A paradox of a significant life

A dear colleague and one of the best human beings I've ever come across is no more. As I write this, he is being taken off life support. Ironical that the most talented, intelligent and genius of a man has been declared brain dead. A recent father, a great intellectual, a dedicated professional, a huge talent and more importantly a fabulous man, is no more. Stories of his talents, abilities are sort of urban legends within his alma mater, at his workplace, someone all others know deep inside to be the next big thing to happen to not just us but to the whole of corporate world. But the promise of his professional career would easily be eclipsed with the persona that he is. Ever efficacious and attentive, he is what I'd consider to be a role model if I ever had one. Nothing but his memory remains - an idea, a memory, a life - all enclosed in a figment of thoughts, pictures, words - of his idea with in the conscience.

And it all happened out of the blue, just like a blip in the fabric of existence. All it took was a couple of seconds. It hit like a bullet, but once the realization dawned, it brought with it more than just the obvious. Yes, a life is no more, affecting lives far beyond his own or of his wife, or his 6-month old boy, of his parents with an only son, of his friends, his colleagues and even beyond his known for his circle was immense, as a man with a magnificent personality would.

It all brings questions on the frailties of life, of its vulnerability, of his insignificance, of its mirage. All it takes is a small piece of metal, even smaller amount of a poison, and even lesser mass of stress. For something so incidental and week can never be significant, can never be permanent, only a small peripheral incident. The truth, the omnipotent, the permanent is far beyond.

Krsna says its your soul and the only role you play is to fulfill your duties or Karma. Maybe or maybe just another figment of our imagination and ever-yearning desire to fulfill egos to achieve significance. Whatever it is - its a debate for a later date.

But right now, Aseem Chaturvedi, you'll be dearly missed. Your life, however few moments we shared are and will be cherished. For all the things that you are and you were, may your smile and your memories remain forever and ever. But most importantly may your family find the strength and your soul find the peace that you deserve.

One-man team

One bad result and a man looses it all. The world as it were instantly changes to be rosy nomore, the morning breeze doesn't refresh him, the minor insignificant arrays of everyday trite happenings suddenly feel like omens pointing to an impending armaegeddon. The boss's word seems much more demeaning, career seems more so to be headed nowhere and no amount of the pretty company can make for a merry proposition. Life just ceases to exist, at least till the next weekend.

This my friends, is the fate of a sports fan. Its his bane. A person who finds a divine connection with a sport and more so with a team and in due course of time begins to live their successes and more often than not, to suffer their defeats as well. The effect that his favorite sport team's loss can have over a man's life is amazingly significant. Irrespective of the numerous achievements, just one simple defeat, even deserved as it may be and definitely regardless of the importance of the match, is all it takes to throw the fan into a desperate complex sets of conundrums.

But it is this roller-coaster ride, within which he tries to live his own fantasies. Of this search for perfection, for success, for glory. He breathes and lives as his team and the team as him. His desperate want of being more than he is, of achieving more than he thinks he could, he puts his hope nah his spirit into a team. This team then becomes his passion, his sweat and through his distant passive implicit involvement limited only to defending his team's glory (in debates, in fights and more), he becomes the most crucial cog in his team's wheel, perhaps even more, he becomes the team itself.

Passionate for "Passions"

Hardly any day goes by, that we - "the people" - do not feel disillusioned, frustrated with lives and that we deserve "something" better. A better job, a bigger car/house/****, better body , better interests (some for self, others more so for our partners), but nothing more so than a better image of self (not self-image, i dare say). And with in this, lies the first fallacy of our lives. Fallacy in that we always manage to find the wrong tree to bark at and then pathetically try to define our successes through these. That we are passionate about passions and not about self.

That the wants of this world are all fantasies, as glittering they might seem, are so because that's all they are - just glitter - a topping, a garnish, an added flavor to our elixirs, our "self" which should truly define us. At the risk of generalizing things, we don't see people fantasizing about being a great person, achieving something great or being better for the sake of being better, but more so for the effect of it. The effect that it shall have on others, more than the self.

Although doomed from the beginning, we then try to balance it by bringing a whole different angle to the story. By adding another "non-positive" to make it "non-negative". As Jack Nicholson's character says to Helen hunt's " You make me wanna be a better man" - No fault in that. One needs to find his/her inspiration, but that we resort to looking outward, searching for a "muse" at the onset is where the problem lies. That we lack the self-belief, the confidence of looking inwards. Jack didn't say " I make myself want to be a better man", he needed a "you" to make it real and well make it sound romantic too. Just an "I" would have made him sound more "egoistic". What's wrong in loving thyself if it makes you a better person, but we abhor it, no we detest it. But actually we are afraid of it. Of the fact, that man is not really a "social animal", that we use being social as a excuse for being "better" than other animals.

Its this perverse nature of ours, the "need" to find someone or something else to "complete" us, as if the other part of our life's equation is all that we need to invigorate, to kick-start the reaction, to get our act together and become our fantasies. Perverse, because not only do we doom ourselves by choosing others over self, but we burden the rest of the universe, GOD, our partner, our parents, our boss and everyone else with the frustration of not achieving and more often than not, with the frustration of having achieved these fantasies.

As given our deprecated old selves, the peripheral nature of these wants is revealed only by achieving it. Be it a car, a job, bigger paycheck, a "better" partner - it all ceases to be better once you end up achieving it. And then to fill the vacuum, the "purpose", the "need of an inspiration" to keep going, we find ourselves another destination. As if we need to go somewhere, to be someone else to find our true passions.

But maybe that's where I've got it wrong. Maybe "others" are a medium to discover "self", maybe a muse is all it takes to reveal the true creativity within yourself. Maybe all a "Hussain" needs is a Madhuri. And maybe this works in being a conduit to making things better.

But isn't this exactly what makes us dream about a "higher purpose for life", that we need to look up for a Higher force, not always of the spiritual kind. That we need to look up for a "Hero" to save ourselves, that we need someone else to define our "self"s.

We keep on waiting for our passions to reveal themselves, through their own prerogative or through "others". And the first passion that we'll have to humor is of "Waiting" on others. And "Waiting" and "Wanting" become synonymous but never complimentary. And if ever were we to discover a want and achieve it, we wait again for it to corrupt itself, for a passion to become a norm, for a hero to become an "anti-hero". For a "Mahatma" to become "Gandhi", for a "Hero" to become a dictator, for the loves to be loathed.

When all it needs is for us to be passionate about self, passionate about finding ourselves within.
As Chad Kroeger croons:

"And they say that a hero can save us
I'm not gonna stand here and wait"

maybe he's got it figured out.....