da incorrigible SAZEAL

May 03, 2007

Sorry friends! for the long wait... but i was on a "world tour of India" because of my Summer Project.

This is going to be a post difficult to understand.... not because it is some high funda stuff, but i've just written as i have felt in my heart... it was also difficult for me to decode these thoughts i had... i want my readers comments on this... here goes...

Compassion... I just cant understand and accept this particular term... Compassion in terms of love for beings around u is understandable, but compassion in form of 'pity' or 'sympathy' - it is a sick concept. The two might seem the same but they are completely different.

By displaying such compassion, people tend to display their sensitivity or "tenderness of heart"... total bullshit!
pick up you individuality, have self respect.. and let the creature u are showing ur sympathy towards (compassionee from here on), have his own individuality and let him retain his self respect...

Just as i'd say, "demand and take what u deserve; nothing less and nothing more", i'd also like to state that let the compassionee of urs take wht he deserves... if he cant or doesn't, thts his problem coz thts wht he deserves... That is the way u are being more kind towards him and u r doin the right thing... because u are offering him an oppurtunity, an oppurtunity of allowing him to gather himself and hold his head up, though he is shattered...

Yes, this also means tht Charity is a crime... A strict no-no for giving alms to a physically fit begger or a tip to a waiter or anything of that sort... yes, help should be rendered to the people who need it (not to be addressed as needy), but only if they are worthy of it...

Well, i was thinking all this when i came across an interesting piece.... Ayn Rand sayz, "I do not consider charity a major virtue and, above all, I do not consider it a moral duty."

The answer lies in "Existentialism"... it is the philosophy that places emphasis on individual existence, freedom, and choice.

All said and done, i recently found myself buying and gifting a few mangoes to some poor kids on the road... a friend asked me howz this is justified with ur disbeleif in charity... well, these 5 year olds deserved it.. they might not have tasted fruits in their life and rest of their childhood would pass without them.... even here thr is a problem... such reptitive actions would make these kids into weak adults, who will live on gaining sympathies all their lives....

"Man is condemned to be free; because once thrown into this world, he is responsible for everything he does."
Jean Paul Sartre

May 13th 2006

WoW!!! i've finaaly been able to figure out the kind of people i respect (or genuinely like)... Surprisingly, these are the people who like me and despise me, at the same time.

I don't think i like people who like me for all i've acheived or i'm expected to acheive; i like people who like me for the way i live my life, the way i do my things, the way i work, though they might not really approve of it in toto... To say the least, i dont quite agree with people who adore me for some specific reasons, for thr are none... i like those who like me for no reason whatsoever... thts the irony of it all

Well, while i was goin thru all this, i started wondering... why should i like or not like someone (anyone) at all? wht is the logic (if at all) behind all this? (well, logic is one other shady topic, but lets leav tht for other time)

As we've heard, "too much ofsweet tastes bitter". by experience i can also say tht too much of bitter also tastes sweet...

Coming back to wht i was sayin,i respect people who like me for wht i am - the real Sazeal and not his potentials and abilities and achievements and...
Well, u'd say, tht even thts a part of Sazeal, isn't it? "Exactly!", i'd say... people who like a part of me either means they dont like the whole of me or they dont know the whole of me... And then it would be cheating to say anything about me, won't it? well, not cheating in literal sense, but cheating all the same.

What the heck! i can't avoid this even if i want... all this talk would sound too egotistical to ye all, huh?
Maybe! but isn't tht important? coz if i cant respect the "I", i cant respect anything at all.
Lemme clarify, i am neither talkin about the "materialistic I" or the selfless "spiritual I"... I am talkin about the whole of I that includes the 2 definitions and all the definitions around....

The world is big; It is also very small.
People around are magnanimous; They are also frivolous.
But I will not complain, I will not crib.
Because I know I will succeed in what I believe.
In what? How? When? I do not know.
I had heard, once:
“This is a tough world, pal, dog eat dog and all that
And I for one, am not gonna be left behind.”

But, I am out of this rat race
I don’t want to be a rat all my life.
I have much greater task in my life,
For which I am born!
I am nature’s answer to worlds needs,
I am God’s reply to his subjects’ needs.
‘Coz I am a fighter; I am a warrior!
And I know I will win.


This explains what I believe. And the incident that triggered my thinking in this direction is as interesting as the topic itself. It was the kind of discussion that usually takes place in written notes in the last benches of a class. Excerpts of which entail:

…Ashish: This is not the right place. Here, autocracy is ‘the’ word and freedom is obsolete. So, just forget it.

Sazeal: Agreed Sir, but if you believe in something and you are passionate about it, it is not impossible to achieve anything. We can change the system also. I don’t say it is going to be easy.

Ashish: Man, all this is just gyaan. Just a bunch of goody stuff; far away from reality.

Sazeal: Not just goodies. In fact it is very much practical. The only thing is that you have to fight. You should not give up, even if you fail. Optimism is the word for the game.

