Misinterpreted, Misunderstood words!

Namaste!

It's funny how technology has changed the world. Emails, chats and short text messages have replaced parchment and paper; ink pots, pens and pencils; letters, perfumes and seals; and so many other things that many of our children will never know of and not even recognise. All kinds of communication have turned into curt, short pieces of gibberish slapped together to put across the idea as efficiently and easily as possible. It lacks beauty, feeling, in some cases it even lacks form and content. "I'm going to" has become "Imma", "I want to" has become "I wanna", "I am going to kick you" has become "Immabreakmafootoffinyoass" and so on and so forth.

And like all of this was not enough, we must now deal with the issue of conveying emotion and feeling especially when in a realtime comversation over one of the modern day mediums of communication. For instance a chat. In a chat, where one is havin a sensitive conversation, how can one ensure that the other person is getting the right picture. That you are not angry but just a but annoyed. Or how do you ensure that you don't sound like a sleaze or a dictator! So much of the interpretation depends on the frame of mind the reader is in. Add to this a lack of vocabulary on either or both sides of the communication link and there you go - a ticking bomb waiting to explode! The more skilled with vocabulary one side is, the worse it can get for that side due to the higher chances of the other side misunderstanding him/her. Using complicated words with people who don't know them or care to understand them can have disastrous results given that they would most probably derive their own meanings for the word based on context, prevailing emotion, room temperature even for crying out loud!

A factual statement such as "I don't care" can be misinterpreted as something vehement and something as genuine as "That was sweet of you" can be misunderstood for love! This is ofcourse also depending on what kind of person the recepient of these statements is. An extremely imaginative person can build castles and forts in his/her head while the ones that are not as well endowed when it comes to imagination, could even end up not paying as much attention to it as woud have been necessary.

What are we going to do? Technology doesn't seem on planning to stop just yet. World domination to the say the very least is it's goal and man is only eager to usher it there. I guess the only options we have are either to ensure that technology starts becoming versatile enough to ensure that the right meaning gets across or (and this is what I wold go for) for us to actually be a little more sensible when we write or read something. Let's not jump to conclusions or let our emotions and imaginations cloud our judgement. Lets be a little more mature and take a step back to be a little slower in this super fast paced world to make sure that we don't get or do something wrong.

To end this post (there is actually no possible end to a discussion on this topic... one can go on and on and on and ... you get the point!), I have a really funny song and video. It probably has nothing to do with the post but hey, it's a laugh!- Bloodhound Gang - The Bad Touch

नमस्ते

<3 
സിദ്ധാര്‍ത്

Trust and a few lines that rhyme.

Namaste!

I tried to think of something to write about, but it has been such an uneventful day today that nothing really stood out except a really small thing. Today, I took a step forward in the direction of trusting an unknown human being. I have been having an issue with trusting people recently because of the fact that there is so much informaiton available online and it just makes me uncomfortable. But, I am glad I did what I did. I have learnt a valuable lesson in trusting and valuing human relationships. I am grateful for this eye opening event that I have had the privilege of experiencing.

Trust, I once read, is the basis of any kind of relationship, be it of any kind - platonic, professional, intimate, filial, familial or of any of the other kinds that may exist. It is a cliché that I state now, but I must mention it nonetheless. A baby smiles when you throw him in the air simply because he knows no fear and moreso because he trusts you to catch him before he falls to the ground. A child very confidently falls backwards on to the snow. She seems to trust in the softness of the snow more than any adult ever would. We adults claim to know more, be wiser and to have experienced more than those children and at the same time it is we adults who smile lesser, who live closed and paranoiac lives, who don't seem to have as much fun as our children do.

Our knowledge has made us morose; our wisdom has made us wary and our experience has made us boring. We forget that knowledge, wisdom and experience are supposed to liberate us from our fears, make us realise what is worth living for and turn us on to the path of true happiness and not materialistic, monetary and momentary joys!

Today, I took a step in the direction of liberating myself; of putting myself out there - vulnerable to pain; filled with hope for good and brimming with faith in humanity; of taking myself on the journey to true and complete happiness. I hope that I make it to the end of my journey and that in my case, it is both the journey and the destination that will make my life complete!

