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Live and die on this day

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Looking at today’s daily prompt, I find it quite astounding that just in one of my previous posts I had wrote pertaining to survival, which inspired me to give this title and this being a continuation of sorts. So after reading R v Dudley and Stephens I like most have mixed feelings about this.

So firstly, long story short, if you didn’t bother reading the wiki article which is still small, four crewmen of an English yacht, the Mignonette, who were cast away in a storm some 1,600 miles from the Cape of Good Hope, were stranded in a life boat. They were Tom Dudley, the captain; Edwin Stephens; Edmund Brooks; and Richard Parker, the cabin boy. Parker was 17 years old and an inexperienced seaman.  After a weeks of survival with no food or water, facing a storm, fighting a shark and resorting to drink their own urine for surviving. Parker fell ill and subsequently in coma due to a combination of famine and drinking sea water. After several discussions of sacrificing one so that the other three may live, Dudley with the aid of Stephens killed Parker (killing him before his natural death would make it possible for them to drink his blood) and the three lived on eating his flesh. They were rescued four days later.

After their rescue, this sparked quite a controversy among law makers, seamen, and the public, which developed a crucial ruling on necessity on modern law. The main question however here: Is what Dudley did defensible?

This is not a simple yes or no answerable question, it has certain multiple sides to it. The question is not about whether what he did was right or wrong, but more of necessity and subsequently survival. Firstly Dudley was the captain, and wasn’t it that the captain goes down with the ship? He was the one who ultimately decided that one down is better than four. Was it justified? Not necessarily. Was it practical? Yes. In that situation that was the only practical thing which could have been done, the other option was to wait it out with the possibility of dying. And the instinct of survival is in all living creatures. Who wants to die? (unless you life is a complete mess and you think of kill yourself)

What I find very frustrating was the fact that the reason that Dudley and Stephens were family men so ‘their lives were more important’. What makes their lives more important than the other(s)? And wasn’t the Custom of the Sea that the captain goes down with the ship?

Coming to me, What would I have done? Well I’m not in that situation so I can’t answer honestly. But if it would arise, then I would take the practical route as always and would have gone that course just like them. And if I were in the place of Parker, I would prefer a swift death than suffering (saying purely in such a context only). I’m not going to see how I’m feasted upon after I’m dead right? But in all reality, I would honestly prefer to live it out, and die fighting for survival, if there was any hope of no one getting killed. But again, we can’t say for certain without being the situation itself, and while each life is valuable, who decides that? Like I said in my previous post, live and die on this day.

And lastly, I again found it bit funny that the recent very hit and a moving movie on survival, Life of Pi, the tiger’s name is also Richard Parker. And it has the exact same context as here, you would have realized that if you have seen it, if not I recommend that you do. Looking at my posts, I should perhaps recommend a movie/book in each of my posts now right?

The Grey

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I have a lot of favourite poems, had a very keen interest in them before (and even used to write myself). For now I could think of only this small four lined one:

Once more into the fray…
Into the last good fight I’ll ever know.
Live and die on this day…
Live and die on this day…

This is from the movie The Grey (2011). It conveys a powerful meaning in just few lines, not only in the movie itself, but when you think about it, in our very lives of survival. As subtle as it says ‘once more into the fray, into the last good fight I’ll ever know’, every moment in our lives is a fight we must face, and that may define our very life. Many are generally mistaken that one is at their own best when they have nothing to lose, but the truth is having something to lose, something worth fighting for is what makes one go ahead. It should be noted that it goes live and die on this day and not or (contrary to the popular saying ‘live/do or die’ or the modern iteration ‘do it before you die’) which signifies continuing from the previous line ‘…Into the last good fight I’ll ever know.’ that this is the moment and we must live it, and die with it, the next will play on itself depending on our actions.

“The ‘moment’ has no yesterday or tomorrow. It is not the result of thought and therefore has no time.” – Bruce Lee

Also on another note, if you haven’t seen The Grey you must see this movie, a very moving tale on survival.

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Speaking of Skills

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If I could choose to be a master of a skill in this world, while there would be many to choose from, if it were to happen magically just out of the blue, then it would be my power of observation. The science of deduction. Analytical power.

Years ago when I was a kid, I took this aptitude of some sort which gave results of me in different areas. While it was good and showed I’m a genius of sorts in many areas, the only thing which I still remember today was I was relatively ‘weak’ (not that it was stated so, comparing to other stats) in ‘my surroundings and world around me’ category. Perhaps that got over my head among other things, and that has perhaps helped me in certain aspects of myself today. I’m a people reader, fascinated with human mind, behavior, crime and psychology. I might still not be much speedy in world affairs but this is a ever growing ‘skill’.

