Missing and Dreaming

Yet another pending tag. This time, from Meenu. She has done a wonderful tag and after going through it, I had my own doubts if I'll be able to do justice to the tag.

The tag was to write the 10 things I miss in my life right now , and the 10 things I want to achieve in 10 years !

I doubted because, this is the most easiest and the toughest tag I can ever do. The first part is easy. With in seconds we can list out the things we miss, not just 10, it can run to infinity. Mind always makes a deal with the greed and all that cannot be possessed forever adds up subconsciously to the list of things we miss. It is very easy to miss something too and hence to list it is almost effortless. Here is the list of 10 things I miss now and may be forever:)


1. My Dad

2. My Granny

3. First Love? May be all the episodes of love :)

4. Everything about Kodaikanal

5. Proximity with my friends and all those pranks, big and small

6. Days at Amaravathi

7. The first year of my son - I was traveling most of the time

8. Frequent travels - backpack kind:)

9. Innocence

10. Aloneness

On the other hand, things I dream of doing in the next 10 years.....is the most toughest thing I could think of. To be frank, I don't really know. I am sure that the next 10 years will definitely add more things to the list of I will be missing. But, I couldn't predict all that now and set them as my objectives. Well, I'm not doing the last part of the tag:)

The Song Tag - Feel

It's been a long time:) Thought, I will do a long pending tag from Vishesh. Tag is always the easiest way to get into the grew after such a long gap. Fortunately, I have few more tags pending in the list.

I am supposed to “Think of the song that most inspires me to write, whether it gives you an idea for a story, script or just puts me into a better frame of mind AND/OR peek into the lyrics and find a verse that sums up the theme of whatever project I'm working on. If possible, post a video of the song to convey to readers the full context of the song and the mood it puts you into. Finally, send the assignment to five other writers to do as well.”

Music is a great source of inspiration and often I have set my mood as required by listening to the appropriate song or music. Music has always been a means to stop the mind from all the stupid thoughts. With music, my mind stops and can't really write on its implications or impact. I'm no longer there to dissect it :)

The is one of my favourite songs

Anyone interested can do this tag....

Similarities shared

It’s time to do the tag from Vishesh pending for a long time. I am supposed to write:

A. List 5-10 things of commonality that I have in common with the human race and/or nature.

B. List 5-10 things that I might have in common with the human race and/or nature.

I don’t see a lot of difference between what I have and what I might have. If I might have something in similar, it just means that I already have that similarity. How else could the very thought arise? Is it not the projection of what I already possess? There might be a difference in degree, but what I think as what I might have in similar is just what I already have in similar. May be, this is how I have interpreted the questions …

This is a highly introspective exercise. Though, the greatest and the smallest of human are all too similar to each others and human all too human, it is always difficult to accept and reveal the similarities. On the hand, it’s very easy to identify the differences. If you ask me, how different I am from the human being and all the natural laws, I would have more points to quote than how I would relate myself to the similarities that exist. Finding similarities requires stripping ourselves naked of all that we have accumulated as an individual over these years while finding differences means reinforcing all that we have accumulated to be come an individual with all the uniqueness. Do you remember enjoying while identifying 6 differences between 2 pictures in some magazine? Yes. It’s easy and pleasurable to compare and differentiate things. But it is very difficult to see the similarities unless there is necessity to be under the umbrella of a group. Let me stop this here and do the tag…

Here are 10 similarities I have/might have with human race and/or nature.

1. An upright ego with its contradictions and perplexity

2. A rope stretched between animal and divine

3. An intoxicating joy in the dream and diction of God

4. All facets of love projected in varied degrees at different times

5. A poor ignorant weariness wanting to attain the ultimate in a single giant leap

6. The itch to discover – to circumnavigate every domain

7. A burning conscience

8. Can do! – Lately changed to “Can do it!”

9. Amoral when morality is questioned

10. The illusion of being the center of the universe

Let’s share our similarities and celebrate our differences – Scott Peck

Recommend reading - “The Road Less Traveled” by Scott Peck

It was fun doing this. Thanks Vishesh! Whoever wants to do it, please go ahead and do it..

A Blessing

This is a tag called the blessing tag. I was blessed and tagged by Dawn. The idea behind this is to pray for and bless 3 blog friends and this tag propagates across the blog world taking many forms and blessing many people. Interesting and worth doing.

As this from Dawn, the blessing has to be a quote from someone. Let me quote this poem to bless my blog friends who recently brought in new life into this mother earth.

Anand, Bharath and Kamal - their cute little ones Dishita, Arjuun and Krrish are blessed.

