Pessimism- A new form of optimism????

I will try to ignore the blatant fact that i am writing a post more than six months after posting a post. Today, while I sit in a comfortable couch writing this blog, I cant help but think of a state of mind which almost everyone looks down upon, Pessimism .

                                    I have seen many people and friends closely associated with me who keep thinking too negatively and that whose thoughts are never oriented towards a positive outcome. So, when someone is planning a long road trip, instead of asking what are the beautiful landscapes that we will encounter, they will ask questions like "Hey, what if the car breaks down?" or "What if there is no fuel station for miles and we are stuck with no help?"

                   When one of us encounters such a person, we immediately call him a pessimist and say that he can never see the bright side of anything. One close observation however makes something interesting pop out. The person who we just branded a pessimist, is actually thinking on practical lines isn't he? He is taking into account all the worst case scenarios that could happen and is being prepared for them. Once he knows what he is dealing with, he will actually enjoy the trip better knowing that he has taken care of all the safety issues and hence will have no worries in the road trip.


    This brings us into another interesting statement that many of us have heard. "What is the worst that can happen?" Now rings a bell. If a person is looking at the worst thing that can happen, given a situation, he is bound to be a pessimist right? But no! We can now start thinking.... Have we said the same thing in our lives at various occasions? (and we somehow generally tend to consider ourselves as people saying that the glass is half full don't we?)


I will try not to be too vague and unclear at this point. Let me illustrate an example. In high school, a boy has a crush on a girl, but does not have the guts to ask her out. All his school life, he dreams about that girl, but cannot take a step towards her, or speak to her properly. What do his friends tell him? "Dude, ask her out! Whats the worst thing that can happen? She will say no right? That will happen anyway if you don't ask her out at all. So, its better you at least try!"

So what is happening here? The boy's friends are making him realize what the worst situation possible is. Is that pessimism? Of course not! By knowing what the worst situation is, the boy is better prepared to handle anything that comes in his way. So, the friends are making him more optimistic of the situation by making him realize the worst things that can happen to him. 


This is true generally in many situations that occur in our day-to-day life. Many times we will find people looking at a situation in front of them and trying to think the worst thing that can happen to them in that situation. Knowing that, they are mentally prepared to face anything that comes in his way because anything after that is going to be better than what they have already anticipated. This makes them believe they can do it! ( Optimism??)

So, I guess what I am saying is that there is some optimist hidden in every pessimistic statement made by every individual. They are just trying to make themselves mentally stronger by saying aloud the negative things that they can think of, and secretly knowing that the outcome is always going to be better than what they have said. Therefore, next time if you meet a friend (whom you know to be really optimistic otherwise) and ask him about his ongoing studies, don't be surprised if you hear a reply " Mat puch yaar.......Kuch nahi hua...Aisa hi chalta raha to fail ho jaunga!"

Genesis

Where does it come from? This quest... this need to solve life's mysteries for the simplest of questions can never be answered...... Why are we here?
What is the soul? Why do we dream???
Perhaps we would be better off not looking at all. Not delving, not yearning. That's not human nature, not the human heart..... That is not why we are here.....

How I wish these words were my original creation....For they perfectly say what I have in my mind...... These phrases, taken from the narration of a famous TV series 'Heroes' ask questions about the man, his existence, his actions etc.......

Ans so, I write, almost 1 month after putting in my first entry. This may seem rather irregular. Why so much of a gap between the 1st and the 2nd post?
Was I too busy? Was there nothing much in going on that I did not feel like writing? Was it that I found blogging very boring and decided to stop just after the 1st post?

Well, the answer to the question is none of the above. It was pure laziness that delayed this second post by such a large amount. Infact, I had thought of the title of this blog (Genesis) a long time ago. It was just the laziness that cause such a delay.


Genesis means creation. It marks the beginning of any process, and this blog marks the beginning of my entry into the blogging world. (The introductory blog does not count!)

This blog marks the beginning of a series of posts to follow. The posts that follow this one, will be based on my thoughts on the various things that I experience around me. They are my way to make an attempt at answering the questions that I asked in the beginning of this blog. They are a way of opening out my views about the world. They are the world as seen from my shoes (or my eyes in a literal sense!) There will be so much to share....so much to think about.....


 Have we just merged ourselves in the endless world of tremendous competition, distrust and infidelity? Are we just blindly following a rat race? Now knowing where the end is.....Not even bothering to stop and ask one another...."Why are we racing in the first place?"

We are a bunch of funny people.....Living in a world which is becoming funnier day by day....And the quest to find the meaning to life has become even more important now.... It is just that we are so busy running.....That we have no time to stop and look at the world....We are so busy trying to reach the moon, that we have don't even notice the beautiful flowers growing in front of us.....
The famous worlds of William Henry Davies immediately strike the mind....


What is this life if full of care.....
We don't have time to stand and stare......

And so, with this, I conclude once again, by quoting the following lines....

This quest... this need to solve life's mysteries..... In the end what does it matter when the human heart can only find meaning in the smallest of moments? These meaningful moments are here... among us... in the shadows, in the light, everywhere. Do they even know yet? Or more importantly, do WE even know yet?

First Blog

Its was shame that despite being an active individual in the growing scope of the internet, I had not yet explored the concept of "blogging"! However, as they say, better late than never, I am trying to enter this area where I would be able to share my thoughts to the entire world....So now, I have made this New Year resolution (which I hope will not go as unresolved as the others!) to start my own blog and open my ideas to the world....I hope to start by using this as a place where I just write and nobody comments...So, for some time, I wont be sharing this url with anyone. Once I get a grasp of what it is like to blog properly, I would like the entire world (especially my friends and acquaintances) to read what I have to say about various things in this amazing world!....
So, I guess this is it....this is my first post which proves to be as vague as our concepts about antimatter....So, will leave it at this point.....

Will write more soon!!!!!

Ishan