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ADDICTIONS: Dying to get Offline, but Alas!
“Greatness adds to the Good & evil begets evil, as simple as that”
One 12 year old kid, who was supposed to enjoy his summer vacations by going out or playing till he drops in the heat, was having a horrible day yesterday, because his mother was not allowing him to play the Xbox (which he was playing for more than few hours already).
He came to me angry with his mom and asked, ‘I am getting bored. I don’t want to go out and play. Can you tell mom to allow me to play on my Xbox so that I can have some fun.’
I guess, this is what has become when I look around me, except for those very few who are still fortunate, under control and in touch with the real world.
That’s when it struck me.
I too have been addicted. I realized that I have become utterly obsessed to the cyber world like millions across the world. Today I am just one among the million less fortunate getting strangled to the today’s ipv4 syndrome – The Internet.
This virtual platform engineered by those who started it as an information sharing platform has gone manifold through inventions & contributions by great pioneers like Al Gore, Tim Berners-Lee, Vint Cerf, Robert Kahn, Leonard Kleinrock, Lawrence G. Roberts, Radia Perlman and few others.
But why do I quote the first line that “greatness adds…..”
I realized the missing link around that could hold me grounded and keep me engrossed in life that is real.
Today, as I scan across my little self-centered murky world, I find all those around fixated to something that is not just contagious, but uniquely contagious, in the sense that, it drives oneself to catch their novel form of addiction on their own.
Surrounded by those either addicted to the till death do us apart yearning for money or those with a deflective state of philosophical bent through religious dose of daily booze or those obsessed with zero value adding life skills of traditional education or the amazingly exasperating bunch of hardcore shopaholics who have today led me to succumb & snail myself into a smaller world owing to sheer utter boredom.
I feel suffocated when I end up nowhere but yet ‘find myself’ in a Mall every other day or worst diluting my already troubled fitness regime sitting in a restaurant that is definitely not helping me regain my good old self.
Why? ‘coz today I am tired of again and again planning a spontaneous tour to a better place or at least a real world around and unfortunately cannot also find, ‘who can take on ideas to connect to the real world’ & initiate an adventurous outing may be?
I keep trying to reinvent by being innovative and planning to reach out to the outer and real world and sadly find myself in a restaurant or compulsorily on the almost only way to stay connected with each other today – Telephone or even worst in a bar or a again a mall.
The value addition per se seems to be missing at every stage as addiction has caught up with specific religious routines of not thinking beyond the monotonously small world around.
With so much of information explosion, I am today finding the spontaneity missing around me so much that I chose to get addicted to a virtual world with just a couple of hardware and loads of unnecessary junk from all across the globe.
As I drift towards spending shockingly gifted long & empty weekends addicted to the virtual galleria, the more I realize the emptiness of adventure and spark with zest and energy around.
The more I update myself on Web3.0 today, the more I feel sorry for the world of tomorrow that ‘might’ be a part of these uniquely contagious addiction syndromes over a period of time.
Now that I have done some keying in for the day, let me get back to Orkut or Facebook where I can meet real people, ahem!
Can’t believe, I am actually dying to get offline!
What say?
Let me know your views
Ananth V – ‘(Still Online)’
Image Source: AnanthV
Twirling Dreams & Blurring Reality
Money, passion, exhaustion and fame…. Drawing to a weekend where serenity was the magic to the tempo of realism called Life!
Met up with an old buddy, yes, the same friend who shared his dream with me and wanted the same to be shared with all of us through this platform: Choked by a crab
He said, I want to share another one this time.
I asked him, “You spend too much time sleeping, don’t you?”
Thank God, he took it lightly, just the way I had meant it.
But he meant business as he straight away quoted “I saw a baby monkey running around me with whom I was playing and then feeding a watermelon”
We knew we were no Birbal, so we got Sherlock. No, not the web search app from Apple (That’s still Google for us).
We got searching and finding all probable combinations. Why? ‘coz my chum seemed quite uneasy and anxious since a couple of days with this and he said, lets put this again on board.
The combination of a baby monkey being fed watermelon, hmmmmm….
