I postponed writing more on war then, but after watching "Sometimes, you hear the bullet" from season one of MASH once again this morning, thinking furthered.
Hawk's writer friend gets enlisted only to write a first hand account instead of a bystander's. The original title he has in mind for his book is "You never hear the bullet". His experience from the ongoing war is that there's no dramatic sound of gunshot or anything like that -- the way its pictured in movies -- when a soldier gets killed; but later, he himself hears the bullet!
Henry: I just know what they teach you at command school. There are rules to war:
Rule #1 is young men die
And rule #2 is doctors can't change rule #1.
A few scenes from Band of Brothers also suggest that there are times, even in war, when a soldier gets hit without even knowing from whence the bullet came and when. A dialog -- nay, a phoneme -- is left half way when the soldier who's talking, drops dead!
The mind game
(This chain of thoughts knocked me off my sleep before the alarm went off and long before I was planning to get up)
Although I learnt very less in biology classes while schooling, I did gain a good insight into physiology during my biomedical study. The beautiful mechanism called the body is built piecemeal with building blocks called cells. Each cell is kind of a standalone entity acting as a sodium-potassium pump. When the cells get together acting in unison, we have muscle contraction, the heart beating, pumping blood; rather, the body does what it does best: survive.
Now, lets draw some parallels with what the mind does. Thinking thoughts, being pumped, make up a singular mind. When thoughts act in unison, we have the world we see or feel around us. Sometimes, it’s a giveaway when you feel connected to another person in any which way. Be it family, a friend, an enemy, or even an unknown passerby. The connection is caused by our mind linking with the others or exposing the link that already exists. That’s when we feel we understand what the other is thinking. Its like soldiers marching forward, one’s step being exactly similar to the other’s.
When various such minds come together, we have creation. In fact, the creation exists because the others’ minds are felt separately from ours. They are, no doubt, connected in some way, but we don’t know so first hand. Its like the thing about six degrees, if you’ve heard it. It says that each person is connected to any other person anywhere through at most six persons in between; each relation being family, friend, acquaintance, etc. So the creation, too, is factually a network of minds, doing what it does best: exist.
Although I learnt very less in biology classes while schooling, I did gain a good insight into physiology during my biomedical study. The beautiful mechanism called the body is built piecemeal with building blocks called cells. Each cell is kind of a standalone entity acting as a sodium-potassium pump. When the cells get together acting in unison, we have muscle contraction, the heart beating, pumping blood; rather, the body does what it does best: survive.
Now, lets draw some parallels with what the mind does. Thinking thoughts, being pumped, make up a singular mind. When thoughts act in unison, we have the world we see or feel around us. Sometimes, it’s a giveaway when you feel connected to another person in any which way. Be it family, a friend, an enemy, or even an unknown passerby. The connection is caused by our mind linking with the others or exposing the link that already exists. That’s when we feel we understand what the other is thinking. Its like soldiers marching forward, one’s step being exactly similar to the other’s.
When various such minds come together, we have creation. In fact, the creation exists because the others’ minds are felt separately from ours. They are, no doubt, connected in some way, but we don’t know so first hand. Its like the thing about six degrees, if you’ve heard it. It says that each person is connected to any other person anywhere through at most six persons in between; each relation being family, friend, acquaintance, etc. So the creation, too, is factually a network of minds, doing what it does best: exist.
The search
The search starts when the melody feels as noise
And all things stand apart from the wise
Back to where you started, the road bends
Where death loops again into life, the search ends
When the noise and melody merge
Into the supreme stillness of the mind
And all that you see and feel
Are felt as nothing but one of the same kind!
And all things stand apart from the wise
Back to where you started, the road bends
Where death loops again into life, the search ends
When the noise and melody merge
Into the supreme stillness of the mind
And all that you see and feel
Are felt as nothing but one of the same kind!
Giving up
Why do you talk when you’ve nothing to say?
From birth, through years, even to this day?
What do you do when you act louder than words?
While silently winging with feathers of similar birds?
What do you do when there isn’t a ray of hope?
When you know, with you, they’ll never cope?
Till when do you wait when there’s no right time?
How do you live when nothing will ever rhyme?
How do you fix all that falls apart?
Hanging onto the soul that’ll soon depart?
So I give up now and to all I bow
Since others’ right way to go, I’ll never know!
From birth, through years, even to this day?
What do you do when you act louder than words?
While silently winging with feathers of similar birds?
What do you do when there isn’t a ray of hope?
When you know, with you, they’ll never cope?
Till when do you wait when there’s no right time?
