Nobody passes out of school without doing a 'The Cow' essay before the 6th grade. I don't remember what was there in it ( though I can guess ), but I do remember what I thought of it.
I am a pure non-vegetarian. And I love beef. Not that I do not respect cows; I do. Like all dutiful Indians, I respect and worship the usefulness of the placid and pleasant animal. But my liking for the animal is objective and has nothing to do with religion. Therefore, I like and respect the cow most when it's on one of 3 things: the menu, the dining table or my plate. When I told my sister this, her first reaction was to refer to the animal as "poor thing". Precisement. It is because the cow is such a "poor thing", offering little or no resistance at any point of time to anything at all, that we butcher it for a host of reasons. Even worse, we keep it just about barely alive to do our menial work. As a child I believed that if it were a wild, fervent and unpredictable animal and if it could not be domesticated, then this sacred animal would not be made to live a life of infra dignitatem. So, I came to the conclusion that it was asking for it, almost inviting it and therefore deserved it.
The point being, if you're afraid to stand up for yourself, I'm afraid, you can't blame anyone for standing on top of you. After all, why live if you have to live in fear. That is, I think, how I came to hate cowards and cowardice. I think they should be butchered like cattle.
After the usual series of unfortunate and quite boring events at a party, I ended up next to a man who was intent on making conversation. Awaking the martyr in me, I proceeded, with Christ-like benevolence, to be subject to the cruelty of ( the ) man and save the other guests. I decided to listen. I'm not sure if I dreamt it, but, somewhere in his monologue, this wonder-of-god made a statement that left a look of sovereign contempt on my face. He said something to the effect of not knowing the meaning of fear. There was apparently nothing in the world that the mighty gentleman was scared of. A man cannot be fearless. Everyone has their insecurities. The mightier, the more insecure. A fearless man cannot be one without fear, it can only be one with the fear of fear. The man who cannot accept the presence of fear and insecurity in his psyche is the greatest coward of them all. Meet the fearless coward.
Sometime back, before it struck anyone else, I considered the possibility of being a coward myself. How I came about it is a long story. In short, it came with the realization that I was turning to philosophy too soon, too often. And philosophy can be a slime. There is a philosophy for every right and every wrong and everything else in between. So, no matter what the situation, there will be a philosophy to back you up; you can count on that. In the words of Camus, "Those who lack the courage, will always find a philosophy to justify it". Most of the time, people take shelter under philosophy because they are scared of being wrong. Having a philosophy to back you up increases the credibility of your opinion and your statement. Hardly anybody just states their opinion and leaves it at that; it always has to be backed up by something some "known" person said in some vague context, centuries ago. The older the saying, the more credibility it lends. Popular 'back-up' people include the father of the nation, Lincoln, Ayn Rand, so on and so forth. Therefore, for most, a quick scurry for philosophy is driven not by wisdom or deep-rooted opinions but it is driven by fear. And it is because I scurry for philosophy too soon, too often, that I fear, I might.....fear.
An incident surfaces in my memory now. It was a conversation, supposed to be a war of words, between two of my very hard working friends. The winter was at it's peak and the sun was just about to rise. The winter's peak wasn't high enough for my friend; he was far higher than that. He had just spent the entire night working his way up. The other guy had spent the entire night working his way up too, a pile of books, that is. So, when I see that a conversation is about to take place, I say my "Hi" and step aside to watch the fun. The encyclopoedia, in one of his rare moments of speech, says to my rather disinterested friend, "God. Have you been.....you know...??"
"YYYuupp....Verrry much....Verrry nice.", he manages to say and proceeds to give him a liberal dose of his breath in order to prove his proud status. Not that it needed any proving.
"Don't you have any sense of responsibility. You are so talented. Why can't you work hard and do something in life?"
I always tell people not to get sentimental when drunk or get a drunk guy sentimental. It's unmanageable. Anyways, so this statement on his productivity he takes as an attack on his manhood.