Here I was being realistic which will continue to slowly happen anyways, but if I encounter some genie or god which make this happen to the ‘maximum level’ in an instant, this would be it, and by extension, also highly fit and a top class martial artist trained in most forms of fighting techniques. After all, the world’s greatest detective aka Batman is not just a genius, but also the one of the most fit humans, and favourites like Sherlock Holmes and Hercule Poirot are no less. And who wouldn’t want to be Batman?

Well that too is actually feasible, just in my case that would take a lot more effort and dedication. To let all imagination loose, the biggest ‘skill’ I would want to master is flying. Supersonic flight. Or better teleportation. Instant transmission!

Sweet Sixteen

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When I was 16, I never thought life would be so messed up, boring and insane all at the same time, precisely for one reason – I didn’t have any big expectations from myself.

Rewinding back to those days, that was quite an ‘eventful’ year if I may put it. Most significant in my personal life were these 2: meeting my one of my idols, former president of India Dr, APJ Abdul Kalam on 13 February 2008 (followed by another insignificant boring birthday and the much hyped 10th grade exams in the country) and the change of a lifestyle when I went to another place (Kota, Rajasthan) for the ‘pre-engineering training’ and 2 years of high school.

It was quite a year. I went out of home because I always wanted to get out of this place and see the world. Though now I’m back here for some years and don’t know when I’ll hit the road sky/ocean next. Time will tell.

So that is how I picture my life in the years ahead, whichever path my professional(?) interests leads me to. But as I said, I didn’t quite have any expectations and as the saying goes ‘flowing with the tide’ or whatever that is.

“To grow, to discover, we need involvement which is something I experience everyday, sometimes good, sometimes frustrating.”

– Bruce Lee

Breaking the Law

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The last time I broke a rule might not have been even a day ago. I chuckle at the very though of the question when was the last time I broke a rule, major or minor. I don’t think it’s a good idea to share most of the (major) crap I have done, which range from arrogance to utter stupidity and carelessness, to ultra superior motives and intentions, ‘unethical’ and few even illegal. Well not going beyond that, atleast I’m safe without much harm 😛

Writing that brings to my mind lot of them which I have done. If I were to share one big-breaking-the-rule law, I once crossed the border of India and stepped into China back in ’06 with a few others, in one of my travels and meeting army personal who guard our nation’s border. I remember it being a very emotional moment for many all of us seeing our brave soldiers guarding our borders while we live our lives here. That was the only time I actually went ‘outside’ my country, and considering they didn’t mind us jumping out the border and the Chinese didn’t shoot us, safe to say it was no big deal even though it can be considered illegal or so. I hope to travel around the world someday (legally that is). And well hopefully, this shouldn’t land me in trouble in the future for visas, my potential boss and the charming person of my life, if there is one.

If I were to further expand on this topic, I would say any one of us who is genuinely trying to make this world a better place by being a good citizen, is in face a criminal as we are governed by corruption as it is. Being a good guy is a crime in itself, and ‘innocence’ is loosely thrown about. Well this for another time.

We are criminals. Always have been. – Batman

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Tonight WE are the Law. I AM THE LAW.

Apply Yourself Unnecessarily

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While this is not a latest attempt at learning something that did not come easily and actually quite some years old, I thought this would be worth mentioning as it more ‘memorable’ of some sorts with mixed feelings and not exactly good or bad.

It is something back in the day during when I was in school, and perhaps the first time I realized how fucked up our education is (the realization which kept growing till date and continues to do so). There are several boards of school/high school education common in the country and worldwide, while every state had its own state board, in mine of which I was a part of. Here in Mumbai Bombay and in the whole state, we had 3 languages, the first language of course was English, the second language was Marathi being my state’s language while the third was optional to choose from for grades 8-10, where many schools offered different ones like Hindi (the national one), Sanskrit (India’s oldest language and one of the world’s oldest) and French being most popular choices while several other schools in the city/state and other parts of the county offering more like German, etc. I took Sanskrit, primarily because it fetched good marks, and something which I enjoyed as I was familiar with lot of Indian scriptures.

