Monday, August 30, 2010

Happy Birthday Oakenfold


Today is the birthday of the British disc jockey and king of trance music, Paul Oakenfold.

For those of who know and follow this legend, his musical creations are a world apart, invoking within oneself a different realm that allows one to smell red, see ecstasy and feel the electric sense of an upbeat mood, without the assistance of any hallucinogenic substance, but merely as a result of wonderful conceptualized music!

So, facelifter, bunkka man, and popkiller, as you continue to rock the world with likes of Earth, Wind and Fire, Redefining Oblivion wishes you a very happy birthday! May you continue to find the inspiration to chart interstellar journeys for millions of us who trip and travel unaided, fuelled only by the stunning doses of your magnificent composition!

Go on, make us the sound of tomorrow!

Footnotes:

Official Website - Paul Oakenfold

Image courtesy: Google Images

Friday, August 27, 2010

The Others

Very quietly, my other blogs, the photoblog - Imaging Oblivion © ® and the Geo-political space - Thoughts of a Geo-political Observer © ®, are coming of age. They are now 20 and 15 months old respectively and are striving to shirk off their fledgling state while showcasing some unique and interesting depictions and points of view!

For me, nothing seems to be more rewarding than to see my creative actions being well appreciated and received in the right spirit. There, perhaps, is no equal to a feeling that evokes a sense of elation when one witnesses his own conception take wings! More importantly, these exercises continue to help me advance a long cherished dream, one that involves furthering one's passion above all else, in an attempt to remain happy at all times, and to be able to understand the world around!

It is a very content and happy feeling to be able to connect with people far and wide and to gain an understanding of different perspectives, and attempt to comprehend the driving forces behind every creative action, no matter how insignificant it may appear to be. In doing so, I believe, one broadens the scope of one's own horizon, allowing much to be seen and understood, in a rather equitable state of being!

As always, thank you for your kind patronage!

Monday, August 23, 2010

Wishes on Onam

Today is Onam, the most celebrated festival of Kerala, marking the homecoming of the legendary King Mahabali, during whose benevolent rule Kerala enjoyed a golden era, one of peace, prosperity and general well-being, which is believed to be unmatched to this day!

The following words of Mahabali hold immense significance even today and should well be considered as a model code for existence, "Prana (life) and Maana (honour) are like the two eyes of a person. Even if life goes, honour should be protected. Knowing that the person that has come now is the Lord Himself, I should be the most fortunate one as the Lord, who gives everything to mankind, is seeking something from me."

On this joyous occasion, I extend my wishes for a very happy and peaceful life, with prayers for a healthy and prosperous being, one that is constantly driven by purpose and goodwill.

God bless!

Thursday, August 19, 2010

Self subjective

And remember, no matter where you go, there you are!

-- Confucius 

Just how important is faith? Or, how realistically resilient should one be? Better still, how pertinent is patience in the face of continuing adversity? Difficult questions? Or means for renewed introspection, I wonder!

Every facet of life is something that presents a unique opportunity to understand oneself more than anything or anyone else, for the entity called the self is really the only variable, though seemingly constant, with other things being merely subjective influences - Cēterīs paribus, in better known terms! So, if assumptions are really characteristic only to the basis of incurred instances, the most fundamental supposition should be based upon the premise that every occurrence is as similar as another! Yet we know well that such is hardly the case. So, could this be termed as a paradox? Of what, understanding or the lack of it?

Now, everything that falls into the element of being subjective is time-bound! Yet, why do the effects of such subjective influences outlast the catalysts themselves? Is it possibly because of dependent variables being mired into the equation at a fundamental level and furthered by a larger cause of pursuit? Come to think of it, some events, themselves, may not be as prolonging in their happening when compared to the effects of their consequences, such as for instance the nuclear weapons detonated at Hiroshima and Nagasaki, both of which actions though confined only to a few moments, their resultant fallout having lasted for decades!

