It isn't everyday one gets up with the kind of springiness that the realization of experiencing twenty-five revolutions around the Sun can induce one to. The clouds of dawn seem to be tearing themselves up at the behest of my 2.1, vibrating to the scintillating sequence of notes written and performed by Antoine Dufour - who I've had the pleasure of meeting in the illustrious company of Andy McKee and Stephen Bennett, musicians who've kept to the rarefied airs of their own mountaintop, where the Sun and Moon shine with an equal intensity, the trees sweat wine and the cacophony of dubstep is indistinguishable from silence. And before I start looking for an excuse to pen all my pent up superlatives and delay my trip to the Home Depot Center (where that over-rated yet personal favorite footballer of mine, David Beckham, kicks hist last for LA Galaxy), let me simply jot down a few self-addressed mandates to revisit in times of disorientation.
1) Music hasn't adequately stimulated the right hemisphere of your brain, as you've come to realize after reading the morally discerning, cliche rending and deeply evocative prose of authors like Heller,Vonnegut and Bellow who for the longer part of your first twenty-four bore the burning gaze of your negligence, unlike Feynman, Zeldovich and Landau (who thankfully didn't!). Read more Vyaas.
2) Last year around this time, you lost not one but two: your grandfather and Christopher Hitchens, two people who I'm sure would concede to very little agreement besides a joyous hatred for the British Monarchy. If the former blessed you with the moral nourishment required of a boy growing up in India, the latter empowered you with the moral apparatus required of a man growing up in this world. But above all, both men, however ideologically disunited, exclusively resorted to the peaceful virtues of articulation to win one over. The spoken and written word are too dear to civilization, for us to hand over to the machinations of the spineless and cynical. Speak up Vyaas.
3) Hubris is an enemy to reason. Its surplus- I hope you get the gravity of this- is intolerable. For example, the self-congratulatory nature of your research . Never exchange your standards in return for the counterfeit currency of convenience. Only gold Vyaas.
4) Just like an oscillating tuning fork at resonance shakes off loosely attached dust, so too have you jettisoned many a friendship. Those who remain can be counted on one hand. Make a fist and keep them close Vyaas.
1) Music hasn't adequately stimulated the right hemisphere of your brain, as you've come to realize after reading the morally discerning, cliche rending and deeply evocative prose of authors like Heller,Vonnegut and Bellow who for the longer part of your first twenty-four bore the burning gaze of your negligence, unlike Feynman, Zeldovich and Landau (who thankfully didn't!). Read more Vyaas.
2) Last year around this time, you lost not one but two: your grandfather and Christopher Hitchens, two people who I'm sure would concede to very little agreement besides a joyous hatred for the British Monarchy. If the former blessed you with the moral nourishment required of a boy growing up in India, the latter empowered you with the moral apparatus required of a man growing up in this world. But above all, both men, however ideologically disunited, exclusively resorted to the peaceful virtues of articulation to win one over. The spoken and written word are too dear to civilization, for us to hand over to the machinations of the spineless and cynical. Speak up Vyaas.
3) Hubris is an enemy to reason. Its surplus- I hope you get the gravity of this- is intolerable. For example, the self-congratulatory nature of your research . Never exchange your standards in return for the counterfeit currency of convenience. Only gold Vyaas.
4) Just like an oscillating tuning fork at resonance shakes off loosely attached dust, so too have you jettisoned many a friendship. Those who remain can be counted on one hand. Make a fist and keep them close Vyaas.
5 comments:
That was a beautiful post.
I can tell you that a handful of loyal friends who understand you is better than the scores of "friends" who surround you at parties and disappear when you need counsel or a shoulder to cry on. Friendship is overrated these days; it's nothing like the Airtel advertisements where you find a bunch of snooty college punks wearing apparel from Benneton, singing songs in a classroom and snapping photos of each other with fancy mobile phones. True friends share a bottle of Old Monk and some take out food, sit around, sing Beetle songs, strum the guitar and stay up the whole night reminiscing adventures of old.
"Airtel" is the word I've always desperately looked for to describe the vapid relationships that do nothing but reinforce teenage ideas that seek to build a false sense of solidarity. Plutarch said it best:
“I don't need a friend who changes when I change and who nods when I nod; my shadow does that much better.”
Ahh some positive energy at last..keep it goin..may you grow in your thoughts, ideas and writings this year..Joe bless you
Carlin Reference + reader + encouragement....
Thanks RK!
Anonymous doesn't quite help does it.
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