The Web help sources said, That could mean putting jointly emotions of innocence which was trying to be grabbed from the past.,Unsettled triggers of unfinished business from childhood recollections that could have sparked very recently. That with a monkey that was being fed, probably expressing a betrayal of expectation from someone who should have been there more to support you who meant close to you and finally with a fruit that is either about ease or about fiery passion. These were amazing combinations which meant well, nothing to me as now I turned at my buddy.
Slowly we put the running ball together; I noticed a sneer and a sense of realization on his face. He said, I got my answers, now you quote down your lines.
His face was composed or a lot calmer now and now that I got that he got it, I was sure I need not try to know what it was.
But I felt uncomfortable when I quoted his dreams the first time on the blog after he said, go for it. Flash it across. Now a repeated second one made me say to him, ‘it’s not right to talk about your life on a Writers blog.’
He said a simple line after which I started to key in the new post here.
He quoted, “It helps me relax to read it across the blog and it helps me know, it’s just out there, happening and makes me feel in control from within. It’s good to flush it out of my system than to burn wakeful from inside in the barrenness.”
That’s when I realized the influence of Soaps on TV. With Ekta Kapoor and her Dramarama swarming the nation like a wild blaze, people find themselves sharing a part of it, some or any part of it at times and that’s what keeps them at ease and linked day in and day out.
It’s not the actors, it’s not the lines, its Reel reality with a dash of overflowing emotions bundled with of course repetitive unnecessary camera shots. (ya, ya I have seen an episode too.. big deal)
Well, I don’t know about me, but Ekta definitely built her dreams with it….
And to my pal, Happy dreaming buddy! Have a good nights sleep!
Chao!
Image Source: Click
When I was 21
Another ‘good’ year, or is it?
A stressful month, painful week, draining last few days…. has finally brought me to a not so energetic weekend.
Duh!
It’s 6am IST on a Saturday and I am awake writing a blog…. So take a wild guess!
But yes, I had few other realizations of f late about people and life. They don’t change, they won’t change…. Either we learn to adapt or we learn to let go.
I usually have been habituated to working with a big team professionally and have an extremely choosy few friends. And it’s true what they say. Our friends teach us more than anyone else of things that could be played and done right to socialize. I have been lucky and in awe of few such friends of mine to whom I might not have mentioned this to, but have helped me a lot to gain control of myself and my social life over these years.
Today I understood when Sinatra started by singing when I was 21 as I missed being 21 a lot, when it was a very good year … remember!
Those who probably knew me two years back, if they wind up discussing with someone who knows me not from yesteryears, would sense they are discussing of different individuals. I changed… for some reason, i changed. Became more calm, more patient and more socially acceptable and human.
So today, I fall flat and confused when I am questioned for being too calm and non-aggressive and on the other when I know how hard I have worked for it.
So what am I to do? Where am I to go from here….
I come from a middle class orthodox family, valuing teachings of the great more than life. I do not obviously abide by those at the same level but I respect the learning’s in every form of practicality in life today.
The quotes and learning from the holy books of Gita, Ramayana, Bible and great leaders and my personal influencers like Mother Teresa, Swami Vivekananda have shared their wisdom across the globe. When I read through them, I feel so shallow in my life of doings.
I have always found peace when I was able to lend a helping hand to someone really needy, be it education, physical help or bringing smile through words of humor. I have lost all that today in the rat race of life.
Recently I received a letter where I have been nominated for Rashtriya Gaurav award (I thank them for my nomination) for my contribution to various NGO’s over the years, but strangely I did not fill up my nomination, because there is so much more to do…… so much of void to be filled, my work has not even begun.
I am not trying to preach like the great influencers, trust me I do not have that audacity anymore. I am merely like a candle in front of the mighty sun, running confused and with chaos on what is to be done more, better and positive…..
The great words from Gods and legends have taught me to just keep pursuing my work and not bother. But today the days and weeks seemed to be either hooked up on monotonous ideas which itself cracks the point of having ideas or no learning and loads of zero value addition routine tasks or chasing god forsaken numbers or planning them and with nothing coming in return from any of these that could be worth valuing; “TIME” seems to ask me, are these days even going to be worth remembering?
The answer I get is a simple no!
