Is EVERYTHING redundant?!
I wonder if anything original really exists?!...Life is much too redundant. I mean every-fucking-one lives it! Everyone is born; everyone dies! I fail to understand how anything that happens in between could be anything but inconsequential mutations in the repeats. It just seems that everything that one has done is a repetition, only there is this remote possibility that you don't know about it YET.
And then there was...
"This is your one opportunity to do something that no one has ever done before and that no one will copy throughout human existence. And if nothing else, you will be remembered as the one guy who ever did this. This one thing."
--Sam in Garden State
And then I wondered all over again...
What is my one thing? Does everyone have their one thing?
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
Monday, September 17, 2007
Rhyming and Poetry.
I was watching a series on television where they ridiculed a pansy, pathetic, wanna-be poet!
Watching it I wondered if poetry/rhyming was actually that hard? and I decided to try my hand at it...and guess what I figured?!
Not only that it's difficult! but it's draining as well!
Well, so, here is my Vogon attempt at poetry!
I try very hard to write
Something I hope wouldn't be too trite
Of things unsaid
Of things beyond the staid
Why am I writing in rhymes
Because they sound like chimes
OMG! All of this has gone over-board
Ok, I'll stop before you get bored.
Oh! you say, I should go on?
I won't be fooled, I see you've put your ear-muffs on!
I honestly hope that you did not require the use of the "imagery intensifiers, rhythmic modulators, alliterative residulators, or the simple dumpers" to help you heighten the experience of reading my poetry!
If you've read this far, your patience is gratefully appreciated! :)
Watching it I wondered if poetry/rhyming was actually that hard? and I decided to try my hand at it...and guess what I figured?!
Not only that it's difficult! but it's draining as well!
Well, so, here is my Vogon attempt at poetry!
I try very hard to write
Something I hope wouldn't be too trite
Of things unsaid
Of things beyond the staid
Why am I writing in rhymes
Because they sound like chimes
OMG! All of this has gone over-board
Ok, I'll stop before you get bored.
Oh! you say, I should go on?
I won't be fooled, I see you've put your ear-muffs on!
I honestly hope that you did not require the use of the "imagery intensifiers, rhythmic modulators, alliterative residulators, or the simple dumpers" to help you heighten the experience of reading my poetry!
If you've read this far, your patience is gratefully appreciated! :)
Saturday, September 15, 2007
Philosophy of the D in my PhD.
I plan to apply for a PhD soon (read,in a couple of months), and I took up teaching so that I don't sit at home listlessly, uselessly, and basically to avoid making my life pointless. You get the idea, right?!
(the pittance of a pay-check is responsible for such negativity towards teaching!)
I'm between my M Sc and my PhD,
I am in the transition state, let's call it 'D'
'D' is the high-energy state where all the excess energies are being resourced towards attaining a stable state PhD.
*nerd alert blaring at top volume!*
Yes, the point of all the rambling is something I read written on the black-board when I entered my classroom.
"Experience is something you get when you are looking for something else."
--Anonymous
How perfectly it defined my transition state for me!
*sigh* *sigh* *sigh*
(the pittance of a pay-check is responsible for such negativity towards teaching!)
I'm between my M Sc and my PhD,
I am in the transition state, let's call it 'D'
'D' is the high-energy state where all the excess energies are being resourced towards attaining a stable state PhD.
*nerd alert blaring at top volume!*
Yes, the point of all the rambling is something I read written on the black-board when I entered my classroom.
"Experience is something you get when you are looking for something else."
--Anonymous
How perfectly it defined my transition state for me!
*sigh* *sigh* *sigh*
My Teaching 'Experience'...so far...
