Enlightenment - focus shift from WHO to HOW

ENLIGHTENMENT - This word has become a part of our office tea time topic.

  What is enlightenment ? , Why do we need enlightenment ?,  what does it mean to be enlightened?

More importantly, " Is there something called enlightenment?".

  The famous question posed by enlightenment preachers is, "Are you happier now compared to your childhood period? Will you enjoy the same moments if you are magically sent back to your childhood days?". This is a highly hypothetical question.  I still cannot find an answer to this, neither do I feel the necessity to ponder over.

Consider this. Do you like a seed to remain as a seed rather than seeing it grow into a tree? Seeds do look beautiful, less space consuming compared to rough and tough trees.

 Humans grow and learn from their inquisitive thinking. This might be the driving force to think about 'Who Am I ?' and 'Why Me ?' Why can't we accept the change and see enlightenment in it? I never heard a child seeking enlightenment. They get enlightened by seeing their favorite toy. Enlightenment is a state of mind, you can never chase it.

  Most of the books or speeches are centered around bringing guilt on oneself in the name of enlightenment.

A few common questions and my answers to them are as follows.

•  "Who Am I ? ". An open ended question. Of course, a soul needs a body to convey all the learning we acquired in the process. It is part of evolution and eco-cycle. I do not see much complexity here, just accept it.  I defer to Charles Darwin for the theory of evolution. 

• "What is happiness for you?" Whatever be the answer it can be counter argued. I see the answer in the question itself, "happiness is self perceived. No one can define happiness for others."

 

• "What is your purpose in life ?" Again, it can be argued endlessly. For me,purpose of one is to bring smile and guide people around him. I have to quote the example of tree here, to guide or bring smile one has to grow and wither away every year to blossom again.

 

 My point of view is, why is enlightenment always attached to "Who Am I?", shouldn't it be "How can I?". For me, accomplishing a self set smaller goal is an enlightenment.

Bedtime stories for daddy

       One fine night I ran out of my bedtime stories for my baby, of course I have bad memory. Instead, I insisted my daughter to tell a story. After lots of pleading, she agreed to tell a story.

       On one sunny day, a crow was sitting idle in a low lying tree branch when a hungry tiger happened to pass that way. Upon seeing the crow, the tiger decided to eat it and aimed for a jump. The crow noticed and without a panic said, "Tiger,Tiger, I know you are hungry, however please do not eat me now.  You see, I am so thin and I will hardly fill even a quarter of your stomach. Please come tomorrow, at the same time, and I will be ready for you".

      That evening the crow went to a toy shop, where they sell replica of birds and bought a fat crow toy by paying some money to the vendor who happens to be his friend, the Owl.

       The following day morning, the crow kept his replica in the same place and he hid in a higher branch. The tiger came in and jumped on the toy crow and ate it. Poor tiger, he then got  a stomachache and ran away from there.

      "Story over", she told. My intellectual brain asked her a question, "If a crow is this intelligent, wont a tiger be far more smarter to identify a toy crow?"

      So, here comes the new version. This time the crow bought a battery operated toy which also makes 'kah-kah' sound. Again the tiger fell for it, since it looks more like a crow and also sounded like one.

      She told, "Like this, I know clever rabbit, clever kitty cat, clever whatever you name it. Just change the crow with that animal'.

      The next day, I told, "I had had enough. Tell me something new." She again started with a clever turtle when I stopped her midway. She said, "Papa listen, there is a twist".

     Turtle had some friends, a parrot, a star fish, a gold fish and big blue whale. The parrot went and bought some toy replicas of turtle and placed them all throughout the seashore.

     The hungry tiger came and was curious to see the turtles. He slowly walked and reached the sea when the big blue whale, turtle's friend, jumped from within and ate the tiger in one bite. The poor tiger fell for the turtle's plan.

      I am not sure, what to tell her. In a way, I was happy that there won't be any more hungry tiger stories to listen.

     

Nightcrawler - Lou Bloom crawl into your head

                   I usually wonder on how we get so much news to be shown on TV for 24x7, when that was not the case during my school/college days. Initially I thought TV channels go and hunt the news for themselves, but thanks to outsourcing and freelancing, the news are getting sold to the TV channels from individuals. Nightcrawler is a story of one such freelancer. As the name of the movie gives it out, he hunts news on the night time and sells it the next morning as BREAKING NEWS.       

