nature – Experiences in the community

There is/was a somewhat controversial book by Osho which I read long back ‘Sambhog se Samadhi Ki Aur‘ or the English version ‘From Sex to Superconsciousness‘

While I can’t say I understand or understood it all, read it about a decade back, the main point shared in the book was that if you are able to achieve bliss/orgasm during sex, you might be able to have a glimpse of super-consciousness.

I had to share the above context as I had gone to a meetup couple of weeks back had gone to a meetup where a friend, Dr. Swati Shome is attempting to write an educational book for teenagers to talk about sex. I did help her a bit in the past I tried to share some of the concerns I had as my generation didn’t have any guidance from parents or teachers. Most of us were left to our own devices which is similar to today’s children as well with the exception that they have the web. You look at both the books, both written in Pune (my home-town) and both talking about the same subject but from so different a view-point. If you see the comments on the meetup page, it really pains to see people’s concerns. I don’t know if there is any solution to the widespread ignorance, myth-making etc. and hence felt a bit sad 😦 . Sharing a small clip I had seen few months back.

Just to give a bit of context, the law as has been shared as passed in 2015 has happened after the 2012 Delhi Gang Rape. A part of it is also that the Indian society still frowns upon live-in relationships so in part it may also be a push-back from the conservatives. After all the BJP, a right of the center party has been in power for 2.5 years now so it’s possible that they were part of it. As I don’t have enough knowledge of what the actual case was, who were the litigants and the defendants, the lawyers and the judge involved, I cannot further speculate. If somebody has more info. or link please pass it on. It would be interesting to know if it was a single bench ruling or 3-5 judge bench.

The yin-yan symbol I had shared becomes a bit more apt as in quite a few cultures, including Indian and Japanese, the two are seen as parts of the same coin. One life-giving, the other life-taking or not even taking but converting into something else.

That came few days later when I was reading an article about sleep. The purpose of sleep, is to forget . It was slightly strange and yet interesting article. What disturbed me though, was the bit about the mouse being killed and his brain being sliced. I tried to find many a justification for it, but none I could have peace with. And the crux of that is because the being, the creature’s wilful consent hasn’t been taken. In nature’s eyes humans and mice are one and the same. We don’t get any special passes due to the fact that we are human. A natural disaster doesn’t care whether you are small or big, fat or strong, mouse or wo/man, coward or brave. It’s sheer luck and after disaster preparedness that people and animals get saved or not.

I thought quite a bit that instead of animals being used for scientific experiments, why don’t we use actual humans. While I’m sure PETA supporters probably may have spear-headed this idea for a long time, but it doesn’t mean I can’t come to this realization by myself. After all, it’s not about pandering to a group but rather what I think is right.

Passing the baton to humans does have its own knotty problems though. For any such kind of endeavour, people’s participation and wilful consent would be needed.

While humans can and do give wilful consent, it is difficult problem as you don’t know the situation in which that consent has been taken. We all know about Organ trafficking . Many people especially from lower economic background may be enticed and cheated with the whole economics for science. In most Indian middle and higher-middle classes religion plays a part even though with ‘death’ the body is cremated and is supposed to scatter among the Pancha Mahaboota, the five elements.

I, for one have no hang-ups if some scientist were to slice my brain to find something, provided I’m dead 🙂 or for that matter any part of the body. If more people thought like that, probably we wouldn’t have to specially grow and then kill lab mice and guinea-pigs to test out theories. Possibly medical innovations would probably be a lot faster than now. Ironically, most medical innovations have happened during wars and continues to do so till date.

Comments, ideas, suggestions and criticisms all are welcome.

Hi all

Last week-end was an invitation to take part in something larger than me. I had been engaging myself with a group called the Caferati. These are writers in the making, professional writers, film-makers, people who choose to bare their soul and the longing with their pen. They also are brave enough to let others criticize the way they write or what could be better.

I started my journey at 6 a.m. on Sinhagad Express. Unfortunately I didn’t have a camera with me otherwise the game of sun, shadows, mist, rain was something to be wondered at. As it was a Sunday, there were not too many people going to mumbai so was able to catch a seat and travel comfortably. If it was a week-day then I’m sure the story would have been otherwise.

The anniversary read-meet was organized near a picturesque place called Bhivpuri Road Railway Station.

Nature — One of the roads near Bhivpuri Road Station

Reached to our hosts the Shah Farm at something around 10 a.m.

We had breakfast while the organizers called up other people who were coming for the workshop as well as the read-meet. By around 11:30 or therabouts we were something around 40 odd people.

The first mini-workshop for the day was taken on the subject of Content Writing by john mathew The workshop lasted for almost 40 minutes

Then Raamesh started with a genre or way of writing which is called Nonsense which is not equal to nonsense. He showed us few examples of what would constitute Nonsense. One could find about nonsense at http://www.nonsenselit.org/

After that, Suniti enamoured us what performance poetry is all about and her learnings from the famed Kala Ghoda festival. While not being loud she is a force of nature in her own right.

After that a beautiful person named Batul shared with us the joys and let-downs of being a screenplay/scriptwriter for movies. She told us some of the mistakes people do and what should be in scriptwriter’s mind. This again was fascinating.

There were couple of writing exercises but was frankly not in the mood to write, was just in the mood to hear, interact and understand.

Then lunch happened something around 14:00 and couple of us went to the river-bed for a stroll around 15:00 . Came back and the read-meet started. Quite a number of people read their stories and poems and it was a joy to hear them all.

Finally tea happened around 17:00 hours and people exchanged e-mail addresses, mobile nos and what not.

A fascinating day finally starts to end, writers, tea, rains and nature a day to remember .

Note :- All the pictures are either from Suniti Joshi’s album or Peter Griffith’s works. You can find more about either and all of them at http://www.caferati.com 😉