“I don’t feel that it is necessary to know exactly what I am. The main interest in life and work is to become someone else that you were not in the beginning.” – Michel Foucault To become someone else that you were not in the beginning… That sounds like a genuine life challenge. Indeed, isn’t
Month: October 2019
Conflicts – The Necessary Ripples in Life
Let me ask you all a few questions. Have you ever been in a scenario where everything is just perfect? Can you think of events in your life where there has been only happiness, joy, peace and tons of laughter? Is it possible for you and your partner or sibling or any friend to think
Honesty Per Square Foot
“I don’t feel that it is necessary to know exactly what I am. The main interest in life and work is to become someone else that you were not in the beginning.” – Michel Foucault. I was a studious and straightforward girl when I came to the USA. However, I realised that I am a
Beyond the Horses
To take what is known and improve upon it requires an inventive spirit. To take what is known and manipulate it into something completely different, perhaps frightening in its newness, requires a visionary. The inventors, the artists, the innovators – these creative minds give birth to something never before seen, something seemingly impossible, which has
A Brief Article on the Apocryphal Henry Ford
This quotation is frequently attributed to the American inventor Henry Ford: “If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.” However, little evidence exists which demonstrates that Ford actually uttered this markedly cynical consumer insight. Additionally, it is not essential whether this epigraph is a misquotation, mimesis, apocryphal statement or
Beyond Boundaries
It’s comfortable to define ourselves by roles, relationships, and resources. It’s human nature to draw boundary lines around our abilities and find labels to attach to what we are. These labels seem to provide identity and a certain measure of direction. When we define ourselves, we have a good idea of where we are going.
No Conflict in the Clouds
Narratives of everyday engineering and economics are stories of conflict and concession. There is always a compromise involved in manufacturing pieces and in making policies. The human experience is riddled with terms and trade-offs. We even have enough experience managing these deals and disputes that estimating simple bargains and balances is done almost instantaneously. We
The Symbiosis of Conflict and Imagination
“If there’s no conflict, there are no stories worth telling – or reading.” – Veronica Roth. To explore the statement, a couple of general assumptions must be made: 1. That most people consume some form of narrative, be it personal interaction, fictional or religious literature, celebrity culture, current events as communicated by news outlets or
The Eternal Tension
“If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said, ‘Faster horses.’ ” So quipped Henry Ford about his success. Ford revolutionized transportation early in the 20th Century by making something available to everyone that previously only the wealthy could afford: an automobile. Yet behind that quip lies a fundamental tension between individual
Be You
How can I not be influenced by feelings of necessity to know what I am? I don’t feel that it is necessary to know exactly what I am, yet everything I do is analysed, judged, criticized, liked, outdone, undermined or loved by myself and others. If it is not necessary to know exactly what I
What Am I? Just Another Changing Being!
Michel Foucault’s statement is a very interesting comment on human nature. As a French philosopher who studied and questioned human behavior, this is not a surprising statement on his behalf. Humans are a very strange species compared to the rest of the bio life in this world. We are conscious, sentient beings. We feel, think,
Never The Same Again
As we are growing up people always ask what do you want to be when you get older and how will you get there? These questions as a child are unscathed by society, our education and our imagination. We can essentially be anything we want, a fire fighter, a doctor, an astronaut, the possibilities are
River of Life
There is a substantial basis about the idea that we become someone else that we were not in the beginning. Michel Foucault thoughtfully came up with a realization that inevitably applies to all people. Interestingly, he even considered it as the main interest in life. A very clever idea indeed. Applying this in your life
Become someone different. Get off the merry-go-round
Life is a “bittersweet symphony” according to The Verve’s eponymous 1997 single. When he is not bemoaning “making ends meet” and being “a slave to money”, frontman Richard Ashcroft croons: No change, I can’t change, I can’t change, I can’t change, But I’m here in my mould, I am here in my mould. And I’m
The Line in the Sand
……………Keeps Us From Discovering The Treasures Buried in The Desert of Nonconformity Everyday I sit and ponder about my contribution to the world. Will I ever be remembered? This compelling question has long and unknowingly lingered within my mind and my heart, but certainly with greater impulsion for the past three years. I wonder why
eloquent bliss.
My father’s voice was like a portal to me, rich spools of magic that spun stories as clear as day. It was a mixture of warm tones and sharp inflections, where sparks of stirring excitation and ardour lay buried beneath an air of patience. His words kindled emotions within me that mirrored his own, and
entity unknown
I wonder what she sees. <error> The girl stands at the edges of a soaring monolith, where she looks to a city aglow with light and flame. Her eyes are hard and unblinking — unseeing<error>, as her fingers reach out to grasp at the lucent skyline. They tremble in the moonlight, and I imagine<error> the
The Realities Of Transition And Transformation
The inspiration to write this article was drawn out of a bitter, but necessary experience I had as a high school student. I was a rookie, probably innocent to a reasonable extent, bright in school, a lover of God, a drama unit member, you name it…. I was suffering from inferiority complex, trying so hard
The True Nature of Stories – An Expression of Experience
What is a story? Some might say a story is an arrangement of plot, setting, character and the main subject of this article, the rise and fall of conflict. Veronica Roth once said, “If there is no conflict, there are no stories worth telling – or reading.” To understand why this is true or to
“Where There is Ruin There is Hope for a Treasure”
“Where There is Ruin There is Hope for a Treasure” – Rumi. Five summers ago my daughter told her counselor that she planned to stand in the middle of the train tracks that run south of our house at 3pm the next day. No one would be home, no one could stop her, and her