Ideas are Immortal

I started off writing this post thinking about something else,but it eventually coalesced into this one.

There are very few things in life which can keep us excited and hooked on forever. These are the things which can simultaneously occupy our minds, give food for thought and tickle our senses. Though,it varies from person to person, each of us definitely would have a precious few things to attach to and immerse in them. (The ‘materialistic pleasure’ if quoted in terms of the spiritual hypocrites)

These are manifested in the forms of intimate hobbies,passions and obsessions. The joy catered to us by such endearing endeavors is what makes our lives worth living for the sake of ‘some things‘, apart from living for someone and ourselves. Indulging in performing gratifying acts to the self gives a sensation better than that of any accomplishment;It enhances us, makes us realize our existence in entirety.

There are a lot many manifestations of such natural instincts in each of us, which transform into passionate indulgences as we grow. This subsequently gets us in vibe with our Natural frequency, enabling the resonance of our passions with that of the world.

If each of us nurtured and nourished these passions, that would be the greatest penance for happiness in our lives.

To whom should propaganda be made to appeal? To the educated intellectual classes? Or to the less intellectual?

Propaganda must always address itself to the broad masses of the people. For the intellectual classes, or what are called the intellectual classes today, propaganda is not suited, but only scientific exposition. Propaganda has as little to do with science as an advertisement poster has to do with art, as far as concerns the form in which it presents its message. The art of the advertisement poster consists in the ability of the designer to attract the attention of the crowd through the form and colours he chooses. The advertisement poster announcing an exhibition of art has no other aim than to convince the public of the importance of the exhibition. The better it does that, the better is the art of the poster as such. Being meant accordingly to impress upon the public the meaning of the exposition, the poster can never take the place of the artistic objects displayed in the exposition hall. They are something entirely different. Therefore. those who wish to study the artistic display must study something that is quite different from the poster; indeed for that purpose a mere wandering through the exhibition galleries is of no use. The student of art must carefully and thoroughly study each exhibit in order slowly to form a judicious opinion about it.

The situation is the same in regard to what we understand by the word, propaganda. The purpose of propaganda is not the personal instruction of the individual, but rather to attract public attention to certain things, the importance of which can be brought home to the masses only by this means.

Here the art of propaganda consists in putting a matter so clearly and forcibly before the minds of the people as to create a general conviction regarding the reality of a certain fact, the necessity of certain things and the just character of something that is essential. But as this art is not an end in itself and because its purpose must be exactly that of the advertisement poster, to attract the attention of the masses and not by any means to dispense individual instructions to those who already have an educated opinion on things or who wish to form such an opinion on grounds of objective study – because that is not the purpose of propaganda, it must appeal to the feelings of the public rather than to their reasoning powers.

(Excerpts from Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf  when talking about War Propaganda- A realistic appraisal of the use of propaganda to the masses )

For those of you who didn’t know- I am very bad at remembering places, routes or understanding and visualizing maps 😉 School Geography was highly obscure to me, for I could interpret very little about directions, hemispheres, latitudes and longitudes. Maps have been the toughest in the academic syllabi for me.

The hilarious aspect of this syndrome is that, I don’t seem to have bettered in it. Spotting local places within Bangalore has become a Herculean task for me. Don’t take this as exaggeration, people who’ve been with me out hunting for places would know it best 🙂

Hitherto, I had been commuting by buses mainly and used to give no heed to landmarks or roads or maps. Off late, I am having to visit lots of places on my vehicle and it has become tedious for me to get to any point, even after doing my homework to reach the place i.e., using Google maps!

I feel lost in most occasions, and it takes me repeated commutes to get the routes registered in my mind. My friends at FSMK know this, and successfully pull pranks on me out of this syndrome, which I deserve very well 🙂

I have promised myself to be more attentive while travelling in order to reduce the embarrassment and more importantly not to get lost!

The Demon Haunted World -That’s Carl Sagan’s book about the importance of scientific temperament and dissolution of pseudo science and superstitions.

Take for example, today’s spectacular Annular Solar eclipse. In southern India it was very prominent, Bangalore witnessed an 85% eclipse, which was scintillating enough a natural marvel. Instead of savoring this Once-in-a-millennium experience, hoards of people shut themselves into their houses, without taking in any food or water, performing poojas to their deities, talking trash about the event-Ultimately, missing a spectacular spectacle of the sun, moon and the earth!

I tried a lot not to get this post on my blog. But, the current affairs of the state have forced me to.

I have always tried not to bother too much about the Government and its ridiculous flaws. Because, it is very depressing. I have come to believe-India is undoubtedly the largest democracy, but also the one demonstrating all the inherent flaws of this system more prominently than its positives.

Corruption, dishonesty,recklessness,disinterest towards people and their needs, exploitation of people for political gains, rowdism, embezzlement of Government funds, and all the offenses you can think of when a greedy animal aspires of power and gets there!

