Freedom Paradox!

Last year in June, in one of our discussions about absolute freedom in life, a friend of a friend, who is an artist cum school teacher living in solitude for quite some time made a statement : "What will be absolute freedom -You get up in the morning with a thing that you want to do and there are no distractions - body-related, friend-related, bills-related, resource-related i.e. anything else but the task/tasks you wanted to do." I reciprocated with the unlikeliness of such a scenario and incomplete meaning of freedom as it becomes circumstances dependent rather than you-dependent. I thought you could choose to be free if you so desired, you could choose not to fall prey to the distractions that stop you from doing what you got in the morning for. The reason we pay heed to these distractions, prove that we choose them over our intent, again using our freedom of choice.

However, it is causing major upheavals inside my neural tissues right now. I got up today, with psychology on my mind - I wanted to view some lectures/listen some audios/read some books, wanted to drown in it. However, my brain keeps getting pre-occupied with my friends getting together in CP, wanting me there, my pup wanting to grab my attention, my next-door close-friend wanting to spend some time together, my mom wanting to make some chit-chat, my country wanting me to go out and vote, my body wanting to soak in water and get cleaned, my mind wanting to be somewhere far, alone and reflecting on so much that skips my eye and my blog wanting to be blemished by new paradoxes in my life. I could understand all this as breach of my freedom, as all of these would be stopping me from doing what I really feel like. On the other hand, all of these activities are things I enjoy and love. And hence by choosing to do any of these, though I lose my freedom to pursue my primary interest for time-being, I might also be using my freedom of not being tied up by my primary objectives and being free to follow my other interest as and when I like. On the contrary, if I choose to do divulge into psychology without paying any amount of time to the other activities, I have my primary sense of "freedom" intact but I might risk loosing a good time with my friends or missing an antic of my pup etc. So, my head is already calculating and extrapolating the graph of risks involved vs. worth of my primary objective; this act itself distracting my focus from the primary goal to now its "worth". So, now even if I choose the former, I have a divided mind - not a free one. So, whatever I choose, I still lose my freedom in some way or another!

Crossroads.. an old article in the old Job

Lost in translation!!

Recently, I was asked to write an article in Good to know section of TCS magazine.. I thought this might be intrestingly safe..

Ever wondered, what would you call a person who is ready to forgive any abuse the first time it occurs, to tolerate it the second time, but to neither forgive nor tolerate a third offense. Unless you were born in Congo, you’d be speechless about this one. The correct answer is “Ilunga”[ee-Iun-ga], originated from the Tshiluba language spoken in south-eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. This would also be the world’s most difficult word to translate according to an article published by the BBC on June 22, 2004.

There are other bizarre words running close in the competition. Take “Torschlusspanik” [To:-sh-lus-pæ-nik] for an example. This German word literally means “gate-closing panic” and is used to describe the fear of diminishing opportunities as one age. This word is most frequently applied to women who race the ‘biological clock’ to wed and bear children. Even more intriguing is “Mamihlapinatapei”[Mam-ihlapi-na-tapei] from Yagan, the indigenous language of the Tierra del Fuego region of South America, implying a wordless yet meaningful look shared by two people who both desire to initiate something but are both reluctant to start. The Guinness Book of World Records calls it the "most succinct word".

If those words struck a chord of familiarity, try the French phrase “l'esprit d'escalier” [e-SPREE des-kal-i-YE], or spirit of the staircase, used to describe the precise moment a person comes up with a clever repartee to an embarrassing insult. It is usually after leaving the party, and walking down the stairs that the mind gets that smart reply, and hence the phrase.
Ending with my personal favorite, “mokita” from New Guinea, which is the truth that everybody knows about but nobody speaks.
So, if you have a love for strange words, there is a whole world out there, at times unique to a language which for you means a sense of weird joy, but for the translator, nightmares!!

Idiot and the idiot box.

In my earlier post, Addiction prone vs. addiction proof; i talked about how "other" people handle their addiction or the lack of it... Well, here i would like to confess, that once upon a time, i was addicted to the idiot box..

As my dad often narrates me the story, that as a child i was very hard-working and good girl (and by that he means always interested in doing any dead boring domestic task, as if it was my dream-job).. and tv was there in our home, but you see, i was too passionate about other things to ever pay attention to it.. and one day, my dad committed the gravest mistake; he saw me doing some work, and asked me to halt that and watch the tv with him... And that was a turning point in my life!!

It was love at first sight, i was bowled over by its grandeur, though what we had, was a shamelessly small set, 14 inches; black and white screen; and a very ugly shutter, and combined with the fact Doordarshan in those days was hideously dull... but i guess, love really is blind!!.. anyhow, it started to replace all my other activities, and thus was created my signature laziness and procrastination... i was so attracted to that thing, that i was found (many a times) actually moving towards it mesmerized, until there was a mere 20cm distance between us.. and this may seem like an exaggeration but my family can swear on it.. i don't remember much, what the hell i used to watch on it... mostly cartoons, chitrahaar, cricket and basically everything else..

So my condition wasn't good, but it was still under control, the final straw came when we got the cable... i was in 6th standard, i think.. and thats when my parents completely lost their sweet, obedient daughter... i became hysterical with so many channels to fill in my mind space.. i became the ultimate tv guide, before the cable guys even thought of coming out with it.. and im really not proud, of documenting this looserish fling that i had with my tv, if i'm giving that kind of vibes.. but i was just unstoppable... i always had to have the remote, like a divine right; so that meant war with my brother at almost all times.. i used to plead to my dad to let me watch the late night shows, to which he had just one answer, NO... and that used to make me so mad, that i would watch double the amount the next day, just to compensate.. would lie down like a corpse on the couch and stay there until someone would turn it off..

ya i know, it makes me sick too.. but i did get out of that addiction, more sooner than later.. owing to many factors; most important being, i wasn't enjoying myself.. it feels so much better to be in control of your life. After all its nothing but an idiot box.. ending with a quote, i don't remember from whom:

" Tv has proved that people would look at anything, rather than each other."