As time passed by, I realized that sitting at home made me progressively dumber, stupider (I know it's not a word!), it was driving me insane everyday. My mind had become so empty; I saw myself becoming the DEVIL!! Sitting at home reading, listening to music all day, watching all the films that I always wanted to watch, etc., it was all fun at first, but the realization that things in my life stayed where they were annoyed me immensely. Exciting things had ceased to happen in my life...the ennui seemed to have no end. That was when I decided, I had to set in motion all my blasted brain-cells and do something constructive with my time...I had to start working part-time somewhere, to keep myself occupied at any rate with something 'technical'...I was done with the non-technicalities of life! The artistic urges wanted to go to sleep while the practical, more scientific ones took over and took charge of my life! [spicing it up for me while they were at it! :)]
I started teaching. Something I always dreamed of doing!...but in my head, I always thought I would teach the grad-students (I've always considered them to be more committed to learning, and education, and have a wider knowledge base to work upon, etc.). NOW, here I was teaching first and second year under-grads! I mean, I was one of them so recently! I knew so well their never-ending need to be nasty to the new TA's! How I dreaded doing it!
Fortunately my first class with the first year B Sc kids was fabulous! *phew* I liked my students and they liked me! (atleast that is what I would sincerely like to believe). It was hard for me to accept how much I was enjoying teaching a bunch eighteen-nineteen year olds!...and thinking about it, for the first time, I realized what I was enjoying, I was loving the process of making better grad-students out of them! I was thrilled when they looked up to me for answers, I was elated when they asked me logical questions. It was fun leading them to answer their own questions, by deducing from the knowledge they already had, from their experiences and observations in day-to-day matters and then building upon it to finally teach them what I intended to do in the first place!
"The whole art of teaching is only the art of awakening the natural curiosity of young minds for the purpose of satisfying it afterwards."
--Anatole France (1844 - 1924), The Crime of Sylvestre Bonnard
So far, according to me, it has been an enriching and educating experience for me (definitely) and my kids (hopefully). To sum it all up...
"When one teaches, two learn."
--Robert Half.
GOD knows how much I love teaching! God bless my kids!
P.S.: The, er, inspiration for typing this post was the Robert Half quote on my Gmail. "Fucking coincidence" was what 'S' called it when he randomly emailed me same the quote just as I began punching in my thoughts in this space, I loosely refer to as 'my blog'! :D
I started teaching. Something I always dreamed of doing!...but in my head, I always thought I would teach the grad-students (I've always considered them to be more committed to learning, and education, and have a wider knowledge base to work upon, etc.). NOW, here I was teaching first and second year under-grads! I mean, I was one of them so recently! I knew so well their never-ending need to be nasty to the new TA's! How I dreaded doing it!
Fortunately my first class with the first year B Sc kids was fabulous! *phew* I liked my students and they liked me! (atleast that is what I would sincerely like to believe). It was hard for me to accept how much I was enjoying teaching a bunch eighteen-nineteen year olds!...and thinking about it, for the first time, I realized what I was enjoying, I was loving the process of making better grad-students out of them! I was thrilled when they looked up to me for answers, I was elated when they asked me logical questions. It was fun leading them to answer their own questions, by deducing from the knowledge they already had, from their experiences and observations in day-to-day matters and then building upon it to finally teach them what I intended to do in the first place!
"The whole art of teaching is only the art of awakening the natural curiosity of young minds for the purpose of satisfying it afterwards."
--Anatole France (1844 - 1924), The Crime of Sylvestre Bonnard
So far, according to me, it has been an enriching and educating experience for me (definitely) and my kids (hopefully). To sum it all up...
"When one teaches, two learn."
--Robert Half.
GOD knows how much I love teaching! God bless my kids!
P.S.: The, er, inspiration for typing this post was the Robert Half quote on my Gmail. "Fucking coincidence" was what 'S' called it when he randomly emailed me same the quote just as I began punching in my thoughts in this space, I loosely refer to as 'my blog'! :D
Friday, September 14, 2007
Song Beneath The Song.
I absolutely love things that are beneath other things; the things unsaid, the subtle, obscure, hidden meanings that usually go unnoticed by "them". (for future references, "them" is the general, insignificant lot! bah!) I guess, no, I think, it makes a piece of work/art a lot closer to the creator's/artist's self. (I want to give this thought a little more thought, maybe another blog-post, some other day!)
I was listening to 'Song Beneath The Song' by Maria Taylor. I was moved more than I considered myself capable.
Hmmm, so why does my heart feel so heavy?
