Life, or something close to it.

Yes, what Henry did was wrong and yes, it really is unfair that the French have gotten away with it and the Irish have to suffer the punishment for a crime committed against them. But, it’s time now to move on. What's done, is done. And all that happened, happened. There's but one definite truth in life: Shit happens. The Irish FA can't keep up these complaints every time they get up to make a statement. Bad unfair things happen. All the time. You can't keep putting all the blame on one decision that went wrong. Had the goal been disallowed, it still didn’t guarantee a place in the world cup, the scores would've been tied then. And why don't they look at themselves for failing to win in Dublin? And they're asking for a 33rd place in the world cup. I know it was cruel on the Irish, I know it’s horrible to be on the wrong end of a bad decision but a 33rd place????They want the football governing body to not only bend the rules, but make a ridiculous exception, for being on the wrong end of a single handball decision and after failing to win on their home ground. I have sympathy for the Irish FA but this is bordering on becoming a joke. When the time comes one has to do what one must, Henry did it. Maradona did it. The hand of god... well the french have Gods too. Wrong? Most definitely. But it got his team to the World Cup draw in Cape Town on the 4th of December, which is what matters. Everyone may think what happened on that fateful day on the past was wrong. But that's the thing about the past, it just doesn’t change. We should be looking forward to the draw and hoping for well balanced groups for all the THIRTY-TWO teams. Football, truly is brilliant.

"Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a field. I will meet you there."- Jalal ad-Din Rumi

"A question that sometimes drives me hazy:
Am I or are the others crazy"
- Albert Einstein.

Originality. Where can we go to, or what can we do to become original? We are 2009years into the A.D. calendar. Counting the years before that, our civilization has spent more than 2500 years of counted time in this planet. During which it has supported more than a billion lives. A lot more. That’s a lot of different men, women and children wanting to be something. To do something original. And since they had the benefit of being ahead in generation, they did it. Leaving us with no other choice but to redo them. We were born to be followers. Do you want to climb the Mount Everest? It’s been done. Write an epic play about unparalleled love? Been done. Free a nation from tyranny? Done. There really is nothing you can do that hasn’t already been done. Even your thoughts, that you think belong to you, someone's already thought them before. It has already stirred up someone else's grey matter before it did yours. There is no being original in the true sense of the word, but like everything else in life, or like everything else in the world, the meaning we give to originality is also tainted.
To be original, means you should be able to break free from the chains of society and severe the shackles of normalcy. Think for yourself. Everyone has an inspiration. Even following on his/her path, can be considered original, though it itself argues with the definition of being original. Leave conformity. Embrace your inner insanity. Listen to the voice that tells you it’s stupid to do such things, but you should do them anyway. Forget the need to rationalize things. The things we consider normal, are only normal because we've been told they're normal. Who has the right to decide what's normal and what is not? They can tell us what is normal or not, because they have the majority of the votes. But we all know their victory is not unanimous. Be a part of the minority. Enjoy being different, imperfect, crazy. Don’t worry about the world. The only they care about results and outcomes. They will mock you for your stupidity, spit on your endeavors and ridicule your thoughts, till you reach success, and then they'll praise you for your bravery. They are fickle minded morons who can only think what they've been told think, to do what's always been done, and they’ll live and die within the security of their four walls. They are rational, secure, safe, sheltered but a bit too sane. There's a very thin line between insanity and genius. Imagine you have a beautiful wife, a castle for a home, a healthy smart kid for a son, a garage of spectacular vehicles, and a job that has the whole population of the area working under you. All in all, a pretty sweet life. Now imagine leaving all of that, to go live in a jungle! Crazy, right? But turn the clock back a couple of years. Okay, a bit more than a couple of years, the same chain of thoughts weren’t crazy or stupid to Siddhartha Gautama. He left all his possessions and went on a search for answers to questions he couldn't understand. He became Gautama Buddha, the enlightened one, eventually. Stupid, crazy and insane to a genius. The same path that made everyone think he wasn’t all that great in the head, made the same people come to him looking for advice. George Bernard Shaw wrote, “The rational man adapts to fit his environment. The irrational man adapts his environment to fit him. Therefore all progress depends upon the irrational man.”
Shaw also said, “All great truths begin as blasphemies.” Let’s say that the world is not flat, that the earth revolves round the sun. Let’s travel South America on an old motorbike. Let’s say time doesn’t move the same for everyone, that energy and mass are interchangeable. Let’s abolish slavery. Let’s make a metal machine fly in the air while carrying us in it. Let’s fly a kite in a thunderstorm with a metal key attached to the string. Let’s fight a well equipped, well armed British army with nothing but non-violence. Let’s die for the sins of everyone else. These are just some of the insane thoughts that cropped up in a few brilliant minds. And the moral of the story is stay away from conformity and think for yourself. Break free from all things normal. And let the people brand you the they wish. You know who you are, better than them. Decide what you want. And chase it.
I myself am no adventurer, and this piece of writing seems to be drenched in hypocrisy. But these are just thoughts. And a hypocrite or not, I love to write. Cheers.

