Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Yeh sheher...

This city has made me so learned
That I can't make those deep dramatic statements anymore
Everything is so equally true
That picking out a holistic abstract truth
Feels like an act of naive fascism
I once read about a physicist who bought her lover roses
And chocolates
On the valentine's day
She was a learned woman who knew that the day is a manufactured holiday
Lobbied by a greeting card company to sell romantic kitsch
She knew that the deep red of her roses
Is a wavelength of 680 nm corresponding to a code in the human brain
She knew that what she was feeling
Was caused by serotonin and oxytocin in her brain
The chemical equivalent of eating a lot of chocolate
Or having an obsessive compulsive disorder
It's so much fun to keep the big picture aside
Indulge in the details
And let love, friendship and life be
This city has thrown up many essays on caves and streams
With a footnote reminder that there is nothing to break away from
Not even attachment, emotion or desire
My grandma often complains
That my grandpa had gambled all his money away when he was young
She brings it up everytime they fight
That's a pretty long held grudge I reckon
If there was only a way to know
How much gambling is just right enough for youth
This city is the world, and the village torpor simultaneously
Enlightenment is googlable if the right search keywords are entered
It's amazing how only a few thousand words can be constantly used to create new meanings
Words like elephant, colour, inside, cheeks, and vagina are very common
And yet have they ever been used in this permutation:
"Her cheeks turned the colour of the inside of an elephant's vagina"
So I guess enlightenment should be googlable
As long as the right key words are entered in the right order, inside quotes.
This city has a lot to learn from me yet,
That's why it led up to me, after all.

There ain't no cure for love...

"Perhaps when we find ourselves wanting everything, it is because we are dangerously close to wanting nothing." It's amusing how Sylvia Plath has been quoted simultaneously by a site called "Dangerous quotes" and another one called "Inspiring quotes". It was the third time in last three days that somebody alluded to the Myth of Sisyphus in a conversation with me today. A pathological awareness of existentialism as a concept is the cure to existentialism. I like the passion that Avital Ronell exudes as she advocates meaninglessness in Astra Taylor's Examined Life. The state of contended acceptance of the certainty and the absurdity of fate is not a joyless compromise. It's been fun for me. Leonard Cohen in his between songs stock quips mentions "I’ve also studied deeply in the philosophies and religions, but cheerfulness kept breaking through…". And meanwhile, like all villains of mythology, I find myself looking forward to the immortality drug.