A penny for my thoughts

Since a very long time now, i wanted to pen my thoughts; somebody once told me i had a beautiful mind. To pen my thoughts, I think, two things are very essential- firstly a very good pen, and secondly but more importantly, a nice thought. Its always been so that either i dint have a good pen when a nice thought crossed my mind; or i dint have a really nice thought when i probably had a great pen to pen my thoughts down with. Blimey!

I always wanted to write about my yearning to learning. Its made me wonder, at times of-course, whether my yearning to learning was merely for the purpose of earning.? (If its a question mark '?' or a full stop '.' i know not. Hence both) .

A teacher once told me, "When the purpose is clear, your goal is half achieved!" What he dint tell me, of-course, was in my opinion a million dollar question- HOW EXACTLY DO YOU FIND OUT WHAT YOUR PURPOSE IS? Instead, as if in consolation, he said, "Your purpose is for you to discover. Nobody can tell you that for sure, but lead you closer to the answer." Now, if this isn't confusing enough already, then read on. Or you can simply continue doing whatever you've been doing and not bother why the earth goes round the sun. (its just a metaphor stupid!)

I've seen in movies and even read in best-selling novels about people who have these 'life-changing' episode, where they get whacked in the head (literally) and then they become 'learned'. I mean, they shed off their dumb/geek image and suddenly become 'smart' overnight. Then they'll know what they exactly want and pursue it ,of-course with the panache and flair we all adore. What pisses me off completely is that they get exactly what, when and how they've wanted (always..) and we all love watching them on the silver screen.. call them Heroes (with a capital H) ...idolize them; and wish we get whacked in the head, for a 'bump in the head' is too little a price to become 'learned' the next morning. What a bargain it would be! What am i talking about!?!

Everything i knew i could buy came with the so-called 'operation manual', which of-course tells you how to run the product (in the correct manner) and which of-course was something i read after all attempts to figure out the produce proved futile (when all else fails, read the manual!). The point here is not materialistic, but life itself! We are not born with an 'Operation guide' which, for a man-made object, has about an entire chapter dedicated to 'trouble-shooting'. We are not so lucky. Result- we make mistakes unintentionally, learn from the mistakes, then make the same mistake again; only this time its intentional! Seriously! History has stoodtestament to mans mistakes. And my history teacher always told,"History repeats itself"!
It would be really convenient if we come into this world with things like 'operation guide', 'warranty', 'exchange offers' and so on. If that happened, we'd have a problem to deal with: 'Who would be blamed for manufacturing defects? Your Mom, or God? And who would fix the terms and conditions (printed in 6 point Times New Roman or, at times, even 4 point font- that make you run to fetch your reading glasses!)? And in case of disputes, who do you sue? And which jurisdiction would hold good?' Thank heavens! Its not all that complicated. Like my father always said, like his father always said and his father's father said-'experience is a dear school, and a fool learns in no other!' Life is to be experienced, each day a different one; the one not found in guides or manuals..

Somebody i knew (another somebody) once said,"We live in an imperfect world." I say that the beauty of the world we live in is because its perfectly imperfect. The permutations and combinations are endless and each resulting in a seemingly different outcome. This is what makes life so multi-factorial where nothing is constant. Rather- the only thing constant on this planet is change. This leads to Murphy's law of constants- 'Constants aren't; Variables don't'.

I've read about historians & History and really had a tough time, breaking my head over mankind's past mistakes. Now i'm surprised, rather, taken aback by these new breed of people who call themselves Futurists . They claim that they can scientifically calculate what would happen to the species in the future in relation to the changing global geography and habitat. And corporate giants and conglomerates get suckered-in, pay tons of money only to know that way ahead in the future, there's absolutely no future for them! And even otherwise, the chances of these predictions coming true are as good as those of Saddam breaking out of Bush's prison! I mean- GIVE ME A BREAK!! How can you predict something so complex and multifactorial, when we cant even accurately predict the weather! what a national waste!!

Another thing that arouses my thoughts is the ever-debatable issue-'The future of mankind'. Some say that man would be so dependant on machines and AI (Artificial Intelligence) that one day we'll wake up to find out that we've become their slaves! (Sci-fi?) Others say that we'll end up like the Dinosaurs- extinct!! Yet if we plotted the chronology of Earth on a 24-hour clock (thats one day you idiot), the Dinos lived nearly an hour while we have barely completed a minute since our ancestors started walking erect! I say we've already had enough about the past, so why the heck worry about the future?

I always hear people complaining about competition. They crib, crib, crib and crib even more about entrance exams (which in my rightful opinion should be called exit exams as more than 80% of the people appearing, don't enter!) and about everything else in life; and cant accept the fact that competition is essential. We all know that Darwin stated- "..in the struggle for existence, there is survival of the fittest". Its not that there ws no competition and evolution before Darwin was born; everybody knew it but he said it first! So we, have to read about him after he's blissfully dead ( R.I.P. Darwin). Grr.. i say and do a lot of things only to find out that its been said and done before! Coming back to the issue of competition; it sure is essential for a good and healthy gene pool. And if you cant adapt, cant evolve, cant adjust to the changing encvironment- You simply die out. The level of competition i am talking about begins even before we are born. We are a result of it, in fact. Still dint get it? Pay attention- When we copulate, for fertilization to occur, approximately five million sperms compete for just one egg! Isn't that brutal compared to a stupid entrace exam (read exit exam)? So by the time we are writing entrance exams, we already are competitors and winners! And yet we complain.. in the genes, is it? The complaining genes? Rare. Probably found exclusively in the Indian sub-population!?

I liked this line i read in school- 'Those who are perforced to be constrained by eternal strangibilities should not use petrous formations as projectiles'. How very true! I figured it out.

Well.. what i began as one page, ran five in script and two in print. I guess i bored you, whoever you are, enough. But i'll save this great pen and make sure i have it the next time a nice thought crosses my mind. So, like Arnie says in the Terminator, " I'll be back! Hasta la vista, Baby!"