I went to the hostel today, just to clear out a few things I had kept over there while having moved out to live separately. What I did not realize was that those weren’t a few things which I had chosen to leave, they were a whole Life of me which I had gotten cut-off from since I moved out. Among the important ones were a whole set of my writings which I have never published simply because I never got the time to do so. Also, all my work related to Politics and Philosophy, topics upon which I had deliberated a lot during the course of the first and second years of college and which I had felt were life changing, lay there like a distant past of which I had no recollection, just the knowledge that a few pages with my handwriting were kept there, protected even from my own self, never to be further thought about. About these Ideas and Ideals to which I had once subscribed, I would like to say today that –
“If Man wants, he can include Philosophy into his Life, thus making it a Never-ending Quagmire of Thought, Self-Doubt and the Reassurance that Man is Superior to Animal”
after Four years of Engineering, it has come as no surprise to me that I now believe in Hard Work more than ever. As I step into the part of my Life where I will be a part of the Corporate World, I have now this notion-
“The Simplest and Most effective way for a Person to live is to Work. Nothing else is as Important as working hard. And working hard is what makes Life easier than ever.”
Deliberations on Philosophy and Politics are indeed habits of those who have the Luxury of wasting their time in making their Lives Complicated. The Simple way of Life does not involve these, just a clear understanding of what a Person’s work is and what the resultant thoughts and beliefs are.
In digressing from the topic of cleaning up my Hostel room, I wanted to ensure that the thoughts that went through my mind when I was arranging my things together were noted down. However, the more important detail is about what all I found there.
The second Important thing I found there were some of my clothes. I got very nostalgic when I saw them, discussing with my roommate Lalit the amazing journey I made from being a size 32 waist to a size 38! I know I am fat right now and I am less than proud of it. But it is an amazing thing for me to see myself as a lean, weak boy with cheeks sunk deep into my cheekbones as opposed to a well rounded man with chubby cheeks and friends who keep reminding me that I must join the gym!
It is not everyday that One gets to look at their past and present in such a glaringly contrasting way, but this insight was amazing and has made me rethink a lot about what were my thoughts and beliefs when I was two years less-experienced than I am today and I now ponder over whether in the fierceness of my devotion to my Ideals, I was believing in the right things or not…
After all, today I am happy to be an Engineer, but at some point, I wanted to be a Politician!
p.s. I promise that those unseen writings of mine will be put up soon, complete with my favorite creative commons license!
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Sir,
Your few days left out there & i still think that ki jab mei hostel jaunga toh i ll see you guys there but that is just a part of me comforting myself.
Anyway wishing you luck with your future. 🙂
“The Simple way of Life does not involve these, just a clear understanding of what a Person’s work is and what the resultant thoughts and beliefs are.”
Nitin its very mch true bt everyone is not just cntnt with this kind of ‘simple’ life! Its true that being an ‘armchair’ philosopher is of no use, u also mst apply it and if u r not in d position 2 do so, u shud strive 2 reach such a position thru which u cn make a differnce.
But to start with, only those will bring a change who think.
An engineer has his own role to play, a politician his own. As long as we are satisified with our role in society, its good. But to follow a ‘simple life’ just because of the fear of the quagmire is not good.
And yes, u put it write, that thinking is a reassurance that we r superior to animals. But we are also superior to machines. So we cant make our life a simple ‘Input-process-output’ machine.
So to sum up it up, keep thinking and writing on philosophy and politics and whatever u like. Don’t cut that part of urs just because of ur work life.
They say change is the only constant. Vipul Sir, you have pointed out that Man is greater than Machine must not bow down to the ‘Input-process-output’ method. I agree with you but I also say that a person must be more like an engineer than a philosopher for a systematically successful life. A philosopher would rather argue about the pros and cons of running as an exercise to loose weight than actually do it. In other words a student like us, when turning to philosophy is basically turning to procrastination. Instead, the path of the engineer is that of application. It too is a continuous thought process but involves the math of solving a situation instead of an unbiased yet complicated view which leads to no conclusion. The engineer too keeps his mind open to new ideas but learns to implement them rather than to argue with them. That is what I have realized so late. It is better to Act than to Procrastinate… Wouldn’t you agree?
Wudn’t i agree?
I blive i already answerd it in my previous reply.. i’ll jus ctrl+c and ctrl+v it:)
“Its true that being an ‘armchair’ philosopher is of no use, u also mst apply it and if u r not in d position 2 do so, u shud strive 2 reach such a position thru which u cn make a differnce.”
So whom u call a philosopher, i call an armchair philosopher and whom u call an engineer, I call a philosopher who applies what he thinks. Afterall as they say, everything starts with an IDEA!
nd yeah i’ll add sumthing on a prsnl note.. sumtimes upon blogging, evn i feel why the hell um philosophizing, its sch a waste of time; bt on a second thought, i feel happy tht atleast i know what my viewponts are, thr r othr sch confusd prsnalities in wrld who dont evn know wat they stand for.
nd yeah this time i filled my correct blog adress:)