Don’t we?

… And the story goes on..

By farooq

On January 21, 2017

In Random Philosophy

There’s a lot of talk that goes on in our head on putting things to their “end”. All of us have tried to put a full stop to those sentences, hoping that’d be it.

But it never is.

There’s no full stop that we can add to those sentences ourselves. What happens post our futile attempts to add a full stop is just a temporary repreive. It’s very likely that the fullstop can be converted to a grammatically incorrect comma. Or another poorly framed sentence.

We assume we are the only writers of what happens in our life. Only we aren’t.

It’s collaborative work. The people we allow to be part of our lives or the people who inevitably end up becoming part of ours, on their own.

The story goes on.

Our Confirmation Bias

By farooq

On January 20, 2017

In Random Philosophy

Our confirmation bias is one of the biggest deterrent to being rational in our thinking.

In the age of PR-pushed media, it is inevitable and easier to leak any type of story. A viewpoint can not only be strengthened but can also be moulded.

I can cite historical examples of how a dictator started doing this by controlling all kinds of media. But your response for the comparison would be, “That’s too far fetched”.

Sure, you can counter this to cite my confirmation bias as well. And I do know even I’m vulnerable to this idea. But I accept the notion of its presence as well.

Our POVs are under immense pressure. We are surrounded by mediums which are shouting and repeating a narrative. Even when we reject it once, this repetition causes us to atleast lend an ear. After all, our K-12 education system is based on the concept of rotting down tonnes of textual content only to vomit it out on a particular day to become intelligent.

One can tell a lie 100 times until it becomes the truth. That’s how propaganda works. That’s how concepts of “fear” are forced to creep into mindsets and evolve into ideologies.

As educated individuals, it should be our duty to have layers of questions, to those shouts. It’s important to question everything! Even the things we already know for a Fact.

I’ll end this post with a dialogue in ZNMD by Naseerudin Shah when Farhan Akhtar, asks him to tell the truth: “Sach kya Hai? Har ek ka apna apna version”.

Let’s try to get rid of our confirmation bias! Shall we?

Category: Random Philosophy Page 12 of 20