Opportunities missed

How many opportunities did I miss in life? Two, if I remember right. Both were in two different spheres in my life. So its one opportunity per sphere. I missed them and never got another. Ok. I didn't try. Opportunities are not served on platters. Why I didn't try is another story. This particular story I am absolutely sick of. I want to get over all this and get some life into my existence. I read somewhere: Pain is inevitable, suffering is optional. I could make this my mantra. I wish I could make this my mantra and find that state of mind where I would just refuse to suffer.

God save academics

There is a malaise in the academic system of West Bengal which i want to talk about. That is the student union. When students become part of the elected union they begin to believe that they belong to a different level of existence. They think they are stronger and better equipped than their teachers and have a birthright to misbehave even with their teachers. Well not all teachers. Those teachers who have similar political sympathies are looked up to because of course student unions in this state have political affiliations. If you do not have political inclinations then you are not considered worth respecting though as a teacher you may be academically quite sound. On the whole its a situation i don't like. i am not interested in politics. i know politics has nothing to do with our job. we are to impart knowledge and train young minds to be self sufficient. my ideas have been, sadly enough, challenged. many of my colleagues are politically inclined and cannot keep their sympathies concealed under certain situations. i feel like screaming out loud. why don't they realise that the teacher-student relationship is beyond all political considerations and practice?

Thoughts on the new year

2011. Another year. Another 12 months. Some more dates. Each as insignificant as the other. Tomorrow, and tomorrow and tomorrow...Today will become yesterday as tomorrow becomes today and creeping we shall go down the primrose path to the everlasting bonfire. Shakespeare spoke of life all those centuries ago as a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury signifying nothing. This must be the realisation of most human beings in their maturer years. We beat our hands and feet in a void thinking we did this or that. But we actually achieve very little most of our life being predestined. And this predestination, going by Hindu philosophy, is as a result of our accumulated deeds through the many births and rebirths of our souls. More good deeds more happiness in present birth. More misdeeds, more suffering. The ultimate message is suffering. Suffering is necessary to gain wisdom. When we are wise we commit fewer misdeeds or none at all. Then the imbalance of deeds gradually corrects itself. When we have finally wiped the slate clean of all our misdeeds we are free of the cycle of rebirths and become one with Bramh. Wow! The way I see it, I have a long way to go before I merge with Bramh. So in that sense the best is yet to come. If that is the truth of all human existence then truly the best will always be 'yet to come'. Amen.