Friday, July 22, 2011

The echo of the distant tide from a near-distant time

So why is this post titled the way it reads up here.

Reason One:
Pink Floyd wrote an extravagant piece of art that lasts a little over 23 mins.
(staggered lyrics attached in post - marked in italics)

Reason Two:
Echo - A four lettered word that is very profound and also meticulous that it continues to haunt me with its certainty (or uncertainty). An echo by definition means reflection of sound. What goes unnoticed in the definition is the the adequate distance that separates the source and the obstruction. Because the certainty of the echo depends on single large factor, which is the "Setup".

Setup.exe here refers to the executable part of our lives that shall control the two physical dimensions: Distance and Time (M
0L1T1) and give us Speed or Godspeed. Dimensionally Speed and Philosophically Godspeed!!!

Before we get further into the post. I have a few thoughts running in my head, that may be remotely relevant to the "Echo-Philosophy".

Argument One:
"The only language of communication between the Creator and the User is the Creation"
Give a switch to 10 year old and he will fiddle with it, Give a wheel to him and he will learn to roll. Instruction manuals are for bad creations. So... if the big words don't matter, a post graduate degree that teaches you to talk-in-style will never count. Or just may be. The words can surely sell a bad design.
Bottom Line: You choose to either "talk-in-style" or "create better designs".

Argument Two:
"Opportunities can be global, but Talent cannot be globalised"
I can be the best engineer of the team that makes the best nuts and bolts in the smallest industrial town in the third world. I can also be the best engineer of the country that makes the best motorcylces in the biggest technology sensitive economy of the world. The talent to barely acheive, achieve and overachieve the task is identical. So if I cannot find an opportunity in my backyard, it is certain that I will never find it anywhere else.
Bottom Line: You either "travel the world" or simply "explore your backyard".

And no-one called us to the land
And no-one knows the wheres or whys

Argument Three:
"For a creator, smallest of success is the end of the oldest of the facts"
Success defeats my brain every time. The escape route says that 'Assumptions of a Pre-consumed mind' keeps the nerves calm and heels cool. You evade the need to think, act or even react. But every success defeats the assumption. So being successful, is always dangerous.
Bottom Line: It is not Victory-Loss, it is "Face-Defeat"-"Give-Up"

Argument Four:
"Size of the opportunities does not grow bigger than us, but we outgrow them"
Opportunities big or small are alike because all of them set tasks, targets and goals. And while taking the long strides of success (defeating the brain) the goal is scored and then it leaves a Void. I call this the "What Next?" state of mind.
Bottom Line: The "What Next?" only ends when the whistle blows and time is up. Happy scoring!!!

So when does the echo come in, what does the echo do to me.....

Effect One:
Gives me inspiration
When I look back at the reflections from the past I feel confident and know for sure that "If it hits into me, I am sure that I can hit into it and nail it... because the "Hammers of Gods will always drive me home". Hence I am confident to find a few nails in the backyard that need attention.

Effect Two:
Gives me an instantaneous feedback
So while I am in the middle of an instinctive decision, the echo of the inner voice reflecting from the walls within me give me a sense of responsible action with anticipated results. Now I know what the Walls in me are doing. Glad to have them around.

Effect Three:
Gives me Hope
Simple and straight, if I know that all that I say is going to come back to me, I can "Shout it Loud", because I ll do it only once and the world will listen to it more than once. So I am hopeful that my actions will not go unnoticed. I only have to use the right words, actions or reactions.

Very strange to my pre-conceived notion that the echo is a hollow repetition of a stray sound wave reflected between random obstacles.
Put them all together, the four lettered word makes me Confident, Responsible and (if not anything else) Aware.

The echo of a distant tide
Comes willowing across the sand
And everything is green and submarine

So why do I have Two Reasons, Three Effects and Four Arguments.

I hear sounds around me, but I cant hear my own echo. I am longing to listen to the echoes from my past. So what is it, that I am talking about. It has shades of "the Quarter Life crisis" and more dangerously "A Complete breakdown of Identity". I do not have to explain what they mean.

Strangers passing in the street
By chance two separate glances meet
And I am you and what I see is me

But I sure am preparing the Setup with laying up of the bricks. I am also separating myself from the wall so that I can create the echo I want to hear.

But something stirs and something tries

And starts to climb towards the light


I am living the quarter life crisis but I am more than half way through. If you are still not convinced, read this post again!!! Awaiting to hear the resounding echoes of worldly success very soon.

Cloudless everyday you fall upon my waking eyes
inviting and inciting me to rise
And through the window in the wall
Come streaming in on sunlight wings
A million bright ambassadors of morning

And no-one sings me lullabies
And no-one makes me close my eyes
And so I throw the windows wide
And call to you across the sky

-Sunny, Munich, Two weeks before turning 26 Years old !!

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

What do you want from me

As I sit looking out of my room window, I only see the fire exit sign hanging on the stairs. And I begin to wonder, why the hell did I end up in a room from where I can only see the escape stairs. Taking a risk of viewing this as a metaphor, was this move in my life in a greater sense an escape route??
Lately, assignments, job application forms and BBC documentaries have activated some long lost grey cells which were probably on the verge of extinction. And the only answer my mind figures out to every question asked is "What do you want from me". As always, a song by Floyd sums it up more beautifully than I can ever do.

"What Do You Want from Me"
As you look around this room tonight
Settle in your seat and dim the lights
Do you want my blood, do you want my tears
What do you want
What do you want from me
Should I sing until I can't sing any more
Play these strings until my fingers are raw
You're so hard to please
What do you want from me

Do you think that I know something you don't know
What do you want from me
If I don't promise you the answers would you go
What do you want from me
Should I stand out in the rain
Do you want me to make a daisy chain for you
I'm not the one you need
What do you want from me
(David Gilmour/Richard Wright/Polly Samson)

That's it guys, this blog is alive again, not for the sake of being on the internet, but just for 'being'...
Deepak