流

Dear reader,

If you have enjoyed this blog, and would like to read on, its now being continued on at a newer website: bohemianisms

Thanks for dropping by! :)

Bamboo Enso by Deiryu (1895-1954)

I realise it has been a year since my last post. Wow. How time has gone by. In this time, i have:

1. Gone into a relationship and broken up
2. Started a new blog with the aim of testing an ostensibly more "mature" writing style
3. Graduated from university
4. Travelled further, into the Balkans and the Caucasus
5. Got depressed, and
6. Delved more into Western philosophy, particularly Continental philosophy

ps: the bugs in Blogger are still the same though.

moved!

Hello everyone,

We have moved to Bohemianisms at http://scribblesonlife.wordpress.com/

(partly because i feel i need a fresh slate, and partly due to increasingly buggy and stale blogger interface :( ...)

The new blog will be more about short stories and little, random pieces of writing, little fragments of life that make me stop, and wonder at life, and all its little moments that make it what it is...

In the meantime, thanks for your continuing support of an increasingly un-updated blog site. The new one will be better - i hope ;)

the Princes.

Having read both Machiavelli's and Antoine de Saint-Exupery's Princes, I think i much prefer the littler, piccolo prince. Ah life - is what you choose to make of it, after all. And its pretty darn short, too (to waste on Machiavellian machinations - in search of... what?)

My new life

is a very working class neighbourhood of flats and flats rising up in seeming claustrophobic despair after being evicted from my hall of residence on campus. It looks pretty grim. But the rent's cheap, and i have a year to stay, until i finish my final year.

But appearances are always deceiving. There's always something more to it, and in any case, there's always plenty to learn. In this sense its like travelling again, and opening myself up to something new, learning and growing. （三人行必有我师）

As of now, i'm done with my work, and have "earned" myself a two month plus break (the carefree life of an undergrad - the last year! at (melancholic) times it feels like i have only one year left to truly live). The mission this time is Kosovo - the highlight of the trip, starting in Dubai (stopover), to Istanbul - Sirkeci Station (back again!), for the train ride into Sofia, and then all the way up to Budapest, Hungary. Taking in Bulgaria, Macedonia, Albania, Kosovo, Montenegro, Bosnia & Hercegovina, Slovenia, Croatia...

This is certainly going to bump up my number-of-countries-visited-count ;)

Graffiti vs. politicians

Can't we see beyond our petty tribal differences and live together in peace? For surely there are more things that bind us together than tear us apart - the desire for peace, for love, and the strength and grace of the human spirit to do good. Surely this is more important than speaking a different language or having a different skin colour or even praying to a different God - which God does not teach the message of good, anyway?

Rockets and gunfire - we all bleed the same blood, shed the same tears, feel with the same human heart.

War good for nothing - why cant our leaders see that?

道冲。

True simplicity -
flowing harmony;
no attachment.

Like piling fresh fruits into a bottomless basket - You enjoy it, cherish it when it is, let go when it is not.

In harmony with yourself and your world,  you create meaningful transactions with the world.

And each of us may come to enjoy different fruits more and see many different fruits - some bitter, some sweet, some funny-tasting, but all part of this life, being unique in our own individual interactions and harmonies with ourselves and the world.

But all of us have the potential to live our lives to the fullest - to our life's own potential. For a significant life is a meaningful life, and a meaningful life is one lived in contemplation and a compassionate understanding of one's own self, and one's world. Not one based on pretense, and built on illusion, and forced. But one built on harmony (with oneself and others); only then can we truly claim to be making the best of this life - otherwise, your world must be really tiny! ;)

For the only way is to care. It is making the best of this life - making it significant - by living consciously and in harmony, making the best of what we have, finding meaning in man's inevitable good and bad fortune, and our different, unique lives.

The richness of the Tao - truly infinite. True simplicity (of the mind!) is true richness - for when you realise there is nothing lacking, the whole world belongs to you.

William Blake - "He who kisses Joy as it flies / Lives in eternity's sunrise"

Vande Mataram

India taught me all the important lessons about life - about what it means to be human, about the human condition, human diversity, about the strength and grace of the human spirit. Truly, as the message of Khalil Gibran's Prophet goes, we are all much more than we think we are.

To me, India is the greatest nation on earth - for its sheer human-ness, and its humanity. India taught me what it was like to truly live, and open your eyes, your mind, and your heart to others, and the world. Granted, it is not perfect, but i really think i have learnt much more about being truly human in India than anywhere else in the world - a surreal stroll down the Ganges in Varanasi thinking about life, and death, exploring the back lanes and Vasantha Bhavan menus of Chennai, verdant paddy fields, glittering pools of water and Dravidian temples set amongst them like gemstones in the Indian sun in southern Tamil Nadu, the Gandhi museum in New Delhi and a stroll down Chandni Chowk, tranquil Golden Temple in Amritsar, Punjab...

A trip for the soul.