The next part of the tag is to eloborate our view on the following 10 points

1. It is important to be liked by others
2. Obedience is a virtue
3. People are not malicious but they become so because of bad experiences or circumstances
4. Education broadens our view and makes people more humane
5. People who have no money troubles are happier
6. As people get older they get wiser
7. You can live on love and fresh air
8. There is a celestial guardian angel looking after each one of us
9. All living beings reincarnate
10. Heaven and Hell are places you go to after death

Dawn has done a faboulous work eloborating these points and saved me from thinking hard on this:). If you have not read this post, please do it now. Greats quotes and insight. Good topics for a debating competition as well - make yourself a Great Debator!!!

A tag from Dawn

Thanks to Dawn for passing this tag to me and making the possibility of a post in my blog after a long gap.

As in every tag, the rules first!

1. One has to post these rules before one gives out the facts.

2. One must list one fact that is somehow relevant to their life for each letter of their middle name. If one doesn’t have a middle name, they can use the middle name that they would have liked to have

3. At the end of there post, they will have to choose one person for each letter of their middle name to tag. And make sure that each tagged person is notified about this via commenting on there blogs.

An interesting, yet difficult tag, at least for me. It is difficult because there is so much confusion with my name. The First Name, Middle Name and the Last Name - naming convention is of western origin and it becomes really difficult to apply it in the east (at least in India). Babies to inherit their father’s first name as their last name and married women to inherit their husband’s first name as their last name, babies inheriting their Surname from the family name or caste name or clan name and finally, all these chaos only results in the significance of the orgional name getting lost. The irony is, my TC (Transfer Certificate) has my name as M.Sivakumar, my passport has it as Sivakumar Manoharan, my voter id has it as Sivakumar, PAN Card (Permanent Account Number for Income Tax) has it as Sivakumar M. When I produce any of these 2 as proof (one as Photo Identification and the other as proof for Date of Birth or proof of Address) there is always a contradiction. To add to this confusion, there exists 3 more cousins with Sivakumar as their name and my name was prefixed with my native place and so to be called as Kodaikanal Siva. In spite of so many Sivakumars at school, there was less confusion as the Roll numbers were predominantly used for identification. However, during some competition, when it came to have the names printed in the t-shirts, I got my name printed in the reverse order as AVIS, to sound like a brand that existing in those times. Coming to work there was yet another Siva and hence, I am to be called as Kumar.

What is a Name? A means to identify an individual? I don’t think so! There are more individuals than the names under the sun. RFID Tags would be most appropriate to identify the uniqueness than the names. I believe, Name is a bridge to relate a person with another and hence is a form of Ego. A name is for others to call us by, where as the ego is for us to call ourselves. Name is the first sheath that is imposed on a person born into this world and we start relating the person with the name, its meaning, its numerology, its popularity, and finally inculcate the qualities of these factors and imitate them.The Kids are named with the assumption that, they would like the way they are called by and hence, if it is not meeting their expectations, they should be allowed to change their names at will. This tag especially gives me an opportunity to think as to how I would want myself to be called as and to add some significance to the name.

A tag extended from Dawn should start with a quote! As Gandhiji quoted “Be the change you want to see”, let me deduce the attributes that I want to see in me from the letters of the name I wish to be called as – SHIVA.

S – Saatvic – To attain the noblest of the three gunas
H – Himalayas – To live in the abode of Shiva, even when in a market place
I – Ishta – To and to be loved
V – Vairagya - To be able Discriminate, Detach and Renounce
A – AUM – To live in the Truth

Rules are rules!

Let me pass on this Tag to

Shirsha

H ---?????? -
Ideasnet – Meenu
Vijay Mithra
Aaizwaikcha – Princess

A Tag on a book

I'm back with the longpending recent tag from Deepa. It is recent, because, I do have longpending old tags from Priya and Vishesh, probably saved for some future post. I'm sure, they will pardon me.

The tag requires me to share the 5th paragraph in the 123rd page of the book I am presently reading - A simple and an interesting tag!

Rules to be followed -

1. Tell us who tagged you... dont forget to give us his/her link
2. Present the 5th para in the 123rd page of the book you are presently reading
3. If the book doesnot have 123rd page ( and/or) the 5th paragraph.. you may present the last paragraph in the last page
4. You may either type the content - or - scan the page and highlight the paragrah
5. Tag 5 more people

The book I have been reading for the past 2 months is "Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality" by Sigmund Freud. First published in 1905, it is considered as one of the most momentous and original contributions to human knowledge. Though there are only 109 pages in the book, the significant time it is consuming can be attributed to my intermittent reading coupled by contemplation and to the vastness of its investigation into the key aspect human behaviour right from chlildhood. There is always a pain associated with such books delaing with human psych, as we would start relating ourselves and the people around to the behavioural patterns and the symptoms discussed in them. The benefit of being associated with such literature right from my formative years, helps me read them in a dettached manner.