So, the questions really are how much, how long, how far, how high, how more or less? Subjective? Well, why do I get the feeling that the beginning is as important as the proceeding!

Sunday, August 15, 2010

Beyond Independence

I dream, of a place where prosperity and peace reign supreme in the hearts and minds of all people alike, where hatred and prejudice find not so much as even a mention. I envision a land where poverty and strife are unknown, where harmony and love prevail unending, where people flourish joyfully, owing to the bounties of nature and self-created wonders of good living, where education and wisdom are at large, for everyone's partaking rather than limited to a select few! I dream of a people free from divisions and discrimination, insulated from disease, misery and maleficence!

I dream, that such a place be known to the world as India and it's people as Indians!

I have a dream!

Monday, August 09, 2010

250 posts later

Since May 2006, until now, 250 posts have come to be on this space. Though relatively small in number, the exercise has undoubtedly blessed me with rich measures of interaction with fellow-bloggers from far and wide, in an attempt to understand people, cultures and mannerisms! Many worthy friendships have been formed and I now feel as if part of a large, yet closely knit family of intellectuals, who continually offer an insight into life in a manner that is certainly unparalleled.

I've often been asked how one can, so closely, relate to a world that can at best be visualized in a very individualistic perspective, far away from one that has a definite structure, hierarchy and system. My answer has always been a simple one, emphasizing upon the need to understand this tapestry of a network as an extension of one's existing life than view it in isolation and resultant colourlessness - best perhaps, to be seen as being among the many facets that make up our very existence!

Not oddly enough, readings and experiences here, have accentuated, among other things, my level of spirituality, a passion for literature and an undying need to go out and see the remarkable wide world! Perhaps, I may not be able to chart a dream journey of sorts or pause enough to read every epic that has ever been written, but through you and your respective spaces, and your valued perspectives, I will continue to see the world and remain immensely comforted at the thought of being able to be connected in such short bursts of time, while so far apart, yet so definitively!

This is a world of leaders, those of creative excellence fueled with a very deep sense of passion and thus being able to bring out from within creations that are timeless and certainly unique, every single one of which holds immense significance and meaning that appeals to the deepest insides of the human spirit! For the same reason, I consider it a matter of pleasure and privilege extraordinaire to be part of this wonderful world and most importantly to be associated so closely with every one of you!

Friday, August 06, 2010

Inception

To dream is to be able to see reality, a setting that exists within the walls of the mind and therefore real in being experienced, seen and lived and yet unreal in the waking state purely because any attempt of it's recreation is most certainly futile. Ever wondered why it is so really difficult to recollect a dream long after it's been played in the mind? Now, that is only the beginning of things, in a way that we know of it, or perhaps not!

It is nearly always impossible to remember the start of a dream, in the element in which it begins to occur. One can at best find oneself deep in the process of the event even as it unfolds in a seemingly random and untraceable state of succession! There may be intermittent parallels to reality in the sense of how the memory contributes it's feed as a direct bearing of having seen and experienced matter in the real world. Such parallels, although appearing to be limitless are confined to a certain pattern, only to the extent of being able to be replicated in the same sense of how reality has contorted the innards of the mind, never free to envision a path anew or afresh! To that extent parallels are only a minute part of the entire configuration and not the pattern itself.

But parallels are not the only things that make up the matter that constitute the process of apparitions that are generated by the subconscious mind. There is the imaginative state that exceeds perhaps even the best of creativity, in giving birth to realms of possibilities that appear so real that one is utterly perplexed at the detail with which they occur, often casting the mind into a spasmodically fearful state. And what one does not understand and comprehend, one can and will only fear!

Then, there are stages that convolute in an endless quagmire, occurring and recurring as if generated by the electrical activity within the brain, combined with an imaginative process that can at most times be colourful yet appear in a sepia like tone! One often struggles to lock away those menacingly replicating states, but finds oneself at the mercy of the subconscious for not being able to do just that. Then the battle to create situations arises, where one would create a prison to carefully shut away those repetitions and assign a characteristic attribute to them all, in a serious effort to calm the conscious state against the tedious and taunting proceedings of the subconscious!

