Skip to main content

Dying without a thought



One of the greatest thinkers of the twentieth century, Bertrand Russell, said, “Most people would sooner die than think; in fact, they do so.” A lion’s share of the evils in the human world could be pre-empted if people started making use of their thinking faculty.

When I returned home an hour ago after dropping Maggie at her workplace, Kittu, my cat, accompanied me from the car porch as he usually does and entered the house even before I did. He has inculcated a sense of entitlement, thanks to my pampering as Maggie alleges. He did something odd today. Instead of going to one of his usual places to sleep, he climbed on to the chair which I normally use for working with my laptop. He went to sleep within seconds. He usurped my place without a second thought.
 
Kittu: Self-contentment
Well, there’s no first thought either for him. Like Walt Whitman, I always end up envying his thoughtless self-contentment. Whitman wished to be like the animals. “They are so placid,” he said. “They do not sweat and whine about their condition … Not one kneels to another,” not even to any god.

But we human beings can’t do that, of course.  We have a more complex mind. So we sit and calculate the gains and losses of our loves. We calculate our neighbours’ gains and losses even more meticulously. We are so much concerned about their gods and totems, their ups and downs, their lifestyle or lack of style. And then we mess up our lives and theirs too. We give sweet names to all that mess: like patriotism, nationalism, gau raksha, and so on.

And these patriots and nationalists are always absolutely certain of themselves while wise people are full of doubts and hesitations. Of course, there’s always been a particular breed of people who rush in where angels fear to tread.  I wish those people would start exercising their thinking faculty. Just a wish; nothing in wrong in wishing, right?




Comments

  1. Vinay NagarajuMay 9, 2019 at 5:34 PM

    "while wise people are full of doubts and hesitations". This explains an awful lot, stupidity seems to have a louder voice. In a society, a crying baby seems to get more attention. I have seen this in a working set up, fundamentalist mindset and limiting beliefs. I don't understand the power of herd mentality, but it is very persuasive and prevalent in its establishment. Right from vehement supporters to violent mentalities - I guess that describes death much sooner than it can actually happen. If growth and improvement is stunted, that pretty is death isn't it?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalMay 10, 2019 at 6:54 AM

      It's easier to go with the herd, thinking is not needed at all. Moreover you get a feeling that there's a whole group to support you. This outlook has been reinforced by present day nationalists too.

      Delete
  2. Rajeev MoothedathMay 9, 2019 at 7:13 PM

    "And then we mess up our lives and theirs too."- Nice comparison with the cat. They just live in the moment.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tomichan MatheikalMay 10, 2019 at 6:56 AM

      Precisely. And they are contented too. My cat teaches me some nice lessons.

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Adventures of Toto as a comic strip

  'The Adventures of Toto' is an amusing story by Ruskin Bond. It is prescribed as a lesson in CBSE's English course for class 9. Maggie asked her students to do a project on some of the lessons and Femi George's work is what I would like to present here. Femi converted the story into a beautiful comic strip. Her work will speak for itself and let me present it below.  Femi George Student of Carmel Public School, Vazhakulam, Kerala Similar post: The Little Girl
47 comments
Read more

The Little Girl

The Little Girl is a short story by Katherine Mansfield given in the class 9 English course of NCERT. Maggie gave an assignment to her students based on the story and one of her students, Athena Baby Sabu, presented a brilliant job. She converted the story into a delightful comic strip. Mansfield tells the story of Kezia who is the eponymous little girl. Kezia is scared of her father who wields a lot of control on the entire family. She is punished severely for an unwitting mistake which makes her even more scared of her father. Her grandmother is fond of her and is her emotional succour. The grandmother is away from home one day with Kezia's mother who is hospitalised. Kezia gets her usual nightmare and is terrified. There is no one at home to console her except her father from whom she does not expect any consolation. But the father rises to the occasion and lets the little girl sleep beside him that night. She rests her head on her father's chest and can feel his heart...
17 comments
Read more

Ram, Anandhi, and Co

Book Review Title: Ram C/o Anandhi Author: Akhil P Dharmajan Translator: Haritha C K Publisher: HarperCollins India, 2025 Pages: 303 T he author tells us in his prefatory note that “this (is) a cinematic novel.” Don’t read it as literary work but imagine it as a movie. That is exactly how this novel feels like: an action-packed thriller. The story revolves around Ram, a young man who lands in Chennai for joining a diploma course in film making, and Anandhi, receptionist of Ram’s college. Then there are their friends: Vetri and his half-sister Reshma, and Malli who is a transgender. An old woman, who is called Paatti (grandmother) by everyone and is the owner of the house where three of the characters live, has an enviably thrilling role in the plot.   In one of the first chapters, Ram and Anandhi lock horns over a trifle. That leads to some farcical action which agitates Paatti’s bees which in turn fly around stinging everyone. Malli, the aruvani (transgender), s...
8 comments
Read more

The Blind Lady’s Descendants

Book Review Title: The Blind Lady’s Descendants Author: Anees Salim Publisher: Penguin India 2015 Pages: 301 Price: Rs 399 A metaphorical blindness is part of most people’s lives.  We fail to see many things and hence live partial lives.  We make our lives as well as those of others miserable with our blindness.  Anees Salim’s novel which won the Raymond & Crossword award for fiction in 2014 explores the role played by blindness in the lives of a few individuals most of whom belong to the family of Hamsa and Asma.  The couple are not on talking terms for “eighteen years,” according to the mother.  When Amar, the youngest son and narrator of the novel, points out that he is only sixteen, Asma reduces it to fifteen and then to ten years when Amar refers to the child that was born a few years after him though it did not survive.  Dark humour spills out of every page of the book.  For example: How reckless Akmal was! ...
5 comments
Read more

A Curious Case of Food

From CNN  whose headline is:  Holy cow! India is the world's largest beef exporter The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon is perhaps the only novel I’ve read in which food plays a significant, though not central, role, particularly in deepening the reader’s understanding of Christopher Boone’s character. Christopher, the protagonist, is a 15-year-old autistic boy. [For my earlier posts on the novel, click here .] First of all, food is a symbol of order and control in the novel. Christopher’s relationship with food is governed by strict rules and routines. He likes certain foods and detests a few others. “I do not like yellow things or brown things and I do not eat yellow or brown things,” he tells us innocently. He has made up some of these likes and dislikes in order to bring some sort of order and predictability in a world that is very confusing for him. The boy’s food preferences are tied to his emotional state. If he is served a breakfast o...
6 comments
Read more