Monday, September 07, 2009

10 years ago...

someone once said to me, to really live life and understand it you need bursts of intense activity followed by time for pure leisure. i was in college then. we had bursts of intense activity (a week or 2 around exam time and ofcourse purushottam) followed by pure and unadulterated leisure (pretty much the entire semester), looks like i was on track. a few years later i had landed a decent job and was saying to myself, hey things are not too off even now. 2 days of extreme activity (the weekends :P) followed by 5 days of somewhat restricted leisure (the workdays). it might be the other way round for some of you who take their work seriously :P (if you are reading this blog in office, u ain't that type).

its been a while since then. even now we work and we have fun, but its not the same. the difference i guess is passion. those days i was around guys who were passionate (some bordering on crazy actually :P) about everything in general. not only about the usual stuff - babes, booze, money and cricket, but about abstract things like life, mind, truth and reason. now, i dont see many people around me (including me, ofcourse) who spend majority of their time on something they really really like to do. and not on weekends, thats an hobby. everyones got that. i am talkin getting involved in something you love and doing it like your life depends on it. (if you dont know what you love, then getting involved in finding it, like your life depends on it :D)

i've had this explained by wise men of the world by "there is college, and then there is life". ya ofcourse, you don't act like you are in college for your whole life. but you dont have to be half-dead for the rest of it either. some say its physical, you simply have more energy when you are young, so its best to slither into some routine as you grow old. i dont think the human body deprecates so much when you go from 25 to 30. about the human mind? i am not so sure.

i mean forget about doing non-routine/weird stuff. what happened to just good 'ol talking about it? how can i explain so many smart guys and girls around me talking about nothing but the weather and the stock market, every day, every week? i remember the _same_ people talking about writing plays and trying to understand the meaning of life and shit. i guess somewhere along the line it got branded as "that stupid stuff we used to do when we were in college". we were almost bullied into believing that something, like pondering about the nature of the universe or philosophizing for more than 5 mins in public will instantly make to an irresponsible adolescent who has no clue about how the world works.

and it kinda makes sense. the only way to look smart even when you dont know the answer, is to pretend that the question does not exist. if enough people do that, everyone looks smarter and more mature :) and so the heavy questions vanish and the simple ones, well we talk about them every day, dont we?

whatever the case maybe i see things getting that much more routine and dull everyday, and no one seems to mind it. i guess this is what happens when people around you/close to you change, and you dont change with them.

about 10 years ago, i had scribbled (probably under the influence of alcohol) some pages in illegible handwriting of what was supposed to be a one-act play. i expected to find some stupid shit written in those pages (as those are supposed to be the fun but stupid days of your life), surprising didn't find a single word i wished to change in it (talk about learning as you grow, eh? :P).

here is an extract from it. you can get the whole thing here. (dont even think about following it, i am sitting on that link with a club in my hand :P) and thanks ashlya for converting the manuscript into something readable.

<...snip...>
D: तुला काय वाटतं? काय चांगलं आणि काय वाईट हे आपल्याला १००% खात्रीपूर्वक कधी कळतं? म्हणजे साधारण कुठल्या वयात?
प्रे: (मोठ्यांदा हसतो) खरं सांगू का? डोक्यावरचे सगळे केस पिकून गुल झाल्याशिवाय ते काही कळत नाही. म्हणजे ईन मोष्ट केशेश. हा...काही जणांना ते आधी समजायला लागतं, पण तसे लोक कमीच. आणि काही लोकांना तर ते कधीच उमगत नाही.
D: perfect! तुमच्याकडून हेच उत्तर अपेक्षित होतं. पण माझी theory ह्याच्या बरोबर उलटी आहे. प्रत्येक माणसाला चांगलं आणि वाईट ह्याची समज असते. पण...फक्त वयाच्या पाचव्या वर्षापर्यंत
प्रे: तुम्ही पाचव्या वर्षापर्यंत म्हणाला का?
D: (हसतो) हो. let me explain. तुम्ही कधी चड्डीत शू केलिये का?
<...snip...>

yup. it was the alcohol.

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