"Song Beneath The Song"
Cryptic words meander
Now there is a song beneath the song
One day you'll learn
You'll soon discern its true meaning
An interesting detachment
A listless poem of love sincere
Desire, despair
Overlapping melodies
And it's not a love, it's not a love
It's not a love, it's not a love song
And now the loops are reminiscing
Recurring dreams of minor chords
Metered time
Muted chimes find the beat
And in the pulse there lies conviction
A steady push and pull routine
Till cymbals swelled
High notes fell into reach
And it's not a love, it's not a love
It's not a love, it's not a love song.
--Maria Taylor.
There is so much undefined pain, so much undefined hurt and yet through all the undefined-ness (?!)I could still, strangely identify with it! it's not the simple sadness, there is something about this song that intrigued me immensely, and without knowing what that was, I still felt that I had experienced it somewhere... at some lost locus within the length of my lifetime...am I making any sense?! anyways, I hope I am, it's so hard to articulate such complex thoughts and emotions).
No-no, don't get any wrong notions about my life, it has been almost perfect (touch-wood!), no complaints there, but the song struck a chord somewhere, stirred something within me which I had forgotten existed; somethings I had shut in a closet to be forgotten is more like it.
In 'High Fidelity', says Rob Gordon, "I wanna live with a musician. She'd write songs at home and ask me what I thought of them, and maybe even include one of our little private jokes in the liner notes."
Listening to that... all I wanted to scream out was...."Me tooo!!" (just replace the 'she' with 'he', of course! :D)
Sorry, I digress. So, coming back to this song, it sort-of, seems to belong to the category of such private songs written especially, with personal liner by the poet somewhere. *sigh* [I dunno why I sighed, just felt like a sigh would sum up all the things that I'm leaving unsaid! :)]
Someday. Someday, someone is going to write a beautiful song about me, a song for me. Someday.
On that thought, I will sign off.
P.S.: I just want to add, rather urge you to listen to this song...'Song Beneath The Song', it's lovely!
I was listening to 'Song Beneath The Song' by Maria Taylor. I was moved more than I considered myself capable.
Hmmm, so why does my heart feel so heavy?
"Song Beneath The Song"
Cryptic words meander
Now there is a song beneath the song
One day you'll learn
You'll soon discern its true meaning
An interesting detachment
A listless poem of love sincere
Desire, despair
Overlapping melodies
And it's not a love, it's not a love
It's not a love, it's not a love song
And now the loops are reminiscing
Recurring dreams of minor chords
Metered time
Muted chimes find the beat
And in the pulse there lies conviction
A steady push and pull routine
Till cymbals swelled
High notes fell into reach
And it's not a love, it's not a love
It's not a love, it's not a love song.
--Maria Taylor.
There is so much undefined pain, so much undefined hurt and yet through all the undefined-ness (?!)I could still, strangely identify with it! it's not the simple sadness, there is something about this song that intrigued me immensely, and without knowing what that was, I still felt that I had experienced it somewhere... at some lost locus within the length of my lifetime...am I making any sense?! anyways, I hope I am, it's so hard to articulate such complex thoughts and emotions).
No-no, don't get any wrong notions about my life, it has been almost perfect (touch-wood!), no complaints there, but the song struck a chord somewhere, stirred something within me which I had forgotten existed; somethings I had shut in a closet to be forgotten is more like it.
In 'High Fidelity', says Rob Gordon, "I wanna live with a musician. She'd write songs at home and ask me what I thought of them, and maybe even include one of our little private jokes in the liner notes."
Listening to that... all I wanted to scream out was...."Me tooo!!" (just replace the 'she' with 'he', of course! :D)
Sorry, I digress. So, coming back to this song, it sort-of, seems to belong to the category of such private songs written especially, with personal liner by the poet somewhere. *sigh* [I dunno why I sighed, just felt like a sigh would sum up all the things that I'm leaving unsaid! :)]
Someday. Someday, someone is going to write a beautiful song about me, a song for me. Someday.
On that thought, I will sign off.
