Smells like an EVIL spirit?

The humans aren't too different from bloodhounds.
We are naturally capable of smelling our prey, innately programmed to spot our potential competition and sufficiently equipped to eliminate all possible dangers that surround us.
Let's face it, we are not too different from other living beings that have lived, struggled, relished and finally died on this planet.
However, what nature has bestowed on us, we often forget. In the process of evolution, we all have been given the ability to know what can harm us. Now what is harmful may be different for different people. But that is the beauty of this intrinsic quality; this 'Inner Radar', if you will. It is the reflection of our deepest values and beliefs.
And what I find to be the best part about this ability (and which may be the worst for many others) is that no amount of brainwashing can change it.
We can sense danger and then choose one of the two options available to us -either to face it.

At war and under progress

A state of war, is perpetual. War can perhaps be ultimately traced to the natural human tendency to compete and thereafter, a strong urge to win - eliminate the other to gain control, to emerge victorious to be able to win accolades and more , to become what the society has come to regard as the Hero. Power to those who fight for it. Power to those who kill for it.

Competition is engrained in our every atom of existence, taught to us at every crossroads where the sense of self goes astray and so we've come to view it as one of our many 'natural' instincts. We have come to accept it as a way of life. You ask people what they live for and they don't hesitate in accepting that their life's biggest achievements probably revolve around achieving more than most they know.


 War, however, can be seen to have no advantages to the majority of the population that inhabit countries across the globe. There is loss of life, there is wastage or resources, the repercussions are hazardous and in spite of all this, the result is never definite.

However, in all its ugliness, ruthlessness, apparent irrationalness war is a healthy essential for development and progress. Most importantly and sufficiently paradoxically, war in a lot of ways is a means to progress and development. because what war essentially does is contest the existing power. It challenges the norm, it destabilises the prevalent dynamics of power. The lives taken, the resources exploited, the money eshausted - these are all instruments that we, as a race, must employ for the benefit of the larger populus, in order to safeguard the .
War is bad for what it does to its soldiers, but it would be outright hypocrisy to not attribute the safety with which we sleep at night to the the entire exercise of war. The positivity of war is certainly difficult to foregrounded as war is occurring, because the  loss of human lives, the destruction to the settlements are difficult to ignore and the sudden advocacy of a notion supporting such a deed seems disgustingly utilitarian and the immediate human response would be to refute this school of thought as a whole.

However, if One reallly puts their mind to it, it is easy to see that this is wha the Human Race has been soing over the years. WE condemn war, because of all its grotesque consequences on face value , but have we been able to eliminate it? Have we has any alternate solution? Why does Peace remain an idyllic term? Why is it that NOT ONE person , all through the ages, through the modern times , not a single person of extraordinary intellectual strength, extreme political awareness, absolute social awareness has been able to provide a feasible solution to this armed, organised fighting?

Because we need to fight to figure out who wins. Our means may be flawed, but this is our best bet.
War answers a lot of questions. ANd most importantly, war is the manifestation of the friction that exists between us humans. The friction whose existence we can not deny. The friction leads to creation - creation of new ideas , new ideals and the parallel retardation of old ones.

Et Cetera

I absolutely must get things sorted. NOW. I have to remember what Osho once said. Meaning exists only if it is created. It isn’t something that I’ll chance upon or something that’ll be magically revealed to me.

Everything is inside of me. I just need to recognize it. Like this sudden expression of emotion. I did not know I had it inside me until now.

I am far more comfortable in a known place.

This brings to my mind the documentary filmmaker we had the opportunity yesterday – Samina Mishra. She had made a documentary about 'Home', the concept of it, the creation of one’s identity , the influence of religion on one’s identity.
“Home is a place where one feels at home" , she had said. These words stayed in my mind for what can only be explained as an intrinsic connection.

I feel at home, at peace by myself. I have fun with people, alright. But at the end of the day , I wish to be with myself. Perhaps I like myself more than I realize .

I love watching movies with me, getting addicted to TV series with me, drinking with me(though I will confess that has led to much trouble in the past, enough to scare me away from it for the time being), listening to music with me, clicking photographs with me. Me and I usually have a lot in common. We have great fun together.

But when I’m around others , Me and I seem to run in opposite directions. And I get so messed up. My brains stops functioning smoothly, seems as if some nuts have gotten loose or some bolts have suddenly disappeared. The friction heats my brain up, it locks me up and isolates me from all the fun I am capable of having. And I realize that I am falling into this invincible, unending trench of skeptical thoughts. It is unsettling. And sadly, it is not as pretty as they show it to be in the movies. I do not have a Brad Pitt for an alter ego. Nope. It is just me.

There are no blacks and whites. Its only those films that tell us that. Real life is mostly grey. In fact, it is ALL that exists in this world. You can read in black and white, watch in colour, but we all come back to grey. We are made of grey. We behave grey. We live within the various shades of grey.

But the simple formula to live without this confusion would be to remember that one dialogue from Mirch, a movie I recently saw. The protagonist says that the “market” as such would not cease to exist. SO our challenge is actually to play our own game and use their rules. This may strike some as a slightly passive approach to things but I think it makes sense as far as getting things done is concerned. An important part of life is about getting what you want. Of course, the entire ordeal is finding what it is that you really want. But once you want that, you must play by certain rules to get there. There cannot be speculation about doing those things, because if the rules don’t exist, then Anarchy will rule us, which, as a way of life appears quite  a daunting challenge in itself.

I must accept the moment I live in because living through it is the only way I can reach the future. (Alanis Morissette? :D ) Every moment in itself is complete. And every moment is also a part of the larger scheme of things, the "destiny" we are creating for ourselves and others. (Read the Mahabharata and you'll know).

But we shall get into that later.