Today I saw Amitav Ghosh being interviewed on some news channel. Barkha Dutt was conducting it, and the audience mostly comprised literature professors. I have not read too much of him, only ‘Dancing in Cambodia, at large in Burma’, and that too, when I was very young. I do remember that it introduced me to Pol Pot.
He is from St Stephens’ college. So are Shashi Tharoor, Kapil Sibal, Natwar Singh and Mani Shankar Aiyar to name a few. I am not just dropping data, I am mighty impressed.
My curriculum-vitae reads funny - an Engineering degree in Telecommunications, a two year stint in IT (which had as little to do with Telecom as the Ram Temple in Ayodhya has to do with Godliness) and then the MBA which led to what I believe is my calling - far truer than any other - Marketing and perhaps, Sales (Sales is like the martinet-general, once schooled by him, you are never the same; but a good soldier, after having received his war-stripes, moves on.) I still have to make my mind up about that.
This post is meandering. What I really intended to do is mull over what I would have been had I not stepped into the glam-n-glitz of engineering (I suffer from intellectual snobbery, being an engineer is like page-three glamour for me :P ).
I have this theory - the life-is-a-canvas theory. I thought it up one day and was strangely proud of it. I tried to tell a few people, but they only laughed. One of my greatest achievements in life has been overcoming the fear of being ridiculed. So here it is - my life-is-a-canvas theory - for public consumption.
Internal Vs External. Self Vs Fate. Ability Vs Circumstances. Imagine a canvas - many-textured, loha at some places, satin at others; many hued - black and white and the entire range in between; glittering glimmering like a star and then again, dull as grey - imagine such a canvas. And then imagine yourself as an artiste. You daub at times, paint in broad strokes at others and bloody throw the damned pot of paint at the infuriating canvas on occasion. You change colors, you change themes, and you even change brushes. Some paint well, some don’t. Sometimes you paint well, but not always. The painting that you finally see emerging is your labor of love, no doubt, but not entirely as you had imagined it inside your head. Sometimes, it is better.
There it is - my theory! Hah! Although, it’s no E=MC^2, I bet Einstein would not have laughed.
11 comments:
Who could laugh at this? This was mind-blowing.
before i comment on ur 'canvas theory', wud like to know what makes u feel that engg life is a glitz n glam life... in my view its a simple n a down-2-earth experience which actually we all experience tho it may start at times on a glam note. i believe the experience makes every1 a human in the rite sense and teaches one to place ones' heart n brain at the rite place- takeaways of the hostel life u c..
coming to ur 'canvas theory'.. a superb depiction of the concept called life and the uncertainty it brings with itself. The beauty lies in successfully separating the 'situational' aspect from the 'self' aspect, the combination of which makes life what it is.
Adding to this theory-one's life is not only the combination of one's own painting on the unpredictable canvas but also the result of some other painters who try to paint on our bit of canvas knowingly or unknowingly. And it is this third party involvement which makes place for both freinds and foes in our lives. Those who dont paint on our bit, are those we call strangers :)
Doing an engg from a Univ which has the best free-market education mart in the country... where u hv pre-semester 'classes', "normal" classes, crash courses, super short crash courses, Jigar guides...... Not quite sure how much intellectually snobbish that should make you ;)
For me, Life is just one chocolate after the other... the bitter ones I gulp down, savor the sweet ones and sometimes acquire a taste for the occasional weird ones. Maybe I will never graduate to a higher art form or maybe I will :)
@Alec - Thanks man :) It took me awhile and some mentions of Rahul Pal to deduce who you were ;) And it all fit then, the crisp writin and the Smart-Alec-ness ;)
@Jagdish - Let me not get into why I think it's glam, coz I myself dont know, but I really like being an engineer, aldo I cant 'engineer' even a single thing :P
I really liked the bit you said abt other people painting on our canvas - very apt :)
@ Dhiren - That Somaiya bit is best forgotten - atleast in terms of my academic advancement there :) So it's Forrest - Forrest Gump for you ;) Anyway, there are as many metaphors for life, as there are bacteria, and like bacteria - they co-exist and multiply at a rapid rate ;)
St. Stephen's the best...And Barkha Dutt is a Stephanian too. In fact she was the last female who stood for President before my great friend my batch who I portrayed so realistically :) How have u been?
@Fugitive - U are going to ask me how I have been as a sort of after-thought after having waxed eloquent about ur suspicious accomplishments? ;)
My accomplishments are miniscule compared to my concern for ur well-being. I reacted to ur blog first bcoz this is the comments section :) Now how have u been?
I do not think that any comment I could write here would come anywhere near the content of the post and the thought process behind it. Hats off!
@Fugitive - I am doing good, extremely busy etc :) Will be making a few trips to bbay soon..let's see if ur available to express ur concern in person too ;)
@Kavity - U embarass me, but thanks :)
Wonderful post yaar!! To put things in context, even if you aren't 100% satisfied with your canvas, u should be mighty proud of the painter you have become:) Seriously, really good post!!
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