THE AGE OF REASON

1. The history of thought does not date back to the period when one human being would have wronged another, or when one human being was betrayed by another. Our memories as a society does not date back to those days, likewise, we do not remember when the time was, we for the first time felt cheated or wronged in our childhood.  But we remember the instances when we have forgiven someone. Forgiveness is a trait so courageous and so courteous at the same time that it is barely leaves any feat of strength untouched. Remember, if someone has done some harm to you, and you are having some difficulty forgiving them, come back to yourself, just keep in mind that you are not currently strong enough. Do not return the harm. Come back, introspect, grow, and one day, you will forgive them easily. It is like lifting weights. 100 kgs not in one day, but in 6 months for sure.  2. Indians are into meaning. We have festivals so full of meanings. Diwali has a meaning associated with it. I have...

 One thing that attracts me towards Psychoanalysis is actually two things. One is my own pathological need to understand. And there is something very unusual about this. This is not some sacred curiosity, unravelling the secret bullshit. I think it is a kind of enjoyment that I feel without feeling guilty. Like, I can have fun with friends but there is always a guilt that I am not working but if I and reading psychoanalytic texts, it feels like I am having fun with friends, but also, I am working. This constant simultaneous satisfaction of ID and Superego is what I call a pathological need to understand.  Secondly, Psychoanalysis, in my opinion, a more radical discipline like Philosophy. It is always Meta. It is always deconstructing the main superficial themes of society that are prevalent which sort of makes it like a Detective's job. Like, Psychology will ask, how to live a more satisfying and happy life? On the same lines, Psychoanalysis asks, 'What does it mean to be happ...

Sometimes I wish to dissolve myself in you. Sometimes I feel we are not so much different. Sometimes I feel why not you come to see me. Sometimes I feel this breath in my body is you only. I can feel your touch on my mind, my soul. What else I am but you?  Some days I wish I get converted in a stone statue of yours. Somedays, I wish to be in your feet as a flower. Sometimes I feel nobody knows you who you are but me. Sometimes, this feeling turns into frustration. But then sometimes, I think other than you, is there anything else in this universe?  Between these thoughts, I lose my mind. But this insanity makes me feel so ecstatic. I dance in your name; I chant your name like a child says "mommy". I sometimes think, whether you are true or not. But now I have left this thought in you. You are in me. Who cares if that is true or not. Is my happiness true? Because it is due to you. Is my peace true? Because it is due to you.  Who I was when I did not know you? A baggage of ...

 1. A sorry looking cunt, whose name is Arjuna, is crying like a pussy.  2. He is again giving justifications for his faggot behaviour. Even Krishna points out, Why are you being such a pussy.  3. Krishna knows his shit. He does not validate his ego. He simply knows that this masochistic son of a bitch likes to feel guilty. He enjoys torturing himself.  4. So he just, pokes him even further. "Are you some saint or what?"  5. He seems to worry about people now. What? Did you worry about killings you did earlier as a warrior? So you worry about humanity selectively? You nincompoop.  6. I cannot stand this sorry ass motherfuking son of a bitch of a warrior. I wish, Krishna puts some sense in him.  7. Greatest Warrior of the world, My ass! Lund se greatest! 

1. Well begun is half done, said Shakespeare. How Geeta begins? By a curiosity, but a fickle minded curiosity. What questions you ask tells a lot about you as a person. Most people ask, how can I live a happy life, how can I be satisfied? How will I achieve what I want to achieve?  Why do you think God never shows his face? He is scared of the thirst in humans he has created. Even in reading Geeta, nobody wants to read Geeta to understand what God wants to say. They want to read Geeta today, so that they excel in their fields, they console their minds when their lifestyle is highly competitive and therefore violent.  Everyone wants to make the God stand with him, but who wants to stand with God in what he says?  Dhritrashtra definitely does not want that. A selfish, egoistic person always has complaints with God. He has a list of injustices and misfortunes, and he blames God for all of them. Contrast it with a man who is Dharmic, is a man, who is most of the time just cur...

Government gives ration to people who themselves cannot afford it. But ha! here's the catch. How to know who can or cannot afford it? It is a complex problem. Otherwise, why, a family like mine, with so many privileges would be taking ration on APL cards?  It is ultimately finding loopholes in the system that then grabbing every free stuff you can grab from the Government. My father, who is jobless from a long time, is very proficient in these jobs. And honestly, I cannot feel more humiliated than this. I mean, just think about it. You, a well fed, privilege born man, in 21st century, instead of toiling hard, working hard and earning, rely on fucking government to supply you with free food? This is shameful.  Women of my family desperately force me to stand in queues to get that. I, as a self-respecting man, of 24, feel hell awkward standing there. The people in those lines are not underprivileged at all, there are people who left their job because now, they get free ration, s...

