Perception..

A very close intellectual friend of mine recently made me wonder about the thinking and the gears that revolve around the mind of the common people. For the people who cant think 'Outside the Box', or even better, in the words of William Shakespeare, "commoners".

Every man knows that there is a drastic change in decision making and thought processes when a simple variant in the context changes. I know I am being a little non comprehensive, I'll elaborate. Lets take a simple court case for example, unlike India, the United States has a jury system of evolving and eventually giving a verdict to the accused. But has anyone thought about how this can be so faulty? (Plus this brings to my point of what the 'herd mentality' really means) Now I give you the first instance, both sides have male lawyers and majority of the jury is female. Understand one basic thing, the jury are 'common' people, they don't understand complex scientific words and technical jargon, neither do they understand the complex workings of the very judicial system for which they have been selected to give a verdict for.

So, this can turn out only two ways, in 98% of the times where both sides have male lawyers, the one with the better literary or the one with the better looks wins, with looks being more important. Now, what if we take the lawyer who wins these kinda cases, and put him against a female lawyer, 85% of the times the verdict goes to the lady.

So my point exactly, the cases maybe the same, the verdict has changed with a simple constant being changed, sexual organs and basically the gender.

Exactly the same way, I say the same thing, people have perceptions that keep changing about the most trivial of all facts. Like till the 19th century we thought that the Earth was the center of the universe. How did that perception change? With a simple help from innovation.

So it doesn't take that much to change the views of a person, I know this fact and use this on a daily basis, in my sales background to score clients, or get better connections, because I know the secret to it all, every mans thought process lies in his emotional side.

This blog may come out very vague and bland, but if you've understood what I have meant, and start implementing this, I assure you, you're going to seriously be one of the most famous guy/girl around. (Not that being famous is everything) But its publicity in the end right? :)

And btw...HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU ALL!!! :)

Thanks Kushal!

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

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!!

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!

Abundance of Reason

Reason. The term with varying meanings. This term is used by sensible people to do sensible things, and the absence of reason is used by bullies and assholes to do their kinda things. Ok! I have no idea where that came from, but I guess queerness is back! Hell Yeah!

So what is reason? Reason by definition is....reason. I have no idea how to define that word. What do you think I am? Wikipedia? Fuck you!

But all I can do is prove that out to you. A reason is something that a lover needs to console himself when he hasn't spoken to his counterpart for a long time and now he's getting weird thoughts. A reason is something that a single mother lives by, doing two 8 hour shifts to sustain her family, and still having time to take her children to school and play with them. Reason is something that keeps the terminally ill, still attached to this world. A reason is something that converts a hardcore religious man into an atheist. A reason is something that a government gives to the people to extort money from them. Basically everything is reason.

There is nothing in this world that does not have an ulterior motive. Now the religious readers may argue that I am wrong, and that God requires no reason. So tell me, why is it that your God tells you to come to church every sunday, or offer prayers to him 5 times a day, wear a turban on your head or want you to live a life of penance? So everything that happens around us has a motive, a principle, that is how the wheel turns. We cannot argue or reason with something that we don't control.

We give alms to the needy, not because we think that he needs it more than us, but thinking that if we give him alms, he will offer us blessings and our life will miraculously come back on track! In colloquial terms, we all have a politician inside us waiting to creep out.

We can never be selfless or do things without thinking of some good in it for us. There are certain exceptions to this, like an act of bravery or a mother sacrificing her meal so that her children can sleep with full stomachs.

If we cant be real, atleast let us not be assholes eh? Stop sucking the brain out of the employees! Stop torturing innocent children with ancient knowledge in school! Stop torturing us with 'Karela' ka sabji every week! Stop! Stop!! Stop!!!

Solitary Weeper

Ok that last post was a total bust! I did not want to be that straight forward and serious, but I don't know what has happened to my sense of humor of-late. I think life as a 9 to 5 robot fucking sucks! ( Especially when working hours in this country is 8 to 6 :|) It slowly and steadily shoves your own ass into your head and makes you incapable of reasoning and incapable of mature emotions. Very thankfully I have my girl helping me out through this period, and she rocks! 

I have always told my friends, don't judge your friends by how many people pay for your alcohol or drug money, but see how many people come to wipe your tears ( yes am referring to you bapu! ). Well I say a lot of things, but preaching and practicing are two ends of the spectrum, aren't they? Fuck this Shit! 

This period of gloom when no matter what happens around you, no matter how much fun people are having around you, it always keeps that vacuum. This is the exact vacuum that makes me wanna hit someone, or abuse the shit outta someone, but I have realized that this mentality has made me more enemies than I could handle. I hate this, it feels like someone has stabbed me with a curved sword, and then very efficiently turned the sword on its horizontal axis, and my insides have spilled on to the ground below! :|

hmmm, Ground reminds me, 'Yo Mamma is so dumb, she threw a stone at the ground; and Missed!' :P :D ...I just love this one. I hate my body, and I'm to lazy to work to have  god like physique. ohh...that reminds me, 'Yo mamma's hair is so curvy, that it is un-beweavable!" hahaha! :D :)

Ok! That was shit! But when the whole world keeps pushing you and makes you, forces you to become something or someone that you had always wanted not to become, it just sucks out all the juices out of you. Some cry and some get depressed. But when someone pushes me to hard, I just stand up, look back and shout, "Kaun madarhcod ne dhakka diya!" :-)

Get over it people, like Bob Marley said it very wonderfully, "In the end everyone's gonna make you cry, but who we wish to cry for, is totally upto us"

Ciao!

Assholes called Friends

I hate my friends, but then I hate everybody but me. Yes am a narcissistic guy! But I cant help it. The underlying meaning being, I hate everybody, but what the society call friends, I hate them quite less than what I would hate a normal person. There is truly one person I love in this world, and yeah she knows about it :)

But I can help it writing about my experiences of friends and friendship through out my life. In school I was never the 'cool' one, I was rather the mischievous spoilt brat, and I totally loved the attention I got. But that led to many problems. I never had a fixed circle of friends, who I would be loyal to and do the other gay shit that boys at the age of 14 do. I preferred doing all that with everyone not just a few select people. And so a lot of times, I see now what have I left behind. That attitude obviously made me famous and etched in everyones mind, but no one cares about me. But I find that as a boon, because I often see how two school mates meet and the first thing they do is share stupid stories of them in school. Like how he shat in his pants while writing the maths paper, or how he got slapped by a chic younger than him on Sport's Day. STUPID! Hence I always had friends who believed in the present and loved to have fun. I would love to name a few, Rajeev Balani, Sandeep Shet, Nikhil Sawant, Vishal Menon etc..The thing here being, I had more friends in the form of my teachers than my batch mates.

Ok that period of my life totally sucked! :| ...Boohoo! Skool Life sucked! I think I'm the only guy who can say that!

Coming to the later stages, I had some good company later when I moved out into the world and had variety of friends when I attended College and started socializing. Rich friends, Poor friends, fuck buddies, asshole friends, possessive friends, stupid friends, friends' friends...and the list goes on and on..I had lots of great company in these years, but I eventually lost most of them because of my addictions and other related habits. Fuck! When I look back, I could have so many good friends!..Ok I'm using this term a lot! Darn! I do not know any other word! :|..

I remember this time when I called a dude some names in front of the girls and totally cock blocked him. He did not talk to me, but today, that dude is one of the only remaining friends I have!

It all eventually comes up to this scenario, don't judge yourself by how many friends you have, judge yourself by how much those limited friends are worth! I have 10 or maybe 20, and each one is worth a 100; so I definitely have more friends than you, Dont I! :D :)