The Splitting Group Theory

Globally, every one’s trying to prove whether religion A is better, or religion B is violent, or religion C is the most peaceful.

And, the tragedy with this behavior is that the majority have a STRONG opinion in defense of their community or against a particular group. This is leading to reactions that are even stronger and defensive.

My advise to it: GROW UP. It’s just your default animal/herd behavior that is making you defend your herd strongly. And, it’s a lowly human behavior to find reasons to split. And here is a hypothetical experiment that will prove WHY:

Keep 100 folks from the same community, same religion, same skin color in one house for a month – something like Big Brother or Big Boss. Make them talk, see each other, eat together, cook together, work together, etc. Observe them doing this. Slowly, you’ll see that new groups are forming, preferences being set, people starting to like each other or despising each other. Slowly, group behavior takes over and if some have strong feelings about their group and its preferences, then a new religion or custom will be created. Trust me, it could be as insane as steak-loving group or burger-loving group.

Despite being the superior animals, we are still following the inferior herd. That’s the tragedy of modern times and it’s the tragedy that’s driving the world peace bonkers. Here is a story of peace, violence, grouping behavior:

A million men form a beautiful country,

Getting together with one religion makes them free.

A peaceful place is what they find,

Enjoying the oneness with no crime.

They follow the one man who tells the truth,

He preaches them a force that is brute.

The force spreads and its wisdom blooms,

Ignored by most and questioned by few.

The rationale of this wisdom is what some seek,

As they question the preacher their voices are made bleak.

Rebels and atheists they are named,

Quakes and storms arrive and drifters are blamed.

To protect their questions and minds,

The drifters flee and escape the grind.

The drifters flee to form a new country,

Again laying the foundation of a place that’s free.

Slowly drifters find a leader,

With wisdom and mind that is cleaner.

A man is a man with his flaws,

The leader preaches what was once a religious claw.

So the human cycle repeats itself,

New religions are formed that claim to bring peace to self.

Herds continue to form as drifters are killed,

Who is to walk against the tide when life is not religiously billed?

Truth is pessimist when I speak on the world,

For the mindless are at peace and questioners are glum.

Tragic as it may be but this is how we think,

Way of our herd is the only peaceful thing.

There are problems and my religion will help us recover,

For now, the world is violent and that religion across the line is the violence maker.

 

 

Defining a Rebel

First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.~ Mahatma Gandhi

Visionaries, spiritualists, saints, musicians, poets, and writers – they are all rebels. They drift from the world order, reach higher, and look down and smile at its idiosyncrasies. And, the world looks up to them or despises them – the society ends up worshiping some of them.  

Rebels can take any avatar – depending on which form of expression suits them. They’re not the typical junkies dressed in all blacks and listening to heavy metal or one of its genres. Rebels walk within us. They are one of us. Rebels aren’t the ones to despise, they are the ones who deserve our respect. They’ve the courage to break the norm, stand against the herd’s force, and let the herd kneel before them with their sheer determination – not stubbornness. 

The world goes by appearances. Consider a spiritual person working as a manager in an enterprise. He shares wisdom with his peers who don’t take him seriously. However, if his words are spoken by a priest, all will hail the priest! That’s world and us! 

Rebels see it all, but differently! A true rebel is not the one who’ll fight, but learn from everyone! A true rebel is an open learner. A true rebel expresses what he learns and keeps learning through his life! The world sees them as vagabonds, but they just stay afloat – higher!

 

 

Belonging to the Road

I sit next to the window,
Drizzles kiss my cheek,
The last escape was mellow,
Driving in rain like a freak.
I am now safe and homed,
But not with any cradled calm,
Road makes me feel sheltered,
Road calms an agitated soul with no qualm.

The Leader Paradigm

Throughout our lives we keep fighting for supremacy over our bosses, friends, partners, parents, and siblings. Almost at every juncture, we believe that our decisions and choices are correct and ultimate choices, and that our choices will be for the greater good of our world.

However, our collective wisdom crashes to the ground when you consider the blindness with which we tend to follow others, especially when we accept them as leaders – especially political or religious. This paradigm of thinking extends, and is at its worst, in groups worshiping an individual, collectively.

When following the path laid by our self-appointed leaders, our choices are at best – average. We tend to lose our rationality as we look for someone to guide us. It’s as if we have a wall in our minds that doesn’t let us take a lead in certain things. Or, it could be that we just consider some work as cleaning the dirt off the street, and let others do it for us.
For someone who prays as much as they dine, it’s certain that they’ll be most likely hell-bent on following a particular guru or preacher. They’ll vouch for their teachings and in most cases, they’ll be following the words of their guru blindly.

