Life & Tragedies

Benjamin Button: Sometimes we're on a collision course, and we just don't know it. Whether it's by accident or by design, there's not a thing we can do about it. A woman in Paris was on her way to go shopping, but she had forgotten her coat - went back to get it. When she had gotten her coat, the phone had rung, so she'd stopped to answer it; talked for a couple of minutes. While the woman was on the phone, Daisy was rehearsing for a performance at the Paris Opera House. And while she was rehearsing, the woman, off the phone now, had gone outside to get a taxi. Now a taxi driver had dropped off a fare earlier and had stopped to get a cup of coffee. And all the while, Daisy was rehearsing. And this cab driver, who dropped off the earlier fare; who'd stopped to get the cup of coffee, had picked up the lady who was going to shopping, and had missed getting an earlier cab. The taxi had to stop for a man crossing the street, who had left for work five minutes later than he normally did, because he forgot to set off his alarm. While that man, late for work, was crossing the street, Daisy had finished rehearsing, and was taking a shower. And while Daisy was showering, the taxi was waiting outside a boutique for the woman to pick up a package, which hadn't been wrapped yet, because the girl who was supposed to wrap it had broken up with her boyfriend the night before, and forgot.

Benjamin Button: When the package was wrapped, the woman, who was back in the cab, was blocked by a delivery truck, all the while Daisy was getting dressed. The delivery truck pulled away and the taxi was able to move, while Daisy, the last to be dressed, waited for one of her friends, who had broken a shoelace. While the taxi was stopped, waiting for a traffic light, Daisy and her friend came out the back of the theater. And if only one thing had happened differently: if that shoelace hadn't broken; or that delivery truck had moved moments earlier; or that package had been wrapped and ready, because the girl hadn't broken up with her boyfriend; or that man had set his alarm and got up five minutes earlier; or that taxi driver hadn't stopped for a cup of coffee; or that woman had remembered her coat, and got into an earlier cab, Daisy and her friend would've crossed the street, and the taxi would've driven by. But life being what it is - a series of intersecting lives and incidents, out of anyone's control - that taxi did not go by, and that driver was momentarily distracted, and that taxi hit Daisy, and her leg was crushed."

From the movie : Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Whats Happening?

I think I need to really get a life and find the meaning of it. I don't know what is happening in India (i mean to say Karnataka, i don't know about other states.).Most of the people I know happen to be engineers. Yeah, I mean the BE/B.Tech sort.

I know very few folks doing commerce and related courses. A couple of them doing pure sciences. And very, very few in Arts. And just, just ONE person pursuing fine arts. And anyway, these aren’t people I interact with on a daily basis - just old friends who I get together with once in a while in the name of a reunion.

Around where I live is surrounded by software folks, and those who aren’t Software Engineers or not into IT are into ITES. At home… my parents aren’t engineering graduates.

My interaction with non-engineers is minimal.We try to analyze the ‘railway ticket allotment and booking algorithm’ while waiting in queues. And queues are where we crib about people not optimizing using queuing theory.

And we are also the sort who commit very less to memory, for everything is available on the Net - it is commonplace to have a information like - wikipedia+James Bond film, String+theory+Philosophy. As per my analysis, the amount of information and knowledge is so huge that we know only basic things and we depend on other things on Internet,we can't live without Internet.

It's very disturbing thing that if some terrorist organizations break the very backbone aka.Internet or some company like Google, many things will go down to where they all started, it may put humanity in trouble.

And we are not at all concentrating towards fundamental science, which is essential for technological advancement for humanity.

Can any body tell me what is happening? where are we moving? What is life?

Identity

For much of history, people lived in small communities, where everyone knew them, and they knew everyone. Identity was largely inherited and imposed, and the ability of people to re-invent themselves was quite limited. You were father, farmer, drunkard, and everyone knew it.

The big city changed all that, by offering anonymity and choice. Against the background of anonymity, people can choose their identity, or choose multiple identities, often by choosing the community of other people with whom they live, work or play. In the city, you can choose to cultivate multiple identities: to mingle with bankers or toddlers by day, to play rugby or poker by night, to socialize with rabbis or lesbians, and to do all this while choosing how anonymous to remain. Maybe you’re happy to use your real name with your bank colleagues, but delight in the anonymity of a large nightclub. And you can share different parts of your identity with different communities, and none of them need to know about the other parts, if you don’t want them too: work and home, family and friends, familiarity and exploration, the city allows you to create your identity against a background of anonymity.

Like the city, but on a much, much bigger scale, the Web allows people to create multiple digital identities, and to decide whether to use their “real” identity, or pseudonyms, or even complete anonymity. With billions of people online, and with the power of the Internet, people can find information and create virtual communities to match any interest, any identity. You may join a social networking site with your real names or your pseudonyms, finding common interests with other people on any conceivable topic, or exploring new ones. You may participate in a breast cancer forum, by sharing as much or as little information about yourself as you wish. You may explore what it means to be gay or diabetic, without wanting anyone else to know. Or you may revel in your passion to create new hybrids of roses with other aficionados. The Web is like the city, only more so: more people, more communities, more knowledge, more possibility. And the Web has put us all in the same “city”, in cyberspace.

Life is about possibilities: figuring out who you are, who you want to be. Cities opened more possibilities for us to create the identities we choose. The Web is opening even more.

Connecting the Dots

Life is all about connecting the dots. We can only connect the dots by looking backwards. Because based on the past choices we will be in present position.

Sometimes we run across things one another that seem connected to us & our lives but we will not always be sure about the connection.

It is better some times not to connect the dots, but share it with others & let them make connections they see.

What is life?

Don’t miss the life you have in the search for the one you think you want.

To quote John Lennon, “Life is what happens while you are busy making other plans.”

But perhaps Pascal said it best, “We never keep to the present. We … anticipate the future as if we found it too slow in coming and were trying to hurry it up, or we recall the past as if to stay its too rapid flight. We are so unwise that we wander about in times that do not belong to us and do not think of the only one that does; so vain that we dream of times that are not and blindly flee the only one that is… [We] think of how we are going to arrange things over which we have no control for a time we can never be sure of reaching… Thus we never actually live, but hope to live, and since we are always planning how to be happy, it is inevitable that we should never be so.”