Prediction, order, God and randomness

Yes i do know that i use the word Random a lot. Its even up there near the title, but my liking is not the topic of this post. I have been reading and hearing a few things about beliefs and religion, and have ended up i don't know where, its always safer to know one side of the story, then u can truly say what u believe to be the truth, u know both sides and there u are, ending up having an argument for every question that the any of the sides puts up(and let alone the possibility that there may not be only a two sides of a coin).

We all love to know whats going to happen, and we live our lives in trying to make our life predictable, to order things in ways that wont fail, in ways that make us comfortable with the outcome, and for that bit which we cant predict we call god, the one who knows all, after all "if i don't know it at least someone does" is a pretty reassuring thought. The idea of randomness does not do a great lot for the times when we need to stop from breaking down in distress. For the times when things happen that we did not desire. Try telling someone who has lost someone in an accident that their loved ones are dead because of all the millions of possible ways of things happening this was what happened, and it was for no reason, no justification, no purpose greater than a probability of occurrence, and i am sure the person will know first hand one of the possible way that he may die(unless of course he is lucky enough to be talking to a mathematician). And maybe that's why we need god, to account for what we cant control, what we cant understand, and what we cant revert.

I have never had any problems with religion as such, its only that there are so many of them. I personally don't have enough faith to be an atheist, but i really liked a quote i came across recently --
" All of us are atheists, only, some of us, take it one god further "

But is there ever going to be a day when we wont need god, i don't think so, Unified theory or no unified theory, there will always be days when one would need to stop reasoning, calculating, thinking and just lie down knowing that everythings gonna be all right... And for that well, god is a really small word to say.

The need for art... The need for pride...

I was on a trip to Mussorie recently, and realized something, art or rather just the act of making things beautiful means a lot more in life than immediately apparent. The town is a tourist spot, and that must be the reason why the city is so well decorated. There are murals along the roads, the bus stops en route are artistically designed. It just felt good to walk through the streets, the feeling i later recognized was one of pride and content. Its almost like being at home. Of being nurtured, the road was more than just a path to another place but an end unto itself, it symbolised that it was not the destination that one must look forward to but the journey.

I feel that it is this very feeling that lacks in India today. The feeling of being more that just "this will do the job", because in such a case there is very little to inspire, it does not suggest that we are doing more than just surviving, we are thriving. And as far as i know that feeling is very important for a society to coexist peacefully. Because a person will feel happy only when he is well to do and has more to spare. The need of the hour is therefore not just to build a nation but to do it with elegance, we need to make it such that we are proud of everything that we see, and they don't remind us to things that have gone wrong but things that went right. We do the same thing at our homes. We buy a house, and don't just stay satisfied with the walls and the furniture but more than that we make it a place worth coming back to, we decorate it, we make it a place where we keep our memories. All that we need to do is to extend the same to our surroundings. Lets stop the "chalta hai(will do)" and start giving ourselves more than we need. So that we can strive for more than we thought we could achieve.

... ... ... ... (U fill it up)

I am starting up this post without filling up the title up there(will fill it up later), partly because i don't know what i want to say the most, and partly because i don't know what i am supposed to feel. The time since the last post has been mixed, there has been the unfortunate incident of the Mumbai blasts ( ...:-( ... :-( ...), i am supposed to be writing exams, and one of them the one that i absolutely detest, more so because of my ineptness at it and less so because its difficult(at least for me).

We all fight our own demons, we feel that there is nothing more unfortunate happening to people around us than is happening to us, its because we know our problems the best and seldom talk about them to others. And the very idea of revealing them to others makes one vulnerable, of being laid open without any defence. That's why i feel that trust is more important in life than anything else. Its hard to achieve, but the best thing to strive for.

I take my good moments for granted and make the sad ones huge(i think so does everyone else), its when we start living in the happy moments is when we are going to finally make it possible to get used to it and make them come closer together and not be overwhelmed by pain and the prospect of loss.

Apart from this i am feeling really helpless ever since the blasts in Mumbai, is there nothing we can do to stop this, here there is a nation that's at least trying to do something, go to the moon, feed more people, create jobs, fight among ourselves, trying to have a nice cricket series, . . . . . . . . . and here come these #$*@ #%@ morons who don't have the fainest idea what they are dying for apart from some distant rhetorical blabbering. Give Me A Break, we are trying to create a life here. Go ahead and do the same for yourself and leave us alone. And someone please tell me what can I DO.

The soul is virtual...

Sometime back i came across a study that discussed the emergence of social networking sites in almost every part of the world. All human beings have one thing in common. The need for recognition, we yearn for others to think like we do, to understand what we feel, to sympathize with our sorrows and be happy with our joys. Now the social site phenomenon is not something new but now many more people are beginning to discover this world with more and more people joining the bandwagon. Where u don't have to worry about your neighbor, a block button exists for people whom u don't like, I have seen people who are completely different people if u go by their profiles, a world where the scrap count matters more than the job profile that one holds, where u don't have to worry about acting because someone else doesn't approve of u.

In the quest for shaping our worlds more to suit us we have made this more and more real than reality. And the social networking sites are doing their best to make it even more lifelike. The friend list is displayed on the maps so that u know where the person that u are talking to is, facebook has an application that allows you to keep pets, dress it up, feed it, dress it, u can pat other peoples pets and get credit for it, discuss your pet with other pet owners. I think its the same phenomenon that's responsible for games like spore that let the player design the whole world that they want to play in. From the creatures to the heavens. People spend more time creating and updating their profiles than they would care to spend in front of the mirror. Because after they don't care who their neighbor is, unless of course they are their on their friend list.

I was just wondering what will happen to all this content and data lets say 30 years from now, when the people who own them die or become too old and realise that there is life in the physical world too. I think its not too hard to think of profiles being inherited from generation to generation. After all we do have diaries being passed on. And lets make a movie out of this: the guy on deathbed dies in mid stride while telling his son the password to his account. And the son embarks on a quest to unearth his fathers legacy... :) ... Bad storyline is it... :-) ... Yes even i thought so... :-) ...

Lost in translation....

Its not been long that I started blogging and it has its own pair of ... cant call it difficulties, rather i think nuances. Life goes on as usual but now every event feels like it should be put into words. And that's an intricate task, at least for me. I don't know what should I attribute this to, my sparse vocabulary or something else. Am almost getting the feeling that there are more meanings lost in translation from thought to words than it is from one language to another... Shakespeare cant be blamed after all for making up words where he needed. But the large amount of work required to create the circumstances and plots required to convey the meaning. I think its a bit too much work for a lazy blogger like me. I think in the meantime i should rather work on my English. But that surely leaves the writers at peace, lest I be considered a threat to them. ... :-) ...

Hope..........................

Its amazing how one can make ones life so simple but yet so fragile. So comfortable yet so prone to pain. We make up hope where there is none and the slightest, the insignificant, the otherwise mundane would just break that barrier. Or at least bring it to the hilt. I am reminded of a phrase that i heard, read, glanced somewhere that makes so much more sense now(i dont remember it exactly but i think i remember the feeling it hoped to convey)- "Until now everything is so serene, and composed, but the slightest change, the fall of a leaf, the crying of a child, a moments pause just breaks open the flood gates and the the composure is lost". Its amazing what one can do to convince oneself of the otherwise inconceivable just so as to live in hope and that in turn provides a purpose to life. I think its the same feeling/emotion seen in fanatics either religious or otherwise. Anyway i think i will get round to that topic sometime later. At a later day, another odd hour.

Drought of words...

I went home... And i guess i got too rested and relaxed. I am not getting those wordy nights. Will be back soon. I will be back soon i hope... :-) ...