Thursday, September 27, 2007

E-how!

It was a friend's remark adorned with a few emoticons during a casual chat that made me think of this topic. He thinks that in the begining there was nothing and then came technology. Technology is the big fat mother of all creations. Big bang was nothing but a tracheal irritation in comparison.

It is mostly the IT professionals I have met (not all of them) who seemed to go ga ga over tech-stuff, especially about their own spheres of work. Technology is the supreme being and every one is supposed to pay obeisance to it. Even the slightest disregard including an ignorant facial expression would be held against you if you dont.Or worse, thou shall be ignored.

If you do not own a PC, you are a savage
No i-pod? not i-ntelligent
No mobile phone? no body will even attend your funeral
If you do not chat, you are chaff
No credit card? not worth anything
No email? which planet are you on?


I may worship God,logic and reason.But technology is sort of a by-product. Just a tool. I don't worship people espousing how to live or think, based on how they feel or interpret events for eg:. reading palms. Neither do I worship technology just because it has a purpose, unlike organized religion and/or generic spirituality.

I am against the veneration of technology - mostly when it takes a higher priority than a human being.Technology affects my life in a profound way. It puts food on my table and stimulates my grey cells. But it doesn't own my head, unlike the ones who claim that they are wedded to it.

If he can't understand how the hand that held a steel knife had the power to gift or steal a life, his e-vision was blurred. It isn't the sugar that makes the coffee sweet; it is the stirring. May the Tech-gods e-help him!

Wednesday, September 5, 2007

The ship of Theseus

What do you carry forward from yesterdays?

"You are still the same person, dear!" This compliment sounds nice at times but lacks conviction; and why?

Priorities have changed and thus planning. Friends have changed and thus preferences. Outlook has changed and thus opinions. Even the way you look has changed over these years.

Ever since I was born I lost many things perioidically; starting with the shedding my skin, my hair, my teeth...my innocence..to name a few.In return I aquired many. Habits, dislikes, passions, vices,lover, love, loathing, lice..though not in the same sequence.

The face I see daily in the mirror has changed a lot but the familiarity with the routine has probably made the gradual but certain changes inconspicuous.

I am no more of what I was before. My friend made the mistake of misinterpreting a fleeting glimpse of an old big toothed grin of mine and concluded that I am my former self. I am prone to such mistakes too.

Change, in all its manifestations has to be the essence of life. In my shoe size, in my career, in the seasons, in growth and deacy....it is unsettling.

I even changed my house 4 times in 7 months. It wasn't amusing. But there were not too many choices. Hail Heraclitus!

Or on a more philosophical note: I must have been hiding inside my shell and it is wearing off gradually. If I am not already exposed now, one day I would be. The strip tease is on, though it is't getting much attention from others..!

Or like the fabled onion, I shall become "no more" in the process and leave only the sting, a tear or two but nothing else.

I am the ship of Theseus.Heck, we all are...

The Great Plan

  “Everything happens for a reason” What? That has to be mankind’s vain effort to make sense of everything that happens around them. To ...