No, not as a metaphor for race. Anti-racist endeavors are a lost casue. Though I am no ambassador for anti-racism, I think like so many other human frailties, racism is rather stupid. But what's even more stupid is trying to overcome it. It’s almost as futile as fighting global warming. It will never stop. The world is just too big, the people, just too many. The ignorance among the masses is the reality of life. It hides under practice, culture, prejudice and it hides well. And every effort to find and end this affliction will all be efforts in vain. The people who are racist now are more than likely to remain so. If they were capable of changing, they would've done by now. They've had enough time. And for the people who aren't racist, well there's no need explaining to them. So no, this is not about racism and how wrong or stupid it is. This is about the concept of wrong and right.
The title is in fact misleading, because wrong and right aren't as clear as black and white. Far from it. There's always the gray portion. Rather it’s a spectrum of gray with a light portion and a dark portion. Because right and wrong, like so many more human notions, is a matter of perspective. It's relative, depending on where you ask, when you ask and who you ask. My actions may be wrong to you in every aspect, almost blasphemous. But for more than a few the same thing would be acceptable, maybe even welcomed.
It's as simple as giving money to a beggar. "Is it right if I give this 5 Rs. note to this beggar?", "Of course, it's right. You can spare five rupees. You have to learn to share your good luck. Be grateful for what you have and help when you can. It's the right way to live." But then again, “Is it wrong if I give this 5Rs. note to this beggar?" "What are you? Stupid? Of course it's wrong. Do you know how hard people have to work to earn that much? Do you not understand the value of money in this life? How will you ever survive in this world?" Both answers are in a way, right, and both are in a way, wrong. We are damaged goods. We can’t even agree on what is wrong and what is right. "Is Hinduism the right religion? Is Islam? Is Christianity? Is atheism the right way?" Every question has a different answer, everyone has a different outlook. Even the vile act of murder, can be viewed on different levels. Don’t chastise me just yet. Let me explain. We all think murder is wrong. No one has the right to take someone else's life. But it's not really that. What we really think, is that murder of a 'good' person is wrong. We don’t want to punish for murder. We want to punish for the murder of a good person. Nathuram Godse killed Gandhi; John Wilkes Booth killed Abraham Lincoln. The vile disturbed lunatic murderers!! That's what we all think about them. For Nathuram Godse he did what was right by him. He couldn’t forgive someone who would allow his country to be ripped apart. And wasn't Booth right in the eyes of the confederacy? He is a murderer now because the Confederacy lost, else he would be a hero. How would you judge if someone had been able to assassinate Hitler. He would still be a murderer, but would he be wrong in your eyes? And if yes, then isn’t the Lord Rama, a cold blooded murderer? Didn't he kill Ravana? Yes, he was a horrible monster, but he had a life. And murder is murder. But whether it's right or wrong, it’s relative.
So how do you do right in this world? There are way too many people in this world and therefore way too many opinions. Too many ways to be right, and more ways to be wrong. So, in my opinion and in my perspective of what is right and wrong, we should all do what is right by us. There will always be people who judge. It's their unofficial profession. There will always be a wrong and a right. It's not necessary to be right in everyone's eyes all the time. Be right in your eyes. It’s only wrong because you live in a society that says it’s wrong. But don’t worry about society or community or religion. Worry about yourself, and be right for yourself. Sooner or later society will come around to see the wisdom of your ways or it won’t, but why should that matter. Make a mistake, but make a mistake on your own notion.

