We are still very much in the fervour and flavour of the new year 2010 and it makes pure sense to gung-ho with the things which need to be discussed however weird they may seem to the naked eye. In 2010 technology in all its variants will be blamed again for causing disruption in the lives of people and ruining families. Lives will be lived online and though it wont lead to empty streets, people will complain about the lack of time and the feeble existence of life. We wont have time to meet each other and even keep in touch with our inner selves.
We love a punching bag, don’t we? And in this case it is new media technology. We will know what our friends and family on facebook, orkut and twitter are doing but we wont know what people in our house are doing! True to an extent but who is to blame? I wonder whether in 2010 we will be punching into thin air because the punching bag wont be there to take our punches?
As a priest, it is important to come to terms with life in all its fullness, technology included. Can I preach from the pulpit that my congregation is aloof from me because of something I cant control? Or should I look to myself to see what is happening today? A priest/bishop in Kerala (and I have come to understand that this happens in all denominations) is under severe time pressure. We have to perform according to the needs and expectations of people. We have to attend umpteen programs in a single day and it doesn’t matter whether we actually even know what we are doing by the time we are half through. The physical and mental exhaustion is put aside and we perform the great Indian rope trick, of course in the absence of a rope. After the offline world we have to enter the online world and perform again.
Several priests and bishops I have talked to agree to a common thing. There is nothing they can do about it. Its out of our hands! But maybe that is again only one part of the problem. The other is the fear and inability to say no. Even if we end up being late for programs and hold up weddings, we wont just say no. The only time a no would surface is when I am saying this. No, many would protest. We cant say no!
Ian Fleming came out with his novel Dr. No in 1958 and later it was made into the first James Bond movie in 1962, starring Sean Connery. The villain Dr. No could have got his name because he rejects something and he is to be rejected by the audience as well. No is more of a rejection of yes and therefore something negative and not positive.
This routine continues even now. Obviously priests/bishops and anyone for that matter would not like to be associated with a character like Dr. No and with the no negativism. The problem then lies not in inventions and new forms of communication but in the inherent human behaviour to appear nice and good. But appearing nice/good need not lead to doing something nice/good eventually. 2010 will also bear the weight of the expectations of people mutually on saying yes, with those who will be bold enough to say no being ostracized and decorated with the not too well meaning 'Dr. No'. Poor Dr. No!
Showing posts with label 2010. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 2010. Show all posts
Thursday, January 7, 2010
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
Knowing who you are.
The beginning of a year also poses the difficult question of what to start writing on. For obvious reasons, the beginning of the year post will be scrutinized. Many will start with resolutions and promises and what they see are the challenges for the new year. For me, the new year is as much important as the years that have passed by. The years which have presented me with rich experiences through various people and channels. Thus the new year and the years gone by present me with the challenge of knowing “who I am.”
I can blurt out a volley of resolutions, some of which I might do, some which I will repeat the next year and others which will always be inscribed in the hall of fame of resolutions. I hate resolutions anyway, so I won’t go the common path but will take a deviation down a dusty path which is not even on my map. Call it a rush of adrenalin, insanity, a sense of adventure. But maybe I don’t want to take the neat looking road of certainty but would want to toy with a bit of uncertainty.
Knowing who we are and what we want to do are supposed to go hand in hand. But there are several of us who end up doing (working) what we don’t like. Circumstances and the need of the hour are responsible for this as several of us do not have the luxury of doing what we like to do. We do try hard to convince ourselves that we have figured out things for ourselves and we know what is good. But the new year is also a time when we could be hit by a bolt of realisation that maybe we haven’t hit the bulls eye, atleast not yet.
I wanted to be a pilot (like most kids) when I was young. My neighbour friends even called me for games where we would play being in an aeroplane and played roles to fit the scene. As soon as I had to see a doctor, my thoughts shifted to being one myself. That didn’t last long as I dreamt of being a taxi driver, a mechanic, an IAS officer, a police man, a teacher, a mime artist, an actor and what not. Every week or month was a different phase of life, when the dream and need for achievement would be re examined and re fixed. This avatar could not be placed in one bracket.
Coming through all this I still don’t know who I am. I know what people call me. I am an achen or priest in Kerala and am expected to fulfil some roles which someone has fixed. After all the role plays of young I am again put into a role play which I am expected to perform. Any deviance from the original plot is not always seen as a stroke of genius, but misbehaviour and disobedience. But I guess the job that I have is also a mix of all the role plays I did when I was young. It’s a mixture of euphoria, excitement and disappointment in varying degrees.
This new year there are no resolutions. This new year 2010 is about learning who I am, over and over again. It’s a time of stepping into the shoes of various people, in various roles and understanding what the role is about. It’s the time when I will have to say ‘cut’ if I am not doing justice to my role. It’s a year to listen and learn from other people so that I find myself out from the billions of others around me. Happy 2010.
I can blurt out a volley of resolutions, some of which I might do, some which I will repeat the next year and others which will always be inscribed in the hall of fame of resolutions. I hate resolutions anyway, so I won’t go the common path but will take a deviation down a dusty path which is not even on my map. Call it a rush of adrenalin, insanity, a sense of adventure. But maybe I don’t want to take the neat looking road of certainty but would want to toy with a bit of uncertainty.
Knowing who we are and what we want to do are supposed to go hand in hand. But there are several of us who end up doing (working) what we don’t like. Circumstances and the need of the hour are responsible for this as several of us do not have the luxury of doing what we like to do. We do try hard to convince ourselves that we have figured out things for ourselves and we know what is good. But the new year is also a time when we could be hit by a bolt of realisation that maybe we haven’t hit the bulls eye, atleast not yet.
I wanted to be a pilot (like most kids) when I was young. My neighbour friends even called me for games where we would play being in an aeroplane and played roles to fit the scene. As soon as I had to see a doctor, my thoughts shifted to being one myself. That didn’t last long as I dreamt of being a taxi driver, a mechanic, an IAS officer, a police man, a teacher, a mime artist, an actor and what not. Every week or month was a different phase of life, when the dream and need for achievement would be re examined and re fixed. This avatar could not be placed in one bracket.
Coming through all this I still don’t know who I am. I know what people call me. I am an achen or priest in Kerala and am expected to fulfil some roles which someone has fixed. After all the role plays of young I am again put into a role play which I am expected to perform. Any deviance from the original plot is not always seen as a stroke of genius, but misbehaviour and disobedience. But I guess the job that I have is also a mix of all the role plays I did when I was young. It’s a mixture of euphoria, excitement and disappointment in varying degrees.
This new year there are no resolutions. This new year 2010 is about learning who I am, over and over again. It’s a time of stepping into the shoes of various people, in various roles and understanding what the role is about. It’s the time when I will have to say ‘cut’ if I am not doing justice to my role. It’s a year to listen and learn from other people so that I find myself out from the billions of others around me. Happy 2010.
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