Where does it come from, this quest, this need to solve life’s mysteries, when the simplest of questions can never be answered? Why are we here? What is the soul? Why do we dream? Perhaps we’d be better off not looking at all. Not delving, not yearning. But that’s not human nature. Not the human heart. That is not why we are here. Yet still we struggle to make a difference, to change the world, to dream of hope, never knowing for certain who we will meet along the way. Who among the world of strangers will hold our hand, touch our hearts, and share the pain and triumph?
We dream of hope, we dream of change, of fire, of love, of death. And then it happens; the dream becomes real, and the answer to this quest, this need to solve life’s mysteries finally shows itself like the glowing light of the new dawn. So much struggle for meaning, for purpose. And in the end, we find it only in each other. Our shared experience of the fantastic and the mundane. The simple human need to find a kindred. To connect. And to know in our hearts… that we are not alone.
- Mohinder Suresh, Heroes – 123 – How to stop an exploding man
Immortality. The holy grail of existence. Many strive for it. Some attain immortality in the memory of others. I restrict my thoughts to biological immortality. Living forever. What if you could live forever?
Some would opine that living forever is a curse. You live on while those around you fade away. I feel that beyond a point, either one would become used to relations being transitionary or you remain detached from personal bonds. Since it is logical that the brain cannot contain an infinite amount of memories, older ones would start fading away as new ones take their place. Of course, special memories would take longer to fade away, and some may never fade away. It makes you wonder how a person’s perspectives on various aspects of life, change with time.
Love. How would love change with time? Let us assume that your partner is not immortal. How long would you live alone in the memory of someone who has passed on and will never come back again? I believe you would love again. Not that your former love(s) would be forgotten, but her/their memories wouldn’t/shouldn’t stop you from loving again. Now,what if your partner is immortal as well? Would the love the two of you have, fade with time? If the love was strong enough to survive and flourish for an ordinary person’s lifetime, why would it not endure forever? Of course, social institutes like marriage would become meaningless as our lives traverse the rise and fall of many civilizations. Having someone who stands with you always, as the world around you keeps on changing, would provide valuable companionship and relief in an everchanging existence. The relation would transcend all other bonds formed. The two would understand and know each other almost as well as they know themselves. They say that love is immortal, and I believe in that.
Power. Immortality is inevitably linked with power. “The power to rule the world”, so to speak. A day-to-day profession or the like, would soon become meaningless, prolly after a century or so. Once there is enough material wealth to sustain oneself comfortably or even luxuriously, then the need for work fades away. Believe me, you would have to be really dump if you don’t figure out how to become “rich” even after a few centuries. Thus material wealth would become of less importance. Depending on the psychological makeup of the person, they would probably pursue either knowledge or power (or other possibilities, these being the highest probable ones). I am fighting hard to supress any influences by fictional characters on my thoughts (notably Vandal Savage). If the person is possessed of sufficient intellect and cunningness, then it would only be a matter of time before he succeeds atleast partially, to rule the world. And time is something he would never run out of. However, this train of thought is severely affected by factors beyond biological immortality. If physical harm can still threaten the immortal’s life, then the future would be a lot bleaker, with people on power being under a crosshair almost perpetually. However, with sufficient cunningness, one can circumvent such weaknesses. One literary character that I can’t avoid thinking about in this context is that of Professor Moriarty. His “empire” was large and powerful, yet no one, except for Sherlock Holmes, figured out it was him at the center, controlling this vast empire of crime and curroption. Now imagine someone who has had centuries, or even millenia, to plan such an operation. No one would ever guess who the centre figure is until its too late. The web would extend globally, securing power through organizations and proxies until the time is ripe for the “King” to step in. Of course, this is just one of the possibilities and many more would present themselves depending on the intellect of the immortal.
Knowledge. The ocean. Knowledge would never exhaust, for the rate of new knowledge/information being formed, is much greater than the rate at which an immortal can intake them, atleast a Homo Sapien immortal. Having survived for ages and seen the rise and fall of civilizations, he would be uniquely placed in helping and providing information for the progress of science. Eventually, however, our quest would be for metaphysical knowledge. The secret of life. The existence of God. The meaning of existence. The pursuit of these, would easily take a lifetime, even the lifetime of an immortal. One day maybe these questions would be answered. If there is an answer, and if there is a chance of finding it, then given infinite time at your disposal, someday you would hit on the answer. The pursuit of knowledge alone can keep one occupied for eternity. All other wordly pleasures and pursuits would eventually fade away.
