The rise and fall of time
Age is just a number to those who are still alive. One doesn’t have to be a physicist to understand that time is a construct and we are tamely passing through a conduit with little to no control over the medium. Yesterday, we were children loitering around imitating our favourite bowler’s style and today, we are stuck in the EMI trap, and tomorrow, we’ll be helplessly looking for our dentures at sunrise. That’s existence. No, not life. Life changes. Existence remains the same. If I were to ask you to predict the age at which you’ll be dying, you’d squirm a bit because you are not comfortable with the D-word. It’s not that you are scared of dying; just that you haven’t learned to live yet. In other words, you need time. But then, who doesn’t?
The only factor that separates Oscars from Nobel is that the latter still pretends to have dignity. Those who decide who gets those golden medals in December have a lot to answer for. Gandhiji was nominated five times for the Nobel Peace Prize and yet, he never won once, thanks to Norwegian relationship with the British empire. Finally, in 1948, the year he was assassinated, they decided not to give away the prize to anyone else as a mark of respect for the Mahatma. Later, they blemished the word ‘peace’ by rewarding warmongers like Kissinger and Tho. The latter didn’t even accept the award as he was busy preparing for a war! In the 21st century, things didn’t improve on the Peace front. Obama got the award in 2009 for breathing whereas Malala got the same in 2014 for bare minimum. The only thing common to both these individuals is they are millionaires. One can continue ranting about such misguided appraisals but nothing is going to be different in the coming years either. Why? Because the problem isn’t with the Nobel Committee. The problem lies with us, the commoners, who allot too much importance to symbols that mean too little in reality.
Speaking of time and undeserved acclaim, John B. Goodenough is a class apart. Last year, he became the oldest ever Nobel laureate. He was 97 when he went up the stage to receive his honours in Chemistry. Going by his interviews, it’s apparent that he doesn’t care much about worldly recognition but even if he did, then it’s a matter of epic perseverance. Imagine being alive hoping to get that award and finally getting it. At 97 years of age. He is 98 presently and is still doing what he enjoys the most: teaching at a university in Texas. At the risk of sounding casteist, he proved true to his surname.
There are excerpts in Bhagavad Gita that will blow your mind for its sheer clarity of purpose. When Arjuna isn’t sure about his place in the world and is literally pleading to his Uber driver to take him back home, Krishna goes full throttle on PPT. He shows him how the universe is designed and what role each one of us — from the tiniest of termites to the largest of mammals — plays in the grand scheme. By abandoning his dharma (there is no equivalent word in English), he is not recusing himself from his responsibilities: he is merely delaying them. If not today, then tomorrow. If not in this life, then next life. The only way he can attain moksha (ultimate salvation) is by executing his dharma. And if that means he has to stand against his beloved, the elders he grew up admiring, so be it. What is wrong is wrong and what is right is right. In our everyday lives, we assume that we seldom reach a similar point of dilemma. Not true though. There are wrongs happening around us all the time. We simply choose to ignore, not knowing that until we uphold our dharma, there is no escape from the time loop.
Speaking of Arjuna, that particular story about him being focused on the bird’s eye inspires me a lot. No, I am nowhere closing to completing my first book. Yet, in moments of confusion, it’s a relief to know that distraction is not the solution. Only focus can deliver you from your current stage of problem. When Dronacharya asked him what he saw, Arjuna could say “bird’s eye” because that’s the only thing he could see at that time. A quality that made him such a celebrated warrior. Other kids in the gurukul could see the blueness of the sky, the hustling of the leaves and the clouds in the background because they were distracted. They didn’t know what to see. Not their fault though. We see what we want to see. This is a behaviour one can note in the most prolific goalscorers of this era: Ronaldo, Messi, Mbappé, Lewandowski, etc. They clearly see the back of the net and nothing in the middle — be it the defenders or the goalkeeper — can distract them from their goal.