I do not have much to write about my grandma. Here is a poem in Magahi, I wrote about my Grand ma some 2-3 years ago.   दादी माँ, सुनअ नअ,  एगो बात कहीवअ, बहुत दिन से इ बात कहेके मन हेयअ, कहीतअ न ही,  लजयला नियन हो जाइत ही,  बड़ी दिन से मन हे कि माथा रख के तोर गोदी में खूब रोऊँ मन भर,  साँस हो जाये भारी, चाहे गला सूख जाये,  रोये के मन हे!  काहे? तू पूछबअ हमरा मालूम हे,  फिर एतना रोइते रोइते का जबाब बोलम हम,  खुद हमरा न पता,  तू भी रोये लगबअ, पता हे,  साथ में दूनो दादी पोता,  खूब रोये के, का?  फिर मिल के सूजी के हलुआ बनाएल जाई,  कहअ तअ हम ही बना देम, लेकिन तू हीं बनईहअ न!  हमर दादी माँ ए ग्रेड के हलुआ बनावअ हत!  एही न हम अऊर सब दादी से कहअ हली!  हम का बनती हल कुछो, जे तोर हलुआ न खईती हल!  मिठास जे हल हलुआ के, आज हमर आवाज़ हे,  सोन्ह सोन्ह हलुआ नियन बात करेके गुन तोर पोता में कैसे आयल?  हमरा बना देलअ दादी माँ, बूढ़ाढ़ी में भी, माँ अईसन पाल देलअ,  हमनी किहाँ कहाँ अईसन होवअ हे,...

 "Probably he is never going to read this, and I think it is better he doesn't." The earliest memories of mine with my grandfather are me, eating with him in his Thali. He used to put rice in one side of the plate, and I used to eat with him. We used to chant "Bhojan mantra", a hymn that is meant to be recited in Hindu families before eating. Recently, I noticed that however I have stopped doing the Bhojan mantra, but I continue to eat food by putting it at the same corner of the plate. This is the extent of the effect of my grandfather, Daaji, as I call him even now.  Second memory is me, walking with my grandfather to bring vegetables for home and asking him what he thinks about Gandhiji, or Subhash Chandra Bose, or some other freedom fighter of the country. it is quite interesting that my later interests in life have been dictated by my early childhood memories.  He used to play cricket with me when I was a kid. Underarm bowling, and I used to hit six with my...

Birds are loved, so they never chase more than their nests,  Fishes are loved, so they never chase more than food,  Humans are not, so they form governments, they marry and such.  A general perception about this is that Power is the ability to influence the decision making of others. This is the Political science definition of Power. And since, the whole discipline of Political science is concerned with how humans make their collective decisions, a more powerful person will be a politically more influential person. I call it, "Zindagi ko Dekhne ka Raajnitik Chashma!"  Through this lens, you see every quality, instinct or behavior of humans as a tactic to grab hold of power. This view presumes, "why else would one person help other person if there are no selfish motives ( Swaarth) . People, of this school of thought like to call themselves mature, and their viewpoint objective.  Any other viewpoint for them is either a childish or an obscener name that they give,...

My problem, that I discussed with someone few days back, is the same problem I am struggling since a long time. This is my problems with Marxists and Communists too. This obsession to do a major havoc in the world order, the compulsion to cure the world of its mysteries and what they do, they wait for the historical process to take its form, in short, they wait for the revolution.  Life, as we know it, stands right here right now. This mass level politics that wishes to cure the whole international order, why doesn't it act? Probably it fears that without a solid plan, it would fail like it failed in Soviet and China. My concern is that the goal is so big that no plan would ever be perfect to execute this. And that's why I call communism as the plan of extreme emergency.  I believe in a kind of individual help to people. People need it, in some form or other. People need love, attention, they need opportunities, they need material conditions. I will be contended in life if I a...

Recently, I listened to a podcast on International Psychoanalytic Association (IPA)'s website, with the title, "The relentlessness of life extinct as a source inconsolability and greed".  My concerns regarding this are the following. In general, every one of us have some or more amount of living drive and life instinct to call it such. But, sometimes, it is the excess of life and desire to live that makes us desperate and sad. The negativity, often associated with the Todestreib, or Death drive, is in my opinion and also in Opinion of Dr. Salman Akhtar is not correct. It derives its conception from the very nature of human psyche of defeat. Human ego gives up after a point. He realizes that the quest for ultimate satisfaction and the quest of perpetual gratification are two different journeys.  Usually, Life instinct works on the following formula,  Pleasure => Gratification => Satisfaction But, when this link breaks unhealthily, as in, Pleasure does not lead to gra...

Is Pain Necessary to grow? Yesterday, When I was at the Gym, one of the guys there, a junior to me, He is in 8th standard asked for my earphones for a while to listen to music while his set is going on. I gave it to him, but then he said something like, "You are not annoyed or angry because of this, right?" and I said, of course not. Why do you think so? But he did not listen and was in zone now.  That got me thinking, at this age, he must have experienced many passive aggressive and many times openly aggressive people, to take such a light matter into consideration. He literally thought I would be angry at him for asking for earphones. You know a part of me thinks, no one in this world should ever experience cruelty and nobody deserves anger, toxicity, and violence. But again, I feel, how will they grow if they do not experience such hardships.  The relationship between negative experiences and resilience and growth is well-established. But We casually say, we grow through n...

