Wednesday, November 16, 2005
My Favorites
I am plagiarizing this idea from a blog which I happen to stumble upon recently.
Last week, I tried to read “The Unbearable Lightness of Being” by Milan Kundera. It started off well, in fact very well, and I immediately fell for it. It became unbearable as I proceeded further, and right now I am not in a position to continue it any further.An excerpt from the first chapter of the book:
“The idea of eternal return implies a perspective from which things appear other than as we know them: they appear as without mitigating the circumstance of their transitory nature. The mitigating circumstance prevents us from making a verdict. For how can we condemn something that is ephemeral, in transit? In the sunset of dissolution, everything is illuminated by the aura of nostalgia, even the guillotine.
Not long ago, I caught myself experiencing a most incredible sensation. Leafing through a book on Hitler, I was touched by some of his portraits: they reminded me of his childhood. I grew up during the war, several members of my family perished in Hitler’s concentration camps; but what were their deaths compared with the memories of a lost period of my life, a period that would never return?
This reconciliation with Hitler reveals the profound moral perversity of a world that rests essentially on the non existence of return, for in this world everything is pardoned in advance and therefore everything is cynically permitted.”
My take:
Leave out the pardoning part. I, so far always felt that the priceless moments are the ones which will never eternally return. I can only fantasize those moments. True, these memories are invaluable. The fact that I can never physically experience or accomplish them makes it precious. But there are moments that are equally enjoyable that happen very often.Most of the times we tend to trivialize these priceless moments that recur, many a times we never tend to notice those moments. If I think about myself, curd is something that can drive me into a frenzy. I have curd daily. But if I happen to be deprived of it, those golden moments of me relishing the curd in my home will come to my mind. We never tend to associate any value to such issues anymore. True, a thing becomes valuable only when the demand is less than the supply. But aren’t we neglecting such moments??
My favorites (in no particular order) include:
Last week, I tried to read “The Unbearable Lightness of Being” by Milan Kundera. It started off well, in fact very well, and I immediately fell for it. It became unbearable as I proceeded further, and right now I am not in a position to continue it any further.An excerpt from the first chapter of the book:
“The idea of eternal return implies a perspective from which things appear other than as we know them: they appear as without mitigating the circumstance of their transitory nature. The mitigating circumstance prevents us from making a verdict. For how can we condemn something that is ephemeral, in transit? In the sunset of dissolution, everything is illuminated by the aura of nostalgia, even the guillotine.
Not long ago, I caught myself experiencing a most incredible sensation. Leafing through a book on Hitler, I was touched by some of his portraits: they reminded me of his childhood. I grew up during the war, several members of my family perished in Hitler’s concentration camps; but what were their deaths compared with the memories of a lost period of my life, a period that would never return?
This reconciliation with Hitler reveals the profound moral perversity of a world that rests essentially on the non existence of return, for in this world everything is pardoned in advance and therefore everything is cynically permitted.”
My take:
Leave out the pardoning part. I, so far always felt that the priceless moments are the ones which will never eternally return. I can only fantasize those moments. True, these memories are invaluable. The fact that I can never physically experience or accomplish them makes it precious. But there are moments that are equally enjoyable that happen very often.Most of the times we tend to trivialize these priceless moments that recur, many a times we never tend to notice those moments. If I think about myself, curd is something that can drive me into a frenzy. I have curd daily. But if I happen to be deprived of it, those golden moments of me relishing the curd in my home will come to my mind. We never tend to associate any value to such issues anymore. True, a thing becomes valuable only when the demand is less than the supply. But aren’t we neglecting such moments??
My favorites (in no particular order) include:
- Curd Rice
- Tender Mango Pickle
- Getting drenched in the rain
- Standing on the seashore, with my trousers folded up so as not to get it wet. However, I have never managed to get away without bedraggling my trousers
- Going to a small temple in a village on a fine evening, and sitting under the banyan tree, enjoying the gentle breeze.
- The whiff of soil damped with the first rain of the season.
- Going to places alone, in an unreserved compartment, observing the people around me
- November Rain (Song by Guns n Roses)
- To laugh until it hurts my stomach
- To wake up and realize it is possible to sleep for 10 more minutes
- Unexpected guests
- To see an old friend again, and talk about our friends with him/her
- To see that someone younger to me, asking the same questions which I used to ask at his/her age.
- To go for a midnight stroll on a deserted foggy night.
- The last exam before vacations!
- The first day back home!
- The fact that I am not able to conclude the list!
