Society for me?

Today it was brought home to me that all those who live in ‘civil’ society must subdue their individuality and unquestioningly abide by the rules that society imposes upon its individual components.

Being an intelligent, educated and thinking person, I had actually forgotten about big daddy. Silly me – I had believed that I was beyond the proverbial laxman rekha. I have made my own independent decisions about life and career. I have not leaned on my near and dear ones, except perhaps in my growing up years.

I philosophize … and internalize my discussions with myself. I discuss only vital stuff with close family and a few close friends – only when they actively seek discussion. I do not preach to other people, and keep myself far from preachers. I have lived my own life, made my own mistakes. Nothing better than learning from one’s own mistakes, I say. My blunders have taught me lessons that have made me move onwards confidently.

I fail to understand people who read popular books about the lives of successful people – with the hope that they would absorb from their experiences and live their own lives in a better way. I think religion, saints, gurus, management/ self help/ self improvement books, and what have you are crutches, that debilitate people and hold them back.

This thinking individual human does not need a restrictive society. Not what it gives me, nor what it forbids me to do. Bah!

Cacophony...

I am sitting in front of my Lenovo IdeaCentre, trying to assemble my thoughts into some kind of order as I try my hand at writing a blog after facing a major writing block that has lasted for years. Not a simple task - particularly as my ears are assailed - actually near deafened, by a cacophony of  horns and revving engines of all kinds of vehicles - buses, autos, trucks, motor bikes, et al. Living this close to a railway station and, by extension, a bus depot and an autorickshaw stand, it is really tough to think at times. I try hard still, in my bid to find a topic worth penning.

My thoughts take me back to my school days when this was a quiet, residential colony made up mostly of bungalows, with narrow lanes lined by hedges of mehndi, where we would play under the cooling shade provided by big gulmohar, chinch and jambhool trees. We would wake to the calls and trills of assorted song birds nesting in the trees in our front and back yard. At 7 am, my friend Sandhya would call out to me from our gate, and we would head for school. In the afternoons and evenings, we would hear the sing song advertisement calls of miscellaneous vendors - buddhi ka baal, kaapoos wala, dabba baatliwala, kalhai wala, kulfi wala - to name just a few. Not to forget the Sunday visits of the alm seeking keeper of the Nandi Bayl going 'gubu gubu' on the big drum, and the rather scary whiplash sounds made by the kadak lakshmi.

Alas, so many old style sounds (and vocations) gone forever or on the way out, and have been replaced by NOISY technology and sound pollution of the new millennium!