100 truths, religion and IPL.

Tuesday, April 7th 2009.

0807hrs, NUS Thinklab, Computer Centre.

Yes, its true that I am in univeristy so early in the morning.

April and May are the months of exams, assignments, stress, IPL etc in most parts of the world. Side-effects of these are varied. Depending on who you are (I guess you will identify few of yours here) it maybe facebook addiction (latest trend), excessive sleeping, insomnia, smoking ,drinking, porn, movie or tv-show marathons, getting addicted to some music and anything else to distract you from what you are actually supposed to be doing.

I have been having some of the above mentioned effects and some more peculiar ones. But before I talk about that I would like to start of with FaceBook (FB) addiction. FB being dominated by students worldwide is a very good indicator of stress levels in student communities around the world. If you have a FB account and have 50+ friends you must have noticed the recent high activity rate on the website, a very good indicator of the April-May zone. Let me talk of three most popular trends I have seen over the last month.

It started with people tagging their friends on one picture, which has like many smaller images of variety of characters we encounter (eg. the flirt, the cutie, the jerk etc… I guess you get which one I mean). Then came the quizzes, with so many random-shit questions – when will you get married? when will I get cancer? and equally shitty answers. And then came tagging lists of things you do and passing them on – the ipod quiz, the other randomly self-indulging- chance of making yourself -look-good-which you are actually not- lists etc.

So anyways yesterday night my friends started doing this 100 truths list and tagged me to do it as well. Some of them cited exam-stress as reason for doing the list, others stated joblessness as the reason. Whatever it is I am not here to analyse the reason behind their doing it. The list itself interested me a lot.

Before I touch on the reason of my interest for the 100 truth list I think I need to lay some more foundation.

I was watching the documentary Religulous yesterday night. Last saturday (earth hour night) I was involved in a fierce debate over definition of religion with some friends and I have been reading Bhagavad Gita. So you can see that I have been spending a lot of time on religion and understanding it (side-effect 1?) . If you are a namesake-Hindu like me (one who doesnt go to temple,eats beef etc etc – which I am not saying are true requirements of being a Hindu, but merely stating social norms) , and you probably are looked at in a condescending manner by your staunch Hindu parents,friends etc then what I say will be similar to what you feel !  I hate those so called religious-people who judge others in that fashion. First of all do they really understand their religion? More importantly do they understand the idea behind religion? Or do they blindly follow what other people have told them to be religious or non-religious? Whatever minute knowledge I have gained through my readings clearly indicates that what people perceive today as being religion is not true. What is it then? – Right now I dont know. There are some ideas I have, but they are not cultivated enough.

Is religion a way of life? Is it a guide to reach god? Is it just an idea? – I dont know. Or may be as one of my friends stated – ” Religion is sum of all egos. ” (for more details ask me  personally on the explanation :p). Anyways I can write a book if I keep talking about religion and even put the hardcore-insomniac to sleep with this discussion, but what I wanted to point out is this:

Religion should be our intuition, an experience. It should not be what someone said. If you look into history of Hinduism (accurately, Sanatana dharma) in the vedic period this is what religion was, an experience. You live your life, experience it , learn what is right and wrong. It was the process that was important ,not the destination. So, say if my friend smokes or drinks or whatever, its his intuition to do so, and I should not be judging him to be non-religious or a sinner.

When Avinash wrote in his 100 truths :

” Do you want to get married? – Yes…..maybe i cannot sustain myself properly currently but will make sure to give my family the highest standards to live in.”

 unlike Agastya who found it funny (not judging you buddy ) , I found it very heart-warming.  The fact that we dont associate such a response from a guy like Avi might make it funny, but I look at it as what he desires, what his instinct says . Knowing him personally, I highly doubt that while answering that question he mentally referred to any religious teachings or scripts to reach that conclusion. Through his experience and what he has learnt in life and through “thinking” himself he reached this conclusion! I would say thats religion ,not accurately, but in a crude sense. That is probably just a small example from day to day life.

Now moving to something interesting! – Did you know there is a Cannabis Religion??? Their tagline – “We use cannabis religiously and you can, too.”  I personally dont find it stupid, because  ” Realty is unique, wise men see it (achieve it) in different ways. ” (Rig-Veda)  If Cannabis is your way to the truth, so be it (right Shanty?)

From all the intense religious stuff to some light stuff – CRICKET – IPL.

