Sunday, September 23, 2007

What is this life if full of care, We hav no time to stand and stare....

I often wonder what we r leading ourselves to?
This world of greater complications where we crave for the smallest pleasures of life,
A world where work takes centerstage pushing leisure and personal relationships to the backburner,
Where money alone is a panacea fr all troubles,
Where the smallest moments of joy that life brings go unrelished,
Where friendship is reduced to electronic conversations,
Where proof of a family exist only in ones name n not in living together
Where neither family nor closest friends are physically ther to be a part of ur celebrations...

This life where everyone is literate, but none educated enuf to understand the ever incresing shallowness of our lives,
Where technology boasts of bringing people closer though it has tossed them miles apart,
Where a happy meal ends up in a pizza corner or a McDonalds happily forgetting the simple yet stimulating homemade food.

I actually wonder- who is better off,
We or our civilized ancestors ?
The urban community or the simple n happy-go-merry village folk?

The answer is no rocket science, yet its difficult to accept, internalise and implement..

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Strong ! Happier that he started blogging than for the content itself:)

Straight from the heart...evidenced by the 'r' and 'hav':)

Technology boasts of bringing pple nearer...paradox to the core...we chat from across the next room, "personal" wishes come thru orkut, there s "no time" to visit pple in the same city, while we chat wit those in phoren lands :P

Liked the last line...
Very few of us are lucky to realise we are not heading in the right direction...but even fewer do something abt it.

மணிகண்டன் (Manikandan K S) said...

good start...keep it going..

i agree that nowadays we do not stop and reflect on whats happening as regularly we might want to do.
we need a power cut to enjoy the beauty of the stars!!!
but that is not the fault of technology...like i do not agree with u when u say where friendship is nothing but about elecronic conversations...why? can't electronic conversations be full of care, friendship and love...i get to chat with a lot of my friends who stay miles apart..but still when we chat i go back to my school or college days..isnt it the wonderful part of technology...
ya..sometimes we get too much obsessed with its other parts that we lose out on its beautiful parts..we need reminders, red flags to stop and think and take notice of them..and thats where blogs like yours can do wonders...

J a G z said...

Thanks EyesSpeak.. i wish even ur eyes started speaking soon so that we can start discussing more n more issues. The advantage of blogging is that we get to know how tohers feel on the same issue.

J a G z said...

Thanks Mani for ur commnent. .liked the way u have impartially treated the subject.

u know what, it wud b wonderful if we cud actually draw lines n say this is the extent to which im going to use the benefits of technology.
We say we can chat with friends anywher in the world little realising that that the need to chat also has been created by technology alone. thats the irony.

shobha pandit said...

How true and how profound in such a simple, straight from the heart style...
Gone are the days when people had time to stand and stare at the beauty of life as it flits by...
Technology can never be a replacement for the human touch...to be able to look into someone's eyes, or even hold a hand as reassurance in times of trouble...
But there is hope i always believe, if u only keep ur inner eye open and ur inner self receptive to things beyond everyday mundane things....
I enjoyed reading ur thoughts, Jagdish,...keep sharing ur thoughts with us..Mrs. Pandit

Kalyan said...

Jags - Sorry but heartily disagree with the post!! The posting is so typical of the confusion that ppl today are. The natural attraction of people to look for scapegoats, scapegoats to escape the pangs of guilt that one feels..... scapegoats for not being able to justify the expectation of parents - when we are kids, friends - in school & college ( oh add in that extra demanding girlfriend if you may!!), peers & managers - professionally, finally spouse & kids - marital life.

Think of it dude, technology is what we make of it & money is what we can get out of it...it's all abt getting your priorities right in life... you may be bogged down by technology, but the same technology can be seen bringing a father & son together when the son is some farplace, now thanks to the much derided technology that one can 'skype' his son & not have to spend a fortune talking a couple of seonds to him!!

Are we better off then our ancestors? Yes we certainly are!! The question that you missed to ask is, are we happier than our ancestors? The answer to this may be different, but again that is due to the deamons & insecurities in an individual!! Just one of the examples is , with all due respects our parents, though they very much wanted but could not step out of the state, pleasure travels were possible limited to a Kashmir once in 2 or three years & that too after much thought, but now we can go & see the world wherever we want! Happiness of th efamily may not be restricted to home cooked food, it can also be enjoyd with your loved ones in the pizza hut, mate it's not the pizza that gives happiness bu the fact that you are together with whom you want.

In short tech & money cant give you happiness, but they certainly empower you to be happier "IF YOU WANT", dude realize it you have the option to live the way you want to live your life & that is something no one can take away from you!!!

J a G z said...

thanx mam fr ur comment
u know what i like abt ur writings... they r filled with optimism, n its not even hope, rather confidence that alls gonna b fine.. i seriuosly liked that positive attitude.

J a G z said...

Yes Kalyan..was happy to read ur comments. .nice analysis i must say

but ive got something to share..
just look at these 2 statememnts that uve made:
"...it's all abt getting your priorities right in life... "
and
"The natural attraction of people to look for scapegoats to escape the pangs of guilt that one feels..... for not being able to justify the expectation of parents., peers , spouse & kids .."

I see an inherent paradox?? u set ur priorities right in life but becoz ur priorites in life may diffr from those of ur parents, family, friends, spouse, peers etc.., u may end up feeling the so called social pressure. now this pressure may or may not lead to dissatisfaction and frustration depending upon how strong the person is internally and not all people are equally strong emotionally. Some may successfully dismiss the social expectation as needless n irrelevant while others may succumb to it.

When we talk of society, we never talk of those only that have actually been able to make it big in life or r emotionally very strong to fight all odds.

Just see the little kids around- at the age of 3, they rush to schools with loads on their shoulders. Is that a choice that thye hav made? Even before we grow big enuf to decide for ourselves, society has done its part of initial damage to a sapling which would otherwise chart a creative growth perhaps. We r gettting so much mechanised that we have lost the creative touch in everything that we do..so much that creative thinking has become a discipline in schools n colleges.

If u drill the issue deeper, ull find that technology is only one of the outcomes of somethin mankind has always strived for n thats progress. but the real choice that we need to make is what kind of progress we want? do we want progress that makes us more n more machine like or do we want the kind of progress our ancestors made but in a different way. they could master the body's inner strenghts- they could communcate across distances, they had the best of medication which we still do nt hav or r still trying to decipher, their immune systems wer far stronger, thye cud do astronomy n all without the complex gadgets we possess.. Science is important but the direction is equllly important. Shud science help us in becoming stronger by making us self -reliant and self-dependent or shud science help us in becoming more and more dependent on this material world. Well our present day science has also done wonders and the intent is nt to disregard those contributions.. but just wanted to induce this thot.. its afterall a choice tht we as a society has collectively made.

wen i talked of complexities, i never actually meant to dismiss the positive side of technology, but what irks me is the vicious loop that society is unknowingly or knowingly but helplessly getting into.

Our parents had a merrier childhood than what we had and We had a merrier one than our children will have...and sadly we have no choice but to let our children face this reality. We cannot give our children the carefree existence that we or our parents had, after all we as a socety have decided to tread this path.
simple but yet so complex!!!