Some more paragraphs for you
There is nothing sexy about a man who stares. Unless we are talking about a character who is staring at the esc button on his laptop all the time. If not all the time, then at least most of the time. People peep out of the window during working hours. Others chit-chat about the Netflix show they binge-watched the previous night. Some even loiter around aimlessly. Our fellow stays lost in that button at the corner. He doesn’t know why but staying focused on it and being lost in his thoughts — while the world assumes him to be a gawkward, not a thinkard — provides him the sort of tranquility he can’t describe even if he wasn’t trying to escape from his realities.
For somebody who doesn’t travel at all, I do talk a lot about traveling. I do want to see the world — at least parts of it, parts that are closest to my imagination — before it becomes impossible to do so. The world is fast shrinking and it’s important that we have our share of looking and feeling. If you can, you must head out into the unfamiliar and see for yourself what the outside means to you. It’s only when we travel that we become one with our certainties as well as our doubts. For all we know, there is no island country called Kiribati and we’ve been fed lies all these years. Who knows? What we see is what we can get but what we foresee is what we shouldn’t regret. Those who travel — like really travel, and not just hop from one place to another — are aware of this feeling. When you travel, your body moves. Otherwise, it’s your mind that is always traveling on its own. When the two combine, magic unravels.
Isn’t social media utterly hopeless? On one hand, it’s a treasure trove of first-hand information and on the other, it can be a dustbin of gangrenous discussions. The latest public figure to be tossed around in nasty opinions happens to be Greta Thunberg (if you think you know how to pronounce her name, you are mistaken). This 16-year-old girl is already nominated for this year’s Nobel Peace Prize. One can always argue against the substance of such recognition but one can’t take light the difference one makes on a global stage. In all fairness, her stance against corporate avarice vis-a-vis climactic corruption is noteworthy. When the adults are failing to arrest the degrading situation, we should welcome younger voices. Particularly those who are concerned about the environment more than people like us who are concerned only to the limits of our lips. If something good comes out of such a forceful display of activism, great. However, at the same time, one can’t discount the notion that capitalistic economy might be a cancer but a large swathe of the poor depend on it for survival. Calling for drastic shutdowns is going to prove costly (no pun intended) for the underprivileged while the haves will fly off in their chartered jets. This dichotomy deserves closer attention and deeper study. The problem is we don’t take the scientists or the academics seriously because they are boring. And as a consequence, we take delight in making fun of somebody who is making the most of newfound drama. Not her fault anyway. Her advisors know very well what sells and what doesn’t. Only time will tell us whether all this so-called commotion amounts to real change — because if that happens, even Greta’s greatest detractors are going to benefit — or we’ll see another young self-made millionaire à la Malala soon enough.
I asked my dad what he misses the most nowadays. I thought he will mention me given how little we’ve met since 2016. Turns out he misses going to work and being useful. At 72, he feels quite “useless” now. Half in jest and half in matter, it’s easy to gauge where he is going with his retirement. Given the luxury of our youth and employment, we may detest going to office, plainly thanks to the fad of being bored of what we do for money. At a deeper cut, it is nonsense. The whole approach is twisted for the most part: our job allows us meaning because we know it keeps us occupied in a productive manner. You can’t Harvey Specter out of this arrangement by saying nobody else can do what you do. Accept the math here: probability and sheer luck caused you to be where you are right now. There are thousands of folks out there somewhere who can do things better than you. And that is a possibility strong enough to motivate us to leave home in the morning.
Good friends are those who help you become a better friend. They anchor you as well as you keep you aflight. Without them, you’d be lonely in a calm way. To provide context here, without your lover, you are lonely in a stormy way. When we are kids, we miraculously assume that we’ll be in touch with our school friends for the rest of our lives. This is before we grow up and endure the changes of our times. When I look back at the friends I’ve managed to make — and not just add — I feel incredibly lucky. Without these people in my circle, I’d be wondering whether I will ever be a good friend.
At a philosophical level, everything — without any exception — is pure bullshit. That’s it. That is the whole paragraph.
There are those who get things done and then there are those who make long to-do lists. I recently made a bigass list of things to watch before the year ends and share it with my wife. Yes, sorry for sounding so ambitious but it takes a lot of discipline to get through a watch-list, when we have SO much content to choose from. Speaking of goals, I also want to get back to being truly fit and by that, I mean somebody who doesn’t get tired after walking up two floors, or doesn’t feel dizzy too often or gets a headrush everytime something from the lower areas of a fridge is picked up, and so on. It’s going to be a long, long journey because a stupor takes time as much time to disintegrate as it takes to build.
Not very long ago, I merrily boasted on this platform about a 20-game unbeaten run in online chess. Well, it didn’t last long. In fact, I’ve never experienced such a sharp decline in chess before. My classical rating went down from 1190 to 1123, blitz dropped to 998 from 1059, rapid is at a dismal 934, and bullet is crawling at 890. Just a steady state of disarray. Slippery slippery sloppy slope. A lot can be blamed on the physical discomfort due to root canal procedure but that’s excuses. A decent chess student learns how to not repeat the same mistake. More importantly, as my dear friend from far away land suggested, pain and chess don’t mix well.
Whenever his eyelash falls, the boy picks it up and wishes for world peace. He is sure that someday his wish will come true. Little does he know that world peace is against the very shreds of humanity. War, although smitten by gore and carnage, have continued to push us forward in terms of biomass. We are already at our maximum ever. 8 billion plus alive and counting. The problem is, war is an 18th century concept and we can’t decide on how to go about. Which might explain why his eyelashes have started falling into his eyes.