Now here is when the problem(s) started (in this context). I’m from a primarily English speaking family, somewhat manage to speak my mother tongue Tamil and Hindi, both being quite messed up, and there was this new language. I had nothing against (in the beginning atleast) as learning a new language is always fun, growing watching anime, reading manga and being familiar with Japanese culture, there was an interest in Japanese. My uncle is from Germany, so I had interest in German too. And who isn’t interested in (the) French and Spanish? 😉

I had to deal with Marathi, the beginning 2 years grades 5 & 6 I survived somehow but eventually failed in my finals of grade 6, I remember getting some 70% and my performance had dipped from a potential 90 straight just because of that. And when you are a person like me who doesn’t care about these petty things (seriously who cares about school?), and especially when you are from a typical Indian/Asian family (South Indian – Brahmin to make it more worse than it already is) it was seriously hell.

For the first time in my life I had ‘failed’ (again I school context) and it hurt the pride and soul of my civilization (or so it seemed) and for the first time in my life I went for one of the only tuition for Marathi near my home/school in the afternoons after school from grade 7-10.  To me it totally didn’t make sense, why Marathi is mandatory but the national language (still doubts in it) Hindi is an option? I’m not at all racist, but why is there a need for me to learn mug-the-shit-up of it? There was clearly no learning in it, which I soon realized prevail till perhaps I’ll graduate now. I can’t say for the rest of the world (completely) but anything attached to the word ‘system’ itself here is completely fucked up. Not even exaggerating slightly.

But coming back to the story here, there was a good side of it too. My tutor Mrs. Prathiba Aunty (as I said earlier in my other post, in school days, female teachers had no last name, either it was ‘mam’ or ‘aunty’ if bit informal as in this case) is a very sweet lady and I still see her once a while as I stay nearby, and almost every year pay a visit to her on her birthday in early February (which is now coming). I also made really good buddies, spent those days hooked on Nintendo, Pokémon, Sonic, Dragonball and countless others. Although seldom to none contact with any of them now, since all have their own lives and I keep forgetting the password of mine, it was not all bad.

And if you are curious, I managed to pass out with a decent 90% (I honestly don’t know how, my genius was never in the books) and leave that crap behind. Well thanks to that, I can understand Marathi, if not read or write properly, is useful as I live here, but not was not necessary at the same time. And my Hindi still sucks.

That was my not-so-really-learning story for this time.

What will I be remembered for?

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So I just finished watching beloved former president of India, his excellency Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam live on his talk for Transforming Indians to India, proud for which my family, friends and most people I know are working towards. (Check out the site and on respective social networks pages) It is a the national moment for empowering our youth and bringing about change in the country.

“Small aim is a crime”

Coming to which, what about me in this equation? Dr. Kalam in his very inspiring (as always) talk had asked the audience to take some vows to bring about change in ourselves, change around us and subsequently the history of our nation, and very importantly write down what each one of us wants to be remembered for. Whoever is unique in our planet is remembered for something, and if we want to be unique, we have to be remembered for something. This is not the first time I’m hearing this, and perhaps won’t be the last, but it makes me wonder to myself for the lord-knows-what-time, what do I want to be remembered for?

“Everyone wants to be unique, and everyone else around work day and night seeing to that everyone is just everyone else.”

So quite true. Almost infinite walks of life ranging from engineering, doctors, inventors, artists, and so on, there are so much possibilities in each one among them (now that’s infinity to the power infinity who knows how much infinite times) Yet many of us struggle for what we want to do and where are we going.

I’m still not certain what I (truly) want for myself, and where I want to go. But one thing is for certain, after thinking about it, if I want to be remembered for something, that would be for for change. Being different. In complete context yet to be determined. So till then the search will be on, and never settle.

“Where there is righteousness in the heart, there is beauty in character.

Where there is beauty in character, there is harmony in home.

Where there is harmony in homes, there is order in the nation.

Where there is order in nations, there is peace in the world.”

– Dr. A.P.J Abdul Kalam

The solution for much debated and talked about world peace all comes to we individuals, righteousness. So simple, yet most difficult right? It would be a good time to start over, as it’s never too late.

You can watch it here:

Sleeping on the mud

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Alright, that might sound bizarre, but that is a classic example of free association thanks to today’s daily prompt.

So first things which to my mind when I hear (okay here read):

home: sleep, laze around, computer, mother (yeah really!) and scratching wherever I want freely 😛 (quite true isn’t it?)

soil: mud (pardon my lack of imagination at times)

rain: smell of mud, walking, hiking

And as the title says, I did sleep on the mud in the countryside and mountains quite a few times. You should try it, away from our monotonous lives, really bliss.

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