For instance, the disgraceful feud between the former Prime Minister of India and the present Chief Minister of Karnataka. They are both equally involved in huge scams which the entire people know, without having to prove any of them. On the top of this,they are using abusive language on each other in public and in front of media! Such a shame and disgrace.

It is highly unfortunate to put up with a system like this. If one complains about this, the challenge imposed on you is to enter the system and better it!

I don’t agree that it is possible. The system now has this malice in its genes, it will be the same until and unless the system itself is renovated.And for the system to be renovated, it requires a strong antidote.

I’d strongly recommend at least a decade of Reign by a passionate Idealist(yes, i am suggesting a benevolent dictatorship)to bring the system on the right track. I see all of this changing only when a radical change like what i mentioned will occur.

With lack of patriotism and greed all over them, most of the politicians are consuming the lives and livelihoods of people like fuel to run their malicious bureaucracy in this primarily flawed democracy.

Vinnaithaandi Varuvaya- A first time venture of  A R Rahman with director Gautam Menon, and the result is something extraordinary. This is the newest kind of sound I’ve heard for any Indian origin music! Specifically, the mixing is brilliant for all tracks.

Gautam is always inclined towards strings, and his previous movies used to prominently have electric guitar, whereas in VTV, AR has used lot of cool sound from acoustic guitar and a beautiful orchestra of Violins and Cellos i suppose. The tunes are again-work of a genius.

Track-wise comments:

1. Omana Penne- A sweet, catchy song with some real nice,mushy lyrics.
2. Anbil Avan- Starts off like a naadhaswaram-gospel fusion, then the singers take it high and low on a beautiful tune with a sublime naadhaswaram solo…
3. Vinnaithaandi Varuvaya– Karthik at his best singing a tune which keeps ringing in your head, complemented by some simple but exquisite strings
4. Hosana- This is the song which is going to be played on all music shows. Relatively slow,but a catchy number…
5. Kannukkul kannai– A teaser, with a cheeky violin piece throughout the song sung by Naresh Iyer.
6. Mannipaaya– This is my personal favorite with amazing lyrics, and a superb tune which goes the entire vocal range. Shreya Goshal sounds authentically Tamil, and AR does a great job with his part of the song. 
7. Aaoromale- The surprise track of the album. Lot of heavy strings, rustic male vocals by Alphonse and lyric in Malayalam. The most pleasantly weird song by AR!

Overall, this album will stand the test of time. The movie itself and the picturisation will propel these deeper into the audience.

(An episode of comments on my Facebook profile)
Me:
“A book is a version of the world. If you do not like it, ignore it; or offer your own version in return” Salman Rushdie

My Friend:
Stop reading books i say you can never learn more than what is written in the book…..experiment innovate and learn…..why learn up what all the mortals have summed up for ages…..you can that way be no smarter than they were…books kill authentic creation…innovate with nature…live in the real world

Me:
Misconception 1: I,or any good reader for that matter does not read to just learn what’s in the book. That’s always the foundation to your thoughts and ideas so that you don’t reinvent the wheel or repeat the mistakes flashing in the history.

Misconception 2: Learning and innovation in today’s world go hand in hand-because you can’t invent everything starting from scratch.

Misconception 3:‘why learn up what all the mortals have summed up for ages’ -Because you are also a mortal and you most probably won’t be able to do everything all your ancestors did within your own lifetime!

Misconception 4: Books do not kill authenticity! They give you a perspective, and that will remain attached to you if you’ve already had that in you,it most of the times betters your creativity.

Misconception 5:To innovate you need to be equipped, and books are one of the most effective means my friend.

Ultimately,I find your comment prejudiced for some reason inexplicable to me! But, do read books-there’s no point disregarding all the knowledge percolated through ages in the form of books. You need to groom yourself,mature and then hone in your instinctive skills. For that, reading is the best method, else you will live in a delusion.And that is ‘not the real world’ my friend!

PS: I am not implying that books are better off of authentic creativity, but I am saying that all the authentic creation of our predecessors should be a source of inspiration to us, and to get positively inspired-Reading their works is the best means!

After almost 3 years, I finally got my byke (Its called BSA-Pulsar!!!) redone today. This is my seven year old byke,and today I rode for about 25 km since noon….

A reminiscing experience of the good(I won’t say old!) school and college days.Now,after a sabbatical from byking,it feels a lot different-I seem to be riding all along the streets in a taller posture and with a better view!

And to where did I go?
After loafing all of my vicinity and the immediate proximities, I rode to IISc-Best place for Byking in Bangalore, to meet a Computer Science Professor for our FSMK activities… A full stretch ride amidst the serenity of IISc made this comeback byking more enjoyable.

The general consciousness of Going Green is driving a good number of Bengalureans go Byking, and it is a good symptom. And,I shall try to fit in as a Byker whenever and wherever possible…

I call this my small big-comeback!