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Friday, August 29, 2014

Someone, Somewhere, Somehow Always....


My story is about that day in late 90s since when I met someone in remotest jungle.  
Late nineties were some interesting times. We had seen liberalization for half a decade. Sachin the wonder boy had added multimillion coffers to BCCI and himself.  IT industry was booming thanks to Y2k bugbear created by one of the masterminds in IT space. Things were promising. I had bagged the best paid job in IIT campus then.  With my first job in pocket felt like a king. I was a yuppie all set to conquer the world. I stayed at company provided quarters in city like Mumbai. I used to be chauffeured in a company provided car to commute from office to Home. My first pay cheque had created ripples in my house. My company sent me to Bangalore by newly launched Jet Air. I stayed at a five star hotel in Bangalore. Every weekend we partied in south Bombay on Friday night. And i use to visit my home in Pune on Saturday morning. I used to have another party on Saturday night in Pune and travel back to Mumbai Sunday evening.  Life was a big party. My whole family was excited and whole world seemed to be at feet.

Divinity


Citizen author's experience with divinity on the occasion of Ganesh Chaturthi

Today is the eve before arrival of Ganesha. This blog completes now 6 years of its existence in terms of Indian calendar. Lord of wisdom is about to visit us today as we bring idols home. Next 10 days will be filled with fun and celebration. Everything around you seems auspicious.  Festive air is all around and we hope to celebrate this festival correctly, peacefully and without any obstacles.
That makes me wonder sometimes at the transformation i have seen in myself from being atheist to agnostic and now a conformist. When you are young, you have some false sense of romanticism, incorrect sense of know it all arrogance, some immature ideas and false self belief. Nothing teaches you like life. Life has been a roller coaster ride and I assume it’s the same for all only gradients and routes vary. Having seen highs and lows, one gets a very serene outlook to take it all phlegmatically.
Nowadays there is an unnecessary controversy over divinity of Shri Saibaba. Reading the news around this issue and the advent of Ganeshostav, have led me to pen few thoughts about my own journey towards piety. I was never a religious kind. In fact in my house we had overdose of god, rituals, and traditions with only my father being sort of neutral to all. He used to debate the norms but also was not anti. My young blood drew me to be a believer in self than destiny or God. I was further enamored by objectivism by Ayn Rand. Stay in the hostel at Kharagpur also added to the bravado.