DreamingAway

Do I hate being controlled by someone or something? Yes, I am sure, I hate it. How unfair it is when someone gets the power to control me? There is GABA. There is Serotonin. They are the neurotransmitters that help in controlling my mood. Of course, when it is my GABA and my Serotonin, that is absolutely fine. Isn’t? There are bacteria that can interfere and act like these, which means they can essentially change my mood, my identity at any moment. There are parasites (like this rat-cat ) that can change my behaviours. In fact, my body is a home for millions of microorganisms which outnumber my own cells, and hence it is only partially my body. Well, I don’t want myself to prove that I am not the I that actually I am. For the time being, though it could be wrong, let me ignore the scientific and even the philosophical points of the I, as I am now thinking of only how I am tricked and controlled by the powers. It is a fact that I don’t have the power to choose my parents, at least as lo

 We do talk to ourselves. Don’t we? I am sure nobody hears me when I talk to myself, when I see a bus (Chennai, MTC) go without stopping at the bus stop, especially after waiting for it for several minutes. Perhaps the bus driver doesn’t think that I am a person (and every other I’s there) waiting for the bus, and so he thinks that he can avoid the stop and reduce the trip time. We don’t only talk to ourselves, we also talk to strangers. Somehow, we get reasons to talk. I can find a person, an elderly person, at least two in a week, who talks to me. Oh, it is the same dialogue: “How do I catch this bus if it stops 100 meters away from the bus stop?”. I feel pity for them. There is no way that they can run, compete and get on the bus. I understand both the bus driver and those waiting for the bus assume a different location from where the bus has to stop. Adults talk to kids and sometimes talk to them that only the other adult can understand. There are times when kids do understand a fe

A policeman was gunned down in the street. And another one and another one and it continues. I was watching the movie Methagu and these scenes matched the picture I had in my mind when I read those in the newspaper. I think the world has changed a lot now. We seem to have lost the power to persist with one’s belief and the ways to fight for it. I am wondering whether Bhagat Singh or Che Guevara is possible now. The Long March can only be a dream. Or is it not? Do we talk about Attila ? Things don’t feel heroic if it happened in the dim and the distant past, no matter how powerful it was. Recency and proximity matter. Or it has to be elevated to a mythical figure which in general happens with a lot of facts erased, especially the negative ones. If we move the instances from the past and make them happen in the current world, a lot of them could be a single day news or news that people lose interest in a few days. Without searching the internet, how many revolutionaries f

 Will we be able to focus on our task when surrounded by anti-focus elements, both internal and external? I think most of us would find it very difficult. Maybe that is okay because what is more important is whether we are aware that we are not focused. This awareness is very important as we have a scope to survive, or even to be comfortable with the scattered focus and complete a task in hand, and hence we may not feel the difference. We won’t mind whether we are making an effort to produce a focused result. Is focus important? The Science says so and the common sense sees so, and so there is no doubt. Of course, only for those who wish to achieve and advance. We cannot randomly find a horse and ride. We need training, and we also need to train the horse for riding. Inventions are always a marvel, and the bridle is one of them. I mean not just the physical design but how the overall system that helps the rider to take control of the horse movements and establish a communication channe

 It was an unusual dream. I had been doing an intense penance for several years, and was on the verge of making god appear in front of me, and blessing me with a boon. Even before I started, I had planned well on what I would ask god. Do you remember the Midas touch? I am not greedy like that and don’t want to be foolish either. So, I am sure I won’t ask anything of that sort. I know anything that is beyond god’s wish will also be granted, but taken away cruelly. I wanted my wish to be simple. I thought health, wealth and family were very important and decided to ask them. I prepared a list of things to ask in each category and memorised them. I know I should be very clear about whatever I ask, as we all know god plays a lot of tricks as far as boons are concerned. Or rather, god is too smart to outsmart us with whatever we ask. The story of Hiranyakashipu is the best example of it. He got a boon that he shouldn’t be killed during the day or night, by human or animal, using weapons or

 Marvel of Peru, Mirabilis Jalapa and Four O’clock Flower are the names I found on the Internet and the name I know is Anjumani poo (அஞ்சுமணிப் பூ) and it was one of my favourites in my schooldays. We had a long single line of flower plants in our home. There were Kanagambaram, Malli, Saamanthi and a few more. Although I liked them all, I liked this plant very much. It was very beautiful in the evening, especially at moonlight. It is very easy to grow, and it grows very fast. I loved watching them grow, from the seed to the plant full of flowers. That was why I was so upset when my dad cut it. Well, it is all about the rose plant that was my dad’s pet. It was almost lifeless when I brought it from my aunt’s home. He watered it every day, both in the morning and in the evening. That was fundamental for its life. He used the tea powder that he got from the nearby tea shop. I brought the donkey dung (manure for rose) that I found around the playground, that helped me to play extra time wi