I decided to end today's post with a few lines that rhyme rather than a few lines in tune. I hope you find them just as entertaining.

One, The Other or Both!

If one’s memory does not wane,
Then that memory becomes one’s bane!
But what if that same memory, though so strong
Remembers selectively and could be wrong?

Actions are good as long as they are remembered,
A bad memory and actions don’t go together!
Consciousness in actions is essential,
For one without the other is unacceptable!

---

Just a useless poem!

When time flies by and life stands still
We're wasting our lives, just being idle
You ought to be doing something useful
So they say and yet define "useful" they never may!

---

God's Got Dandruff!

I look out my window;
I see a sight I've never seen before;
It's God's dandruff they say;
It's snow for heaven's sake!

I'm so happy, I'm so so happy
I cannot take this smile off of me
I know I look stupid
But I just can't stop smiling
Because, the snow has woken the child in me!

---

In the Hope of a Reversal

I know in my heart that, in time
Upon those moments, I will smile
And I hope that you find it in you
To smile on those very same moments too

I may not change who I am now
Nor might I change the way I feel
But this to you I can promise
That bother you, I never will

All said and done, I want to say
That what I feel for you up until this day
Is more admiration and respect
Than for anyone else I have ever felt

Having said all that, I want you to know
That these past few weeks you've been very cold
Your distance and quiet, they hurt me.
Can't we ever get back to the way we use to be?

नमस्ते

<3 
സിദ്ധാര്‍ത്

A lonely, sad, morose, happy, lovely Christmas.

Namaste!

This is going to be a looong one my friends!

I'm not Christian! If it matters, my documents state that I am a Hindu. I do not mean to imply that I am without religion. In fact, I follow my flavour if you will, of Hinduism, which is something that is ever evolving.

But I have celebrated Christmas, just like most Indians have and still do. In my honest and humble opinion, I believe that Indians celebrate all festivals (Yes! To us, Christmas, Ramzan and New Year are all festivals unlike most of the rest of the world where festivals imply musical concerts!) irrespective of the religion we follow. We celebrate it with our friends and their families. Celebration of anything in India strongly revolves around food. Diwali means Sweets, Ramzan implies Mutton Biriyani, Christmas is Plum Cake! I celebrate them all in a non-religions way. I celebrate them for the ideology that I believe they were created for and that is to bring people together, to remind them that no man is an island!

Now, there's something about being alone and celebrations that just doesn't feel right. They just don't seem to fit together. This morning, I woke up late, to a ringing door bell. I had slept over at my friends' apartment after having watered their plants, having watched a couple of movies and having missed my last bus home. It was his house owners and they were there wishing to fix his broken foyer lamp. A very sweet gesture, given that they were not obliged to do so. A really nice old couple from Macedonia, they went about their business trying to keep out of my way. Boredom struck and soon I found myself conversing with the wife. She was a pleasant old woman and it seemed like a Christmas alone was not so bad after all! But something was amiss!

Soon I decided to get back home to my apartment and gathered myself up and left. But this feeling of something amiss just got bigger and bigger until a sad song on my iPod made me sit up and notice an actual physical feeling of a hole inside me growing. I felt sad and alone and frustrated and all sorts of negative feelings started rushing through my mind. Pang after pang of pain gnawed away at my mind, wave after wave of sadness washed over me until at one point I felt that I would end up crying in public! It's extremely interesting how the human mind works. When you are feeling something negative, it is very efficient at bringing more negative thoughts to the forefront to reinforce your negativity and vice versa.

There I was, I didn't have any where to go or anyone to visit, most of my friends were all home with their families and my family was 6600 km away. What more do you need to start feeling even more sad! I came back home a frown on my face and not feeling very social, my room mates didn't look very entertaining anymore and everything looked as gloomy as it could. In fact I had even started writing a post titled "A Morose Christmas".... But then ..... the miracle of positive thinking happened. I realised that I was just being a wuss; that there are people in the world with problems greater than mine, that if I focussed on solving someone else's problem, I will start seeing mine getting smaller and smaller and soon it will disappear!

