What is Happening in Kashmir?

My daily dose of news comes in the form of newspaper delivered with a loud thud. This is my cue that the day has started and the world has indeed turned a full circle. Lately I just don't feel like getting up and reading the news. It's not because of my laziness, I'm simply afraid of what I might see. Violence is everywhere. Bomb blasts, genocide in S.Ossetia and now riots in Kashmir. Seriously, what the hell is going on in the garden on top of the world?

I'm a proud Indian, I have enormous faith in the army and I'll stand by every decision they take. However, I can't help but draw parallels in history. Whenever, the indigenous people of a region are genuinely pissed, change happens. Trying to stop the rising tide of change by imposing martial law and killing innocent civilians is never the solution. Such a scenario is only going to have violent repurcussions. The founding fathers of our country have always told us to tread the path of peace and non violence. Even happenings in Palestine, Iraq and Vietnam have have shown us the prolonged effects of the use of force. I sincerely hope that an amicable solution is found to whatever it is that the people of Kashmir are upset about and that the violence ends soon.

Peripatetic me

My Halcyon days were spent in the winters of Delhi. The holidays were a time for friends and family. On one such winter, still a wee lad, barely started going to school, I was basking in the sun. Sprawled out on my grandma's lap, I was gently purring like a Persian cat that has just had an entire fish. My grandma used to shower me with grandmotherly affection and narrate to me Panchatantra stories packed with morales( none of it has sunk in :( ). She was examining my feet and she told me something that I can never forget. She had noticed a small mole on the sole of my right foot. She said that this signified that I would do a lot of travelling, just like my dad.

Hmmmm... I'm 20 now and I certainly have travelled a lot. From peering down at the Big Apple on top of the WTC, taking a hike on the Great wall, celebrating Bastille day in front of the Eiffel tower, shopping on Orchard street, staying at a Nazi Concentration camp, swearing at pimps in Bangkok, conquering the Himalayas,Alps and the Appalachians to visiting temples in every nook and corner in India. I have been there, done that and I am definitely going to travel a lot more too. It is easy to give into fatalism and make up theories to explain the reality around you. It's convenient to say that this is my fate and feel good about it. I make no such claim despite my grandma's sincere predictions. One thing I'm sure of, fate or no fate, my dad loves travelling and I have his bug.

Turn on, Tune in, Drop out

Came across this recently. Very Nice.

" Turn on' meant go within to activate your neural and genetic equipment. Become sensitive to the many and various levels of consciousness and the specific triggers that engage them. Drugs were one way to accomplish this end. 'Tune in' meant interact harmoniously with the world around you - externalize, materialize, express your new internal perspectives. Drop out suggested an elective, selective, graceful process of detachment from involuntary or unconscious commitments. 'Drop Out' meant self-reliance, a discovery of one's singularity, a commitment to mobility, choice, and change. Unhappily my explanations of this sequence of personal development were often misinterpreted to mean 'Get stoned and abandon all constructive activity.' " - Leary

Siddhartha by Herman Hesse

Questions of the spirit and the soul have never really troubled me nor did I have too much time to even pose such questions. Everything has been about fulfilling my needs in the present. Herman Hesse calls this living in samsara. He states that living in samsara makes you acutely aware of your senses. Feelings of joy, anxiety, pleasure, pain, etc. take on a new meaning. Somehow this is not such a good thing. Hesse claims that there is an alternative. There is a higher plane that humans should aspire to reach, something about detachment from the self and being one with everything. Realising the intransience of time and the value of wisdome over knowledge. You get the picture.

Like a true cynic, I mock all that he propounds. Obviously, my negative overtones have a reason and that reason is not so complex. I just love living.