Yup, it’s true. Selfishness is a virtue. Altruism is stupid. And it’s something most of us have known for a long long time, except we don’t realize or don’t want to. To give a word to the claim it’s called ethical egoism. I didn’t know that till recently, (ignorance is highly underestimated) and Ayn Rand, who wrote Atlas Shrugged, called it objectivism. According to her, the moral purpose of one’s life is the pursuit of one’s own happiness or rational self interest. Which is just another way of saying, be selfish… be happy. We are human beings, selfish by nature. We have to learn to accept our intuition. Being selfish is within us all. But don’t worry it’s not a grim premonition; it’s in fact a full-proof path to happiness. We are selfish by disposition, it’s almost a species thing. Or so you can believe, to placate the guilt burning a hole in your heart or you can accept what I say is true.
All our actions, more or less, are guided by feelings self interest. Let me demonstrate using an example. Imagine you are a scientist with a high-tech, fully equipped, research laboratory, hypothetical situation of course (hence the ‘imagine’). Anyway, so you’re a scientist, researching and trying to find a solution to cancer. You also happen to have a rival, or rather, a peer working on the same thing. If asked, both of you would reply, that you were doing this to help the people suffering with this dreaded disease. Because, we all like to see healthy cancer free people. And, it’s only natural to reply as such, being respectable scientist, it’s what is expected of you. You might even believe what you say. The research continues for months and years, time keeps ticking away but you have to do this, for the people .But just when you are really close to a positive result, your ‘peer’ beats you to it. He somehow cures cancer. After all the drama, the eventual result will be the same, the people will still be cured, cancer will still be driven out of their ever grateful bodies and we will have more healthy cancer free people. In a way you get what you wanted without completing what you should have. This was what you said you wanted. But after all that, will you have the heart, to share the joy that is present in this human miracle? After all this years of research will you be able to be grateful that finally cancer is cured even though you had nothing to do with it? Though it’s what you said you wanted, didn’t you actually want the person to bring about this miracle to be you? Weren’t you, behind the entire philanthropic charade, actually driven by the selfish desires that dwell in the heart of every one of us? Weren’t you a selfish human being? But more importantly wouldn’t you have been happy, had your selfish desires come true?
In the give and take relationship, the giver is supposed to feel better than the taker. I find that very hard to believe. And the people put forward the argument that you feel happier when you give than when you take. If I allow myself to believe this for a moment, even then these are selfish motives really. Because you are giving, first and foremost not because you like to see the smile on their face but because it makes you feel better about yourself. You are actually using the other person’s misery to help yourself to a large helping of that much needed, much desired feel good sensation. And though it may sound horrible, it’s actually not that bad at all. If giving is what makes you happy, then there’s no reason to stop. It doesn’t become wrong if it’s based on greedy intentions. The end result that comes out of it is still the same. The ends always justify the means.
Religion, gives the bribe of heaven, eternity in paradise and the fear of fire of hell. So you don’t do this because you’re afraid of hell, or do this because you want to go to heaven. But in religion things are always done because God said so. And we listen to God because we do not want to anger him. We have to be on his good side when Judgment day arrives. And to be in heaven you have to score good marks at your assessment. Your primary interest is to get into paradise, stay happy and do everything to prevent yourself from burning in earth, sorry hell, I meant hell. Religion, more or less, uses that selfish inclination, to make you follow its path. And then there are other issues of reincarnation and rebirth in various religions that make you do the right things. Not because doing the right thing is right but because doing the right thing gets you better chance at a better life next time around.
We of course, leave out the saints and the enlightened ones from this discussion. Because well, they are pretty infallible, patient, without desires or rather suppressed desires, almost perfect and therefore boring. We, the rest of the population, are human beings, imperfect to the core. And that’s what is good with us. Being selfish is only wrong because that’s we have been told from day 1. But we know, our brain, the rational part of the body, puts self-improvement as the paramount objective. We are individuals, before we are a family, a society, a community, a city, a country. We need to look after our interests first, and if, as a side effect others too get some pleasure out of it, then well and good. If not, at least we are happy and therefore our paramount objective is complete. We can then look ahead to creating a happier society and a happier world. Anyway, this is not a rule of physics that has to apply to everyone. These are just a chain of thoughts, that some may find right, some may find wrong and some may find it right though wouldn’t want to admit it. I am not saying that you have to think only about what will suit you best, before you think about how others think or feel, or what affect it will have on others, before you decide on doing something. No, wait. That’s exactly what I am saying. But there’s a silver lining behind all this. Most of the people inhabiting our planet are pretty miserable, which can only mean most of us are leading religious, philanthropic, altruistic, selfless lives. .(enter WINK emoticon here).