8/24/2014 10:41pm

I have downed about 2 1/2 glasses of Chardonnay ( Clavo, Chile 2012) and feel a bit tipsy. Watching Silicon Valley (American Experience, PBS) on the repeated recommendation of N, a boyish/almost ragamuffin style spit and polish little human, who I respect for her clarity of thought and strength of character.

The feeling of connection to complete strangers - who are pioneers in the field that I work in currently is all consuming. Much like the feeling that I might collapse into a pleasant dream at any moment.

The first time I ever saw the documentary "E=mc^2", I felt as though I am part of a long line of engineers/scientists/physicists - descendants of Michael Faraday - a poor blacksmith driven by bettering his condition and insatiable curiosity for knowledge.

Seguing very bluntly, I would also like to point out how in a moment or period of inebriation, is there a clarity of thought - a single line of consciousness that is not caught up in the hustle and bustle of everyday survival. No wonder, I thought, many artists chose to lose their minds.

Here is to the perfect balance - a lot of experiences to ponder on, a variety of thought from people you love and respect, your own principles, spur of the moment impetus and a little help from the liquor industry - Prost!

To know where we come from

Evolution, which is proven fact, will eventually eliminate people and thought patterns like these. Beneath of the facade of trying to spread "god's" love and way to salvation, all these people end up spreading is lies, hatred and blockading progress.

Sometimes though, I wished evolution would be a bit quicker with this foregone conclusion. I have to concede, that I do derive some pleasure from the irony of the possibility that this science bashing train of thought, will be eliminated by evolution.

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/07/31/ken-ham-clarifies-defund-nasas-search-for-alien-life-build-more-creation-museums/

Something to believe in

"Follow me down to the valley below You know
Moonlight is bleeding from out of your soul"

"My David don't you worry
This cold world is not for you
So rest your head upon me
I have strength to carry you"

Steven Wilson, using religious context to deliver a much deeper message.

As strong and stable as we aspire to be, we all will face those moments where all you want to do is give up and lie down. In that moment, the face that props your hopes up and a mind that can share its wisdom and calmness are eventually what do get you through. And to know someone who will always do that for you, is greatly calming. I do thankfully know such a person. And I hope I can do the same for some one.

The Power of Ideas

Time and again, this reminds me of where I come from and what I have left behind. Nostalgia in all the right departments. India, the magical land it is. Of course, we have our problems. But that does not take away from the fact that we are history's best surviving link to modernity. Mother, I bow to thee!

Outsider within....

Cynic - a name in heavy metal that represents a master class in extreme tech prog metal. They were way ahead of their time when they released Focus - which you should immediately listen to, unless you hate music. Founding members of this band, Sean Reinert - drummer extraordinaire and Paul Masvidal - guitar virtuoso madman. They influenced everybody who came after them and sought the title of prog metal musicians.

News broke a couple of days ago, that both Sean and Paul are gay and they have publicly come out as such and that their close one's had known for a long long time. And surely enough, long time fans welcomed this news and embraced it. Of course, what Masvidal and Reinert do on their own time is their business. From what I have read and seen, they are both classy people and of course, brilliant musicians.

The reason they came out so late (their first album, Focus, was released on 1993) was because they feared that they would not be accepted in the metal circles and would lose their fan following. And some of that might ring true, since they were touring with bands like the legendary Cannibal Corpse. Ultra macho, uber masculine death metal. And this made me think.

For starters,  The Metal God, is gay. And us in the  metal music community flocked to this music because we felt like outsiders. We could not really fit in, or we could not get into any other music. We fell to the charms of darkness and the Devil and the other worldly. We expected that our near and dear ones would try to understand us through this medium and see our love for this music as a positive. And us metalheads, who would like to think of ourselves as open minded and liberal, turn out to be such bigots that the stars of our world are afraid of being who they are in front of us? Does that not smack of hypocrisy? 

It makes me sad, that us, the outsiders, the freaks - are just as bigoted as the "commoners" - those normal people. The music counts. That is it. I think, in this sense, pop music has done more to promote social justice and equality than metal. I hope we are better than that. I hope we prove that we are better than that. 

To Sean Reinert and Paul Masvidal - we love your music and love you too. You've made us proud. Keep up the good work. Hope to see you live soon. 

Duur Kinara...

Listening to this song and watching this episode, brings back memories. A crisp summer evening in Minneapolis. Sitting around with the best of friends, watching episodes of "The Dewarists" and being inspired by songs as these. Which would then be rounded off by watching the sun sink into the  Mississippi from the Stone Arch Bridge. 

That bond and love has still remained and is as strong as ever. It has been tested and tried. And it lived well. Going from a great social and urban atmosphere to a self imposed, but not a choice based isolation was a tumbling around of my world that I never saw coming. From multiple points of reference and perspective, I am down to one. Putting my thoughts into the ether and watch them bounce off the walls, get tangled and be injected back into me. 

