It’s been a while since I said something.
The truth is I didn’t have anything to say.
I’ve been listening.
I’ve been thinking.
I’ve been chilling.
I’ve been editing.
I’ve been putting extra hours at work.
And extra hours at sleep as well.
Leading a pretty regular normal life.
It’s been a really weird fortnight, chasing deadlines.
About ten days ago, an unexpected vacation came by… a feel-good trip to Bangalore. Thanks to A who took me to a couple of super romantic spots in the pub city. A chilly evening, breeze, booze and a little drizzle just to give it a touch of perfection. God must’ve been in a good mood.
The flip side of it was that it wasn’t intended to be a vacation. I had gone there on work, on a specific mission of finding the right actors for the rest of the shoot. That quite didn’t work out.
The whole week passed in trying to fix the shoot, in between tight work and editing schedules. And there was an excuse to unwind when my office threw a party at Aqua @ The Park for the Metroplus Theatre Festival.
Last night, I chatted into the night with a friend. “It’s a pointless life. Here I am in this room thinking I make a difference to the world. Then you zoom out and see there are 10 different houses and many people like us who think they actually make a difference. Zoom out further, you see this city and then country and the world and the universe and you realise you are not even a speck on the face of the planet. We are nothing in the larger picture. Education has fooled us into believing that we mean something,” said V.
And no, neither of us were drunk. Though we wished we were. We were listening to some rocking music (Requiem for a dream, Tambourine Man, Doors, Dylan) and continuing our debate.
“There is a point,” I said, trying my best to brush up my feel-good rhetoric that had been gathering dust over the past fortnight. “And we define what we mean and who we want to be. Are you happy being inside in this room or do you want to make yourself heard in this colony, in this city, in this country… Do you want to be seen even when someone zooms out of this country? Or are you happy sitting in a corner and complaining about how insignificant we really are? We all come into this world with a purpose. We spend half a lifetime finding it. And the rest trying to accomplish it. There is a reason. And the reason is life itself, the journey of finding answers.”
He saw through all the lines influenced by half a dozen movies (including my own) and said, “It all sounds good. But in reality, we are just a mass of flesh. You could find your purpose today, become a millionaire and the very next day, you could get run over by a car. We don’t control anything.”
“We can’t control death. But we can control life. And how we are going to live it as long as we have it,” I said.
We were both probably having an argument for the heck of it, but the debate was reinforcing something very basic — We are all so similar, we just believe we are different because of our influences. V did have a point when he said education had fooled us into believing we know it all.
These influences had made us believe we are cool. Made us judge people on the basis of what we believe we know. Made us look down at some, look up towards some.
Our lives indeed centred around ourselves.
“Maybe that’s even more reason to make a difference to the world. Be selfless, like Gandhi. You’ll be remembered even after your death. Maybe someday they will put your face like they have his face imprinted on every single currency note,” I said.
“Gandhi is dead,” said V. “What difference does it make to him that we’ve put his face on the note?”
Ah! Life is pointless indeed! He he!
Let’s not take it too seriously!
MADRAS INK. 
“Gandhi is dead,” said V. “What difference does it make to him that we’ve put his face on the note?”
apadi podu aruvaala!!
It doesnot make any difference to Gandhi-but what matters is his selflessness due to which he has made a difference in the life of each Indian.
Sud..Awesome post…”education fools us into …” was sumthin mind-blowing… Srinivas.
I sincerely second your point that there is no point in life.
But then, life goes on and so does the pointlessness of it.
Happy Frienship day, people!
Good to see a ‘cool’ post….
Know what? I also happen to live by what you say…’dont take life too seriously’,..and wouldja believe it? All the trouble I get into, inadvertently and otherwise, is simply becos of that? Becos, every second person is so serious, they run the risk of looking like the handiwork of a rather unskilled taxidermist! Keep saying ‘chill’ suds….dunno about the others, but I sure need it!
Morose-me.
i agree with V man..education has fooled us and we know it is fooling us but still we get fooled! But anyways what the heck..njoy life!
Dear Mr.Sudhishananda :-)… frankly speakin…theese introspective blah blah.. will take u nowhere…..tell me somthin bout the film …hope to see tflw atleast this yr…
“Almost everything you do will seem insignificant, but it is important that you do it” – Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948)
Probably it gives a clue…
it does not make a difference to gandhi..but it makes a difference to millions of uninspired people..looking at his face on a rupee note..is like that advertisement on the back of an auto..sends subliminal messages of a life well lived..inspiration to be selfless and whole lot of that good stuff..his face represents a mentally strong india when the rupee note travels abroad..so i prefer to say it does make a difference..life is not pointless…its like an ink pen..it can be put to an end but what it writes is history.(or in ur case..keyboard)..keep it up!!
oops..i forgot to put my name down..on the previous anonymous one..its Girish
Hey sud,
When i was readin the post, I just got reminded of the times, that i’ve looked up the sky and felt the vastness suddenly shrinking me to a mere speck(infact not even a speck..) You feel so small when u suddenly discover the mightiness of god’s creation. Dont take me spiritual, but i’m sure you would have also wondered abt it during the times u stand in front of the vast, never ending ocean.Sometimes these things actually make us shed our ego.. more like E!Go..! Perhaps thats why, and thats how, we would come to appreciate the more insignificant things in our life. An incident that i read. A typical housewife, sitting by the window. Fallseason. The wind starts blowing and the lawn starts getting filled with dried leaves. She immediately thinks,” ‘Oh God!’ .I just raked the lawn,now I’ve to do it all over again..” . Suddenly her daughter runs to her and then looks out of the window and say delightedly, ” Mommy! look at that beautiful carpet of dried leaves.” Hearing her daughter, she realised how different her perspective had become in the materialsitic world.
Maybe its not so pointless after all. We are born, we live , we die. All it matters is how we live. We dont live to make a significant mark in the world. I am sure Gandhi would not have worked towards’ “My aim is to become the father of the nation.” or “My aim is to have my face in indian currency.”
Govinda š
I’m sitting in a classroom, listening to an effeminate prof, while we scribble away to glory on the whiteboard,”ten here, eight here, three there..blah blah”. I want to run out right now. don’t know what is stopping me.
-pointless