Here is the gist of the book:

In his first essay, "Sexual Abberations", Freud deals with the numerous deviations from the sexual object and the sexual aim. These deviations in sexual instinct result in aspects like inversion, degeneracy, animals as sexual objects, sadism, masochism, perversion etc.

Ideas developed in the first essay led logically to the second, which focused on sexuality in infancy and childhood. Every adult was once a child and should in principle be able to recall childhood in more than a fragmentary way, but most do not. Freud states two important observations. First, infantile amnesia affects everything concerning sexuality in childhood. Second, the strong moral condemnation that impacts all manifestations of sexuality leads to repression or gratification through sublimation. Freud explicitly states that oral gratification is a prototype for every sexual gratification, is pleasurable in itself, and is autoerotic inasmuch as it does not require any other object than the infant itself. He writes that the infant seems to be saying, "'It's a pity I can't kiss myself'" (p.48). Thumb-sucking is an example of manifestations of infantile sexuality. I was amused to note that, often infants self-impose constipation to result in abundant mass discharge of stool, resulting in stimulation of the anal zone, an example of manifestations of infantile sexuality.

The final essay, " The Transformation of Puberty", discusses the final stage of genital primacy, the various inhibitions, fixations and deviations, the forepleasure principle and the libido theory. It also includes the concepts of penis envy, castration anxiety, and the Oedipus complex.

Here is the tag -

I was tagged by Deepa :

A person of profound insight - My Perceptions

A great poet and a motivator- Appreciating Poetry

As there is no 123rd page in the book, here is the last paragraph of the last page -

"The unsatisfactory conclusions which have resulted from this investigation of the disturbances of the sexual life is due to the fact that we as yet know too little concerning the biological processes in which the nature of sexuality consists to form from our isolated examinations a satisfactory theory for the explanation of either the normal or the pathological."

A disappointing conclusion, causing further itch to discover more through the later works of Sigi or through the recent developments on the subject.

Friends Tagged:

Bharath, Jeeves, Kavi, Kumar, Sowmya

Pria's TAG

Favorite Colors: White

Favorite Food: Anything hot and spicy

Favorite Month: December

Favorite Songs:

• Tamil: Nallathor Veenai Seidhe of Subramanya Bharathi
  

• English: Just the way you are – Billy Joel

• Hindi: - Hawa Dheere Aana (Nanhi Kali Sone Chali) from Sujata
  

Favorite Movies:

• English- God Father

• Tamil- Guna

• Hindi- Black

• Italian – Life is beautiful ( Dubbed in English)

• Iranian – Children of Heaven (Dubbed in English)

Favorite Book

• English - Lust for Life by Irving Stone

• Tamil - Ponniyin Selvan by Kalki
  

Favorite Sport: Basket Ball

Favorite Season: Monsoon of Kodaikanal

Favorite Day Of the week: Saturday

Favorite Ice Cream Flavor: Chocolate

Favorite Time of Day: Late evenings

During weekends: As it flows.....

8 CURRENTS

Current Mood: Happy and Relaxing

Current Taste: Chocolate

Current Clothes: Southern Spice Lungi

Current Desktop: Osho

Current Toe nail Color: Not Applicable :)

Current Time: 10:46 PM CST

Current Surroundings: Silence

Current Thoughts: Pria’s TAG


6 FIRSTS

First Best Friend: You too !

First Screen Name: Give me a hugzzz was your answer!

First Pet: None

First Piercing: Just like you - Ears

First Album: Colonial Cousins

First Movie: Ninaithale Inikkum

6 LASTS

Last Cigarette: I see someone standing with a stick!

Last Drink:

• Alcoholic: Jack Daniel's
  

• Non-alcoholic: Water

Last Movie Seen: Dances with the wolves ( in TV)

Last Phone Call: As I type this…

Last Book Read: Passions of the mind by Irving Stone

Have You Ever Broken the Law: Which Law?

Have You Ever Been Arrested: They were never successful :)

Have You Ever Been on TV: I have a 100 channel TV running in my mind

Have You Ever Lied: Many times, for good.

Have You Ever Kissed Someone You Didn't Know: Only in dreams!

5 THINGS

Thing You're Wearing: I thinks, I told you..

Thing You've Done Today: TAG

Thing You Can Hear Right Now: Cell phone vibration

Thing You Can't Live Without: Love

Thing You Do When You're Bored: Books, Travel and of course, blogging

4 PLACES YOU'VE BEEN TODAY

Office, Apartment, Gas Station and Barnes & Noble

3 PEOPLE YOU CAN TELL ANYTHING TO

My Sister, My wife and My Friends

2 CHOICES

Be yourself

Listen to your heart

1 THING YOU WANT TO DO BEFORE YOU DIE

Nothing

The TAG is passed to Shirsha, Jeeves, Kavi (If he ever sees this post) and Jeevan (Please ignore, if you had already been through this)