I like power cuts ...

I like power cuts in the night.

It provides a false sense of security and superiority with the all prevailing darkness; much like the confidence of a cat that closes its eyes and drinks the milk. Once the rest of the world is shut out all around, your alert and alarm systems will lower the guard, your response mechanisms will stand down and you start feeling better with just yourself to think about. No more concerns, no more worries; because nothing else exists then.. just you and your world.

On a side note, this is probably what is done in meditation - switch off the chaos around and look inside, be one with one's own self. I am not sure what happens during the process - is it the same false sense of peace and content you get by deliberately ignoring everything other than 'self', or is there something more profound? I am also not sure whether this detachment from reality, this alienation of all that is around, is the right way to attain peace and consciousness. Isn't consciousness the realisation of things as they are, and their subsequent acceptance? What else can set you free more than knowledge? I don't want to comment. But I have read somewhere - 'Silence is not what you get before the music starts and after it stops; it is the very essense of music that makes it music'.

My reasons for liking powercuts is but something else. It sets us free. When I was in school powercuts were a good excuse to run away from homework and books for sometime. I still remember how kids from the neighbourhood used to get together for stargazing or another round of hide and seek. It also forced us to get creative- games had to be deviced to suit the situation. It was also an occasion for the elders to get together and mourn the loss of the television serial telecasted during that hour. Then as I grew older they beacme the right time for me to sit with my Harmonica and try playing some notes. For one thing, I practised regularly, an hour each day without fail. It also helped me in playing by feeling the notes than seeing the position of the holes. Probably the only time I did something with a ceratin amount of discipline and rigour, though it was thrust upon me. Gradually the Harmonica gave way to the Guitar and powercuts again had a big role in me getting the chord progressions right.

These days when our lives are so much dependent on electricity, you will be plugged into some electrical device all day, be it computers, television or the music system. Powercuts are those occasional windows of freedom we get from the clutches of electromagnetics. A good time to get out of the house and see some stars or take a walk or even get that static charges off your body.

But just like any other slight deviation from the 'regular and comfortable' life, we always complain about it.

Homosexuality - the next stage of evolution ?

Why is there still such a hue and cry about gays and lesbians? I was surprised to realize that even now the vast majority think that homosexuality is a medical condition that can be cured by treatment or counseling!! How long will it take for these morons to understand the fact that it is a biological phenomenon just like some people are born left handed while others right handed? Its all about the wiring in one's brain and we have not yet achieved the technological sophistication to even understand brain configuration, forget meddling with it.

I personally feel this is all part of the evolutionary process - homosexuality might just be the next stage in human evolution.

But why? This is why - For ages nature used to control the process of evolution, ensuring that the ecological balance is maintained at a healthy level, all the time. Accordingly, organisms used to adapt themselves to situations and surroundings, undergoing changes and developing adaptations on the way. But once homo sapiens came into being, by virtue of their large brains and the resulting consciousness they started to interfere with the natural process of evolution. We considered ourselves the masters of the earth and the only worthy inhabitants here. Without showing even the slightest respect to the natural process of evolution, we started to multiply exponentially, upsetting the cardinal rule - 'survival of the fittest'. We also started to modify the environment around us to suit us, while every other organism changed themselves to suit the environment. We became a plague that spread across the planet, plundering all that was found on the way, threatening the existence of all other living things and the life of the planet itself.

We got so much out of control that Nature had no choice but to interfere. It was too dangerous to let us multiply like this; something had to be done. Detaching the sexual urge from the individual is too costly a proposition as life itself survives on many a byproducts of this urge. A smart solution obviously is to change the orientation of this urge. If there is a way to allow organisms to have satisfactory sexual relations without procreation, the problem of overpopulation can easily be solved. We tried it with condoms and contraceptives, but Nature did it more effectively with a little re-orientation and re-wiring. I don't see a better explanation for the ever increasing number of gays and lesbians. I don't think all of them were hiding in their closets for fear of persecution.

I feel this is probably not the next 'logical' stage of evolution as procreation is what drives it; but this was the need of the hour. Had we not multiplied uncontrollably and not tampered with the natural process of selection, sexual orientation would not have been a key differentiator in the next stage of evolution. As evolution is mostly guided by the demands of the environment at any given point of time, it is in fact logical to think this was a smart solution; at least an effective stop-gap arrangement of sorts. If we had allowed Nature to take its own course, primary focus of the next stages of evolution would have been better body design or even larger brains.

All I mean to say is that homosexuality can be an adaptation, one acquired or imposed on us to counter some of the imbalances we ourselves created in this planet. Just like none of the evolutionary changes are without advantages, this one also probably serves a bigger purpose. And there is no point in calling it 'unnatural' or 'unethical' or any of that crap.

Elegy on the death of a dream..

When the festival and feast are all over
the lights all blink out and fall over

When the near and dear ones are gone
and you face life eye to eye all alone

Ask yourself who you are, what you want
what you have done and how you feel in the end

Answers will start popping out of nowhere
like stars in the sky come twinkling out of somewhere

Then you realise what went wrong
what you lost, passed you so long

Its too lame to regret, too far to get back
too strong to confront and too late to fight back

Moments once lost will never take you back
treasures are lost once you turn your back

Faces you cared and dreams that you reared
are gone for ever, leaving a mind so scared

Had lot of dreams that never came true
but glad I am for them, never feeling blue

You reap what you sow, weep if you flaw
and scars remain to show what fortunes you let go