Inspiration

3rd post now. This will go off in all kinds of tangents, please bear with my novice blogging capabilities.

Humans are the most resilient, brilliant, and (obviously) the species with the most developed mind. Now, we cannot ever imagine what a dog may think, for example, we cannot know what a dog considers good, or what makes the common dog continue living, but the idea that a dog, or any other species *feeling* something seems a bit far fetched. That is where humans have the edge, we have emotions, we can feel. This can make us deeply depressed and melancholic, but it can also make us the happiest, strongest, and leave us feeling so damn complete.

We sometimes feel so damn horrible, so bad, so many times, that getting up and dusting ourselves off seems like an exercise in futility. That things will probably never work out, but somehow, they do. Things always work out, albeit many times, it is through a compromise, but they continue to work out. How is this? What keeps us going through the difficult times and helps us come clean? What gets us from feeling so gutted, inferior, incomplete and out of place to thinking anything is possible? That, I believe, is inspiration. If it wasn't for inspiration, if it wasn't for that piece of magic, that one moment of purity, that one moment when any mind just takes it in and remains in a state of awe, then the human species may not even have developed. Inspiration is what keeps us going, what makes us feel that feeling, that mixture of happiness and excitement, that rush that is worth just about anything. It can either wreck you or make us the most motivated and happy person. That is the goal of any life, true and lasting happiness, and inspiration is one of the most important factors to achieve that, it maybe from love, friendship, a piece of music, a picturesque scene, a talk by somebody, a conversation with somebody, a book, or even a joke. So, really, there is no point in being melancholic, because everything around us is something we can find inspiration in, something that can make us happy, even if it is for the tiniest of moments.


PS: This is not meant to be a puff piece, I have genuinely been in a very good state of mind for the past month, much better than many days before it, so again, I should know.

PPS: I don't care if my blog posts seem like newspaper articles, it is simply my thoughts put on the internet

The Fountainhead (spoiler free)

Of all the novels I have read, This masterpiece by Ayn Rand is probably the one that has affected me and people the world over the most. This book was written in the year 1943, with the Nazi regime falling in the backdrop. In the year 1917, during the Russian Revolution, it seems like Ayn's mind had fixed on a set of principles as Lenin had assumed power and communism was increasingly becoming the way of Russia. This set would come to define her life and give meaning and inspire so many other lives. The Fountainhead would set the base for Ayn's philosophy, Objectivism, which stresses on how valuing yourself as an individual is much more important than what we think, it is this thought, this audacity, this courage that made Ayn Rand a symbol for personal growth and for maturity.

The Fountainhead tells the tale of Howard Roark, Peter Keating, Ellsworth Toohey and Gail Wynand and how ego, ie, being aware of oneself is the most defining factor of an individual. The four people who embody the different mindsets of almost the entire population of this planet. Howard is the main protagonist. Modeled slightly around possibly the greatest architect of the modern era, Frank Lloyd Wright. Howard is incredibly principled and brutally honest. The only person who seems to understand and appreciate his buildings and his way of life is Dominique Francon, the daughter of Guy Francon, the owner of the Architecture firm that Peater Keating, whose house Howard lived in during his days at Stanton Institute of Technology.

Peter is the perfect student, who listens to everything that was taught to him, respects it and applies it without ever questioning what he is taught, and Howard is the exact opposite, who believes that originality and innovation are far more important. It is this steadfast attitude that alienates Howard from everybody around him.

Ellsworth Toohey is an architecture reviewer and a philosopher, whose intentions cannot be deciphered until it is mentioned later on, the details of which I do not want to reveal. Ellsworth is the man that people seek out for advice and words of courage. He is seemingly very humble and down to earth, Ellsworth believes that Peter is the best architect that the world has to offer and choses to propel him up in society.

Gail Wynand is the power hungry owner of The Banner, the local newspaper company which he owns. He is the only other person who admires Howard openly. Gail had a very difficult life as a child, which led to him being the way he is described in the book.

The sheer bravery and audacity that this book reflects will astound anybody who reads it, and will surely leave the reader refreshed and renewed vigor for life.

Why school life is the most important phase

Firstly, I don't care if this topic is widely covered.
Secondly, I had the strangest school life and/or childhood, so I should know
Thirdly, any fuckups must be forgiven as this is the very beginning of my blog writing phase. (I hope its not just a phase though)

Alright, now where do I start, I have no clue if my school life was strange, boring, interesting, good or bad, simply because i don't know what a good school life is. So I will just split up the pros and cons

CONS:
I was in a school with barely enough space for the kids to run, with teachers who would literally beat the living hell out of kids (until it was firmly established as a 'bad' thing, it wasn't obvious to these people that beating kids isn't good). My school was on a small site, had four floors and had classrooms which were absolutely crammed. For some strange reason, parents believed that a school which taught sanskrit from 5th grade was good, because, they believed that it is important for a kid to have a strong moral and cultural background, what they didn't realize however, was that there were very few teachers at this particular school who cared. Sitting through some classes just felt like going through the motions. Barely anybody talking, kids in the 2nd bench taking copious notes, (I say 2nd bench because the kids on the first were invariably those who were being punished for something they did), and having to ask for permission to drink water. School seemed very strange, and had huge repercussions on how the kid went on and grew up.

For example,
1. Alienation:
The girls and boys were split up and made to sit in separate rows and sitting amongst the other sex was viewed almost as a punishment. This would ultimately lead to absolute alienation between the sexes (I believe this is the reason why some Indian people just seem shady or, excuse my nonchalance, horny) , save a few who had common sense (me excluded, not that i'm overly horny).

2. Mediocrity:
It seemed to me that only a set of people were rewarded. Now many people reading this may find that i'm just being retarded, but as i saw it, up until 7th grade, (in MY school), whenever there was a contest of any kind, it was always the kid with a good rank, or one whom the teacher liked who was picked for them, this ultimately led to the kid not really realizing what he really liked, thus making him think that he's just moderate at everything, and doesn't really stand out at anything. Not that it mattered anyway, because everybody wants to do engineering or medicine (or law, yeah right!). Doing anything willingly other than those three is truly commendable, but i digress, now coming back, for the most part, that almost seems like what a government school in India seems to want to do, ie, to produce a bunch of adults who are completely indistinguishable. Which, as anybody would agree is a HUGE con


PROS:
1. Closeness:
I for one, am truly proud of being as close as I am to the people i met and became friends with in school. This is the case with many many people. Now, as i turn my twisted analysis at it, this is what i see. The reason why people remain close years after graduating and not getting sick of one another is this: They stuck together through one of the worst experiences, ie, school life. What I mean by worst experience is this, I mean that it would have been the worst experience if there was no company. Now, with a group of friends, a child pretty much identifies himself with that group, which ultimately leads to him thinking that he is a part of something big, thus increasing his self confidence. Coming back to the closeness thing, I think it is safe to assume that anybody who has gone through an experience as taxing and annoying as school will stick together until they find somebody who they have more in common with, or move away and are forced to.


Yes, sadly, I could only think of one good thing that came out of my school life, and that, indeed, is quite sad. Now, coming back to the heading, School life is the most important simply because they are the formative years of a child's life, because those are the days that any person, no matter how cynical, how jovial, how twisted, will remember and cherish them. Everything that we come to be defined by is basically rooted in our childhood, and that is the ultimate truth.



Thank you for reading.
Your humble first-time blogger,
Srikanth