At some point or the other, possibly, we would feel the monotony and loneliness in living forever. However, most would find it in them to live on. The reason to live on? Varies with people. Love. Knowledge. Curiosity. Transient pursuits.
Corny they may be, but these are some Bollywood “quotes” that have caught my fancy. See if you can figure out which movie they come from.
“I am slave to the law of the land. Don’t see this as an emperor’s cruelty, but as a slave’s helplessness“.
“Why do you feel that all the burdens of the world rest on your frail shoulders? Who do you think you are? What is the point in praying to God when you don’t even value the life he has given you? I may not know much about your life, but I do know that what you have, may be less in your eyes, but from an outsider’s view, you have so much.”
“.. you first job, your first suit, your first salary, the first time you touched a girl, the first time you kissed her, the first time your heart fluttered… how many such days do you remember? .. 15? 20? 25? .. 30, right? 30 special days, 30 special days.. you’ve lived for 30 years and you only remember 30 special days? what happened to the rest? you have 90 days left to live. you can waste them agonising about death, or you can live 3 lifetimes in these 90 days.”
There are more. Will post them when I remember…
I got this from an old blog of mine. The article is written by RainMirage on E2.
Hopeless romantics believe in love and fairy-tales. They dream of roses and candlelight, walking on the beach at sunset, and dancing in the rain. They know that somewhere out there is a knight in shining armour ready to carry them off, or a beautiful princess waiting to be carried off into the sunset. Hopeless romantics believe in true love, and the eternal bliss that comes from being united with one’s soulmate is what they crave most.
Hopeless romantics recognize in themselves the ability to love infinitely deeply, and they ache to be loved with the same fervour in return. When a hopeless romantic has someone to lavish their affection on, lavish they do. Hopeless romantics sometimes write love letters full of poetic phrases and send flowers, but mostly they try to find a thousand thoughtful little ways to show their love. They make romance into an art form.
Hopeless romantics wear rose-coloured glasses. In their eagerness to find “the one”, a hopeless romantic may either be extraordinarily picky or not discerning enough. Hopeless non-romantics think that hopeless romantics are delusional and too intense. Other than the seeming futility in the search for a soulmate, nothing frustrates a hopeless romantic more than a significant other who does not understand the hopeless romantic temperament.
Sometimes, in this cynical world, it seems like the population of hopeless romantics is declining. One has only to look at the number of movies and songs about love that are currently popular to prove otherwise. It may also seem that there are many more hopelessly romantic women than romantic men. This isn’t surprising in a culture where a man might get snapped at for opening the door for a woman. Men and women often have different ways of expressing their emotions, and the number of hopelessly romantic men is probably much higher than anyone could tell simply by observation.
Hopeless romantics are the idealists, the sentimental dreamers, the imaginative, and the fanciful. They give the world its once-upon-a-times and happily-ever-afters. Hopeless romantics may have their feet on the ground, but their souls fly somewhere over the rainbow.
All my delusions of youth were shattered when I took my cousin shopping last time I went home. We went to this really classy place (according to my cousin) and I was busy shopping. However, after a while, I noticed that my cousin was hardly interested in anything and was just standing around, staring at the ceiling. I asked him what was wrong.
‘Nothing here really interests me’, he said. ‘Oh-kay’, came my skeptical reply. I wondered why. This place had some of the best garments collection in the city. So I asked, ‘then where do you want to go?’. ‘Oh, there is this place I like..’.
Half an hour later, we were standing outside this box-like room that called itself a garments store. My cousin went in and I skeptically followed him. Together with the boy at the counter, we filled up 3/4th of the entire “showroom”.
The moment I stepped inside, I was blinded by the dazzling lights, only to realize that it was the sunlight being reflected from the clothes there. There was metal everywhere. Every single piece of clothing had metal on it. Rather, there was metal in all shapes and sizes, with strips of clothing hanging from it.
He took a jeans with a few (thankfully) cloth straps and only 2 metal buckles on it. He showed it to me. Trying to appear supportive, I made a long ‘hmmm’ and suggested he try it out. His face eager, he made his way to the “trials” room and soon came out. I was, somehow, reminded of Joey pretending to be 19. Keeping a straight face, I nodded and said it looked okay. I was very careful in choosing my words. It was a tricky path to walk.