Well, in the present day and age, I am no great moral to judge the moral of a religious leader. Many would be way above my ethical ways of life, but the probability that you’ve found one such moral guru is anybody’s guess.

We all are mortals with our own flaws. It’s not a guarantee that the one you are following is without a flaw. It’s upon you to judge how flawed they are. You are flawed, so are they. Also, it’s upon you to think if despite being flawed you can follow them and treat them as leaders, then what about listening to the guiding force within you? Then why to follow them blindly and not listen to your own voice? Why not accept yourself as a leader for your own life?

The most common notion persisting in the society is that those you follow have reached a societal or spiritual nirvana. They are way above the common masses. Well, the argument for this notion is that – how did they achieve such levels of xyz nirvana?
If they are genuine (which is again your judgement), then they’ve achieved such levels through studying the existing literature, deliberating, learning, questioning, interpreting, and then presenting their interpretations to you. From this list of actions that your guru performs, which are the ones that you cannot do?

Listening to others is good, but following them blindly makes you a gun with your trigger in their hands. The gun may not kill others, but it will certainly kill your individuality and bury a rational mind forever. The present society needs rational minds more than ever. The world desperately needs those who inject a healthy dose of rationality in the way the society practices religion and customs. We need to grow beyond the cocoon of the old ways and methods, which are now being leveraged by many for building a divisive and totalitarian society.

A Memoir for the Wonder Years

From work I come tired and jaded,
Though encouraging memories are not faded.

Good memoirs are what I seek after weiry obligation,
As I flip through the college album in a nostalgic notion.
For there digitized versions all around,
Holding the memories ascertains something is found.

What I find is a moment of stillness,
Projecting flashbacks with a movie’s finesse.
Attending lectures in a building with leaky walls,
With four-legged students learning C++ codes.

The tea at tappris item, aunty, kaki, or bhai,
The best missals along with the half fry.
A garnishing of bonding in peaceful evenings,
Being with friends gave all food its tasty zings.

Trying to study while peeping at romatic ones,
Though passing comments were our best guns.
Eve-adam teasings were just for fleeting fun,
Annual sporting events battered our vocal drums.

Group studies were not a myth,
Sleeping on college benches showed our grit.
KTs accompanied us irrespective of the effort,
Paper setters and checkers were always drunken maggots.

Goose bumped exams pushed our lives on the edges,
Trying brains were curtailed to studious cages.
Divine was consulted on a regular basis,
To pass the exams we had to propose our best cases.

Jumping for fun and supporting in griefs,
Fighting in sports, but holding on challenging cliffs.
Boozes at devrukh and dinners at tapris,
Options were less, but fun had no strings.

All seemed well due to the brother hood,
For fruity reasons we got lost in the woods.
For it is not the time or us, but bond that lives,
Years race by, but there is strength that friendship gives.

Ticking, clicking the time will pass,
Fogging the memories as on a winter glass.
There’s no remedy if we don’t keep the flame,
And let work always take the excusing blame.

There’s no choosing whether to meet on my part,
For the memories are too close to my heart.

All of us are caught up with our chores to the core. It’s difficult to have fun the way we used to. There will be moments, but sadly, it will never be the same. I am sure that most of us still have some part of ourselves living in the years that we spent together at RMCET. It is those memories that keep bringing us back together in our own small groups as an attempt to relive some of that magic.

This poems holds just some feelings put to words – dedicated to all RMCETians. Keep the flame burning and keep meeting. I hope we never let those memories die and as long as they live, we will catch up and relive those wonder years in our small, brief, and wonder moments.

 

Culture Cumpolsion

So we called the worldly priest,
So he said the worldly rules,
So we’re all scared in west and east,
So he showed us our roots.

They were standing all around him crying,
They said adieu to their loved bride,
They traded money among holy chanting,
They followed the way of their tribe.

The crowd gathered below the throne,
The crowd heeded the way for living,
The crowd bowed and lent the charity loan,
The crowd earned points to meet heaven’s king.

She moved off her meditation mat,
She picked the phone to gossip the way,
She talked away for hours on rants,
She’s but good for meditating in a parrot’s fray.

The herd gathers to enforce the tribe’s way,
The herd lives killing merry of new paths,
The herd is the core of the culture’s tray,
The herd makes us safe in the savannah grass.

I think like a lonely child learning my ways,
I make attempts to mend with the dualities,
I think of making truce with the culture’s grays,
I think if this is culture then I’ll live off its frailties.

Our Biggest Hero

Spreading the shine across the land,
Making the liars dance without any band.

He is the warrior making evil tame,
Yes he is our biggest hero packed in small frame.

