Community mentality....

I have been seeing a lot of 'community' activity on orkut lately. Makes me wonder why does a person want to belong to a certain community? Does community make people more divided or united? Does it give a purpose to live to some?

The answer lies in between. While college communities make people nostalgic and we all really cherished our college days very much, there are some other types of communities that really bother you. One such person contacted me for joining a certain regional community. I believe making communities based on region or religion is dividing in nature. People belonging to such communities, I believe, see humans as a sumtotal of something abstract. A community of people working in same organization leads to constructive ideas, and co-operation. A community belonging to a region makes people very constricted in their view of world.

To borrow from Fountainhead, a community build to empower human and not to make him dependent on the community itself.

Koi Fariyaad....

Koi fariyaad tere dil mein dabi ho jaise,
Tune aankhon se koi baat kahi ho jaise,
Jaagte -2 ek umar kati ho jaise,
Jaan baaki hai magar saans ruki ho jaise,

Har mulakat pe mahsoos yahi hota hai,
mujhse kuchh teri nazar poochh rahi ho jaise

Raah chalte hue aksar ye guma hota hai,
Wo nazar chhupke mujhe dekh rahi ho jaise

Ek lamhe mein simat aaya hai sadiyon ka safar,
Zindagi tez bahut tez chali ho jaise

Is tarah paharon tujhe sochta rehta hun main
Meri har saans tere naam likhi ho jaise

PS: From the movie "Tum Bin"...
PPS: 'coz ppl thot 'twas my creation.. thnx all... ;)

Perspective...

Another one tonight, another argument in the mind -
While preparing for the ELP several thoughts crossed my mind. I will just list them out for any reader to form an opinion.

1. How many people from rural area would like to pay for water? Lets take a fair assumption that no one in the village really cares if water is potable or not.
2. So promotion would be absolute necessity, and how'd we do that?
3. What will happen if they get good water? The benefits in short vs long term
4. What if 10 years hence the villagers are healthier and are economically more productive (meaning earning more)? Would they still want this "cheap" source of water?
5. What if no one buys this concept till employment guarantee comes in picture? Thats politicizing but heck, it might happen.

And myriad such thoughts crossed my mind... an ELP can change your life!!

Wrote this last week..

Dil-e-nadan se kya poochhiye haal-e-dil,
Ab humein zindagi ek imtehaan nazar aati hai

Aansuon ne rishta sa bana liya chehre se,
Ke jaise zindagi ki naav majhdhaar pe nazar aati hai,

Kaun thee wo, kaisa tha wo rishta,
Ke aaj bhi wo khayalon mein nazar aati hai,

Kabhi chaha tha ki apna le use hum,
Ab to zabaan se nikli aah hi nazar aati hai.

G'nite..

there used to be a time...

...when I used to make sure i get at least 6-7 hrs of sleep... no more...
thanks ISB!!

World is Flat and AJ's blog..

"Every morning in Africa a gazelle wakes up and knows that it will have to outrun the fastest lion or it will be killed. And, every morning in Africa a lion wakes up and knows that it will have to outrun the slowest gazelle or it will starve to death. So, in Africa, it doesn't matter if you are the lion or the gazelle. When that sun comes up, you had better be running. "
- African proverb

God helps those who help themselves - A proof

According to latest statistics, religion is the single most discussed topic on the entire planet (and I didn't hire anyone to find that out... Look around !). So here I was thinking with whatever is left of my brain to think about all such extraordinary matters about God. We all know He is the supreme creator, operator and destroyer of everything around us. One may argue about big bang and all that blah, but let us accept that however far and deep we go in discovering the matter, we will not be able to answer the big HOW - How is everything the way it is? Or rather who decides property of matter? Who says that electrons, while jumping from higher energy level to lower one SHOULD emit energy in the form of light? It might as well have been something else!!

There is someone who has created the laws, and then has let run the system on its own to take shape. Much in a similar way that turtles leave their eggs in sand, so when they hatch, the baby turtles find their way to the sea all by themselves. So there is God, who created laws, and built a primitive system to evolve by itself into what we currently see around us. We are just starting to discover the laws in a better way and to understand it.

Its obvious that God must be really brilliant. I mean just think of the universe which runs on His laws with minimum break down and is extremely self sustaining. God has to be super brilliant, and super modest, not to ever brag about it. People do respect God and that respect is from the sheer brilliance of things around us.

So with all these qualities, would God really care if all we lesser mortals pray everyday and make ourselves faithful to him? On the contrary, God would rather want us to be self dependent, and probably be more responsible and aware of our surroundings to start making sense of His design. This way ( as any good manager would want) God would have more free time to do better things. Who knows we might see something wonderful in our own planet too!!

To sum, "God helps those who help themselves"...

hazaron khwahishein aisi...

Feeling like ...

"Hazaron khwahishein aisi
Ke har khwahish pe dum nikale
Bahut nikle mere armaan
Lekin phir bhi kam nikale

Nikalna khund se adam ka sunte aaye hain lekin
Bahut be-aabroo hokar tere kuche se hum nikale"

Love this...
"Mohabbat mein nahi hai fark jeene aur marne ka
Usi ko dekh kar jeete jis kaafir pe dum nikale"

Aur mohabbat ki intehaan...
"Kahan maykhane ka darwaza ghalib aur kahan waayiz,
Bas itna jaante hain kal wo jaata tha ki hum nikle"

Bahut khoob janaab Ghalib!!

Be a rebel...

I just heard from someone what I already knew about myself. "You are a rebel, you don't want to be in the system". Yeah, so? Nah and I am not trying to show any attitude here. Just, what is the big deal with the "system" and how do you define one. Its something like GAAP, you have it because people who believe in accounting principle want it, because the accounting has become so darn complex that people can take it for a ride, so we have GAAP.

Thats how system works. A very small set of people decide what should be true and what should be false. A majority plainly has faith in such people, because of their credibility or dominance or both. And this is how a system is born. Exams, traffic rules, nothing can defy system. People love it, why? Because as with GAAP, it does good to a majority. We will call such people "Believers"

Those who cannot be a part of that system are thrown out, seen as outlaws etc. Such people can be a part of system and be out of it when they want to. They can be a part of it, and people are happy to be with them. At the same time they are out of it and seeing the obvious fallacy of the system. Let us call these people "Hackers"

Believers are generally happy, sad, angry, satisfied based on events that happen in the system. Ditto with hackers, but hackers are often on negative plane when their interpretation of the system is challenged by some weird events. But more than sad, a hacker sees this as a challenge and tries to defy it time and again till it breaks. Believers think "Wow this guy really knows how to beat the system". Hacker smiles, thinking he has achieved what he set out to achieve.

Believers build the system robust, and Hacker tries to break it. We all have a hacker inside us, but some of us are happy being a believer as they have faith in it. "There is a difference between knowing the path and walking the path"...