If you think you are moody, you haven’t met Gurgaon weather yet. Exactly 24 hours ago, it was sunny. Two hours prior to that, at morning, it rained abruptly for exactly 2 minutes, as if the clouds were performing some sort of a flash mob. Yesterday, for the most part, remained hot but by evening, around 5, it started getting windy. So windy that we had to turn off the fan. This carried on for an hour or so, with the clouds getting angrier, goading us to collect the dry clothes from our balcony. By 6.30 pm, the breeze ended as if nothing happened. And humidity took over as the night approached. Weird, weird weather. As of now, it’s grey. In fact, so grey that you’d expect Mumbai-level rains. But I know what is going to happen. The sky will stay this way for the next two hours and there won’t be a drop to show for. Behold the drama queen that Gurgaon weather truly is.
The king is dead, long live the republic. About 100 years ago, with the decline of Ottoman empire, it became obvious to the monarchists that the days of their empires were fast ending. The move towards a new (read: scary) world was imminent and no matter how much one resisted, the change was already in motion. For centuries, a handful of families decided the fate of millions and then, all of a sudden — thanks in no small part to the scientific and technological advent — people realized the power they had in their hands. In a way, an inked finger after casting a vote is a perfect metaphor for this change of order. So, in a way, the rise of the republic was a momentous occasion in the post-WW2 era. For instance, Pakistan became the first ever Islamic republic in 1947. It’s a different story that it took them 23 years to hold their first general elections, which eventually led to the creation of Bangladesh. Over the past 70 years, many republics have mushroomed across the world. As of now, there are 127 countries in the world with the word ‘Republic’ in their official names. How many of them are truly republic can be an uncomfortable question though.
Attention is a strange commodity: it’s in short supply but available freely. Which could be the reason why we don’t read the whole damn thing anymore. The most common refrain being, “I don’t have the time…” TLDR, excusez moi. As a consequence, we tend to create our own context from a given context. For example, if you were to read these lines from Oprah Winfrey — “Don’t let the expectations and opinions of other people affect your decisions. It’s your life, not theirs. Do what matters most to you; do what makes you feel alive and happy.” — what would be your initial reaction? Perhaps you’d be inspired to go for those things you believe are rightly yours. Imagine a psychopathic killer reading these lines and getting the boost he needs. Of course, that’d be an extreme case but the point is, to understand Winfrey’s thoughts, you’ll have to read the whole paragraph and not just these three flowery sentences. She also talks about the challenges and hard work required to achieve one’s dreams.
All the great artists and writers and creators exist for a simple reason: to gain validation from others. Obscurity didn’t serve anybody well in the creative space. Even if you are painfully shy, your work has to be out there in the open. That’s the only way, unless we are talking about a brilliant person who hid her work throughout her life only to be discovered posthumously. That almost never happens. Granted that the consumers remain indifferent to the personalities behind the body of work. More often than not, they don’t even know how a director/lyricist/writer/painter look like. Their relationship begins and ends with the content. That said, once in a while, we get popular folks who end up being the face of their respective disciplines. But that, again, almost never happens.
Imitation used to be the sincerest form of flattery. Not anymore. Due to the rise of social media, memes have taken their place. For example, you love Leonardo DiCaprio so much that you don’t shy away from using cracking jokes at his expense, employing scenes from his movies. This trend tells us a lot about us. We are not afraid to express our admiration at the cost of bringing the admired ones to our level. Interestingly, the same MO works for those we dislike strongly. For example, JK Rowling’s work — Harry Potter memes, ironic as it is — are being used to make fun of her recent stand on gender issues. Humour has become the greatest leveler. Nobody is immune to the orbit of jox.
I am reiterating here but if you like someone, for whatever reason, let them know. The way they are, talk in a meeting, ideate, express themselves creatively, etc. Just make sure you don’t come across as creepy. Put it out there and leave. The only problem with this approach is sometimes, we can fall into the well of fandom and that’s a horrible place to be. Avoid it. Particularly when you yourself are drawing inspiration for your own work. Your individuality shouldn’t suffer for your taste. To give you a scenario, you like somebody’s art and are under the impression that that person’s artistic temper is phenomenal. Great. But try not to imitate or emulate. Once you do that, you’ll keep doing it. Can become a habit too. A book doesn’t know what’s going on with you. You must read it for joy, not for imitation or emulation. The purpose of writing, or creating anything for that matter, is to find oneself, not others.