He started off fighting for the motherland,
God picked him safe and blessed with the magic wand.

“You’ve a role in the world to lead a change,
To beat darkness and make the evil wane.”

After the experience he read book by a great mind,
Learned to live by making life’s simple rhymes.

Spent a life of detachment and spreading renaissance,
Learned way of courage and not the path of chance.

Slowly became one who cuts the net of maya,
Living humbly with nothing owning his kaya.

“They say he is richest who can disown all,
Against such souls all the mayas fall.
For things you buy with glad eyes are lame,
They own you while you lose the important games.”

He is the victor making the corrupt sweat in cooled offices,
Causing the liars to lie more and call him names.

Our stories confirm the state of Kansa and Ravana,
When the end came they thought more of Krsna and Rama.

I see the history repeating itself on this land,
The evil shall go down to make honesty a trend.

This may not come now but take more time,
But you’ve shown us the way in the dark mine.

Greed, arrogance, and power form an evil trio,
For helping us conquer these makes you our biggest hero.

Simple-Things Lullaby

A lullaby for the jaded heart,

Soothing dew drops after fight with darts.

As I lay tired on the bed of cotton grass,

Simple things of childhood are past.

Remembering misty words on a monsoon glass,

Play in moment after being scolded in class.

The words seen this moment fading the next,

Close eyes like a child to forget the rest.

Misty mountains to hide my mushy toys,

Hidden in corners safe from decoys.

Lock the pet butterfly in your compass,

Boast of it and make friends fuss.

Dreaming dragons and fairy wands,

Life is sweet with such a simple stance.

Telegram the memoirs and get them back,

Call them urgent for the dreamy rack.

Call the simple things back for night,

Heavy eyelids and a smile are alright.

Mighty tiring the daily chores,

Wake up soon at the fairy’s door.

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Photo-credits: Urvi Jain and Meet Jain, two lovable neighborhood kiddies. They were playing with my iPad and came out with these. Love those kids.

For You

I stand by the sidewalk and stare at the faces,

Tired, battered, jaded going through the paces.

Wondering what’s the chaos about the street,

Jumbled queries and my mind meet.

What’s so shiny to make things positive,

What’s special for all as a great derivative?

What’s it that all don’t see and make doldrums,

It’s for them but they just don’t fathom?

A tipping point makes noises and I hear,

Breaking blocks of doubts and fear.

An inner voice makes an emblem for me,

Showing the way that’s there and we can’t see.

“The sun shines for you and lets you see,

The rain falls for you and makes you free.

The dew shines for you and not the grass blade,

The waves dance around for you and not the sand.

The power cuts to light up the candle romance,

TV’s breaking with news just for a smiling glance.

There is evil around to make your good value precious,

Those in need of help make you feel gracious.

Elderly are irate to help you prep your encore,

Kids are making noise to show how you were before.

There are jams of human and motor to cast a puzzle,

Practice the art of finding way in labyrinth of trouble.

In whichever form life paints the picture,

It’s for you to adhere to the happy scripture.”

Numbness creeps over the thoughts as I write,

It’s so simple and difficult to beat the pessimist might.

As I walk the streets and life I’ll remember,

Positivity is the key and light of holy ember.

Use pilgrimage, penance, or meditate for the true,

Don’t forget love and see the beauty made just for you.

The Wall

Hey wall, let me a way through,
No matter how I try I can’t break you,
I see injustice and try to take a stand,
But the firmness of world-wall won’t let it bend.

Hey wall, I try to peep through,
I give my best as the trick bricks dry my will’s dew,
I teach rationale and humanity to the herd,
The herd-wall gives old rants making me a nerd.

Hey wall, drop the bricks for letting more charity,
Help me through the miser-bricks to be less saving and tricky,
I attempt drawing my pockets to give all,
Though my wittiness won’t let an extra dime fall.

Hey wall, let me see a glimpse of my heart,
Somewhere in the chore-bricks it needs an electric start,
My dreams have settled somewhere in the chores,
I lead a cuby-walled life in immoral stores.

Hey wall, I just stopped seeing you,
Living with the herd is poisoning me to be untrue,
More are the wrongs I see everywhere,
Just give me a way through for my heart longs to be there.

Hey wall, you are there all around,
Among the herd and it’s people you’re far and stout,
Blocking the right that all see,
Fearing them off neighbors, not letting them be free.

Hey wall, I shall gain strength,
One moment of truth to break your strength,
A day shall come to be free,
It may be living or a soul roaming free.

RATIONALE – We all think of doing good, the right way. However, I believe there is a wall that stops us from following the right path. These verses are an attempt at explaining the dilemmas that the WALL poses in our lives.