"What do you mean work hard? I work hard too. You put a night out and I put a night out. You stretch yourself to the limit and I stretch myself to the limit. In the end, they'll end up paying you for your hard work and killing me for mine. So, I will go to the same place where you will go, only a few decades earlier. So, in the lives that we lead at the moment, I am ahead of you. Therefore, who is better off comes down to a difference in opinion and a question of philosophy. So please, keep moving."
The guy decides to take his advice and I proceed to take him to his room and put him to sleep.
On the way back, I say to him, "Fundu guy. Where'd you pick that line of thought?"
"Common sense, machan. I have too much of it."
"Common sense, my friend, is the most equally distributed thing in the world. Nobody thinks they need any more of it than they already have."
"Hmmm...Karl Marx."
"Damn."
"Nice try."
After putting him to sleep, I went into further thought. What he said back then was bullshit, I know it, he knows it. But can you argue with that line of thought?? No, because, as he rightly said, it is a question of philosophy. And there is but one truly serious philosophical problem, and that is death. Judging whether life is or is not worth living amounts to answering the fundamental question of philosophy. Man is but just another animal on just another planet. Take man away from the equation and there is no difference. In fact, everything else on the planet is better off without us. When the importance of the existence of man itself is doubtful and arguable; what about the importance of one life?
"I know why you are here. Shoot, Coward. You are only going to kill a man." Forever Guevara.
Philosophy is for the self and therefore as unique as the individual. Being taught philosophy in a classroom will not help, neither will teaching, preaching, reading or discussing it. The problem these days is that there are too many teachers of philosophy and therefore, hardly any philosophers. Your philosophy is for you to nurture and savour. A person's philosophy is for him and him alone. Never try to associate with another person's philosophy, for your understanding of it will be miles from his. Philosophy provides neither shelter nor direction. Philosophy does not give you an understanding of the world . Your understanding of the world constitutes your philosophy.
I am a pure non-vegetarian. And I love beef. Not that I do not respect cows; I do. Like all dutiful Indians, I respect and worship the usefulness of the placid and pleasant animal. But my liking for the animal is objective and has nothing to do with religion. Therefore, I like and respect the cow most when it's on one of 3 things: the menu, the dining table or my plate. When I told my sister this, her first reaction was to refer to the animal as "poor thing". Precisement. It is because the cow is such a "poor thing", offering little or no resistance at any point of time to anything at all, that we butcher it for a host of reasons. Even worse, we keep it just about barely alive to do our menial work. As a child I believed that if it were a wild, fervent and unpredictable animal and if it could not be domesticated, then this sacred animal would not be made to live a life of infra dignitatem. So, I came to the conclusion that it was asking for it, almost inviting it and therefore deserved it.
The point being, if you're afraid to stand up for yourself, I'm afraid, you can't blame anyone for standing on top of you. After all, why live if you have to live in fear. That is, I think, how I came to hate cowards and cowardice. I think they should be butchered like cattle.
After the usual series of unfortunate and quite boring events at a party, I ended up next to a man who was intent on making conversation. Awaking the martyr in me, I proceeded, with Christ-like benevolence, to be subject to the cruelty of ( the ) man and save the other guests. I decided to listen. I'm not sure if I dreamt it, but, somewhere in his monologue, this wonder-of-god made a statement that left a look of sovereign contempt on my face. He said something to the effect of not knowing the meaning of fear. There was apparently nothing in the world that the mighty gentleman was scared of. A man cannot be fearless. Everyone has their insecurities. The mightier, the more insecure. A fearless man cannot be one without fear, it can only be one with the fear of fear. The man who cannot accept the presence of fear and insecurity in his psyche is the greatest coward of them all. Meet the fearless coward.