Ashish: philosophy of a fighter, huh? It is too far fetched. Not everybody can be a fighter. Look around the class, I see only strugglers.

Sazeal: Yes, in reality, all of us are strugglers. A fighter can only be recognized in his trying times. Tough times tell us a fighter from a struggler.

Ashish: Hmmm… I had read this somewhere, “A fighter fights and wins; and a struggler struggles and dies”. I do agree that one should never stop, whether he wins or loses. One should never compromise or compensate if he really believes in something…

Now, at this juncture, I was left thinking. Thinking who exactly is a fighter, a warrior, a soldier?

Who is a fighter? Who is a struggler?

Dictionary defines a fighter as
“A pugnacious, unyielding, or determined person.”
and a struggler as

“A person who struggles with difficulties or with effort.”

You have two roads at any point when you are to take a crucial step or decision: either you give up or you continue to believe in yourself and do what you believe.

In other words, you stay in the system, work within it, you crib and still you accept. You are a struggler. You stay in the system, work within it, understand it and work towards bringing about positive changes against all the odds. Then, you are a fighter.

Fighters always have, through the history, found it ‘difficult’ to achieve their targets because they pose a serious threat to the power and authority and the current system as a whole. But when you break all the bars, and prove you are right, you are a fighter.

There are a few great people in history who I very positively term as fighters. These personalities are Bhagat Singh, Swami Vivekananda, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, Howard Hughes and Alexander the Great.

When do we fight? To what extent is fight justified? In what way should you fight?

At this juncture I must pose the most important question. Do we fight against a person? A group? Do we have to fight against someone?
No, I say. Fight need not be against someone… it could also be against a man-generated situation or a natural calamity or it could be against your own traits. Fight need not be to hurt your opponent or a villain, but to help him understand your view or even help him out of his ideologies. As Mahatma Gandhi once said, “I am not against fight. I always believe in fighting wherever there is injustice. The question is do you fight to change the situation or do yopu fight to punish?”

A fighter may be offensive or defensive, depending on the demand of the situation.

The basic philosophy of a fight is never to give up. That is never give up if you believe in something. Just go ahead and do it. Strugglers crib and try to struggle out of the situation. Escapists also struggle. This does not mean that I am comparing strugglers to escapists though latter is a subset of the former. But if we talk about strugglers, we usually talk about the mass that does try but not enough to succeed.

Fighters at some point of time are strugglers; but one thing is sure that, not strugglers are fighters.

There is something that always crops up when I talk on this particular subject. And it is very much coherent to the subject I am discussing here. That, the characters I describe as fighters show elements of eccentricity. Take, for instance, the example of Howard Hughes. I say, Eccentricity is important… because what people consider eccentric is actually the unusual and exceptional qualities of these personalities that normal(?) people cannot understand and that’s why they are not fighters… we must appreciate eccentricity and not shun it regarding it as ‘crazy’.
In fact all of us have some or the other eccentricity which is actually their potential to grow larger than life.

This reminds me of Swami Vivekananda’s words:
“Wake up! Be bold! Understand your duty and take the whole responsibility on your shoulders.”

GOALS
One must have a goal in life. And a large one, because our President Dr. A P J Abdul Kalaam said, “Small aim is a crime.” If it is something that we feel for, we must go ahead with all passion. And the fact is that you cannot reach the pinnacle without taking substantial risks in life. Congruently, we must consider the odds, weigh them and take decisions. And we must be ready for the repercussions.

I would like to end this article by the lyrics of a song by John Bon Jovi:
“This is for the ones who stood their ground,
For Tommy and Jeenah who never backed out.
Tomorrow’s getting harder, make no mistakes;
‘Coz luck aint even lucky, gotta make your own breaks.”

The Dictionary defines Competition as:
1. The act of competing, as for profit or a prize; rivalry.
2. A test of skill or ability; a contest.
3. Rivalry between two or more businesses striving for the same customer or market.
4. A competitor: The competition has cornered the market.
5. Ecology. The simultaneous demand by two or more organisms for limited environmental resources, such as nutrients, living space, or light.

Well, I believe in two things: Competition is omnipresent; it is present everywhere and at every point of time. And secondly, Competition is very important; whether we talk about the growth of an individual, a society, an organization, a market, or the world at large. Life itself is a competition.

The question is what kind of competition? Or to what extent do we justify the intensity of competition? Here I am hinting at Good competition and Bad competition. As National Geographic quotes in one of its articles on competition as it exists in Olympics, “competition can be good, as when people or teams play games against each other and stick to the rules. It can also be bad, such as when two people fight or when someone tries to cheat at a game.”

I am aware that good and bad, in themselves, are undefined terms; and the most used (read abused) too. We must first understand that, if competition is defined as a game played between individuals to reach to the top, then there is always a place on the top for everyone.

