Monday, July 27, 2009

Virtue of the virtueless

Mundane yet beautiful

(Hoping the sentences below uttered by my keyboard will justify this pic and the caption)

============================================================================
being original is such a great virtue...praiseworthy.....no doubts about that.....when u r original, ur the leader, something u can and should be proud of......but does mimicking or copying as bad as it sounds???? isn't it that all the greatness of being human, all our achievments dependent upon both leaders and followers......we achieved all these bcoz some us had some original idea and others were good at copying and implementing it......that's the whole point of cultural transmission...
Whats the point if everybody starts to display uniqueness, originality.....everything fails....today u design a car and everyone else tries to do it differently......u discover how to harness fire and everybody starts trying differently....so in such a society where everybody is so unique and original, which are such great virtues, how can things progress....i guess having too much virtue kills the flavor of the virtue.......

so whats the point of complaining about originality all the time and to be honest most of us who do fantastic stuff, which are seemingly original are examples of nice and indirect copying....instead of directly copying something, u just keep on taking some ideas from from different works and at the end u just blend them intelligently....some originality!!!! and i am not saying all of it is done consciously... probably sometimes u r conscious but mostly not.....but whats wrong with that....it is impossible to consciously know everything you copy...the mind has developed for years, taking in so much with more experiences...it is such a sink....it takes everything........whatever is near it, whatever it can perceive and whatever that is not near it, which it wants to perceive....if u r searching for black holes, here it is..except for it is neither a hole nor black.....but it takes in everything it perceives.... such insatiable hunger it has, feeding on everything it is fed...fed by the senses...it eats and eats...even when u sleep..it eats...it needs to eat....it makes u what u r.....with so much inside it, it dictates u do to something....show some originality....and when u do that how would you know that whatever u r displaying is not just ur mind puking....where u get the whole blend of things which has been stuffed in ur mind......

Isn't following, copying and puking the blended stuff also a virtue on its own.....i don't know whether its even a greater virtue than originality...surely not....but whats the value of being original if u r not followed.....what kind of leader wud u be without followers...surely its much romantic to lead, to think how original u r and how pathetic are other who just copy u and follow u....beware my friend, if the world didn't have the virtues of following, ur honeymoon won't even had started......every revolution and every change has been brought by those who knew when and whom to follow....many keep grumbling about how every tom dick and harry just follows with no mind of their own, so what are they supposed to do...if they listen to u, then they are following u...what's the difference??? u are grumbling coz they aren't following u!!! not that u want every body to be leaders....so dont have such illusions...its ok if u want to fool others but be careful bcoz u may fool even urself....know the truth, understand urself and then go on ur grand tour of fooling others...probably this way u can do a better job....

hey, i am no way undermining the value of leaders and the torch holders of originality, but empasizing how under-rated is the virtue of copying and following, in fact I doubt whether we even consider it as a virtue......progress needs both, in fact more followers than leaders....and thats what we see isnt it...no wonder we had progressed a lot....and look how much painstakingly we have ensured that ppl keep following until a new and better idea takes over it...what pains??? all this writing, books, recording, CD, DVD, Terabyte harddisc, youtube.......u can refer to things of past and learn....
Still following seems to be such a virtueless stuff...well, if you look around, u would see that often it is such that we keep on dismissing those virtues which have made us what we are....those virtues which seems so mundane....so common and simple....but we tend to forget that its not the rare glimses of fancy artistry, but the mundane tasks which sustains us

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Truly Random

Well, its almost two yrs, I had written my last entry....well, I realized that blogging doesn't come to me naturally and probably I cant inhabit the blogosphere!!!

But life's funny....Yesterday, suddenly I wanted to post something...I could not decide on wat....wud it be something on the kind of life I am leading in different research institutes? would i compare kolkata with mumbai and bangalore?? or maybe about diff kinds of ppl here??? or a high fundu writing on Bengal politics!!! I thought hard...no....now these things are not coming naturally...then what...a piece on love??? relations?? something philosophical?? about my photos??? no nothing seems appropriate....
I started reading other's blogs....there are really some gr8 bloggers out there....i felt like copying them, stealing their ideas..well, I know I am good at that :p....but not today....may be later...Once in a while one must be original....and with my rare display of originality I had always achieved the rare taste of success....

Two yrs ago I named this "patterns in randomness" and thus its best I write whatever I feel like typing...and I wont be deleting anything (except 4r spelling and grammatical mistakes) after writing....like I regretted after typing the last line in the previous para..but let it be...anyways I don't have any readers!!!

At this moment I am listening to radiohead (from 1.30 pm) and repeatedly 4 songs (The tourist, paranoid android, exit music, climbing the wall)....i think after pink floyd, its this band whose songs I can go on listening again & again.....i like so many other bands but can't really go on and on like this....in fact nowadays I wont even be listening to floyd so much as I used to do during my 1st-2nd yr....I remember how I could go on and on with the song "welcome to machine".....I know its a passing phase......probably it helps getting disconnected....

Is it that I am easily seduced??? coaxed??? then how have i resisted so many stuffs which others hardly can, when given an opportunity??? or is it that i let that happen??

being rude, ignoring has helped me in so many situations, contexts....but not always...probably this can be a way 4r judging how much value I have given to certain ppl....

I have started talking too much...not too much maybe...but i do speak things which I sud not be speaking of...wat is causing this???? do I crave 4r attention??? do I feel isolated??? am i complete moron??? probably not.... is there a sense of pride....false pride..that whatever u speak, u need not care..is that the case???? do ppl know now how to coax me??? Is it that I am easily seduced??? coaxed??? or is it that i let that happen??....same question???? answers???

I feel like doing something creative...no 'creative' is a wrong word....i thing something unconventional but nice...not repulsive....what can i do....i got ideas but i feel lazy all the time....i got camera....but i don't feel smart when with the camera :( .......i dnt really want to try unconventional stuff with it in front of hundreds of eyes......

Yorke shouting through my headphones..."slow down slow down slow down" maybe be I am typing too fast......i should slow down...or maybe I sud stop...better i close my eyes and enjoy the song....written a lot...it wud be interesting to read all of it in one go......lets see how it looks...watever....i wont be changing anything....

i am having this terrible urge to include one of my pics...maybe i sud always post a pic....lets see which i feel like posting....


I call this pic "ek jhaank ecchedana"....translation maybe something like "flying freely"....
Is this pattern random??? made by free particles??? probably not...they still follow laws...laws of physics...what if newton had not discovered all these laws??? would then they wud have been free???? ;p