Sometime back, before it struck anyone else, I considered the possibility of being a coward myself. How I came about it is a long story. In short, it came with the realization that I was turning to philosophy too soon, too often. And philosophy can be a slime. There is a philosophy for every right and every wrong and everything else in between. So, no matter what the situation, there will be a philosophy to back you up; you can count on that. In the words of Camus, "Those who lack the courage, will always find a philosophy to justify it". Most of the time, people take shelter under philosophy because they are scared of being wrong. Having a philosophy to back you up increases the credibility of your opinion and your statement. Hardly anybody just states their opinion and leaves it at that; it always has to be backed up by something some "known" person said in some vague context, centuries ago. The older the saying, the more credibility it lends. Popular 'back-up' people include the father of the nation, Lincoln, Ayn Rand, so on and so forth. Therefore, for most, a quick scurry for philosophy is driven not by wisdom or deep-rooted opinions but it is driven by fear. And it is because I scurry for philosophy too soon, too often, that I fear, I might.....fear.
An incident surfaces in my memory now. It was a conversation, supposed to be a war of words, between two of my very hard working friends. The winter was at it's peak and the sun was just about to rise. The winter's peak wasn't high enough for my friend; he was far higher than that. He had just spent the entire night working his way up. The other guy had spent the entire night working his way up too, a pile of books, that is. So, when I see that a conversation is about to take place, I say my "Hi" and step aside to watch the fun. The encyclopoedia, in one of his rare moments of speech, says to my rather disinterested friend, "God. Have you been.....you know...??"
"YYYuupp....Verrry much....Verrry nice.", he manages to say and proceeds to give him a liberal dose of his breath in order to prove his proud status. Not that it needed any proving.
"Don't you have any sense of responsibility. You are so talented. Why can't you work hard and do something in life?"
I always tell people not to get sentimental when drunk or get a drunk guy sentimental. It's unmanageable. Anyways, so this statement on his productivity he takes as an attack on his manhood.
"What do you mean work hard? I work hard too. You put a night out and I put a night out. You stretch yourself to the limit and I stretch myself to the limit. In the end, they'll end up paying you for your hard work and killing me for mine. So, I will go to the same place where you will go, only a few decades earlier. So, in the lives that we lead at the moment, I am ahead of you. Therefore, who is better off comes down to a difference in opinion and a question of philosophy. So please, keep moving."
The guy decides to take his advice and I proceed to take him to his room and put him to sleep.
On the way back, I say to him, "Fundu guy. Where'd you pick that line of thought?"
"Common sense, machan. I have too much of it."
"Common sense, my friend, is the most equally distributed thing in the world. Nobody thinks they need any more of it than they already have."
"Hmmm...Karl Marx."
"Damn."
"Nice try."
After putting him to sleep, I went into further thought. What he said back then was bullshit, I know it, he knows it. But can you argue with that line of thought?? No, because, as he rightly said, it is a question of philosophy. And there is but one truly serious philosophical problem, and that is death. Judging whether life is or is not worth living amounts to answering the fundamental question of philosophy. Man is but just another animal on just another planet. Take man away from the equation and there is no difference. In fact, everything else on the planet is better off without us. When the importance of the existence of man itself is doubtful and arguable; what about the importance of one life?
"I know why you are here. Shoot, Coward. You are only going to kill a man." Forever Guevara.
Philosophy is for the self and therefore as unique as the individual. Being taught philosophy in a classroom will not help, neither will teaching, preaching, reading or discussing it. The problem these days is that there are too many teachers of philosophy and therefore, hardly any philosophers. Your philosophy is for you to nurture and savour. A person's philosophy is for him and him alone. Never try to associate with another person's philosophy, for your understanding of it will be miles from his. Philosophy provides neither shelter nor direction. Philosophy does not give you an understanding of the world . Your understanding of the world constitutes your philosophy.
5 comments:
dai! I haven't read your posts yet, and won't right now. But hi, and i hope all is going well.. please go to corner house and think of me... sob sob..
-kiran-
(do you remember the password? Swashbuckling... action?)
nice one...:)
sujan
it's true
machan, few updates being buggah !! I thought you'd have come up wid a rejoinder blog post after the hot debate we'd had at barista :-D
cheers
bhang
actually i was bored..and became more bored after this...seri why i came here was to ask you hari wht the hell you are upto..sudhi was tellin me the best way to catch you was here..so am tryin it out..mail when you can da..
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