How do you live when nothing will ever rhyme?
How do you fix all that falls apart?
Hanging onto the soul that’ll soon depart?
So I give up now and to all I bow
Since others’ right way to go, I’ll never know!
Possessive behavior
Once, long back, I apologized to a good friend saying: Sorry, I'm a little too possessive about my friends and got a reply: No, you're not!
I know that reply was meant to please me but its a fact that I've remained possessive of all relations thus far. In the past few years, I've taken such attachments only as long as they needed to go. I do fall in emotions, contextually at times, realizing immediately, but still continuing so. Its not a regret I have about such human feelings, but they do tie in for a long time, settling down in memory, resurfacing occassionally, when you least need them to.
Sometimes I'm given to wonder if the indifferent attitude for one's own good, exists only superficially? The memories would come back haunting again, won't they? So whats needed is to even be indifferent to those memories now and then.
At this point, I'm reminded of Pink Floyd's Us and them:
Us and them
And after all we're only ordinary men
Me and you
God only knows it's not what we would choose to do...
Black and blue
And who knows which is which and who is who
Up and down
And in the end it's only round and round and round...
Down and out
It can't be helped, but there's a lot of it about
With, without
And who'll deny it's what the fighting's all about?
I know that reply was meant to please me but its a fact that I've remained possessive of all relations thus far. In the past few years, I've taken such attachments only as long as they needed to go. I do fall in emotions, contextually at times, realizing immediately, but still continuing so. Its not a regret I have about such human feelings, but they do tie in for a long time, settling down in memory, resurfacing occassionally, when you least need them to.
Sometimes I'm given to wonder if the indifferent attitude for one's own good, exists only superficially? The memories would come back haunting again, won't they? So whats needed is to even be indifferent to those memories now and then.
At this point, I'm reminded of Pink Floyd's Us and them:
Us and them
And after all we're only ordinary men
Me and you
God only knows it's not what we would choose to do...
Black and blue
And who knows which is which and who is who
Up and down
And in the end it's only round and round and round...
Down and out
It can't be helped, but there's a lot of it about
With, without
And who'll deny it's what the fighting's all about?
Quote unquote 14
14. From the perspective of a lazy lion, every leopard is hyperactive.
My take: A lazy lion having a perspective is not lazy enough.
My take: A lazy lion having a perspective is not lazy enough.
Stick to your lane
Bikes get on to pavements, autos in bike space, cars in auto width, while trucks and buses are all over. The net result is a loss of direction of vehicles for good amounts of time. What I mean is that most of the vehicles are at an angle to the direction of travel! Not even the traffic police know the rules properly. Welcome to Bangalore!
Traffic snarls everywhere on the roads, any time of the day. Off peak hours, the number of blood boiling incidents lessen; but nonetheless, they are there. Noise of modified Yamahas and autos, while driving you deaf, also cut your lane at the same frequency. If everyone stuck to their lanes, things would definitely move faster, but no one would believe that, leave aside following it.
This week, I took an auto once and car-pooled with Rags to take a break from the rude traffic. Two days, I rode my bike just to switch focus to loving the vehicle than the traffic. I wouldn't say that it helped.
Even so, be it on car or bike, I still try to leave early, be in my lane, put on indicators while switching lanes, honk only when flashing lights wouldn't work, give right of way to motorless vehicles, allow people who follow rules to get their right of way, slow down or halt when people cut into my lane (at any angle), let people cross roads and, most of all, keep my head cool!
Traffic snarls everywhere on the roads, any time of the day. Off peak hours, the number of blood boiling incidents lessen; but nonetheless, they are there. Noise of modified Yamahas and autos, while driving you deaf, also cut your lane at the same frequency. If everyone stuck to their lanes, things would definitely move faster, but no one would believe that, leave aside following it.
This week, I took an auto once and car-pooled with Rags to take a break from the rude traffic. Two days, I rode my bike just to switch focus to loving the vehicle than the traffic. I wouldn't say that it helped.
Even so, be it on car or bike, I still try to leave early, be in my lane, put on indicators while switching lanes, honk only when flashing lights wouldn't work, give right of way to motorless vehicles, allow people who follow rules to get their right of way, slow down or halt when people cut into my lane (at any angle), let people cross roads and, most of all, keep my head cool!
Guru's eternal presence
Most of us trust the living masters less and about those who left their mortal bodies, we say that then was a better time. About those latter ones, we say that such masters don't exist any more. We even say that we should have been born around that time for our spiritual upliftment and such.
