Cultural hyperlinking.

Q. Okay, I do follow you. But, tell me this, in a land so full of psychological and cultural strife, where the odds surpass the means, and where time kills creativity and chokes morality, where do you see the world headed? Is there a Grand Plan for the world? Or will this temporality be forever erased by the Big Crunch?

A. As long as there are no methodical patterns to educational growth, the human race will survive. The moment water stops reaching the branches, and the high-heads are all for how important it is for the roots to remain turgid, we will reach an existential plateau. Where even the loftiest ministrations of our contemporary philosophers will cease to work. As for a Grand Plan or a Great Purpose, I do not think there is one intended, because when we manage to conclude with the Plan, then what? Tread on, thinking that we are alright and perfection has been achieved. That is, undoubtedly, the most wayward of thoughts.

Never classify egos.

As I make my bed in that conversational pause pregnant with implied meaning, I realise that sometimes even the most pleasant of conversations are gagged by a certain no-gooder – Failure to Communicate.

Some shooting-from-the-lip and other memorabilia.

Don’t rationalize everything you say, bubblehead. I mean, whoever thought of saving your ass when you were getting picked on by the neighbourhood bully was being pretty obtuse (or a tad insouciant). Then, you’d extricate your machismo from your ranting-hat and then with a deft flick of the wrist, demonstrate how Exhibit A was perfectly in line with Exhibit B, and how Exhibit B trumped Exhibit C’s ass although Exhibit C was busy sleeping with Exhibit A’s older brother and rattling off names of movie stars before you could say ‘I’m a harangued man with a prescription’. That’s called ‘being tough on talking’; do not prove to me that nothing defeats the male ego – the minute you get confrontational, that’s the end of the line for your hypocrisy. I do not have a hedonistic beef with you, I do not like to pick on your insecurities, it’s just that it’s always that I had a hard time getting around with people who didn’t notice that every day the world turns a little, and that if you refuse to budge from your spot under the sun, you get left behind. Or worse, you don’t get Grandma’s crab-apples for supper. Which, as it goes, is profitable optioneering.

Genuflect, Ayan.

It’s heartening to know that my friends think I’m a spin doctor, although I think I never give them any reason to think so. I’ve had a cocktail of problems come my way after I decided I’m going to quit my current job, but I’m not quite sure whether my handling of them was in any way professional, because fundamentally, the ethic behind a successful work-routine is building rapport and since I’ve failed in that respect quite visibly, I will have to address these areas from the beginning. Suddenly, I’m at that phase of my life where I’ve found myself becoming more of a saturnine character than I would have liked to - it would have been a disturbing snag if not for the fact that I’m taking hits more easily than I did earlier and I’m finding that the previously-allowed-to-run-amok kangaroo temper is more easier to control these days (what with the ‘spring-in-my-step’ and ‘post-punk rock music’ schedules). So, good for me. Till then, I hope this climate of karmic good holds up ostensibly.