So today I ask my friends who have either massively or in any other way, impacted a positive way of life in me, how do they do it? …
To name a few: Anand P (A humble guy & a master & wizard on traditional High quality education), Amit R (Very helping & his PR skills are better than SRK’s), Ajay K (The most modest, sincere & humble being) who have been my very close friends since decades and of course there are many others who have added and impacted at some level or the other as excellent friends: Beta, Chinki, Kishore, Prakash, Bala, Hari bhai, Sagar, Chintan, Akshay, Prasad, Deva, Mani, Chini, Ankur, Venky and there are those whom I can’t mention owing to uncanny reasons…..
or do they too miss being 21….. Come on fellas, give me your comments…
Quotes from Holy books and some of my personal great influencers:
“There is neither this world nor the world beyond nor happiness for the one who doubts.”
“ Karmani ave adhikars te: –you have the power to act only; ma phalesu kadachana:–you do not have the power to influence the result; ma karmaphal hetur bhoo: –therefore you must act without the anticipation of the result; ma sangostu akramani: –without succumbing to inaction; ”
“Anything that brings spiritual, mental, or physical weakness, touch it not with the toes of your feet ”
“I will deal with them according to their conduct, and by their own standards I will judge them”
“I do not pray for success, I ask for faithfulness”
Image Source: AnanthV
The new entrant in Artists Galleries and Directories
Upcoming and Famous Indian artists renowned for contemporary art.
The new addition to the well known score of India’s upcoming and famous artists is
ANANTHANARAYANAN V
and you can see his profile here:
http://www.art.in/artists/ananthanarayanan-v.htm
Also, his site has been awarded the Art award recently!
link:
http://www.art.in/artists-directory.htm
Thank you readers
Thank you readers so much for your love and support.
Your reviews and your emails have made everyday very special to me.
Thanks for all your affection.
I have gained excellent support for my books that have been sold through various online sites (USA,UK, etc…), through Hardcopy print (India) and have received fantastic reviews and ratings.
I would like to thank Mr.Viswanath, Mr.Ashis Das for their important initial support and for believing in me.
I would sincerely like to Thanks the Times Of India team for giving me very positive exposure and acknowldegment through their interview and a special thanks to all those who made my work / reviews reach to the TOI team.
Thank you so much
It has been a great ongoing journey and i hope it lasts till eternity…….
Thanks and be well
Ananthanarayanan V
few: Reviews & Ratings:
splendid and very original
25 Apr 2007 by amrita shangi
Mr.Ananth (techdivine)
I bought your book and it is simply splendid. Its original style and powerful quotes and words were amazing.
cannot wait to get your next book.
hope to see that soon and read your artcile in the Times Of India site too. Fabulous.
fantastic read
Amrita Shangi
India
GOd bless and be well
ANanth V
hi there
26 Mar 2007 by roopma nirula
got your book yesterday.
Splendid, simply splendid.
All these hours and hours of tireless work of yours has paid off well. Looking forward for your book on spirituality as i know how deep and intense your thoughts are.
will come & take your autograpgh on YOUR book soon.
take care
roops n
Re: hi there
24 Apr 2007 (updated 24 Apr 2007) by techdivine
Hi there
Thanks for your mail. It’s always great to know there are people who enjoyed the book and have taken time out to mail me back.
Thank you so much
god bless and be well
Ananth V
bought your book and got your gift
25 Mar 2007 by loila talpen
Hello mr.Ananth
I am Loila from USA and had bought your book and got your gift today. Its beautiful.
I wanted to know your style of symbolism and variation styles of your coffee table book and it was great to get your explanation on the same.
Loved the poems, your art and your art work.
Variety and unique style of the poem book.
Keep writing.
Gosd bless you.
Loila
USA
One Word ” UNIQUE “
18 Mar 2007 by raj kiran
Mr.ananth
I am not an avid reader but love the art and designs. I justd Loved the quotes and lines from your various sites.
so went ahead and BOUGHT the “Download copy” of your EXPRESSIONS book from one of your links and it was reaaly unique.
A very different style , extremely well written and designed.
Loved the Poems especially ” Lost, But yet guding…. ” and ” balancing Act “.
Fabulous illustrations, simple, subtle and distinct and goes great to connect with the poems lines and thoughts.
It was great that i purchased the downloaded copy of the book and got to read it immediately ….
The feeling what the Amazon No.1 Bestseller and Mr.Das have expressed are truly what is the real feel of your book.
There were so many quotes i could connect to from your book and have recommended with all stars to my friends and family to Buy the download copy of the book of EXPRESSIONS.