                  The story revolves around an intelligent (I dare say, because of his dialogues) sociopath, Louis(Lou) Bloom. Lou decides to be a video freelancer after meeting Joe in the profession and sells it to Nina, a struggling news director for her 6AM show on a not-so-famous news channel. Within few days, he learns the mantra, "if it bleeds, it leads".  The movie is about how far he goes by that line.

                   Jake Gyllenhaal is simply awesome as Lou, the antagonist. I was never a fan of Jake before this movie, though he has acted in a few big hits like,  'Donnie Darko', 'Zodiac', 'Source Code' (my least favorite among this list). However, he is pretty impressive in 'Prisoners' which was well written and he delivered a solid performance as a detective.

                   I read he shed around 30lbs (~14kgs) for the character Lou in this movie. He justified it with brilliant performance and excellent body language. His thin frame suits the character, when Nina says, " I like your eyes".  The movie touches upon the news hungry channels, for whom, "the bleeding blood"  is  a breaking news, but not the cause of it. Also, Lou shows how the employers make use of and treat the apprentices. It is by no means a fast paced movie, but the thrilling element is there throughout the movie.

                   The confrontation between Nina and Lou is gripping and so it is between Lou and Rick. It is good to see less cussing from Lou, that actually makes an impact with the audience, who otherwise might start hating his intelligence.

                 One of the best movies in 2014 and sad to see that Jake did not get nominated for the Best Actor category at the academy awards. Slowly and steadily this nightcrawler will crawl into your head to stay for a while.

papa, I got a doubt...

"Papa, why do we have number plate on our motorbike ?", asked my 5 year old. As usual, I tried to explain the norms and procedures introduced by government to enforce the motor vehicles act.

The next question was, "What is government ?". Oh my gosh, why did I bring government here, when I myself do not understand their purpose.

I replied, "Ok sweetie, it is not the government exactly, it is the police who wants the number plate on the vehicles to track when you report a loss ( or to track the other state vehicle to collect their dues). It will be very difficult to identify our vehicle in a sea of same models and same colors in the city, hence the number".

I thought I had given a good answer on the purpose of number plates and felt proud of myself on how I made a 5 year old understand the purpose of vehicle registration number. As usual, she had her brahmastra hidden, out came the next question, "Then, why do bi-cycles do not have a number plate ? Is it ok, if it gets lost ? Is it ok if the common man's vehicle goes untraceable? ".  I just do not have an answer for this and all I said was, " Do you want strawberry flavored or  orange flavored lollipop?"

Recent Read

 Disclaimer : I am not an avid reader, I read when I get time, I read when I feel like reading. I am in no way qualified to write a review on the book which I read. I just put my thoughts on the book, treat me as a layman in literature.

  As they say, it all started with Ponniyin Selvan (பொன்னியின் செல்வன்), it is a real gem,  at least for me. No other words to say, just read and enjoy.

Agatha Christie : Heard a lot about this author from my college days, however started reading her book since three years. First two novels (A murder is announced and clocks) kept me interested till the end, however by the third novel, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd. I could guess the suspect and to a large extent the motive of the crime/murder. Nevertheless, reading Agatha Christie is a fun ride with lot many characters.

Sujatha (சுஜாதா) : Though I have watched his works on screen, viz, En Iniya Iyanthira (என் இனிய இயந்திரா) and movies like Vikram, Anniyan, Enthiran,   I never read any of his books. I must say I was taken back when I read his book, விரும்பி சொன்ன பொய்கள் (Virumbi Sonna Poigal). It is a thrill ride from cover to cover, though it is less than 100 page it was a real treat. The ending was awesome, never expected.
                                    The next book , கொலையுதிர் காலம் (kolaiuythir Kalam) again a fantastic story telling. Twist in every chapter end, even  the ending. However, I enjoyed reading விரும்பி சொன்ன பொய்கள்.

 Next in line, The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins.

To know more about brain...

I usually won't share any of the internet content to anyone, due to various reasons, taste dislike is a primary one. But this man, VS Ramachandran is really awesome. All his clippings are worth watching and his explanation on illusion, delusion and phantom is really really great.

Recently watched

Reviews/comments in one line. Strictly my own view

Gone Girl : Should have GONE without my BRAIN.
Birdman   : Still chirping in my ear.
Pisasu (Tamil) : It is good, but Helmet (message) is missing.
Lucia (Kannada) :  Thoroughly enjoyed the movie; good Lucid Dream to have.