THE KNIGHT IN THE SHINING ARMOUR

They say that the only place where you find true love these days is in the gay community.
It is really the straight world that’s screwed up!

I mean, ‘the gay by choice despite having an option’ gay community and not the ‘I’m in prison so I’ll make do’ gay community. I’m talking about the awesome gay people who are so completely in love, and so absolutely sure that they’re willing to defy everything, even the so called ‘natural order’.

Why?

Because, in the straight modern world the very concept of love is way too commercialized! Let’s go back a few years. It still being a taboo, women dreamed to get married and fall in love. ‘With time you will fall in love with the man you marry’, just in case you thought he sucked. Love was about gestures, writing letters, stealing glances, defying, thinking the ‘unthinkable’ with ‘the one’. It was rare, it was valued by those who found it and loathed and deemed immoral by those who didn’t. In the end, no matter what, you were satisfied. Or you claimed you were anyway.

We on the other hand, have been flooded by definitions, gestures, social pressures, commodities, media, films, modern literature, warnings, romanticism, crime, openness, freedom (or at least we think so), expectations, a million levels and forms of what was earlier simply called love! Seriously, it is probably the one noun/verb with the maximum adjectives/adverbs!!

Now there is dating,
open dating,
multi dating,
trying it out,
trying it on,
trying it over and over,
maybe love,
yes but love,
no other option love,
liking,
really liking,
liking in thought not in action,
liking in action but not in thought,
friends with benefits,
mistress love,
bored..so hence love,
Today but not tomorrow love,
Err..maybe..lets see love,
No strings attached love,
Live ins,
Live ins sleep out,
Live out sleep ins,
I have to get married love,
But i cannot marry love,
Committal love,
Non committal love,
2 month love, 6 month love, probably for a year love,
I care but don’t LOVE love, Love,
I just want a piece of that love,
Let me show you love,
Never been laid love,
He’s rich love,
Fake love,
Lets just settle on this love,
Oh..and wait for this.. SELFLESS LOVE!

A 100 more and then finally..
TRUE love!

No wonder it’s hard to find!

Gestures are not gestures enough, they are acts to deceive. Deception is..hot. The good guy is not attractive. The bad boy does not settle down. The average guy is boring.

Pretty women want smart men who don’t want pretty women. Smart women want pretty men who are not too pretty and smart men who are smarter than them but not all the time. Smart and pretty women.. Lets just not even try and get into it.

So, the point is, that we could just make deals, draw up charts, rate, compare and just try and get the best bargain. You search for your better person. The one with the big heart? ot The one with the big car? You think/do the ‘unthinkable’ with several ‘the ones’ and either pick a the one or just keep looking for a better the one..you find your perfect match.

Some, however, genuinely fall in love. And even continue to believe that. At least till now.

The point is that, if you want true love, you should either have faith.. or you could just define your own parameters and chose your true love. You could either find your knight in shining armour, or just hire one! You could either fall in love or decide to fall in love. You could either be the so called practical or be the so called delusional.

But what you should not be if you want ‘true love’..What is the most difficult.. is to be a practical who wants to be delusional.

The book of love- peter gabriel

The book of love is long and boring
No one can lift the damn thing
It's full of charts and facts and figures and instructions for dancing

But I..I love it when you read to me
And you..You can read me anything

The book of love has music in it
In fact that's where music comes from
Some of it is just transcendental
Some of it is just really dumb

But I..I love it when you sing to me
And you..You can sing me anything

The book of love is long and boring
And written very long ago
It's full of flowers and heart-shaped boxes
And things we're all too young to know

But I..I love it when you give me things
And you..You can give me antyhing

The REAL world!!

What do you want from life? Is there any direction? The real world is not like this. You’ll be left behind!

Left behind where?

In the race!

What race?

The race to “success”?

Where is the success?

In the direction they’re all running!

Are you sure?

Yes!

How do you know?

Well, why else will they be running there?

Have you cared to find out?

No, but I know that people who ran were successful!

And the people who didn’t?

They weren’t..

Did u ask them?

No..But they don’t have the same things..

Did they want the same things?

Who doesn’t?

The people who don’t run there and don’t wear themselves out trying. I don’t think success is in that direction. I think it’s in the opposite. So you think I’m being left behind, but you know what, I’m actually the one in front.

Oh my! Should i run with you?

If you wish..

Yes, I want to be in the front!

But is this your direction?

I’m not sure..

Then figure out. Don’t just go running anywhere. You may go too far from your direction.

What if i can never?

You will. If you don’t, walk along every road. See which you find the best.

But then I’ll be left behind!

Once you know where you want to go, you will never be..

But this is your world. That’s not how it is in the REAL world.

My world is just as real as yours.

It’s just an illusion. It will shatter.

Yours isn’t?

No.

How do you know?

Because everyone else agrees!

Tell me, do you dream?

Yes, who doesn’t..

Do you dream about things everyone agrees with?

Not necessarily..

Right before you sleep, do u think about people you ought to think about? Are your thoughts restricted to the accepted norms?

Mostly not..

Do you think your wife is beautiful?

Yes!

I don’t.. Then which one of us is under an illusion?

Do you love her?

Yes, with all my heart.

I don’t think you do. So then, does it matter what i think. What the world thinks? What is it that you want to go by? What you think or what i think and the others think?

I don’t know..

None of us do. And we will never know. It’s not black and white. So run where it is you want to run!
Glide, jump, halt. Do what YOU want to do!