The worst kind of a dream is perhaps one in which the entity sees itself in a surrounding which appears to be undergoing a terrible state of degeneration, such as structures falling apart and streets splitting wide open, where despite every effort, the overwhelming succession of events provide no opportunity to gain control over the situation, to be able to attempt to reverse it! One feels as if transcending not just places and time but also realms outside of the Earth, far away and deep inside space! Escape, or liberation as some may prefer to call it, comes from well within, through what are mental projections generated at speeds faster than light in order to create a situation, binding upon which the entity will then further. These projections could by far create an unending network of places and people which seem real right down to the experience of emotion or the familiarity of the place, despite not ever having been there before! Laws of physics do not matter or hold importance of this realm, and can best be used to deduce the state which one is in!

There cannot possibly be any explanation for the realities that exist and happen in such remarkable detail within our minds. They could be as a result of the past, present or maybe even the future, and we have no means of knowing that ever! Momentarily gaining control during the whole process, the conscious stage attempts to offer comfort or courage as the case maybe, and then again allows it's counterpart to chart another course that although appearing remarkably familiar, may well be one that cannot ever be connected to, despite the need to decipher and understood, as if perhaps bearing the very elixir of life!

Sunlight, and another form of reality appears, and for that matter, every dream is only half remembered!

Footnotes:

As you may have guessed, this post was created immediately after I watched Christopher Nolan's epic Inception. Dreams and their occurrences have fascinated me more than I can ever explain and hence I found this movie remarkably well made despite the radical storyline it was based upon. The scene related to the beach landing of the protagonist and an accompanying character, where massive edifices at the waterfront appear to be crumbling down, was eerily familiar to me, having seen the exact setting in a dream a very long time ago, yet so well etched in my mind!

Monday, August 02, 2010

Remembering Dr. Oppenheimer

Very few have, perhaps, endured the dichotomies of life as has J. Robert Oppenheimer, going from an absolutely iconic state to tragic infamy, in a succession of events that can at best be described as unfortunate and fateful!

Presently reading the biography of who is best known as the father of the American atom bomb, I'm given an opportunity to understand the mind of Dr. Oppenheimer, famously known for its complexities, as baffling as mathematical convolutions or the laws governing thermodynamics in physics! But the remarkably articulate and factual work of Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin, free from any form of prejudice, or opinionated distortions, usually adopted by many a narrator, is a true classic, having arrived upon after a great deal of painstaking research compiled with immense meticulousness and detail for the reader to assimilate.

Titled American Prometheus - The triumph and tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer, this booker prize winning work not only details, in outstanding simplicity, the life and times of Dr. Oppenheimer but also introduces the reader to a socio-political mindset, prevalent during what was perhaps the beginning of divisions in the world, as blocs, in the immediate aftermath of the Second World War, created purely on an ideological basis - a state of alignment that would last for decades, culminating into the Cold War.

Reading this book is quite like living a situation that is not very uncommon in today's world of speed success that dictates entities to plot against one another in a feverish attempt to 'climb the ladder,' of which, here, the protagonist falls victim to! I can safely say that this book is more than just an account of a person and his actions, or inactions as many historians would like to remark! To me, it is nothing short of an almanac of history, one that unmistakably outlines very many facts about how history was shaped and thereafter written and hence recognizable in the form that we know today!

Footnotes:

It was on this day in 1932 that the American physicist Carl David Anderson announced the discovery of the Positron, a fact earlier theorized by Dr. Oppenheimer in his paper titled "On the theory of electrons and protons."

Also on this day in 1939, scientists Albert Einstein and Leó Szilárd wrote to then US President Franklin Roosevelt, urging him to begin the Manhattan Project to develop a nuclear weapon. Dr. Oppenheimer would later serve as scientific director of the project.