what's in a blog
Having an independent spirited attitude, though I admire a great number of people, I’m generally a sceptic and rarely go to the extent of idolising anybody. [On the other hand, I believe there’s always something to appreciate and learn from each and every person we come across.]
I’ve been been following Nipun & his wife Guri‘s blog for quite a while. What he and his wife have done – walk around the whole country in search of the good, is not something I’d do myself at this point in time atleast. Its not that I agreed with every single thing he said, and had voiced some counter-points in some comments.
Nevertheless, I was definitely grateful for what he’d shared on his journey. Indeed its a blog that has great depth, that comes from experience rather than mere speculation.
But its been quite a while since he wrote, I’m not waiting for him to continue (I’m yet to read read what he’s already written so far anyway 😉 ) …life goes on… and except for recalling something from it once in a way, I’d almost forgotten about it.
So today, I was quite surprised to come across something written about it by another reader Chris Corrigan. I was quite curious… what would another reader say about Nipun’s blog?
This one statement I found particularly striking:
I think this is the most important weblog on the internet at the moment.
It really caught me off balance…
If we just take the blog as just a collection of random ideas and so on, then this statement is definitely an exaggeration. Cmon… with all the millions of bloggers out there, on what basis can we call one as more important than another? Ok… maytbe its the most important blog to that particular blogger!
But somehow I couldn’t really dismiss it so easily.
Most of us find it a hard time acknowledging that we’re really facing a lot of disturbances in the world. Safe and secure within the wall we’ve constructed for ourselves, we live each day quarreling among each other and marking our territorial lines. Until some occasional rough experience shakes us awake… 😯 though usually the effect is very temporary, and soon we crawl back into our secure cocoons again! 8)
A rather stark analogy a friend Shivaraj had spoken of comes to mind…
Consider a famished dog in front of a butcher’s shop.
The butcher throws it a bone. The dog happily takes it
and keeps on chewing it for hours together. Even
though there was no meat at all on the bone, it had
been completely scraped by the butcher!The bone is representative of all kinds of
entertainment that we have in this world out of which
we try to find our happiness! 🙂
And the question arises… how long does it take for us to play around with everything ephemeral in the world before we figure out that it dosen’t really get us anywhere?
Merely intellectually understanding helps, but only superficially. As for me, that’s more or less all I have at this point in time which I’m sharing here. I don’t think there’s any tearing hurry, but atleast its a start 😉
It takes much time and experimentation. How much time for me, I don’t know… On the one hand, I’m not really in a hurry, on the other hand I don’t really want to squander it away!
I take some inspiration from Nipun’s about page – one can see that he’s a PhD in Computer Science from Berkley University… and among other things…
I believe in going all out. I was junior in college at 17 but finally graduated at 21 after taking some years off to play tennis. 🙂 At 11, I roller skated my heart out to be second in country. As an unrated player, I once beat a Russian master in Chess. On my first day on the ski slopes, I went down a black diamond slope.
He makes no bones about the fact that he”s definitely more or less through with the chewing the bone stuff 😀 The point is not to compare, we’re all unique individuals – but it truly inspires me that a fellow traveller who’s actually been ‘there’ (where many others dream about being) …and is beyond it. He’s like a mountaineer who’s saying… ‘that’s all very well, but there’s more further up…!’ [ Of course, there’s no compulsion that we need to listen to him, sometimes we may still want to check it out ourselves just to make sure 😉 – if we ignore the question of how much time we have.]
Anyway, I’d like to put down some ideas at this point in time.
I recall an example Kichu had given… of a fly trying to fly out of a glass window. It tries to fly out, hits the glass BANG… zzzzzzt hovers around, then backs up… and flies back again… towards the same glass pane… BANG again! And it flies back… towards exactly the same glass pane all over again… keeps repeating the same thing again and again, never stopping to reflect on the fact that the solution isn’t working!
This – I’ve come to realise over the years, is unfortunately the condition of the entire human race.
With so many qualifications, I have no doubts about the fact that Nipun & Guri could’ve easily lived one of the lavish lifestyles of the “Rich and the Famous”, maybe even being philantrophic as well – I might’ve been able to see them on TV 8)
Yet, they are one of the rare people…
… who did take a step back…
…to have a look at alternative possibilities.
Of highlighting the one single thing that everybody in this world is most thirsty for… pure love! Their blogs reminds me that there’s a certain depth to life – ignoring which I’m simply compromising on living… Which convinces me that what they have to say is worth listening to atleast once in a way, so I can’t help agreeing with Chris that its the most important blog that I’ve seen on the web 🙂
All three of your latest posts are very interesting!
Sanjay, Even i have the same question
on what basis can we call one BLOG as more important than another?
A person might find a particular BLOG very important if an individual’s interest matches with the contents of the BLOG
An other person might find some other BLOG very important ..So, it is purely an individual’s liking for the subject
Thanks Shruthi!
Well Anitha, Chris had said ‘I think…’ and I had said ‘I concur…’ and these are just personal opinions, not voiced on behalf of anybody else.
Nevertheless I recall a conversation with my thatha during our long evening walks… (come to think of it, in a way I was a bit like Calvin and he was like Hobbes!) He used to ask me “Whom do you love the most?” And I would answer it was my mother or sister or someone like that. And he would keep on questioning… why… are they really the most important? You love your mother because she is “your” mother… your sister because she is “your” sister, me because I’m “your” grandfather. The gist of the conversation was that he would finally conclude, much to my annoyance, that it was only me who was most important person to me. Actually after many years and many experiences every now and then I reflect on something he used to say, and discover the great truths he used to share in the most simple conversations! (I once discussed about my conversations with a teacher and he remarked ‘hmm… your grandfather has been teaching you the Upanishands’. I havent read the Upanishads except a little bit now and then, maybe some day if I do I’ll be able to understand this remark better)
Anyway the main point – this again is just my opinion: is that some things like say certain kinds of music – or certain kind of art – is as you say important only to specific individuals. But some things are of universal fundamental importance, things that gradually die out as we grow older, and there are only fewer and fewer sources that revive them again, simple things such as smiling from the heart 🙂
Hi Sanjay – I too have been reading Nipun’s blog for some time, and though I like to look at all blogs as equal members in a orchestra of voices playing a symphony of global personal expression, I definitely think Nipun has had some beautiful “solo pieces” 🙂 Nipun and Guri’s blogs have been truly inspiring.
Namaste,
– Sean
Namaste Sean 🙂 — equal members in a orchestra of voices playing a symphony of global personal expression — wow that’s a really eloquent description of blogs in general! 8) Thanks – nice to know someone shares a similar perspective.