Wednesday, December 29, 2010

Congregation of the small things that matter

So, I ask myself this question everyday, 'What exactly is Life'? How do we define what our life is supposed to mean and what our life is supposed to lean into? Have all of you observed, that what we call life and the way we live it, is actually how everyone else leads it around us and that's how we define our definitions and that's how we fill our cup of tea.

Once in a blue moon do we find a a doctor's son doing event management, or a professor's son learning music, or a business man's son doing something! We live life how we manage to bring it into our brains. Like the doctor's son is growing in an environment where there is no value of time, more so, no value for family time, always place the importance of a set of procedures, and hence the son, ends up becoming a very successful man, very methodical, very practical and totally capable of taking his own decision, but it wont be his life that he's leading, it would just be a shadow that his parents have already drawn him, and he's just filling that shadow with his body.

Then again comes the professor, his life is methodical, boring, full of proofs and reasoning, and totally blinded to the finer aspects and beauties of life. The son grows up in a surrounding where knowledge is everything and the rest is just useless. These people become successful too, but they don't judge their success by counting how many days they have lived and enjoyed, but by how useful they have been to society and being an epitome of knowledge in their time and niche.

Then arrives the business man, laden with so much money and respect, he respects nothing, he does not know authority, and before family for him comes his success and money. The son too becomes like this, either a total douche of a human being, or a very powerful man with a heart of stone.

So, coming to the point, what is life? How should we live/ lead or lives? I'll give you a very nice example. As you all know I live in Dubai, and begging or asking any kind of alms here in public is an offense, that comes with a year in prison and after that you are deported. The person who's offering alms, is also put behind bars for a month. Everyone knows that here! But I saw this old lady, this was the time during the 'holy' month of Ramadan, she was lying on a by lane with a cup beside her, she was very obviously living there for quite a while now. Everyone walks right by her, everyone looks at her and turns a blind eye, thinking that its not their problem, and one fine gentleman calls the cops and informs them that there is an old lady here begging.

So enter the cops, they start helping the lady with whatever little luggage she has, and then they lead her towards their patrol car. One man who was standing and witnessing all of this, just walked towards the officers, and gave the lady a pocket full of money. The cops had to detain him too. When the cops asked the guy, why would you risk yourself and do such a thing when you know that you are gonna be put behind bars, and where did you get the money from?

The boy started his reply, "Sir, I am 22 now, I work in a nearby construction site, I have no family on this planet, and whatever I earn, I save and I have doing so for the past 5 years. I had finally decided to buy myself an education from the local university from my savings and I had withdrawn that much and some more for all the expenses. When I saw what was going on I realized two things, first that this lady was also like me and that she had no one to call her own, and I know how that feels; Secondly, I realized unlike me, she couldn't work and make her ends meet. So I had two choices, either turn a blind eye and be miserable for the rest of my life; or help her in someway and be miserable for a month but being peaceful for the rest of my life knowing that I have done something right and meaningful in this world."

For all those who didn't understand. The boy could have have just given the lady a few coins and they would land in the same situation as above, but the boy knew that when the lady was going to be extradited a year later, she would go back to her home country and still have the same fate as now ( a bylane and a cup to ask alms from), so he gave her all his money, and made sure that the lady was taken care of for a long time, by which atleast she could find some sort of solution to life till then.

That's how we should live too, enjoy and work, but not at the cost of others, and especially not at the cost of a needy person.

Hope this made you cry, or atleast emotional, because I know all my friends on Facebook are emotional, except you sharan! You Mofo!

Dedicated to Sharan and Vishvesh! Make a life, not a lie.

Yours Always,

Rohit A Banerjee

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Alcohol - Same brand different varieties!

As we all know by now, I was in India recently and had quite a blast there. 51 days straight of alcohol and good friends, a combination to kill for. That had to be my longest binge ever!

As we kept gulping one alcohol after another, we realized that the same alcohol from the same brewery had different tastes in different bars. To be a little clearer, try imagining 2 Cadbury bars of chocolate, from the manufacturing unit, from the same supplier, but they taste different as they have been bought from different shops. Very obviously, I'm referring to beer here, and we concluded that for any alcohol to take complete affect there should be to things that compliment and contradict at the same time; Good company and Good Ambience.

Good Company is like the morning dump of shit, when its smooth it feels like heaven and that nothing can ever beat that feeling. But when something's wrong, it will fuck you up bad, this is basically our fault for something that we ate last night or previously. Just like that, the people around you can really affect your alcohol, if the people are lively and noisy, the alcohol goes straight to the head and saves us a lot of money, but when its dull, all the world's alcohol will seem insufficient.

Good ambience, I still have trouble pronouncing ambience, bloody shitty french, why cant they keep their fucking words in their  own language. This acts like room freshner in a stinky room, makes it so apt for understanding when put that way, isn't it.

Hence my peeps, dont go out with your friends, there are more chances that you get drunk and do stupid things. Sit at home and be a schmuck. But I love doing fucked up things, hence I always go out and dont give a fuck about what happens after that!

Cheers! Happy Drinking!!

Sunday, December 12, 2010

Transmigrating into the inner kingdom of Solace

I've been out of the loop a while, I traveled a lot actually, and it was a fucking exhilarating experience. I had fun in the end and now all that is over, I regret the end of what seemed to be eternal sunshine and everlasting bliss. The alcohol, the company, the pubs and bars, the talks and the inevitable quarrels, all a part and parcel of the deal, aint it?

What got me wondering is that when I was in such an atmosphere, that can only be described as blossoming of the inner feelings and the effervescence of the happy hormones, I had no idea what's sadness and what is conformity. Not clear is it? Let me explain.

I realized that only being an aesthetic and denouncing all of the worldly things and mannerisms does not get you inner peace, absolute Qi as it is called. But to the contrary, its the self realization that is required when our body and our brain are in complete sync of joyous and mature emotions, that is when we should try taking a look inside our self and wonder what is it that we want and what is it that we can make happen.

I was happy with my friends, my alcohol and my girlfriend, but seldom did they realize that as I was with them, I was also thinking to myself. Thinking if this is the life that I would like to lead, and since the answer was Yes, I asked myself how could I make that happen?

And the answer just struck me as I lay on the bed one night, after a night of extreme ecstasy and please, I realized that for this kind of life in the future, I will have to slog my ass off in the present and ensure myself that I have a good base to handle that kind of a life. And that forced me to go back to old job, my parents and the hot Dubai sun. It sucks, the feeling of being cared for from a 1000 miles away sucks, because everyone once in a while I would have loved that touch, that would make me feel important and loved. That voice that would make me feel ecstatic and that kiss that would literally cure me from all my present worries instantaneously. And yet I stay here, but this decision is logical and well thought, as it has come from the 'Inside'.

Mind you, you may get confused now, Inside here refers to my inner voice, some call it the soul, but as I felt it, it was my sync with inner peace, where my heart and brain gave me a collaborated answer. And hence it cannot be wrong. A lot of people hate me for leaving like that, including the girl that loves me the most; but none of them realize that, its only because I wanted to be with them in the future have I come back. So that the next time I come there, I dont have think about coming back to Dubai ever again.

I met my 'Soul' and believe me, he had all the answers for me. Try it sometime, it feels as orgasmic as a fall from a bridge with a bungee rope attached to your ankles...:)...

Cheers!