Post lunch, one of my room mates, who had gone to meet a family, called, inviting all of us (me and my room mates) to a dinner. We all agreed immediately just because there was going to be food! At the dinner, I met a couple (Swedish man and Singaporean wife), their two kids (a boy and a girl), the Swedish mother in law, a Spanish-English man, a Georgian man, a 92 year-old woman from the United States of America, a Swedish Man, 2 nice cats (Gandalf the Grey and Tiggr), a rabbit and a guinea pig. We were 5 Indians in addition to the company that was already in the house. The atmosphere in the house was something that completely changed my mindset. I felt loved, I felt welcome and I felt like I belonged to someone and somewhere. There are but a few times in life that you get to witness selfless love. When someone you have never met, invites you to have dinner with them - that is selfless love. When someone you don't know drives you from and to the bus station even when they don't have to - you know they care about you. And this night of all nights I felt love, though it did not need to have happened.

The 92 year-old woman was completely devoid of any ability to hear and I heard that she has a lot of problems in her daily life due to this and other problems that she has and yet, she was the picture of happiness and love. She smiled and laughed, had coherent conversations with everyone with her talking and us responding to her in sign language or by typing on to her laptop. She even remembered everyone's names. She reminded me of why I should smile. Again I was being shown, how much smaller my so called problems were. I was seeing, the way I should live my life right in front of my eyes.

The family had cooked us a feast of turkey, meat balls, mashed potato, different Swedish dishes, Georgian barbequed meat and salad, tea, coffee, cookies and chocolate cake. There was so much to eat and this was also meant for the 4 Indians whom they hardly knew out of the 5 that were there! There was no need for such a gesture but there it was, a heart warming gesture of love that one rarely gets to experience. One sentence from the dinner table conversation that sticks in my memory is as follows. I said "Jesus Christ! That's a guinea pig." and pat came the response, "No! That is a guinea pig and Jesus is in your heart." I was both shamed and impressed at the same time. I was reminded that one has no right to use the Lord's name in vain. There was nothing more to be said.

At the end of the evening, I had gained more than I had thought I could, I had learnt more than I thought I could and I had felt more than I thought I could. I give my deepest and heartfelt thanks to whatever maybe the reason - a power watching over me, a God or Gods there maybe or Karma, for the events in my life.

I do not know how to end today's incomplete and incoherent post, nor do I know whether I should, for I feel like I cannot do justice to the experience I had today. All I know is the feeling I have and the knowledge I will carry with me however, fuzzy it maybe now! Today's song - One Love | Playing For Change | Song Around the World

नमस्ते


<3

സിദ്ധാര്‍ത്

Namaste!

Namaste!

(English- Hello!)

(Hindi: नमस्ते - "I acknowledge your presence")

(Interpretation: "The soul in me bows to the soul in you" or "I bow to the higher consciousness in you".)

For the interested and inquisitive, Namaste is not just Hello. It is much more than just that one English word of greeting. It is a salutation, a prayer and a statement of humility all rolled into one simple Sanskrit word. This is one word that has held me in awe, ever since I learnt its interpretation many years ago.

How much more can a human mind evolve? To what higher place can we go? What can surpass such humility, such reverence, respect and understanding? I have tried to imagine the greatness of a civilization that came up with such a thought and I must say that I am ashamed that I thought myself worthy or capable of such a thing. One cannot begin to dream of fathoming the depth of the minds that created such thoughts. I cannot even begin to think about dreaming of such things.

But one thing is for sure, men a long time ago had a very different view of the world. A view that seems to have revolved around mutual respect, compassion and love. Somewhere along the line, sometime during the process of making ourselves "civilized", at some point along this self isolating path of industrial revolutions and technological breakthroughs we seem to have forgotten that we are not islands; that if only we were all to begin to think of each other in the way that this simple word teaches us, the world would be so much more a better place than it is today.

A feel good video (Life Vest Inside - Kindness Boomerang - "One Day") to end my first post.

नमस्ते

<3 
സിദ്ധാര്‍ത്