SILENCE

It is perhaps, the most dangerous weapon than anything else in this world. I fear silence more than anything else. I fear my own silence. At the same time, I love it too. Silence is golden, goes the saying. Silence makes more meaning, in depth of a single meaning as well as the number of interpretations. It is the purest music that can be heard. When some person is silent, there may be many interpretations for that silence. There may be anger behind that silence. There may be love. There may be a wounded heart. There may be fear. There may be pride. There may be affection. There may be commitment and dedication. There may be laziness. There may be reluctance. There may be anything. There may be much more.

The anger in silence makes more impact than the anger in words. It is frightening to others. Sometimes, unbearable too. Especially when a person who talks all the time in a day, whom everybody request to keep quiet, is silent for an hour or so by himself without anyone telling him, then people around him who got used to him are more frightened by that silence rather than being happy. They cannot invite that forced silence. It becomes unbearable. It is like the silence after a storm, which is more frightening.The silence comes in different forms. The frightening silence after a storm. The inviting silence at the dawn, with the birds setting out to find their food. The eerie silence at the night. The pleasant silence in a temple. The welcoming silence on a hilltop with the air blowing in ears. The bloody silence after a battle. The lovely silence between lovers. The unbearable silence between estranged couples. The silent sleep of a small kid. The heavy silence before a verdict. The silence in anger. The silence in submission. The silence in hurt. The silence in emotion. And what not?

Sometimes silence can be comfortable and sometimes the opposite. True friendship comes only when the silence between friends is comfortable and cherished. Else, the relation may disappear into a silent night. Silence makes more impact than anything else, provided it is noticed. We, in this dynamic world don't have enough time to waste it on noticing the beauty of silence. Fall in love with silence. Fear it. Feel it. Enjoy it. There is much more in it than what we know.

ARGUMENTATIVE?? OR INQUISITIVE??

There is difference between being inquisitive and being argumentative. I myself am branded as argumentative by many. I don't accept things easily. I question to know the authenticity of anything. I would say myself as inquisitive and not argumentative. Had I been argumentative, I would not accept anything even after giving sufficient number of reasons. But how can I accept or agree to anything when I am not satisfied with the answers given. The answers given raise some more questions in me and my inquisitive nature comes to the fore. Is it wrong to be inquisitive? Is it wrong to question? Is it wrong not to be satisfied by an answer?Questions, again!!!!!!!!!!!!!

People get bored with so many questions and slowly people get bored with the person,i.e., me in this case. There have been many instances in which I was asked to shut up in a not-so-sharp way when I was asking many questions. But at the same time, these questions helped them too. There were instances in my 11th and 12th when my friends wanted me to ask the lecturers so many questions that they would stop teaching and leave the class. This really happened too. Once in a chemistry class, our sir was teaching something and explaining about the oxidation states of oxygen in inert gas compounds and I raised a doubt suddenly. He got so used to me that as soon as I raised my hand and asked that question, he said, “ I knew you would ask this question. I knew that YOU WOULD ONLY ask this question.” As soon as he said this, the whole class burst into laughter. But the question was not answered effectively.

When people are unable to answer me, they say I'm stupid to ask such questions. I say that yes, I'm ignorant. I'm foolish. You are so wise, right. Please answer my question and enlighten me. But again they say this is arrogance. Then how should I behave? I'm agreeing that I don't know anything. If you know, please let me know too. If you don't know, join me in asking someone else the same question and let us both get enlightened. Whatever it is, I keep on asking questions, whether you like it or not. Because, this is me.

Coming to the topic, this actually propped up in my mind when I heard about the book “ The Argumentative Indian” by Nobel laureate, Amartya Sen. The book outlines the need to understand contemporary India in the light of its argumentative tradition. He termed the Indians as argumentative, he himself being an Indian. He is a Nobel laureate and no doubt a great man. But, he shouldn't be commenting about Indians that way. Had he been staying in India and be an Indian, I wouldn't mind any criticism from him. But he is staying in some far away land and took the nationality of some other country and criticizing the people of his own mother land. This is just my view and not against any particular person or anything else. I would have valued the book much better, had it been named “ The Inquisitive Indian”, rather than “ The Argumentative Indian”. We, Indians are inquisitive than argumentative. Our inquisitive nature lead to many astonishing discoveries.

One such marvellous example is the discovery of infinity. Srinivasa Ramanujan questioned his teacher what was the result of a number divided by the itself, when the number is zero. This lead to the concept of infinity in mathematics. Encourage this inquisitive nature. Who knows, one may become another Ramanujan tomorrow. Or may discover something astonishing for the use of future generation. Don't stop them from asking questions by mistakenly branding them as argumentative. Have patience in answering the innumerable questions. If you don't know the answer, then you also have to know and learn something. :)

RUNNING FOR LIFE? OR RUNNING OUT OF LIFE??