FOMO

Why did we take up science even though we had better grades in geography and English?
Why did we stand with a crowd of people trying to get a glimpse of what they were looking at? (which was nothing)
Why did we have to eat that horrible looking drink when we KNEW we won’t like it?
Why do we decide that our 5 year old kid needs to go for tuitions, an art class, a swimming class, a speech class, a music class?
Why did we apply for all companies, all profiles during our placements?
Why do we bite more than we can chew?
Why do we decide to date that guy when we’re pretty sure we didn’t like him much?
Why do we enroll to get coached for a coaching centre that will coach us for an entrance exam?
Why is what I have not as good as what YOU have?
Why do we not afford the luxury to develop INTERESTS??
Why are we a part of a thousand cells and projects when we know it makes it impossible for us to focus on even one?

The answer to ALL these questions is: FOMO.
FOMO stands for ‘Fear Of Missing Out’.
This disorder is commonly prevalent in management students. We all have FOMO. Our fear far exceeds that of the other species. We fear missing out on ‘Brownie points’; missing out on the possibility of creating a more impressive CV; missing out on ‘learning’ and ‘knowledge’; missing out on impressing that girl/boy while pretending to be in the process of ‘learning ‘; missing out of not being a part of any club, cuz Hey, that might be where all the ‘learning’ is’!; missing out on being noticed, hell there are so many of us!; missing out on a decent return on investment, and Finally, missing out on ANY opportunity that MIGHT help us JUSTIFY to whatever LITTLE extent, WHY we’re here!

Faith, Hope & Love

Love

Love is patient, love is kind.
It does not envy, it does not boast,
it is not proud. It is not rude,
it is not self seeking, it is not easily angered,
it keeps no record of wrongs.
Love does not delight in evil
but rejoices with the truth.
It always protects, always trusts, always hopes
always perseveres.
Love never fails. But where there are
prophecies, they will cease; where there
are tongues, they will be stilled;
where there is knowledge, it will come to pass away.
For we know in part and we prophesy in part,
but when perfection comes,
the imperfect disappears.
When I was a child, I talked like a child,
I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child.
When I became a man, I put childish ways
behind me. Now we see but a poor reflection;
then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part;
then I shall know fully, even as I am full known.
And now these three remain: faith, hope and love.
But the greatest of these is love.
NIV... I CORINTHIANS 13: 4-13


Faith

Faith begins by believing
in your heart that what is right
has a chance.
Faith is knowing in your heart
that good can overcome evil,
that the sun can shine
in a rainstorm.
Faith is peaceful
and comforting, because it
comes from within
where no one can invade
your private dreams.
Faith is not something
you can demand or command;
it is a result of commitment to belief.
Faith is believing in something
you can't see or hear,
something deep inside
that only you understand
and control.
Faith is trusting in yourself
enough to know that no matter
how things turn out,
you will make
the best of them.

Hope

Hope is not the closing of your eyes
to the difficulty, the risk,
or the failure.
It is a trust that ...
If I fail now...
I shall not fail forever;
and if I am hurt,
I shall be healed.
It is a trust that
life is good,
love is powerful,
and the future is full of promise.

The B Schoolers..

I have placements, I have projects, I have cases to study, presentations to make, concepts to learn, people to get ahead of. I have million things to do. I’m a B schooler.
So when I got thoughtful today, I panicked. I thought why do I have to sit and ponder at this moment?? This moment, which is like any other moment? A moment with a million things to do. A million things that will ‘do me good’.
So, I got thinking.. Should I ignore all the thoughts coming into my head, or should i capitalise on it? ‘Capitalise’? I’m not going to use it ‘profitably’. Another word. ‘Leverage’? Leverage? I’m not going to use it for advantage. Another word. Benefit? Use? Exploit?
Where have the other words gone? Have we started using everything to advantage? Or have we always done that and are just doing that in a more structured and ‘professional’ way. What does it mean to be a Bschooler?
Does it mean that every action, every decision, even your THOUGHTS should fetch you a CV point? Are these two years going to be centred around that? Are we in the process of getting prepared for ‘The race ahead!!’, or is it just a sad consolation we give ourselves, so we can keep our ‘productivity high’? Are Bschools just Jazz?
We came here open n loose, and now we’re all being packaged into shiny colourful packets with taglines and promises to deliver.
We will not spoil.
We will certainly not spoil you.
We will last long.
We have mass appeal.
We are an amalgamation of all that you want from a professional.
Use us, capitalise on us, leverage the potential, benefit from us, exploit us! (While we do the same to you, or so we think)
And we’re waiting to be picked. With our arms extended upwards. And we’re fighting amongst ourselves and with the other B schools. Fighting for shelf space, fighting to be in the corporate line of sight. Buy us, pick us, use us! Before our product life gets over, before we expire and before our packets lose their shine and jazz.
The packets will ultimately lose their shine. We will be loose again. Without any print on us that tells us what our features are. That is for us to know. And so it’s important to keep your perspective alive. And please let that be your own. Not the one you have to fetch u a CV point, or to grab that placement. But the one that is of your loose, unpackaged self.
I’m not sure if we’re here to learn or to unlearn what we have learnt so far. But if we manage not to unlearn even to a little extent, it could be the best exposure we will have.

To keep me going..

Make me an instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love.
Where there is injury, your pardon.
Where there is doubt, faith.
Where there is despair, hope.
Where there is darkness, light.
And where there is sadness, joy.

Oh lord, grant that I may never seek,
so much, to be consoled as to console,
to be understood as to understand,
To be loved as to love with all my soul..

This prayer I make, to keep me going, to keep me from getting lost. Amen.