DRINKING ALCOHOL

Your drinking and my drinking are different. Very different.

Your drinking comes in two versions:

Ordinary-idiot.drinking.version.1. – Drinking with guys shouting random insults at the top of your voice till you vomit or dance around the roads.

Ordinary-idiot.drinking.version.2. – Drinking with guys discussing beauty of some secret crush known by all except her and deciding finally to call her and depending upon your background deciding whether to let her go, abuse her verbally or throw acid on her face upon refusal.

My drinking comes in two versions:

Great-genius.drinking.version.1. – Drinking with men (not guys!) talking about world history, science, news, politics, literature, music and a little bit of our lives.

Great-genius.drinking.version.2. – Drinking alone while writing, playing videogames, reading, listening to music and/or contemplating the nature of Universe.

So, we both drink, but very differently.

– Madhuvan Rishiraj

THE PERFECTION IN DIRT

Why is India still in ruins? Because everyone knows here that perfection is an illusion.

Do you shave? You know there is no extent to it. There is always some hair left. Also whatever is shaved will grow back. People in several intellectual circles understood this secret like the ancient Rishis (vedic sages) and stopped shaving.

We as Indians have understood that it is all a frustrating cycle of dirt and cleanliness, so we have chosen to embrace dirt and display it in the streets. Today where we have Taj Mahal, there were jungles there once. But still we don’t piss on the Taj thinking there is no perfection in its beauty and then birds also piss there. Or no! We don’t really piss there because law doesn’t let us.

-Madhuvan Rishiraj

OMNIA VANITAS

The newer generations trust the services around them more than the older ones. They think all that is around them will remain forever.

For example, a younger person is more likely to trust his credit card or debit card to work whenever he wants and have little cash with him. He would also trust services like internet to be available almost everywhere.

On the other hand we see older people (not the elderly, just the generation that grew up before the advent of computers, for example) keep more cash with them, because somehow they don’t trust the banks or cash cards as much as the youth does. They have seen more all along their lives. They have seen many such services appear and disappear. They have seen times of crises. They have seen the society descend into something unexpected on several points in history. So, it is not easy for the governments to lead them into believing that all that is around them is eternal. The older generation would not trust the internet as firmly as the newer one does. They still believe in storing music or videos, even if it is downloaded or pirated, instead of watching or hearing them online.

The young ones, as they have not seen the atrocities the humans can commit (most don’t even read), the depths that humanity can descend into, the wars that can leave cities into ruins, the famines that can end villages, they think everything that makes their lives effortless has always been there, and will be there. They are sure that humans will never revert back to a previous stage of technology, economy or society. They believe what governments say is the absolute truth.

The young man believes that the world has entered the cyber-age and will keep advancing, never to turn back; whereas the old man knows that humans can revert back to stone age any given day.

-Madhuvan Rishiraj

PARADISE

My vision of paradise is this very planet or any other with all the flora and fauna (animals and plants), but not a single human there.

Many will say “then who the paradise is for?” and that very question explains why humans are not for the paradise and the paradise is not for them.

True bliss arises when the desire to “use” is no longer there. You want to create a paradise only when it is for you.

– Madhuvan Rishiraj