Is the title confusing?? It was, for a moment, to me too. Later, when I sat down and put my thoughts down on it, it made perfect sense….at least to me. The former meant “running to live”whereas the latter meant “running to death”. Are we, by any chance, running out of life in the process of running for life? It may seem too philosophical for a guy of about 20 yrs of age to talk about such a topic. BUT, LET IT BE. These are the thoughts that would come to anyone’s mind if he sits alone in a pleasant weather on an evening watching the birds fly back to their homes at the dusk. But, first of all, in the present world where is the place to sit alone? Even if we find some place to be alone, when is the weather ever so pleasant? Where is the time to see the birds flying when we, ourselves, are busy in our own problems? Even if we had time, do we have the energy to come out and enjoy the beauty of the nature?

Take any person’s life. It all starts with that person cuddling up in his mother’s arms playing and puking, being transferred from one person to another everyone competing to coddle him and was feeling the warmth of every hand that holds him. Go to the times when he joined the school and learnt “Early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise”. He goes to school regularly, comes back early, throws his small bag and goes out to play with his friends. He comes back, does his homework and sleeps well, without any tensions in his mind. This continues slowly for few years.

As he goes to the higher grades, expectations rise. He is expected to perform more and better. The weight of books burdens him. Slowly, the time to play reduces and will become zero one day. He studies, studies and studies. Higher up the grades come the 9th, 10th, 11th & 12th. In a country like ours, preparation for competitive examinations to get into a good university in graduation starts right then or perhaps even earlier. The competition is very high and hence, the pressures on this child increase. To meet the expectations, this child starts sleeping less using his sleeping time to work hard and study. Finally, the results come out and his hard work pays off. He is selected into a good university. It does not end here. He either has to pursue higher studies or get a job. For this, he has to become an all rounder i.e., excel in every field. He may take up playing again not for relaxing but for achieving all round excellence, of which sports are also a part of. He works and works and works hard 24 hrs a day to achieve his goal. He has already lost the habit of sleeping. Now, he’ll start talking less with his friends, to live up to his own expectations. Again, he ends up achieving what he wants. He leaves this university with a job or to some other university where the same process is repeated for two more years. Finally he is with a job. THE job he wanted. The PERFECT job for him. Now, his aim is to excel in this and go to the highest position possible. He works hard. He has to meet the deadlines. He spends all his time in the office, with his brain heated up. He even starts skipping his meals to complete the work. He is running out of time, and he is running to meet the deadline. Cutting the crap short, he has achieved the highest position.

Now, what shall we call him?? A winner? Or a loser? He has been winning everything everywhere from his childhood. He must be a winner. But, at the same time, he lost everything. He has lost his energy by skipping his meals and sleep. He has lost his friends working all the time. He doesn’t have anyone now. He has been running all his life to achieve success. Never stopped to take a look at the beautiful things around. Where did all this running lead to? At an age when he has to take rest and live a peaceful life, this person leads a life suffering from diabetes, BP and what not. Why are these diseases on an rise nowadays? Why is almost every person on this earth suffering from some such health problem? The reason is everyone is running and running and running throughout their life to run for life…to live a life full of happiness and success. He might have achieved success. But no happiness. He even cannot live his life fully. What happened??He has been running for life. But he ran out of life in this process.

A question may arise, where did the planning go wrong along this way? Everything has been so perfect. Top in the class from the first grade. Topper in everything. Hard work and sincerity, not to be questioned. Everything went on as per the ‘plan’. Then, why is this person in such a situation today?

All of us are in the same position as this man. We are running, because everyone around us is running. To catch up with the generation, we also run. Though a few may not be very much inclined towards it, they also run only to be along with everyone. We run so fast that we fail to notice the small beautiful things around us. We don’t notice people around us and don’t wait to have a word with them. We have become more objective with the sole aim to achieving the final goal. Where is the peace that was there in the childhood?? Where has the pure smile that used to be always present on our lips gone? How long ago did we have a perfect sleep of 8-10 hrs without any tensions?When did we talk to our friends in a caring manner? When did we greet someone good morning or good evening? Are we, first of all looking who is going down the road beside us? Or are we busy even to look at them??

Just slow down a bit and think. You’ll get answers for everything. You’ll know what you really want. You’ll know the happiness and success around you, in you. This is not just about you or me. It’s about everyone in the present world. Let’s walk, not run for our life. Enjoy every small detail in life. After all, life is to be enjoyed to the fullest and not to be left in parts.

P.S: This whole blog is about me too. (Just that I’ve not yet grown old enough to suffer from some disease. I’m healthy enough right now :P).