Great book, great style and amazing designs and art.
Keep writing and we will keep getting inspired.
5 Stars and Kudos!
Awesome Book and a great value for the buy and to read over and over again!
Regards
RajK
India
Do check out the TOI Interview here:
other links:
http://scorpion1681.tripod.com/id11.html
Ups and downs!
I was in the middle of a promenade tonight, weary and tired, trying to look at the sky and wishing to see a shooting star! Wanted to make a wish, desperately!
Ok, alright, my day was not ideal and I was hoping for a tweak or two for tomorrow’s sunrise. I waited and walked. About two hours had passed, after which I realized, now those were two hours I am never going to get back.
I was at the patio of my building and Mumbai’s greenhouse gasses had wrapped up most of the colors of the sky and I could hardly see any twinkle above either.
So it was two hours of vacant murky space that I was staring at moving around in concentric circles. I got really tired of something, perturbed and a wee bit irritated at “yours truly” for further wasting time and hoping to make the night better which evidently did not happen. I decided to go back downstairs and go home. Then I said to myself, I am an artist, a writer, an inventive individual, ahem! Frustrations and depressions are part of the routine; I should not give up so easily.
I came back and kept walking and by then my Mp4 player had given up its verve. I guess I had burned out more than an hour of its battery already today while travelling while nothing was getting done.
As I stood unmoving I heard a ruffle in between the trees and it was growing loud.
As I stood staring at that place where there was not a soul and was so quite that I could take notice of my own breathing, the ruffling sound grew odd and suddenly through those moving leaves there was stillness again in the air as I heard my heart beat. I saw something.
My beat and rhythm of the heart matched the flapping wings of the beautiful dove that just flew right above me. It looked gorgeous. It looked serene. It felt and filled my heart with bliss.
It would sound such a cliché if I said that as I kept looking at that bird, it disappeared all of a sudden. But I guess I have been fed with too much of scientific proof and theories over the past two decades of my life, so I would quote it as, “ As I watched the bird that slowly disappeared into the darkness of the space….” But I really and with all honesty felt that it had suddenly disappeared.
Remember, I am also an artist. So I have to speak my mind.
It was such a beautiful sight and I was taking in and savoring the blissful scene when all of a sudden I bent down with a jiff as a huge bat flew so low, it could stomp on my head and make my day dark, again. So much for the bird of bliss eh!
But I guess that is what life is all about. The white and the black. The good and the bad. The right and the wrong. The ups and the downs. Hmmmm…… I got it then. So without wasting too much time I finished the work that I had and then keyed in these lines and will now go back to reading something before I am off to bed.
Just hoping, that tomorrow when the dove flies again, it would not be followed by the winged messenger of the scary space.
Now we all know, that’s not possible……
It’s all, Black and white….
Every dawn has its night,
The sun shy’s down with its moonlight
Every moment screams of pain
Every day it sure can’t rain…..
As I sit here and quote the dreams,
I pray to self for I should clearly see
With a shiny shoe as I would run off to work
Do something that would polish my dream….
Now I really don’t mind the darkened days
The wreckful memories of early days
I want to breathe and beat the pacing heart
For I would see my goal clearly again today……
Ananthanarayanan V
techdivine@gmail.com
image source: One world
For a friend: Interpreting dreams!
Choked by a crab
What happens when you dream that you are being choked by a crab? Nothing, you get up, have a glass of water and go back to sleep again.
Normally it is said that when you dream of something like the one above, it shows that there is very less connection between your mind and your heart and you act on impulses. It means you have emotions that have been suppressed for long and you need to be more open with your feelings and express yourself. And as for crabs, they represent tenacity, meaning you might be too clingy and stubborn with something and not ready to let go off that.
Does interpreting dreams have something to do with our way of life in the society? No. But dreams and dreaming about things mean a lot and have a prominent place in human psychology.
Normally it is stated that those who act on impulses and are very aggressive in nature dream less than the apparently more socially acceptable figures in society.
The reason being, it is stated that dreams are nothing but your sub-conscious telling you want to do something that you might know to be right or wrong. Something you would not want to do in public. Hence those who are brought forth in society as people who say things as they are and act on impulses have fewer dreams as they speak out and react about what is there in their mind such that there are lesser thoughts in their sub-conscious running hitherto.