P.S.: I just want to add, rather urge you to listen to this song...'Song Beneath The Song', it's lovely!
Tuesday, September 4, 2007
Love's labour lost (?!)
"There is something incredibly ridiculous about the feelings of people who you've ceased to love, and, who have in turn ceased to love you."
--Oscar Wilde in 'The Picture of Dorian Gray'.
Why?
It almost feels like a mockery to try and understand, to sympathize with the ones you've "gotten over" (not necessarily the falling-in-love kind of love, it's the same with all the relationships where there was any kind of love involved, be it close friends, family, etc.), it all seems put on, seems fake, cheap and artificial.
What is lost from the bond? All that went into making it work in the first place, does it reduce to nothing? Or does one go into denial that they have not "gotten over" in the true sense of the word? What happens? Is it just that one's priorities change? Is it that there are other relations (in want of a better word here) that now demand the labouring over?
The same things that would've kept one awake through nights... trying to figure a solution for the loved-one, suddenly seems trivial to the point that one even forgets that their previously loved one needs them, and needs them desperately?!
Do all the times they've let you down, when you needed them and they conveniently overlooked your problems become a source of this indifference?
Now that it's all over, does this indifference make one a bad person? Does it make one heartless? Does it matter at all?
Why does my heart feel so heavy?!
--Oscar Wilde in 'The Picture of Dorian Gray'.
Why?
It almost feels like a mockery to try and understand, to sympathize with the ones you've "gotten over" (not necessarily the falling-in-love kind of love, it's the same with all the relationships where there was any kind of love involved, be it close friends, family, etc.), it all seems put on, seems fake, cheap and artificial.
What is lost from the bond? All that went into making it work in the first place, does it reduce to nothing? Or does one go into denial that they have not "gotten over" in the true sense of the word? What happens? Is it just that one's priorities change? Is it that there are other relations (in want of a better word here) that now demand the labouring over?
The same things that would've kept one awake through nights... trying to figure a solution for the loved-one, suddenly seems trivial to the point that one even forgets that their previously loved one needs them, and needs them desperately?!
Do all the times they've let you down, when you needed them and they conveniently overlooked your problems become a source of this indifference?
Now that it's all over, does this indifference make one a bad person? Does it make one heartless? Does it matter at all?
Why does my heart feel so heavy?!
Monday, September 3, 2007
The Beginning...
'Tis tough to begin at the beginning; what came first, the egg or the hen?
Yeah, I don't know the answer, but I'm sure Mr Darwin would've been able to answer it. 'The Origin of Species' is what it all boils down to isn't it? (Disclaimer: I don't conform to this in totality, but mostly, I do!) Since this post isn't about the evolution of mankind/womankind (don't want the feminists to come knocking at my door wanting to give me a piece of their mind :P), I don't mind letting out a little more... this post isn't about the 'Big Bang Theory' either! (Aren't ya just happy to know that?!)
Well, without further a-do, without testing my lovely reader's patience, I will reveal the true intentions of my re-entry into the blogging world, well, it's not really a re-entry, it's more like a re-start (Coz I have officially deleted all the previous blogs!)...so, basically, the point I'm trying to get at is that, this is a new beginning of a hopefully longer affair with the blogging world!
Here's to uninterrupted blogging!
Cheers!
Yeah, I don't know the answer, but I'm sure Mr Darwin would've been able to answer it. 'The Origin of Species' is what it all boils down to isn't it? (Disclaimer: I don't conform to this in totality, but mostly, I do!) Since this post isn't about the evolution of mankind/womankind (don't want the feminists to come knocking at my door wanting to give me a piece of their mind :P), I don't mind letting out a little more... this post isn't about the 'Big Bang Theory' either! (Aren't ya just happy to know that?!)
Well, without further a-do, without testing my lovely reader's patience, I will reveal the true intentions of my re-entry into the blogging world, well, it's not really a re-entry, it's more like a re-start (Coz I have officially deleted all the previous blogs!)...so, basically, the point I'm trying to get at is that, this is a new beginning of a hopefully longer affair with the blogging world!
Here's to uninterrupted blogging!
Cheers!
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