At the start of this summer break, I was under the spell of poetry and I sincerely hoped that I would make serious progress in learning poetry and more importantly understanding it. I have never really been much of an admirer of Poetry ( or Arts ) in the past but, now as I grow up and continue to learn more about myself and the sheer diversity of people around me I realize that this sort of a view is limiting and it cuts of such vital parts of my own human legacy,
I think that my interest in poetry was next to nothing only because I have been born and raised in a society which values Engineers or Accountants, say Left-brained professions are much more valued. The "traditional wisdom" is that these are the professions which help secure a "safe" future. Perhaps, in this society and in this time they are so, to a certain extent.
But we must think about it in another way, what I make all the progress in the world and be on top of it. What then?
Simple pleasures of life, like being able to sit peacefully, breathing with delight, listening to music and being totally taken in by it, the very same is true for arts as well. It's meant to be an experience out of our everyday life. But it's not "just" that, it in itself is sheer brilliance. Simple pleasures of life make it all worth it. You know, we read so much about great people and their struggle, how they overcame it all. But we forget that it's a story, it's a story of romance with life. A passionate romance, that they had with their goals. A constant flirtation with adversity, they were more alive in those very moments of their journey than at any other time. Simple pleasure of life make it all worth living.
Once I had the Entrance Exams out of my mind (somewhat), I tried my hands on a guitar that belonged to my friend. And I couldn't help but admire the sheer logic and thought that goes into music. It was like enlightenment to me, believe it or not. Then a thought occurred to me, what if there is another kind of intelligence besides being-able-to-solve-maths-problems? Not that I was any good at it. But that was just the linear and simple-minded understanding of Intelligence that was handed down to me by this society. I realized how crazy this ignorance was.
Are A.R. Rahman or say Beethoven or Bach any less intelligent than Einstein? I don't think so. It's just that their work isn't as obscure to us as that of Einstein. So, naturally most of us ( including me) made the assumption that intelligence is basically number-crunching or is always related to Sciences.
Then again, I continued this line of thought and came to a more organic understanding of intelligence, be it in Arts, Music or say everyday street-smartness. I mean, Michelangelo and Da Vinci, for example were every bit of a Genius as any of the great names in Science.
I know that it might sound trivial to you and to be honest it really is. But I just never questioned this belief before. One thing I have learned for sure is that "traditional wisdom" is not something that can be relied upon, think for your own. We don't become a human being just because we happen to have that kind of a brain, we need to use it too, even if conclusions take us to unknown directions and in unexplored fields. It's so irresponsible of us to take things for granted.
How is it related to this language learning project of mine?
You know, you have to understand that things aren't really isolated. They might be related to each other in bewildering ways which are far and few in time. I only became interested in languages because I valued the experience that it offers me.
And the experience of languages can't only be expressed in terms of just being able to speak it or making new friends across the world, say listening to music or watching movies. It's like having a whole different identity.
The way I was before College life, I didn't value musical abilities or artistic passions because I had such an idiosyncratic value system according to which musical or artistic abilities "didn't pay" much. Though I was still biased towards sports, Cricket was the one for me. Apart from Cricket, I just loved Running - Sprints was my thing.
So, somewhere deep down I realized that what people think isn't that important 'cos even sports are looked at as something "highly impractical". I know, it's all screwed up but I think Indian society is going through a teenager's growth spurt. It's in a flux and from what I have read about Chinese society it's pretty much the same. So, it just happens to be the way it is because of few arbitrary conditions et cetera. But it's important to realize that it's the simple pleasures of life that make this story worth it. I truly believe that Career will take care of itself if we just learn to live, be more present in the present, if we just learn to romance with life;P
I started off trying to bring you up to date with my current project in language learning but when I started to write, it just went on and on. I really couldn't help but to speak it out loud, put it in words.
The rest of the it is in the second part of the post;P
I think that my interest in poetry was next to nothing only because I have been born and raised in a society which values Engineers or Accountants, say Left-brained professions are much more valued. The "traditional wisdom" is that these are the professions which help secure a "safe" future. Perhaps, in this society and in this time they are so, to a certain extent.
But we must think about it in another way, what I make all the progress in the world and be on top of it. What then?
Simple pleasures of life, like being able to sit peacefully, breathing with delight, listening to music and being totally taken in by it, the very same is true for arts as well. It's meant to be an experience out of our everyday life. But it's not "just" that, it in itself is sheer brilliance. Simple pleasures of life make it all worth it. You know, we read so much about great people and their struggle, how they overcame it all. But we forget that it's a story, it's a story of romance with life. A passionate romance, that they had with their goals. A constant flirtation with adversity, they were more alive in those very moments of their journey than at any other time. Simple pleasure of life make it all worth living.
Once I had the Entrance Exams out of my mind (somewhat), I tried my hands on a guitar that belonged to my friend. And I couldn't help but admire the sheer logic and thought that goes into music. It was like enlightenment to me, believe it or not. Then a thought occurred to me, what if there is another kind of intelligence besides being-able-to-solve-maths-problems? Not that I was any good at it. But that was just the linear and simple-minded understanding of Intelligence that was handed down to me by this society. I realized how crazy this ignorance was.
Are A.R. Rahman or say Beethoven or Bach any less intelligent than Einstein? I don't think so. It's just that their work isn't as obscure to us as that of Einstein. So, naturally most of us ( including me) made the assumption that intelligence is basically number-crunching or is always related to Sciences.
Then again, I continued this line of thought and came to a more organic understanding of intelligence, be it in Arts, Music or say everyday street-smartness. I mean, Michelangelo and Da Vinci, for example were every bit of a Genius as any of the great names in Science.
I know that it might sound trivial to you and to be honest it really is. But I just never questioned this belief before. One thing I have learned for sure is that "traditional wisdom" is not something that can be relied upon, think for your own. We don't become a human being just because we happen to have that kind of a brain, we need to use it too, even if conclusions take us to unknown directions and in unexplored fields. It's so irresponsible of us to take things for granted.
How is it related to this language learning project of mine?
You know, you have to understand that things aren't really isolated. They might be related to each other in bewildering ways which are far and few in time. I only became interested in languages because I valued the experience that it offers me.
And the experience of languages can't only be expressed in terms of just being able to speak it or making new friends across the world, say listening to music or watching movies. It's like having a whole different identity.
The way I was before College life, I didn't value musical abilities or artistic passions because I had such an idiosyncratic value system according to which musical or artistic abilities "didn't pay" much. Though I was still biased towards sports, Cricket was the one for me. Apart from Cricket, I just loved Running - Sprints was my thing.
So, somewhere deep down I realized that what people think isn't that important 'cos even sports are looked at as something "highly impractical". I know, it's all screwed up but I think Indian society is going through a teenager's growth spurt. It's in a flux and from what I have read about Chinese society it's pretty much the same. So, it just happens to be the way it is because of few arbitrary conditions et cetera. But it's important to realize that it's the simple pleasures of life that make this story worth it. I truly believe that Career will take care of itself if we just learn to live, be more present in the present, if we just learn to romance with life;P
I started off trying to bring you up to date with my current project in language learning but when I started to write, it just went on and on. I really couldn't help but to speak it out loud, put it in words.
The rest of the it is in the second part of the post;P
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