Percolated Pursuits

2023 started on an absolutely new note, some changes brew for a long time and then there comes a moment when you can "smell" the brew. I can feel the change and smell the effervescence of nostalgia, the aroma of the new chapter in life. If Life was measured in terms of software release version, I could call 2023 the year of a major release, lets's call this as Manish 8.0. I would leave the topic of how each of these 7 releases was and how they changed the architecture of life. Version 8 is new and old at the same time. I feel no age progression in many aspects of my life, I ain't aging in the majority of my convictions, How I look at life, its purpose and pursuits, what calms me are still Ghazals, good poetry, mountains, old buildings, old stories, and travelogues, anything which has emotions and human evolution weaved in it. I have tried for over 3 decades and the "new and shiny" (New car, new phone, expensive jeans, and shoes) just don't appeal to me. 30 years ago my most expensive possession were cassettes, black linen kurta and Khussa, and a small national Panasonic cassette player. It's changed to Bose Earbuds, linen kurtas of different sizes, and 3-4 khussas.  The small mob of people around me has accepted this as my trait. In the last two months, I had the luxury of listening to Ghazals at 9 am on a loop,  as I had no work and no specific calendar to sniff and chase. This also gave me time to find a deeper brew, today I am going to write about how people around me have evolved and how pursuits change. 

Do we even evolve with age? First, regarding how I see people around us, I have primarily believed that humans are just like other animals, simple hunter-gatherers and survivors, and in this journey, they want to be amused, loved, feel safe, and sometimes evolve to the peak where they seek purpose. Do an experiment, look around, and log what 20 people around you are doing. Working is Hunting, is also gathering (savings ) and surviving (walking to good health, or watching a 56-year-old man on steroids dance on recycled tunes to give an image of bravado (yes intentional sarcasm on Bullywood) or simply in the trap of "Thumboholism" keep sliding Instagram or Facebook screens with thumb and be amused. Some feel wanna secure with love, relishing romantic/erotic flix on some flix. But they are doing this in different ratio proportions. All conversations around me are in these buckets, Pursuit of professional Success, Pursuit of health, physical  & emotional (endurance to hunt ) Pursuit of Nostalgia and Pleasure, Amusement, Infotainment, and therapeutic distraction. Very few people around us, talk about the Pursuit of Purpose, and why are we even in this race. 

I don't believe any human has any right to take credit for what they were born with. Your place of birth, your looks, your religion. We are slaves of a divine accident, from the sperm that made the journey to the gender, to death. Somehow very early in life, I realized that true Karma is how I will transform what I am born with. I believe in Karma and however cynical it may look, Karma drives my thoughts and actions every single moment. Destiny to me is simply redemption of my Karmic Points.  I am a tenant with a very short lease on this planet and I have no right to be the mayhem maker but the make the best of my pursuits. 

I don't relate to people, I relate to three things in them, Their pursuits, their value system, and their emotional landscape. There are thousands of ways you can interpret this. Do this experiment too, check every friend of yours and I am sure these three tenets will be matching. 

The fact is we don't evolve or age the way we think we do, our pursuits change. I am a 27-year music lover in a 52-year-old body and in a lot of ways, 60-year-old knees, 75-year-old nostalgia lover obsessed with old souls. We don't age in a linear fashion. 

Why do I love Stories? : Talking of pursuits, I have realized that we also remain animals who copy behavior, like how we used to say in school "nakalchi bandar" you see behavior and try to copy/emulate or get inspired. Now think of why we like stories, we seek the reflection of our persona and our journey in this. There is hardly any Punjabi literature or Music collection which doesn't refer to the legendary tragic love stories of Punjab. Heer Ranjha is one of them . I have personally always read love stories as I always found them tragic tales to treasure. What stands out in all such stories however is the purity of intent. Heer Ranjha is an interesting one. Heer is believed to be an exceptionally beautiful woman, born into a wealthy Jat Family in the Sial tribe in Jhang. Ranjha is also a Jat from Takht Hazara however given his malang (carefree) nature, he is fooled by his 3 elder brothers. Ranjha lands at Heer's village in search of Job and falls in love with her. Eventually Heer and Ranjha, given their diverse backgrounds, fall into traps of the conspiracies by their respective families and are killed.  I used to often wonder, why do people read such stories, and what do they take away? I guess the only key takeaway is understanding the purity of their respective intent and strength of conviction. Like all mythology, such tales are for the purposes of illustration. These stories keep happening. There could be a Heer around you, accepting everything in the name of family. The intent will always be the differentiating factor between an average love tale and an exemplary one. Stories are half-buffed mirrors, you find your own self in them.

And my favorite story on aging:  In a jungle lived a majestic lion and he was out seeking his daily prey. he chanced upon a young deer, who had got left behind from his herd. The lion decided to give it a  run and make deer the meal for the day . He chased him fast and the deer also ran as fast as he could. While running, the deer ran out of the ground and reached the banks of a river. Being the rainy season,  the river was overflowing, and the deer had a split second to decide if he could jump or pause to be preyed upon by the lion. He jumped and made it safe. The lion halted at the river and turned back. As he was turning back, a monkey on the tree laughed at him and said "What happened Lion King, You lost to a young deer" The lion asked the monkey to come down and understand this in detail. The lion explained, it is not the speed between me and the deer which differed, it is the strength of conviction which differed. He was running for life, and I was running for a meal. He won't get another life but I will survive without a kill. Our battles and our convictions differed. 

With age, are your convictions aging or are they indefatigable. ? 

Today's ghazal is an example that good poetry, good rendition and music aren't dying . Poet is Aalok Shrivastav and Singer is Pratibha Singh Baghel 

वो मानता ही नहीं हमसफ़र, तो क्या कीजे,

हर इक दुआ है अगर बे-असर, तो क्या कीजे.

नज़र की राह में यूँ तो कई नज़ारे हैं,

तुम्हीं पे जा के जो ठहरे नज़र, तो क्या कीजे.

हज़ार बार कहा है के’- ‘प्यार है तुमसे’,

तुम्हीं पे होता नहीं है असर, तो क्या कीजे.

हमारे पास भी पलकें तो हैं, मगर आँसू-

भटक रहे हैं अगर दर-ब-दर, तो क्या कीजे.

लुटे तो हम भी कई बार आपकी ख़ातिर,

नहीं है आपको इसकी ख़बर, तो क्या कीजे. 

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