It was uncomfortable hearing my own thought patterns so vividly and honestly, since there was always a veil, of which they would be deflected off. That veil had been removed in seclusion. To understand the grain of my own being and recognise that this was the person everyone else was seeing, was oddly unsettling at first. But it made more and more sense, as time passed by.

I used to be of the opinion that you do not need physical seclusion to really reach that single point of conscious thought. The strength in that argument has waned quite a bit after observing myself through a similar process. Yes, physical seclusion is not mandatory, but it does remove a lot of distractions, puts you in spots where you live with your thoughts, actions resulting from them and the thoughts emanating from those. Although cannibalistic, it allows for a single train of thought that you can trace back. 

And rote repetition of this process, with and against your wish and will, has brought me to meet myself and brought peace to an otherwise agitated mind. 

So now, a year and a half later, I sit in this room in the middle of nowhere, ready for the next change, the next phase of my life - companionship. Having found my soul mate years ago, its time that a room had the two us. Our thoughts bouncing around, resulting into actions affecting us both. And a new conscious being emerges. In all its serenity, it couldn't be more exciting. 

Genesis of an Idea

A snow flake touched her skin

and her body quivered a little.

Formed in the nimbus high above,

amalgamation of earth, water, wind and fire.

And when the time comes nigh,

Clouds smother the sky

The time is ripe. 

Blow your trumpets, Gabriel,

its the birth of a flake.

Bound towards the earth

In a hurry, partly a flurry.

Blown this way and that.

Unaware of time and its part.

By itself it is incomplete and innocuous.

The landing place provides the right contrast and hue.

She stood on open plain,

Desolated grey.

In quotidian ritual.

The snow flake landed on her skin

And her body shivered.

For even in the cloudy sky,

the sun shone brighter than ever.

As apparent as air,

blood came surging to the brain,

And a smile to the face.

She breaks into a canter

with arms wide open,

to fly, fly away.

A bit of hatred.....

If I might not have adequately put it before, I bloody well hate religion. With the news of violence coming in everyday, from almost every nook and cranny of the world, religion is helping humanity plunge into the darkest recesses of doom and dismay.

For some time now, I have been at casual ( and the occasional heated argumentative) loggerheads with people over religion and standing the ground, waving the flag for total eradication of this horrible remainder of civilizations old. And in the heat of the argument, the hatred would spill over for the person. Who can possibly believe in this horlicks called religion, if they had half a brain? Why would one be such a moron, on purpose, day in and day out? Aargh, the idiots!

One such argument was with my own parents, as you have. And at the end, momentarily though, i had a twinge of bad feelings for my mom. Which is preposterous of course and I was only very happy to realise that. Which is when, it caught me. As someone has said, "Don't hate the player, hate the game". Religion has survived by making sure that humans believe it is the only true form of salvation. And humans, trying to find a crutch in their darkest hours, are only happy to oblige. Do this for enough generations, and voila!

And so, everytime, I get into an argument about this heinous anathema called religion, and it starts to get a bit heated, i just remember the loving face of my mom. A religious housewife. Who wants nothing but the best for her family. Inspite of the religion. How can I hate her ever! 

Upon this stone, this city shall stand......

On this sad day of the passing of Nelson Mandela, I read another terrible news. Now, this is as terrible as things get and usually I will say many unkind words about priests, pedophiles (not sure there is a difference, but I will reserve the judgement) and religion and go my way. For I cannot do more than that.

But this news comes out of St Paul, Minnesota. One of the Twin Cities, where I spent 2 very happy years of my life and feel very connected to the Twin Cities and its people. Of course, its in the name. St Paul. And of course, as anybody else drawn to this city, I went to the Cathedral of St Paul, several times. Marveling at its beauty. Enamoured by this royal edifice.

I remember sitting in this magnificent building, one wintery morning. Looking at the stained glass portraits. And the crucifix. Statues of the saints. And thinking to myself. This is what us humans can do when we come together, for a common cause. This is what represents a great side of human nature. Creating beauty. It truly is a testament to the best of our species. And without the people, this is nothing. Absolutely nothing.

So, such a thing should happen in the Cities that I love, makes me very very sad. It truly does. These Cities gave me a million beautiful sights and sounds and the people treated me with care and warmth. I truly hope that justice prevails in this case and the victims can find some peace and closure.

Moving mountains

What is true joy? Inner peace? They do sound like buzz words, pop culture references to something that has been buried under a mountain of cliches. So, you and me do not care for such, when going about your daily routines.

But when those quotidian distractions are removed, to an extent where you feel detached from normal life, is where you can start to search for the true meaning of those phrases. You have done a long and tiring hike, you are driving through a narrow, beautiful road in the high Rocky Mountains. And this song is playing on the sound system.

You come to a halt. Your senses are dissolving into one smooth and soothing mixture. And then you come upon a view as such. It is difficult to not have a tear in your eye. It is difficult not to be overwhelmed. You close your eyes. And the existence of your being stands alone and suspended. In the same moment of comatose bliss, your being is most alive. 'Tis in that moment, that you experience true joy. Inner peace.