18th April , saturday is the day of the season opener for Indian Premier League Season 2 . Great match to start off with: MUMBAI INDIANS VS CHENNAI SUPERKINGS. Where are all you guys watching (if you are)? Avinash has indicated to me that he might live at  Ankur’s place throughout the season! So do you want to watch the season openers at Ankur-Agastya’s place??  Also guys I have sent you invites for the NTULC Season 2 IPL fantasy (cricinfo). Lots of players to choose this time over and more transfers than last season as well! So Do join! If you havent got the invite let me know your email address- will send again!

Anyways I better get started (my instinct speaking!) on the 3 assignments I need to submit by today evening. I hope Agastya gets his remote working by tonight, I tried helping him over the phone yesterday night, but chances look bleak! As for others keep the facebook traffic alive, its stupid, but entertaining.

0915hrs, 7th April 2009.

 PS: Sorry for the horribly unstructured writing! Havent blogged in a while…hopefully more blogs during the exam period.

 

The Modern Drunk

January 2nd 2009, Friday

2348hrs, Home.

New Year Celebrations are still going on and might go on for few more days. Meanwhile everyday morning I see ‘hangover’ and ‘splitting headache’ updates on Facebook. Looking at these updates made me think why people drink alcohol  so much?

After some thought I realized that most of my friends drink regularly and get drunk. More pondering on the same topic and I realized that the world is run by people with hangovers. The President of USA is a drunk, most corporates engage in ‘social drinking’  every night and so on. I mean, obviously the world will go into recession when guys with major ‘hangovers’ make the big decisions in banks,governments etc.

Anyways then I thought why think about all those people when I can think about people around me who drink. So I gave it a thought. Since I came to Singapore I have seen most of my friends booze and smoke. Some of them are so ridiculous they make holiday plans based on the prices of booze and cigarette at those places (hence Langkawi).  I practically myself dont drink or smoke, since I never found a reason to and have always been fascinated to know why they did. Most of them are very proud that they drink.  So over the years I asked them for reasons. I will now list down some of their responses. Some of them very innovative and some insanely stupid. Many of them said, ” I don’t know.” But its just because they dont want to reveal the reasons. For all those “don’t knows” I  will state the more than obvious real reasons. I am not stating any names here, I guess if you are smart enough you will figure it out, atleast recognise your own reasons of getting drunk!

The List

1. It’s cool to drink. ( honest response, stupid reason though)

2. Everyone in my family drinks, so do I.

3. No one in my family drinks/smokes, I want to be the first one.

4. I am broke. ( highly stupid response)

5. No job, No girlfriend. ( how is drinking gonna help?)

6. Its New year’s Eve and I want to be so drunk I don’t want to remember any of the celebrations.

7. I feel like a ‘real man’ .

8. All my friend’s drink, so I thought i should as well.

9. I like copying western culture, its so hip to drink! (unsaid reason)

10. It helps my bowel movements in the morning. ( one of my ex-roomate’s reason)

11. My New year resolution is to remain high on booze, smoke and crack. ( Latest one I heard)

12. I just realised I wasted the last three years on drinking, girls and doing nothing. (Senkang wanderer)

13. Baap Ka Paisa hai yaar, party on!

14. 20′s are meant to get high and enjoy. ( Really??)

15. I am an alcohol-enthusiast.

16. Just out of curiosity. ( when will the curiosity end?)

17. I want to die at 40.

18. I like puking in cabs,public places.

19. I am more confident when I am drunk, so much so, I can throw TVs out of buildings.

20. I want to be like Kurt Cobain and Jimi Hendrix. (Best of Luck!)

21. If I don’t hunt the booze, the booze will surely hunt me. ( !!!!!!)

22. Let’s face it: modern life is a shit storm and booze is the only umbrella without any holes in it. ( Innovative answer, but again no sense in it)

23. Drinking acts as a “social lubricant” for me.

24. Only when I am drunk I can spank a girl in a club! ( You know who!)

25. Its Wednesday! and then its Friday! ( 2 reasons every week to drink!)

There are lots more. I guess you might have been able to relate some of the above reasons with yourselves. Anyways any more reasons please let me know!!

I did some research on why humans started drinking alcohol in olden times. Initially alcoholic drinks were used for nutritional and medicinal qualities as well as religious ceremonies. But over centuries people lost any sane reasons to drink, and started drinking just for the sake of drinking. Hence, the Modern Drunk was born. But then what the hell, your body,your wish. Happy Drinking!

0046hrs

January 3rd, 2009.