As expected, his choices became more and more unpalatable, until I had to put the brakes on a pant that looked like the love child of Denim and a chainsaw. A very wicked chainsaw. Deciding that I have had enough, I told him I would wait outside.
As I watched from outside, many “youngsters” came and went, all dressed in flashy clothes and heavy metal. I liked heavy metal but not in this way. A melancholic thought descended on me at that moment. Have I grown old? Has time and fads moved on, leaving me behind, a relic of the past? Is the desire to wear clothes made from cloth, that doesn’t have holes in it, old-fashioned now? I always used to pride myself at being part of the “youth of the nation”. Suddenly, I felt so old.
The son has put on a brave face and taken command of the situation. Ushering guests in, showing people around, handling the workers, generally running around, pushing back his grief.
The daughter was crying vociferouly. Ridden by guilt that was unwarranted. Guilt she couldn’t do more. The son stops to reprimand her, reminding her that atleast his passing was peaceful and painless.
The mother sits alone at the table. Her eyes staring at the distance. Her lips trembling. She sat like a moment frozen in time. Yet, many thoughts ran behind those eyes. One particulary painful thought flashes by and she bursts out into tears. The daughter, incapable of consoling, scolds her. In her made up words of anger, are hidden a thousand more words of sorrow.
And I sit there speechless, a stranger in the house, a stranger in their pain.
May his soul rest in peace. My heart-felt condolences to Sir’s family.
The earliest memory of conning that I can remember was when a guy approahed me in the train station, asking for help. Still green those days, I lent a concerned ear to his woeful tale. He spun a fantastic tale of how misfortune befell him on his journey and how he ended up without a penny to take him back home. Taking pity at his plight, I gave him a then-princely sum of 400 rupees (studying in college, that would mean no partying for quite some time). I still remember the fake joy and relief on his face as he repeatedly promised to send me the money as soon as he got home. In one week’s time, I had learnt a very important lesson in life.
Skip one year. Same place. Different time. This time, his story was slightly different. He claimed to be an engineering student. Despite knowing that I was prolly being conned, I wasn’t able to resist the urge to help. This time, my folly cost me a hundred rupees.
Two years later, I was in a different city. Now, I was earning. The daily travel from work to office brought me into contact with many people, among which was the next con-man. This time, however, it was a complete set of father, mother and 2 children. They claimed to have lost all their money and needed help. They offered to speak to me in the language of my choice which set off alarms in my head. Politely excusing myself, I walked away.
Fastforward to last week. A guy in (extremely) dusty clothes approaches me and, much to my suprise, speaks to me in almost flawless English. He narrates another fancy tale of how he was going to his friend’s place and lost all his money. He wanted 15 rupees to take a bus to there. One look at him and I apologized and walked away.
Last night, yet another guy approached to me with pretty much the same story, different clothes, slightly faulty English. I did not even give him the courtesy of an apology. I just said I am in a hurry and hurried off.
Looking back, I think college and working alone, has opened my eyes, to the people around us. Not all of them are as nice as they look (or in the latter cases, sound). These incidents have taught me a valuable lesson, though they did charge me 500 rupees for it.
Desire. Doesn’t it always begin with desire? Once we start desiring something, we start thinking of it more, and if we don’t obtain the object of our desire, the desire level keeps stepping up.
Desire leads to wanting.
Wanting leads to longing.
Longing leads to craving.
And craving leads to obsession.
[Those who haven’t already, please head over to the here and check out the presentation on the 11 dimensions.]
Life sure is good in the 5th dimension. Sometimes I wonder if we, the 3rd dimension beings , would ever be able to penetrate through the higher dimensions. Maybe it would not be possible without help from the higher dimensions. I wonder how a 4th dimension being would see us. For that matter, how would we treat a 2nd dimension being or a flat lander. I wouldn’t know from experience, having never met any flat landers. Some of our lesser 3rd dimension beings can be assumed to be flat landers. Eg. ants. They walk on surfaces and to our eyes, they appear to be flat landers, always in their 2-dimensional world. Yet, their 2-dimensional world twists and turns in our 3-dimensional world. So in a way, they aren’t really 2-dimensional beings. Then who are the 2-dimensional people? Or is there a minimum number of dimensions that a being has to occupy. If so, can we not apply the same logic to say that MAYBE there aren’t any beings in the upper dimensions as well. If so, who will help us cross into other dimensions? Will there be some non-sentient object that helps us bend this dimension through the next?