As Prof. K Sankaran quotes the Darwin’s theory ,
“The fittest shall survive
None but the fittest shall survive
The strong shall inherit
None but the strongest shall inherit…”
So the competition should be such that we keep off from foul games and dirty tactics. Let us term these as negative competition. Whether I talk about the corporate world or anything else, this “negative competition” will surely help you break the backs of your competitors, but will also motivate them and others to break your back. This I said in terms of repercussions. But, in practise it is also an unethical act. Prof. Sankaran also talks about how we can stop vulgarising Darwin’s theory and reap more benefits of free markets by understanding Competition properly.

All of us have grown up hearing the saying that it is important to win but it is far more important how you win.
I believe in a concept of Co operational Competition. Traditionally, we use Co-operation and Competition as near antonyms. But here I do talk about the two terms in synch. Helping each other to develop, learn from each other and grow in unison is what I am preaching. The concept does look very impossible and socialist in outlook, but it has more to it than it seems. We must work with this in mind and some altruism in heart. We can bring about a positive change in this “dog-eat-dog” world by understanding the meaning of competition.

To sum it up, I quote the famous saying, “Win or lose- do it fairly”.

Life is so unpredictable!! When you are down, it pulls you up; when you are elevated, it bangs you to the ground. You can’t even understand, what is happening to you. Instead of asking, “Is it supposed to be this way?”; I would rather say “This is life… Welcome to reality! Face it and be strong.” Huh! Easier said than done. When someone loses a person close to him; when the person close to you passes away, how do you feel? I can’t even imagine. In fact I shudder at the very thought that these things are destined to happen. And when, all of a sudden, it shows you a middle fingerl it says “YOU ARE NOTHING” and you just stare into oblivion as if you are a fool. Is, so much of attachment to people and things around us, good? May be… or may be not. Well, your parents bring you up, spending every cell of their body, crying for you, smiling with you. There are people around you who love you, who care for you. How can you not be attached to them? How can you not lose heart and break down when something drastic happens to them? Don’t our near and dear ones deserve our tears? They sure do… On the other hand, you have to learn to face realities. Do we all not know that life is meant to end? Do we not understand we must also bear our share of pain? Is it not that happiness and sorrow have to go hand in hand? I think we should be better equipped to face such consequences. Reality and Emotions; Practicality and Morals; they have to be in conflict. None of them being right or wrong. That’s not the point I want to mention here. I want to talk about the reality of life. And the reality is that you love people around you and you always want them to be happy. Because it makes you happy to see them happy. And the reality is, there is an equilibrium in the universe. You have to face both the extremes (like joy and sorrow) in equal amounts. I don’t know how to end this pourout of mine. But it is natural to feel things, good and bad. But, THE SHOW MUST GO ON. Life cannot stagnate because of one catastrophe. Like phoenix we must rise from the ashes!

should we or should we not... moral and ethics... intriguing and difficult? logical? theoritical?

well, answers are simple... u r a fool if u stick by them and u r a bigger fool if u dont.
no i havent got "the bout" again... if u do the right thing peeps slap u on the back of ur head and laugh on ur back... and if u decide to do it in a less right manner, u become the biggest sinner on the face of earth!!

by now i am sure all of u r with me, whether u r the victim or his nemesis.

well, do what u think is right... dont give a damn to this friggin' world, coz newayz its gonna kick ur arse... in sazeal's words follow ur heart... that will help u succeed (whatever ur goals or ideals r) and then the same peeps who had once critisized will lick the path u treaded and wag their tails.

because life is like a quote tht states--
LOVE YOUR JOB BUT NEVER FALL IN LOVE WITH YOUR COMPANY, COZ' U NEVER KNOW WHEN COMPANY STOPS LOVING YOU.

what i mean is do wht ur here to do... because everything else the peeps, the standards, the values and the rules around u will keep changing

einstein cried hoarse, till his every single cell gave away, that "everything in this universe is relative"...
and so is the question whether sumthing is right or rong... well u must kno ur boundaries
u must have ur principles... and u must learn to live by them.
u must kno the repurcussions of ur actions and whether or not u really want the things tht r to follow

One must have a goal in his life... a large one.. as our prez puts it "Small aim is a crime"...If it is something that u feel for, with all the passion go for it... but if thinking practically tells u to take the other option, that is the thing to be done...i might not b able to xpress muh ideas very efficiently but i think u need to draw a line...its like u cant reach the pinnacle without taking risks.... very true... but at least u should consider all odds, weigh them and then decide... our want for power and money can only b a temporary goal... i feel i m here to do something much more, though doing my mba is my passion and going for a bussiness, my goal of life... still i constantly feel there is something amiss... something small but important... and i cant pinpoint wht

question in this blog... if junta is fine with it plz answer it: "i will (might) b a gr8 manager, set up a big corporate empire, earn a lot of money and fame, b very powerful in society.... i will be remembered... for some 100-200 years... and a few generation later forgotten, then what was my life worth?... if it was worth something else... what was that something else?" i am pretty sure we all have greater goals in life.. much greater than earning bread and butter... or greater than satisfying sexual and material desires

well just 4 ur info... i m an extremely ambitious person with a undieing positive attitude towards life and al... but this question has been bugging me