Killing time when you have the least !!

This is an actual chat conversation between me and my office friend AP. A sample of how can we argue over something that didnt deserve this attention. Just for the sake of debating we continued this. Conversation took totally headless shape somwhere before midway.

AP - hi
Me - you are going for the match 2mrw
AP - yes
Me - whats the forecast for 2mrw
AP - not good at all
AP - again, another loss of money for me, it seems
Me - is there a refund policy
AP - yes, if less than 25 overs are played
AP - but i am not interested in that
AP - i want to see at least 50 overs
Me - yeh
Me - seems bad luck
Me - 2nd time
AP - yes...seems to follow me all the time
AP - now i have got another offer to go to Nottingham next week to catch India play second test
AP - if tomorrow is a wash-out, i might go to Nottingham
Me - k.. good deal.. better
AP - no...with MV
AP - he is going in a van with 10 other friends...one of whom is not joining them
AP - so, that place is vacant....he was asking me
Me - k
Me - you are quite popular there
AP - well, not sure...but yes, people know me because i have been here for long
AP - and i do things that others donot...i mean desis donot
Me - thts called outstanding performance
AP - what is that...please explain?
Me - where you stand out from the crowd.. here desi crowd
AP - like i said, i do things or am interested in things which is not normally associated with desi people
Me - thts why i said u have outstanding perf
Me - its goin in a loop
AP - but this is not performance at all
AP - this is attributes or character or traits
AP - performance comes when you are given a task...i was not given this task...this is my interest
Me - life itself is a performance.. where world is a stage.. remember Shakespeare
AP - yes...but then again, god gives you that task to live a life...therefore it is a performance
Me - yes.. so we agree.
AP - yes, it is a performance is there is a task involved...we agree on this
AP - we donot agree on your sentence
Me - you dont have to accept that
Me - it follows logically...
AP - i know...i accept things only if logical and convincing
Me - once you have accepted that life is a perf
AP - this is not...
AP - life is...but not everything in it
Me - and you are doin something (performing an activity) which the desi crowd in gen is not.. you are outstanding among them...
Me - so thts how it is concluded.
AP - ok...but that is what i am saying is different...i am not performing, i am showing inherent traits/interest
AP - they come naturally to me, i donot have to perform...
AP - and i donot practice for it
Me - it is not the 'performance ' which you have in mind.. im talking abt any activity which you perform ...
AP - well, all other activities of mine are same as others...only my few interests are different...
AP - so, yes, i might be outstanding...but i donot put in a outstanding performance
Me - yeah those are the ones that are makin you oustanding
AP - perhaps
Me - you have to shed the idea of performance that you have (maybe you are relating it to performance on stage or in a championship) to appreciate the meaning of 'outstanding perf'
AP - aah...i am not happy with that usage of english
AP - by saying outstanding performance...you are categorizing it as a performance...whichever way
AP - which is incorrect...
AP - Shakespeare was a artist and he had his liberties...what he said may not necessarily be correct usage of english
Me - yeah.. but he is taught in schools english lit... so that means we have accepted his style as to be acceptable english
AP - no...his english is not taught...his plays are taught
AP - to teach people to like literature and dig deep into minds of such artist
AP - nowhere does it say that he wrote great english
Me - well why then we would have chosen an English play.. which teaches unacceptable engliish.. that too in schools where kids are so young and impressionable.. they can get influenced by tht then.
Me - this itself means that we have accepted his lit in our society.. (indian i mean) he was always acceptable in english society ...
A BRIEF PAUSE
AP - Lets end this topic !!
Me - Please lets do it.. Wanted to do it long time back, just dint want to say it first :)

Wen this was over it seemed so pointless waste of precious office time that I thought of recycling it and getting some time contribution from you all by posting here. After all we are living in increasingly environment loving world.

Is God ?

There have been countless occassions that I pondered about the question. Do we have a supreme being presence in the form of 'Almighty' somewhere...
I dont have an answer so I tried to decipher this with arguments both in favour and against.

I wonder why we believe in the existence of Him (first of all doubts that came was why 'Him' and not Her or It).

If I try too look back and comprehend, Nature was the God in the earliest of civilizations; as humans believed them to be powerful forces that controlled wind, rain, Sun and others respectively. Most of the Roman gods were 'Natural' in true sense.

Since we were at their mercy we declared them as Gods and started worshipping them, to avoid their wrath. Slowly human priests realized that there is immense benefit in sticking to the side of God. The approach had many advantages. People were 'God-fearing' and avoided any wrong doings ('sins'). Also even in the absence of a ruler or a regime not many people went bersek knowing Someone is watching them. So the centres of worship flourished and definitely had some role in the keeping people civilized.

Why do we worship or pray in the first place, if God is 'God' he has the powers to understand what we think or want to say without any explicit signs. God, if is God will not like any flatteries or unending chanting, recitation of holy verses. God would want us to be good humans rather than religous people. Good humans will help other fellow humans irrespective of caste, creed, race and sex. The resources (time, energy, money etc) spent in appeasing God by worshipping and going to holy places could well be given in the service of the needy. Some of us may argue that religion is teaching all these things... I disagree.. religion may have taught all these things but it also became a dividing factor between people. More the number of religion.. more the divisions and even more the possibility of bringing all together. God would not have desired this. So many seprations under one name.


Once I have made my viewpoint clear about the need of religion I ponder upon possibility (or impossibility) of God itself.


Why are there no signs of God on recorded history (random incidents not counted) even though God has been there since ever? Why have all those mystical and magical things happened in past and dont appear now? Human soul requires strong support during times of crisis atleast. It it this time that most of us actually try to get more close to God, wishing all their worries will just fly away.



Please do not mistake me. I'm not against religion or the 'Almighty'. Here I am just trying to analyse if this belief that most of us have had since childhood, handed over to us by our elders, is a meticulosly planned and evolved approach to keep people from turning back into uncivilized beasts who can be controlled only by sticks and chains.


No one seems to have the answer. We can just deliberate and conclude nothing that is logical.