Another thing I was wondering about was that when bending this 3rd dimension through the 4th, wouldn’t we be bending in the 5th dimension as well (considering the case in which we travel to the past) and possible, bending/splitting into the 6th dimension as well? It was at this point that I start getting confused. However, this much I could understand. Bending beyond the 4th dimension, would be what people would call, magic. Imagine, being able to change history(4th, 5th and 6th), geography (6th and 7th) and maybe even the very laws of physics (the unthinkable travel through the 8th and higher dimensions). Thus the ability to walk on water, would be, technically, more awesome than the ability to re-write history. (?) Imagine, that I walked on water (violating the laws of physics in this universe and thus having bent reality through the 7th (or was it the 8th) dimension). Would my control over bending be delicate enough to bend to a place where the other co-ordinates (of the lesser dimensions) remain the same. What if I end up in a dimensional point where I am sleeping peacefully in my bed? Would the bending have successfully completed and if not, in the process of falling asleep and adjusting to that dimension, reality gets stuck at some random point in the 7th dimension where I am not actually asleep, thus creating a conundrum.
Wait-a-minute! Imagine a being able to pull realities through the various dimensions. Without a doubt, he/she/it would be the most powerful being in reality, BUT .. but what if there are more than one being able to bend reality. Would it be a tug-of-war between them, or would the point splinter into multiple ones, each controlled by each of the beings? If so, each being would have its own point/reality to play around with.
Heh, now imagine if there are 2 such beings. Imagine that they are equally powerful and have splintered reality along the 7th dimension (or 8th). Imagine they both loathe each other and keep their own realities very much different. Imagine they both have points which are pretty far away from our reality/point. Imagine these two “brothers” notice each other’s points and decide that the others point should not exist. Imagine they battle. Can you imagine what such a war would be like? If you can’t, then feel free to borrow the graphic novel “DC vs. Marvel” from me.
Adios!
Hardly anything dispels your ego like star gazing. I love to lie on the terrace, gazing at the stars, letting it sink in, that I am a miniscule carbon based lifeform on a miniscule planet revolving around a not-so-significant star in just one of the many galaxies. I yearn to reach out and touch the stars, or at the very least, live long enough to see mankind leap across the inter-galactic distances. However, I remind myself of my mortality, that one day, I will crumble into the dust on the surface of this ‘just another planet’.
Then what is consciousness? Are we really that special? Or was mankind a mistake of science and magic (i.e. advanced science) ? Was evolution a chance, or was it driven by purpose? Were we meant for great things that span that stars? Or will we just die out?
I, for one, believe that live DOES exist beyond earth. I do not subsribe to the school of though that firmly believes that man has originated from a single couple. I firmly believe that we did evolve from primates, who in turn evolved from reptiles (?), who in turn evolved from amphibians and so on to the single-celled being, the actual parent of all living things. How did he/she/it come into being? Maybe evolution was inevitable and absolutely necessary for survival but what about the creation of life from the inorganic substance that thrived on the newly formed planet? From where did the spark of life come from? The hand of God? Was that the first and last time he touched this planet? To seed life and pave way for the inevitable evolution into thinking beings? If so, isn’t it improbable that he seeded life in only one world, when he has created so many – innumerable in fact. Thus we must have brothers/sisters/whatevers on other planets.
Since everything from creation of life in the single-cell was determined by the environment which drove the evolution, then wouldn’t it be feasible that evolution was driven along other paths on planets with different environments? Thus, intelligent forms, must have a variety of shapes across the universe. The earth was formed 5 billion years ago. Other planets may have formed sooner or later. Rates of evolution would differ across planets. Thus its conceivable that levels of intelligence will vary greatly across the races. Thus there is a great chance that there exists an intelligence greater than ours. Is humanity ready to accept this possiblity? Many won’t be. Mankind is bred to see itself as the most superior. Imagine someone treating us like we treat the apes. I find it hard to imagine a being so completely superior to us that we seem to them like the apes appear to us.
I guess I am slowly entering the realms of the Asimovs and Clarkes. Isn’t it a wonder, that a harmless pastime like star-gazing, can make you question so many fundamentally accepted “truths” and challenge so many beliefs?
I wonder if atleast some of my questions will get answered in this lifetime, in this oh-so-short line in the 4-th dimension. I hope so. Someday.