 I am a tree that has traded height for leaves,  Teach me to bear leaves once again, oh bird! I am a mountain, whose snow ate all texture,  Teach me, O River, to flow like you again! I am an ocean, whose depth traded its waves,    Teach me, O moon, to dance with you again!  The phenomenon of "Men written by women", is what has relieved me in recent days. What is it? And what is it for me? And why is it so special in my eyes?  In the wake of a new and egalitarian consciousness, when women began to assert their choices, claim on rights and so on, so they fashioned a new kind of choices, through cinema and literature. This was the "Men written by women". Here, women, wrote men, who were perfect combinations of tenderness and traditional masculinity. Men, who were caring enough to understand complex emotions and yet strong enough to not break down to their emotional crises. Men, who were midway between Traditionally masculine alpha and sigma, and the coy b...

Mahatma Gandhi is called the "Father of this 77- or 78-year-old nation we call India, or Bharat". Who called him so? Probably Subash Chandra Bose while he was in exile. Now, the relations between Bose and Gandhi were quite interestingly analyzed and the tensions regarding the views on freedom struggle is well known. I do not know whether we should, but we definitely can view Bose and Gandhi's difference as the difference between a paternal authority, a father and an adolescent Male child. This view, in my opinion, will also be considered a taboo in the field of political thought. But, here, I am not going to dwell in this.  My concern is with Relations of India as a nation and Gandhi as a leader. What do leaders usually contribute to the Nation building of a particular nation? Is not it quite comparable to the psych-sexual development of a child and a child's personality and how A paternal, a father figure contributes in it? I believe yes, it is. What is the role of p...

We are all dealing with truths. Some are temporary truths; some are more permanent in nature. But eventually, everything is true. There is nothing as such as a lie in this universe. Just think about it, is not lie always in particular context? But we can always de-contextualize it and make it true for a different context? We can always analyze the statement in his own assertion, and we find there is some grain of truth in it.  Poetry, Humanities and Science are three different kinds of truth I have encountered in my life. Science is mostly considered as universal truth, something which is more of a permanent kind of truth. It is reproducible, falsifiable and so on. But even this universality has a backdrop of assumptions and epistemic terminology which is very situational and circumstantial. For example: We assume now a days that Newton discovered Gravitational force. Gravity was there before Newton gave it that name. But think about it, isn't defining Gravity as a force was purely...

"Invent yourself, and then, Re-invent yourself,  Don't Swim in the same slough,  Invent yourself and then, re-invent yourself,  Change your shape and size so often,  that they may not categorize you! Invent yourself and then, Re-invent yourself" ~ Charles Bukowski   Dear Vibhat,  If you are reading this in future, it means you already know what has happened with you and the situation might again seem to be unbearable, I want you to read this. You might remember when something like this happened with you when you were preparing for Civil services exam also. And you tried talking to your friends about this. Have you noticed lately that all your friends, most of them are struggling in their professional lives and hence grown out to be passive aggressive and rude. You talked to Kinshuk last night and he was frustrated as hell. You talk to your childhood friends (Abhishek and Nitesh) on weekends, and you find them either repressing their frustration or just...

The debate of ontology and existence is not new. Neither is the debate of belief and faith. Nor this has grown old whether there is a God or not. And the analogous debate in the 20th century about meaning of existence. All these debates and discussions revolve around a central theme, "Is there a God at all?" This question encompasses all the earlier and later questions regarding this. God, regardless of its form, human or otherwise, if exists, confers meaning.  If we consider blind faith of the medieval dark ages of Europe as madness of civilization, what will you call a reverse fanaticism about non-existence of God through reason in the age of western modernity. The debate really now, in current age, is not really whether the nature of existence has a creator or not. The debate today, if any, is whether such a debate can be constructed, that is, such an ontology around metaphysics, is it even possible? Since Kant's transcendentalism, the reasoning regarding God has becom...

The political science perspective of freedom and liberty is to assume absolute autonomy within Individuals and to provide it with basic civil liberties within the paradigm of state. It basically gives the individual full authority to decide what is best for him and then act upon it. But a philosophically engaging question to ask would be how one can know what is good for oneself?  One answer to this is blind Hedonism. Immediate gratification. But is it always the good choice is obviously a debatable question. Another answer to this is delayed gratification, The path of moralism. But, to what extent one should delay one's gratification is a debate again. Finally, a highly spiritual answer would be what Shrimad Bhagvat Geeta is to not think about what is good for yourself at all. Rather to engage oneself in an action which is your only right. The action to be guided by a collective consciousness called Dharma, which decides what is moral in a particular situation.  A lot of ques...