Why is it so terrible and why it is still important to go on?

   To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow, 

   Creeps in this petty pace from day to day 

   To the last syllable of recorded time, 

   And all our yesterdays have lighted fools 

   The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle! 

   Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player 

   That struts and frets his hour upon the stage 

   And then is heard no more: it is a tale 

   Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, 

   Signifying nothing.

I so happened to read this piece of poetry from Macbeth, Shakespeare. Before I blabber on with whats in my mind, I should explain what this means to you. I know its a bit straight forward piece of poetry on setting the scales with Shakespeare's entire work. But still...

Each day creeps after another in some trivial way (life is meaningless) and time in all its details, is being noted down, ready for Judgement Day. Our past has done nothing but show fools the way to death. Life is a brief candle. Life has no importance, since it is a shadow.

Life makes no impression, just like the inadequate actor who spends but a short time on stage and then disappears, making no impact. Life is but transient. It is only a story told by a fool, full of sounds and fury but means nothing. 


Basically the soliloquy is well-known for its despondence at life. At this point of time, in the novel, it matters not to Macbeth whether he lives or not. "Life is meaningless" will be the shortest translation of this soliloquy. 

Now I have a question to you all.. is it just me or every one conscious about this? Speaking for myself, I got this clarity at around 18 and it becomes increasingly more evident as you  get older. 

When I was younger than what I am now, I had a feeling that how important everything is and how things have to go right - your job, your career, your choices and all that. And then after a while, you start to realize that, its just can't be perfect... its Ok to make mistakes its Ok to go wrong and (- taking the big picture here -) eventually we die!.. Eventually the sun burns out and the earth is gone ..all the stars and all the planets in the universe goes away - disappears and nothing is left at all!.. no Mozart .. no Shakespeare.. no Sujatha.. no Ilayaraja..no Vairamuthu..no Nolan.. No Allen.. no Rahman..no Kamal.. no beaches..parks..temples..theatres..office..traffic jam.. No wars.. no peace.. no economy..Its just an empty space.

And when you start to think about it, the words of Shakespeare - makes absolute sense - 

Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, 

   Signifying nothing.

Its just going down! 

When you think about it, its just happening over and over again! - Every hundred years, the people on earth is flushed down and earth is left with a whole new set of people - all the Indians, Americans, Hindus, Muslims, Christians, the rulers, every person who is making our lives miserable and happy - are replaced - in the next hundred years. But every set, goes through the same worry, anxiousness and rage!

So it seem like a big meaningless thing.

But, you can't actually live your life like that. Can you? Because if you do, you just sit there and wait for your death. Why do anything, why get up in the morning and do anything? Finally it comes down to this question - why live and whats the meaning of existence? 

It differs for every individual. For those among us who is devoid of any basic amenities in life - acquiring them could only be their drive to live. Sad as it is, that can't be denied. They can't (and should not) have all these nonsensical thoughts. But for people like us - to those we know that the food and shelter are guaranteed, is it not our duty to try and figure out, why given this terrible fact, this meaningless end of everything, do you want to go on living? What and why do you care about anything?

Don't we have the responsibility to try and find, knowing the truth, knowing the worst, not giving ourselves a fake heaven and hell nonsense, why life is still worthwhile!? That IS a tough assignment even to explain to somebody who's primary concern is - for instance - their salary, their food, their promotion, their credit scores, their car, the worry about how to face the society, the social status and its own evils - and many many MANY other trivial things. At times, yes,even I am concerned. That is vital for survival.. not for existence! We are not cockroaches, right?


 I wont deny some survival necessities... but I do that knowing that I am growing. I don't see in most of us even the slightest clue of growing up.. even in grown men/women!

By this time should we not have come out of our boxes and be open? Why is still for most of us, the most trivial things are of concern? Shouldn't we have evolved by now?

I realize this is the single most abstract post I have ever written and I know its not coherent enough and all the questions are debatable and open ended. For most of them, there is no answers. But if you have not given a thought about why existence itself is so terrible and why is it still important to give it a shot... please do. It is essential Because we are living in our own hallucination of reality!


Thanks!


Reflecting this anger of Shakespeare, It is interesting to know our own Mahakavi has the answer for that...

உண்மை யறிந்தவர் உன்னைக் கணிப்பாரோ?
மாயையே-மனத்
திண்மையுள்ளாரை நீ செய்வது
மொன்றுண்டோ !-மாயையே! 

எத்தனை கோடி படைகொண்டு வந்தாலும்
மாயையே-நீ
சித்தத் தெளிவெனுந் தீயின்முன்
நிற்பாயோ?-மாயையே! 

