The Blue Mug

Was a nice play , awesome audience (Definitely the most happening place of Chennai) and an opportunity to meet one of the best stars of Bollywood.

Man's search fore meaning - Viktore E Frankl - Book Review

"Human life , under any circumstances , never ceases to have a meaning , and this infinite meaning of life includes suffering and dying,privation and death."

The first part of the book deals with the life at a concentration camp. It forms the base for the second part where the author explains with examples the psychology behind a man's search for meaning.An important point that he brings forward is about the will to live. The will to live in the adverse concentration camp conditions was a very difficult thought to come and mostly people surrendered to fate. The people who had a goal , something they wanted to do, some unfinished task, some loved one were the only people who could manage to think positively and survive amidst all the suffer  But there were many who lost all hope and these were the first to be taken to the gas chambers or died from illness.

"They lacked less from the lack of food or lack of medicine than from the lack of hope,lack of something to live for."

He speaks of three methods to realize a meaning in life and elaborates on the same: a) By creating a work or doing a deed. b)By experiencing something or encountering someone and c)By the attitude we take towards unavoidable suffering."

Overall a great book to read . To know about the meaning in your lives give it a read.

"Our generation is realistic, for we have come to know man as he really is. After all, man is that being who invented the gas chambers of Auschwitz,however, he is also that being who entered those gas chambers upright,with the Lord's Prayer or the Shema Yisrael on his lips."

Papillon-Henri charriere- Book review

"Man's highest virtues are to be found in what is called the gutter,the underworld;and what gangsters do is sometimes the same as what heroes do."

Henri charriere(Papillon) was a French citizen who was sentenced for a killing that he did no commit. The book is about his quest for freedom, his escapes from prison,help from the people whom he met in these escapes, solitude and against the French law which did not give a convict a chance to rectify his mistake and live an honored life. Accused of a crime which he did not commit and his desire to be free was the driving force in all his adventures.He was a good sailor and the description of his journeys in the sea is mesmerizing.

He made his first escape from Saint Laurent Du Maroni to the Pigeon Island. Sailed for 13 days on sea to Trinidad to curaco where he lived in an Indian tribe (Gojara). He had a great time there but still his fight for freedom made him leave the Indians.But his break cost him and he was again imprisoned and sent to Santa Marta Prison. Here he attempted 4 unsuccessful attempts to escape and due to bad conduct was sentenced to 2 years of solitary confinement. After the confinement he returned to the Saint Joseph island where he was a prisoner but had the freedom of fishing , gambling,cooking but not that of escaping. But the idea of escaping was still there and had almost build a raft. At the last moment he was betrayed by a fellow prisoner and was condemned to 5  more years of solitary confinement.But he got lucky and came back from the term in just 19 months.He asked the authorities to send him to Devil's Island. It had already been 11 years of prison with only 7 months of freedom and he was getting impatient. He managed to escape from this island on a raft made of jute and coconuts.He reached George town and then a series of events led him to Venezuela.He was sent to El Dorado Prison .He got lucky and the government changed  and it was here that he attained his freedom. The body agreed to give him one year of freedom and if he behaved well he would be free. A new country , different from France gave him the opprtunity to begin his life as a good man. 

"But there is something truly wonderful about cutting a home baked cassava or maize loaf in two when it's insufficient for your own family ; sharing a meal - that was not enough in the first place - with a stranger, a fugitive from justice into the bargain."   

On Friends and Happiness

"Enjoyment is not a goal, it is a feeling that accompanies important ongoing activity."

Last week I have secretly done things for a dear friend and my mom.There was this feeling of happiness throughout the process.

Adventure

Just imagine a fisherman in his ordinary boat caught in a storm.His boat keeps on rising and rising in the high tides. The strong wind would at any moment destroy the sails. He shivers not due to the cold but because
of the lightning and then the thunder and before the sound of this thunder dies, another thunder.
Black clouds no ships near by , no sign of land, no light. At this very moment just imagine his thoughts, he would not be thinking of god,his hope rises and falls with the boat. Every time the boat reaches the top of the wave a cycle ends and again it plunges deep and he just thinks whether this thing will rise again. Every moment then is a struggle, a hope that rises and again rises and then he makes it . He comes back alive and stories are told. He laughs with his family and his son becomes a hero among his peers.
 

Some people live every  moment of life as an adventure. Fishermen,snake charmers, hunters, racers, riders, etc..
I don't know why but this thought always comes to be one of them.

The Ideal son

I am having a lovely time with my mom who is  staying with me for a few days.We have many topics of discussion but somehow all of them converge to one point, the final destination, the one aim in mother's life , marriage. The saying goes,"Marriages are made in heaven." but they are executed by mothers.

So these  are a few problems in my life as per her :

1.)I can't tell whether a T shirt is dirty [The fact that most of the guys use their smelling sense for such critical issues.] and when i tell her this  she just gives up on me.

2)My type of music, my habits of sleeping , the food i eat , my work timings , the places i go for trekking,  can all be summed up to being devilish.

3) I have the dirtiest room in the world . [I hope  my friends who have been to my clean room can understand my pain.]

4) I don't have a goal in life and I am mentally deranged.

5) I am the most careless , selfish antisocial creature on the planet earth.

6)Football is the game of ruffians.

Remarkably she has a solution for all this.An arrangement can be made where someone would intrude in your private space and change the course of your life. 

Good thing : It has given her a time to understand me and i have bought at least 3 more years of freedom left for me.

 

Work is Worship

The advantage of working day and night is that there is no  time for your thoughts to bother you.

Fading Away

I saw him there working day and night;
focused, strained,determined and resolute
building, molding and joining the pieces
He stops from time to time ,not to rest
but to get a glance of it, and again starts working,
 someday he just dreams , sometimes he works furiously and
at times he throws everything and cries

He remains there for a few days crying,
Oblivious of the surroundings.
He staggers sometimes for hours, often for days
But he is not a quitter , he will never run away
He brings things together , he is the builder
I have always believed in him, truly, more than myself
and he has always responded by picking up the weapon.

But things are changing now, I seem him crying often
He always looks down, lost in his emotions
It has been months now and I want to speak to him
I want him to work on his masterpiece.
All of a sudden he picks up the hammer,
ah!! a sigh of relief which soon  turns to a cry
He has destroyed it , every piece , every inch, even his name
He has turned wild , he is laughing insanely
running away, fast very fast and soon he disappears..........

                                                                                                                                           Abhi...