Is that why many researchers say that animals don’t dream much…… hmmm…… let me just hope I be more human and get more such dreams day in and day out…… but always remember, as the old quote goes:
Dreams that come true sometimes can be as unsettling as those dreams which don’t!
be well & happy dreaming!
Ananthanarayanan V
Life cannot get any better…..
That felt so right in my dreams yesterday. Yes I would like to call my most recent weekend as dreams as things were so clear and so sweet. As one of my favorite quote goes, “Life is so clear in a dream, but when you wake up….it’s a blur!”
I spent two half days in the last 2 days with some of the sweetest and most talented people I know. I spent my lovely evenings with few of my nieces and nephews (Rithi, Ritish, Swati, Kaushik, Dishha & Alishha) and am about to meet two more of my sweet little niece and nephew by this weekend (Aishwarya & Shivam).
And what I quoted above is what I felt at the end of both days…… Life cannot get any better…..
These kids are in the age range of 4 – 15 and trust me when I am saying this, I learnt a lot of things on how to behave with elders from the smallest two kids and on how to be filled with passion from the rest. These kids know it all, from trekking to playing the keyboard, from painting to building awesome structures and trains, from elocutions to giving the most innocent and true smile one could see.
I learnt something very wonderful from each of them yesterday and finished my second book and my first Literature young fiction work finally after 10 months of work. The final draft will be starting by the end of the week and it should be hopefully ready soon and all thanks to my little sweet dreams of joy and hope, my little angels.
As kids, we never stop exploring, we never stop trying and we never stop questioning. The resultant effect, we never stop Learning, isn’t it?
It’s only when we grow we become “MATURE” individuals and think a million times before asking someone for help, for honestly giving a smile and curiously looking at someone with a million questions on our face.
One of my little angels said something about her friend and I asked her if she had a fight why would she want to talk to her again. She said the sweetest thing, “Mama, I was having cough and cold and was very tired some days back. So when she called so many times, I did not talk to her and mommy forgot to tell her I have fever. She got very upset with me. But she did not shout to me. SO may be when she got angry yesterday she was also not well. So I am anyway going to call her today and speak to her. She is my friend na.” This little kid is 4 years old, believe it or not. Just 4 years old.
We grow up and many a times forget that may be the other person could not do or say something because he/she was sick….. you know what I mean? And then we fall into the phase of what is termed in Human dynamics and Behavioral patterns as a classic example of “Attribution theory error” that is to say that, “he or she behaved so immaturely/ rudely” etc…. and when it comes to our reaction to things we always look at the circumstances that surrounded us because of which we reacted how we did. We justify things when we do it and not in others case. It s just like a boss saying the project did very well and It has to, I had put my heart and soul into it…..or in other case as oh the project failed and was obvious , my team was chaotic and should have cooperated better. The only thing that becomes easy when we grow is apparently the blame game.
SO what we see when we compare our behavior with the kids of today? Is the innocence officially lost? Has apparently “Practical” approach superseded our possible dreams? Has the “SUPEREGO” gone above the ego where one would learn to be more rational and in other words harsh and unnerving to other people’s feelings? I learnt to be more human because of those kids in the last two days and have found out few things and how to deal with things, with people and put it into use in my life. I can guarantee it would be better. At least my behavior would be more human with others. I hope so……
When I say all this I take a look back at my lovely school days when even a new table in the class used to pump up so much of anxiety, smile and happiness of what’s going to be the next change, will we shift to a new classroom, will all the benches be changed, etc.
Yesterday and the day before I heard my 4 year old two nieces using terms like “it was denied to him and it is not correct” , “that’s ok, we will make a new one if it breaks” etc. and I said to myself, my god….. Iff I would have been that mature at that age, hell…..if I could be that mature at this age…..Life would be so different and so much better.
These kids in the last 2 days have made me ponder over so many simple things in life that we can get happiness and peace from. No wonder they are said to be as sweet as the Lord himself. No wonder their innocence brings in so much happiness when we look at their faces.
They inspired me so much with their wit, their art works, their way of thought, I felt I was reborn. I took in and savored every single moment with them and can only hope that I get to see them and be around them more often and be a kid again…only this time a smarter and sweeter kid, just like them…..
God bless and be well
Ananthanarayanan V
image source:toys-to-you.co.uk
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