City of Blinding Lights

It was more than 5years ago I first heard the U2 song 'City of Blinding Lights' from a CD I borrowed (and returned after almost 8 months) from a friend. I have come across a lot of other songs (quite a few good ones by U2 itself), lot of other bands and lot of genres of music, but nothing has changed my favourite song of all time 'City of Blinding Lights'.

It was there with me through all the chaos and hopeless times of entrance and 12th, through all the shit that happened in campus and now in PS too. I associated different songs with different eras or incidents in my life. For example, 'Going Under' reminds of my first semester in campus (literally) and so on. 'City of Blinding Lights' reminds me of all the highs and lows, all the joys and sorrows of the years that have gone by. A reminder of everything that has happened in my life.

Strange World

Its a world where the deaf and blind mock the mute. The problem here is that the mute person has no way of making the other person understand and even a normal person would require a Hellen Kellerish kind of dedication from the other side, which is obviously not coming or else the mute would have been left in peace. Its one where drug addict mocks the occasional smoker. No one is perfect, in this case, the occasional smoker would do well to quit smoking altogether even if the intention of the addict is to free up atleast a small amount of cigarette for himself! So the aim may not be that broad-minded, but it shows that we can take something good out of every bad thing and we should be broad minded as to accept advice and criticism, whatever may be the source.

The Hon'ble Supreme Court of India suggested that Government distribute the food grains for free instead of allowing it to rot, a soung "suggestion". It was later confirmed to be an order rather than a suggestion and the government acted accordingly for it was the right thing to do, but the Prime Minister Dr.Manmohan Singh quite clearly stated that the judiciary should stay out of the domain of the Parliament. Advice accepted and everyone knows their right place and on a different note, I agree with the government on something finally. What this shows is that we should accept the right advice, right criticism and the truth irrespective of its credibility.

I am not calling the Supreme Court of India blind/deaf or the Prime Minister dumb, but simply narrating two similar stories. The saying that you cannot teach an old dog new tricks is used to refer to old schools of thought, but they are not being called dogs, but simply using a famous saying to make the message clear.

But what about the blind, deaf person- well leave it to fate for we are mute and need to overcome that handicap and better take care of that right away rather than engaging in a series of back and forth insults. Clean up your own home before you criticise the small speck of dust in your neighbours compound. Nations can also learn from this- rather going and establishing democracies and planning wars on nations which may acquire future threats (about which immediate neighbours even don't have problems), they should clean up their own yard- rising unemployment is not only the bane of the third world, but is also crippling the worlds strongest economy(??).

Edit on December 10,2010

Another striking aspect is that no one wants another person to do well inspite of saying well done or congratulations at our success. But one downward slide or perhaps a moment of indecision at the edge, they would gladly push you and watch you go down and down, laughing heartily. My current policy has been similar to what one Mr.Sherlock Holmes did at the Reichenbach. Pretend that you have fallen, hide somewhere where they can't find you so that they could take pleasure in your fall into the dark side and after sometime, just walk away and get on with life. Rather let them be happy at your fall than have a grudging, jealous badger.