என்னைக் கெடுப்பதற் கெண்ணமுற்றாய்
கெட்ட மாயையே!-நான்
உன்னைக் கெடுப்ப துறுதியென்
றேயுணர்-மாயையே! 

சாகத் துணியிற் சமுத்திர மெம்மட்டு
மாயையே!-இந்தத்
தேகம் பொய் யென்றுணார் தீரரை யென்
செய்வாய்!-மாயையே! 

- மகாகவி பாரதியார்

Having blabbered everything and put all the questions forth, now its the time for the last one.. Is Bharathiyar greater than  Shakespeare ? :)

Amir and me...

My recent past had me traveling across US with long flight journeys and even longer layovers which gave me ample time to finish "The Kite Runner", the book I wanted to read for a long time. There are few books which can pull you physically into it, make you laugh, make you think, make you shed a tear... and haunt you for days to come and this - was one of those! A very close contender to "Shantaram" - my favorite fiction yet!

I could relate to "Amir" the narrator and by relate I just don't mean that I could empathize with him, I was able to relate certain incidents in my life - the bygone memories. It was as if Amir sat and watched all of my life so far from around the corner and after 25 years he stopped watching and told me a story from the darkest parts of it and made me relive those days! Those days which I never thought I could remember!

Whenever you read a good book, or finish reading it, it will leave you with questions... questions which are very personal.. very clandestine.. questions which you are afraid to ask yourself.. or to others. Or to put it better, only those are good books! :)

And the questions this book left me with, have no right or wrong answers.Because sometimes asking the right questions is the answer. From those questions I would like to share a few.. these questions really meant something to me..

One might wonder how can "The kite runner" rise such questions... but you have to be me to undergo the thought process it took to land on each and every one of these questions!

• How old would you be if you didn’t know how old you are?
  
• If life is so short, why do we do so many things we don’t like and like so many things we don’t do?
  
• When it’s all said and done, will you have said more than you’ve done?
  
• What is the one thing you’d most like to change about the world?
  
• If happiness was the national currency, what kind of work would make you rich?

• Are you doing what you believe in, or are you settling for what you are doing?
  
• If the average human life span was 40 years, how would you live your life differently?
  
• To what degree have you actually controlled the course your life has taken?
  
• Are you more worried about doing things right, or doing the right things?
  
• If you could offer a newborn child only one piece of advice, what would it be?
  
• Would you break the law to save a loved one?
  
• Have you ever seen insanity where you later saw creativity?
  
• What’s something you know you do differently than most people?
  
• How come the things that make you happy don’t make everyone happy?
  
• What one thing have you not done that you really want to do?
  
• What’s holding you back?
  
• Are you holding onto something you need to let go of?
  
• If you had to move to a state or country besides the one you currently live in, where would you move and why?
  
• Do you push the elevator button more than once? Do you really believe it makes the elevator faster?
  
• Why are you, you?
  
• What does friendship mean to you? or to anyone?
• Why is it so important?
  
• Which is worse, when a good friend moves away, or losing touch with a good friend who lives right near you?
  
• What are you most grateful for?
  
• Would you rather lose all of your old memories, or never be able to make new ones?
  
• Is is possible to know the truth without challenging it first?
  
• Has your greatest fear ever come true?
  
• Do you remember that time 5 years ago when you were extremely upset? Does it really matter now?
  
• What is your happiest childhood memory? What makes it so special?
  
• At what time in your recent past have you felt most passionate and alive?
  
• If not now, then when?
  
• If you haven’t achieved it yet, what do you have to lose?
  
• Is it possible to know, without a doubt, what is good and what is evil?
  
• If you just won a million dollars, would you quit your job?
  
• Would you rather have less work to do, or more work you actually enjoy doing?
  
• Do you feel like you’ve lived this day a hundred times before?
  
• When was the last time you marched into the dark with only the soft glow of an idea you strongly believed in?
  
• If you knew that everyone you know was going to die tomorrow, who would you visit today?
  
• Why are we always so afraid to make a mistake? After all we are going to learn from it!
  
• What would you do you knew nobody would judge you?
  
• When was the last time you noticed the sound of your own breathing?
  
• What do you love? Have any of your recent actions openly expressed this love?
  
• In 5 years from now, will you remember what you did yesterday? What about the day before that? Or the day before that?
• Decisions are being made right now. The question is: Are you making them for yourself, or are you letting others make them for you?
• If others are making it for you, do you really want them to?
  

Happy thinking folks! :)