 I never hated volcanoes. I might have, if there are as many volcanoes as the mountains in the world or just one active volcano near my place. Volcano eruptions produce hazardous gases. It destroys the surrounding environment. It even impacts the psychology of the lives. Why volcanoes? Why the emotion anger? Nature has nothing that exists without a purpose, every so often beyond our understanding. Though volcano eruptions are visible to the world when they happen, they are the result of processes happening inside the earth for several years. Though we feel the emotion instantly, the reason for our anger is mostly a result of our accumulated beliefs. It typically is a clash between what we believe and the force that tries to alter that belief. Of course, apart from psychological reasons, physical pains also cause anger, but they are momentary. While we usually laugh when the child gets angry and the way he expresses it, our elders see our anger similarly. Perhaps that is why we talk a l

One of the best things about yoga asanas is that it can be practiced at any age. My mom, aged over 60, starts her day early at 4.30 AM with some simple yoga asanas and feels calm and gets a fresh start in the morning. After preparing tea/coffee for others, she takes a cup of Horlicks, her favourite for the past several years, that help her rejuvenate her energy. After breakfast preparation, she enjoys sending us one by one to school or office. She sits relaxed and reads the newspaper for some time. After doing cloth washing and preparing lunch, she gets a plenty of time for a few episodes of some TV serial and a good nap. Her play time starts with the fruit juice when my nephews return at 3 PM and 4 PM. And then full of talking and playing with everyone before she goes to the bed about 10.30 PM so happily. Yeah, I know, you got it right, it is just my imagination. In fact, it won’t happen even in my dream. My mom wakes up about 4:30/5:00 AM without any alarm clock and starts her day wi

  I was able to overtake the bus at three consecutive bus stops, cycling as fast as I could. We were not allowed in the physics lab without record notebook, and I forgot it in one day. Since I had a short time before the lab start time, I thought I could go home, about 3 kms, and bring it. I was peddling at the speed I never did before. I was able to predict the vehicles and pedestrians with high accuracy and move without applying brakes. I reached the lab on time. Was it a right decision? I would answer no now. I could have skipped the lab for one day. There was some “madness” in the decision, and I still wonder how I reached the lab on time. Adolf Hitler had some madness and so are Netaji, APJ and Write brothers as well as countless others. The result can be good or bad from others’ perspective, or it can be success or failure, but whatever is achieved is not possible normally. Because only this madness brings energy. It brings confidence. It brings focus. Regardless of the outcome,

 Even if you count from the Homo sapiens time, it has been half a million years and from the caveman life to the one who attempts to control the universe, the progress is tremendous. A number of struggles that we have overcome are unimaginable. I am still not convinced whether all these are part of the Divine plan or the Nature adjusts (if at all something is required) itself to any change that takes place in it. As long as we believe in science, we can truly appreciate our power and the things we have achieved. The oldest of the power struggles can be the one between men and women. It is perhaps so subtle that we can’t even call it a power struggle. While we manage to fight against external things, this is something happening in our own race, and we haven’t had an answer yet. A coffee selling 10 times costlier than the price of it in a decade ago may mean the coffee price has been raised. But when you compare it with the price of everything, it is relatively the same. If you look at t

 There are things that go to nothing when you try to understand them deeper. Love could be one of those. Of course, I am not going to prove it here. Let us say, power - in this context, is the combination of nationality, religion, culture, language, wealth, work, etc. A relationship that is bonded by this power can exist and go on as it is enough to resolve or cope with the differences. Love in a romantic relationship seems to be portrayed as a divine one. I guess it is not. That is why I believe love has nothing to do with the marriages as well. Love exists in every relationship and each one is special when it is true. Of course, when I exclude romance and marriages, love and friendship seem very similar. The real difference is how the people involved are treated. I believe friendship brings many people into a single shared space while love maintains an individual space for each one. There can be a more powerful relationship. A powerful love is the one where the two souls randomly mak

 It looks like I have to repeat my previous year’s post. Well, perhaps everyone feels the same - 2021 is an unusual year. It is a really unusual year for me in a different sense. I didn’t read books, especially after the January 2021. I didn’t do my regular exercises throughout the year. I spent less than 300 mins (avg. less than a minute per day) in the sun. All three is rare. In fact, this could be the first time since I started them. And the worse, there was no reason for why I didn’t do in year 2021. So obviously, I am going to work on these three in year 2022. The best part of 2021 is the amount of the time I got to spend with the pet animals - Pug, Rabbit, Parrot, and Pigeons. My dad took care of all the cleaning work and made things easy for me. My Pug dog is my all-time favourite and the Rabbits are this year’s favourite. It is really fun playing with them. Despite the lack of physical activities, my weight stayed in 70-74 range, my favourite. I honestly don’t know how. Started

 It was a dream to own a bicycle when I was in the elementary school. My dad gifted one only after my tenth exams, when I needed to go to my new school, about 5 kms from my home. I had learned a few things about the bicycle during this period. The primary instruction my dad gave me was to check the tyre, bell and brake before I take the bicycle. My first job was to lubricate the parts like chain, spokes hub, brakes, etc., every week. It wasn’t a tough job, but when I wanted to maximise the time at the playground, getting the willingness to do it was challenging. My dad recommended not to install light kit in my bicycle as I wouldn’t require it all. Two of my friends had it, and so I was adamant and installed it and urged him that it would be useful during nights. I removed it later when it became loose and often made contact with the rim and slowed down the speed. Actually, apart from a few occasions, I never needed the light. Just removing this light kit helped me to reduce the cluste