“Year's end is neither an end nor a beginning but a going on, with all the wisdom that experience can instill in us.” ~Hal Borland
Yet on this day
“We will open the book. Its pages are blank. We are going to put words on them ourselves. The book is called Opportunity and its first chapter is New Year's Day”. ~Edith Lovejoy Pierce
Now coming to second point –Knowledge and understanding of things (knowledge is not just data collection-but first part of knowledge is data collection-data collection can have many ways(reading books, watching TV, interacting with people who has already got data in that area of knowledge, internet etc)data collection should be followed by processing of that data once we do that we can say that we understand things. Very often one’s own data processing step could be faulty-we may see things with a jaundiced eye because of our personal biases and prejudices. There comes the importance of discussions and meetings of fellow seekers. Being an introvert for so long I never understood the importance this thing till recent times. So even though I was a seeker I was seeking it from inanimate sources. But lately I realized my folly and started seeking out. It can be a wonderful experience also. When we were in schools we were taught in Malayalam that ‘vidya’(knowledge) is only the treasure which when you share with others it increases. And it is never one way and it is always a mutually beneficial experience. That is why the central theme in quest is kept as that “whenever I come to the fountain to drink I find the living water itself thirsty;
And it drinks me while I drink it".(Gibran) It is enriching each other.
Why going public with QUEST?Is there any hidden agenda?To tell the truth there is nothing of that sort except for some head fakes in late Prof.Randy’s terminology.First thing first
As Gibran said that Life is indeed dark except when there is urge-(yearning or craving) and all that craving is blind (unwilling or unable to understand something) except when there is knowledge(clear awareness/understanding) and all that knowledge is vain(devoid of substance or meaning) except when there is work(a purposeful effort-physical or mental) and all work is empty(meaningless or lack vitality) except when there is love. Gibran says work is love made visible.So point number one -to make my love especially to my students in particular and humanity in general this action. So I claim it is a labour of love. For me love has never been( at least that is what I have been trying) a thread connecting two pegs but an aura engulfing all around. If Gandhi would like to call his auto-biography experiments with truth I would call my life story as experiments with love.
Somebody may ask why a private person like you want to go public with this kind of forum etc. I never liked going public probably because of shyness which could be a polished way of hiding some complexes one might be having!! But then I always justified my introvert behaviour by saying “You talk when you cease to be at peace with your thoughts;And when you can no longer dwell in the solitude of your heart you live in your lips, and sound is a diversion and a pastime.And in much of your talking, thinking is half murdered.”(Who can write it!! It is Khalil Gibran again!!)We humans are good at justifying any of our actions that too with a lot of reasons.We like to rationalize any of our actions as we are people of science which is nothing but systematization of rationality and logics.But the comic tragedy is that we often use logic/reason to foster unreason like in the proverbial story of the spider. So I might have been doing something of that sort.Whatever.. Why this change?
Again if it is a genuine QUEST for knowing things- which I can say without being modest that it was always there with me ever after reading “The Giants of Science”- biography of some eminent scientists during my high school days which made me a great fan of Archimedes- an embodiment of 100% commitment to the task in hand which made him forget even his nakedness (if we go by the story often told to us). But then such a ‘quest’ like the religion some of us follow is often considered as a private affair(Here again you see a lot of distortions- for many religion which has distorted to ritualism and make a public demonstration of it. )
So why I am following suite?Why I want to publicize my QUEST??
"Another fresh new year is here . .Another year to live! To banish worry, doubt, and fear. To love and laugh and give! This bright New Year is given me To live each day with zest. To daily grow and try to be My highest and my best! I have the opportunity Once more to right some wrongs, To pray for peace, to plant a tree, And sing more joyful songs!”
William Arthur Ward