Its okay if one doesn't feel inclined towards gurus of this day, but if one does think that there have been great personalities in the past, there's no reason to be saddened that they aren't around any more in flesh and blood. In doing so, we would be undermining their teachings! Didn't they declare that the soul that they merged into is ananta... eternal? That after realization, there isn't a feeling of separation that they could relate to or even the so-called merging becomes a myth? That is inspiration enough to search for one's own guru, whether from the present or past (or even future!)
There are all ranges of radio waves present all around and depending on where one is placed, one needs to tune the receiver to the correct frequency using the right antenna. Similarly, depending on what our inclinations are (made from karmic past, of course), we need to tune into our guru with the right faith. The guru is omnipresent, sarvadhi saakshi, transcending all that we think are obstacles to us. Then why limit our thinking to what era we live in and give up? Instead, shouldn't we be looking within and/or without on the right wavelength of spirituality?
Its okay if one doesn't feel inclined towards gurus of this day, but if one does think that there have been great personalities in the past, there's no reason to be saddened that they aren't around any more in flesh and blood. In doing so, we would be undermining their teachings! Didn't they declare that the soul that they merged into is ananta... eternal? That after realization, there isn't a feeling of separation that they could relate to or even the so-called merging becomes a myth? That is inspiration enough to search for one's own guru, whether from the present or past (or even future!)
There are all ranges of radio waves present all around and depending on where one is placed, one needs to tune the receiver to the correct frequency using the right antenna. Similarly, depending on what our inclinations are (made from karmic past, of course), we need to tune into our guru with the right faith. The guru is omnipresent, sarvadhi saakshi, transcending all that we think are obstacles to us. Then why limit our thinking to what era we live in and give up? Instead, shouldn't we be looking within and/or without on the right wavelength of spirituality?
Squirrels
Around a year back two squirrels used to frequent my house, jump around in the balcony and run away at the same good pace that they came by. I used to cook much less those days, thats not to say that I cook any more now! One day, I decided to feed them some groundnuts, bookishly knowing it to be their favorite food and relished watching them eat as much as they relished eating. Then on, I tried to feed them something or the other over days, inasmuch as my memory served.These visiting squirrels soon started finding their way into the house over a period of time in search of some edibles. They sure had a ball when my parents were home for some four months. My mom's cooking and dad's dessert salads served them hearty meals through the day then.
To our surprise, groundnuts were the last on their list when fed something else! They loved all sorts of food: rice, upma, potatoes, tomatoes, even mangoes and biscuits. During the time, our baby squirrels named as Lav and Kush brought their family and friends too. Soon, we'd our family grow to a couple of regulars and some visiting squirrels every now and then.
We found squirrels to be early starters that end their day of eatout much ahead in the evenings. Owing to their frequent visits, one of them decided to hitch a tent in our other balcony without our knowledge, happily stepping out at meal hours and slipping away again. This fella was driven away since after my parents' leaving B'lore, there wouldn't be anyone to feed or free him from closed house. I spent time trying to click photographs of these beauts. I didn't get good snaps due to their being too sensitive to surroundings, though my dad got a neat video capture.
There was a day when my mom wasn't well and due to delayed feeding; then, a hungry squirrel sneaked into the room and jumped onto my mother's bed as if asking to be served! They are lovely creatures, even blessed by Rama in some mythological story and its considered to be holy and a blessing if a squirrel touches a human. Of course, in her sleep, my mom couldn't have gathered all that while screaming out!
Around three months back, my landlord decided to convert the balcony into another room and in doing so, I lost our squirrels' visits! I was getting too attached to them and I began missing them over these days. A few weeks back, however, while I was sipping my morning tea, one squirrel slowly stepped in front of me. I was boggled at its having entered the house. All the doors and windows were closed, while the other balcony (now, the only balcony!) has a grid covering. I got worried at its being trapped and had to chase it away with much effort, without hurting it. In our chase, the little fella ran over my feet and I was all goose-pimply in awe!
I understood the visit to be a claim for his/their share of food.
But since I didn't have much access to where I could have fed these squirrels, I went back to wait mode. Soon, I was to find a solution in the balcony with that metal grid, where a squirrel was playing around. A couple weeks back, I *called* a squirrel with a whistle kinda sound. He looked back from the coconut tree he was climbing. On my pantomiming eating, he jumped down and in fractions of a second, he found himself next to some nuts I was setting up for him! Thats when I took some pictures that are put up here. I don't get many opportunities to feed the squirrels now. Its a little difficult to put food across through those small grill opening of the balcony! Sadly, my squirrels have moved from being visitors through being family to being visitors again!
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