Second life

A friend of mine long back told me about this game called second life - the virtual world. Read about it on wikipedia and since the idea was enticing enough I decided to have a go at it and downloaded the software. Had enough free time in those days.

The software loaded I made a new identity for myself and logged into the deeper make believe world. Putzed around for a while, chatted with a few people who were going through the training rounds as well and then in the end, once I logged out I uninstalled the software forever from my computer. One real life is hard enough to manage, I didn't want to start another even virtually.

But this thought has been nagging me for a while. Especially what with the reports of people actually making real money in the virtual world and second life having banks and exchange systems etc. - what drives people to start another life, what blurs the line between what's 'real' and what's 'unreal'? How can we get so caught up in the world of make believe? And how is it that we try to turn a virtual life to represent a close to real life - something we were running from in the first place!

For example take many of those who closely follow soap operas or tv series and actually end up so involved in the lives of the characters that they forget that those characters are actually fiction. It takes the place of real flesh and blood people for them. Or the second life example, where it has actually developed on to be so close to the real world with the same kind of tensions and problems - so much so that now there is probably going to be a SEC like regulatory authority to control the monetary operations. So, how is it thatg those who invested themselves in this world of make believe, probably to escape from their real lives, actually let their sanctuary turn close to represent what they were running from? And if it is so like the world we live in, then do we really need a virtual existence? Have distances grown so much that we would actually prefer to live inside our own minds and interact through computer wires than head out and see the sun and smell the flowers?

Real life sucks big time, but it has it's rewards too. One thin is for sure, one life is more than enough for me, am not heading out to get a second life any time soon. No sir!

Ashes & Dust

When a person dies, there are ashes to remind you that they once existed. What remains when a relationship dies? How is it that you are just supposed to pick up the pieces and move on as if nothing was ever there. As if, just by saying the words we have banished it's very existence...and it will disappear forever. Did it ever exist then? Why is there no tangible evidence of it's presence...Why is there no blood, no gory remnants? Tell me I didn't imagine it, tell me I wasn't just one of many, soon forgotten, not even left with a dusty old photograph to hold near your heart on cold winters evening and reminisce of when we were young and stupid? No not stupid, if only we were...it would never have ended. Sometimes being wise is the worst thing.

Music: Fare thee well Love - The Rankin Family

I will love you forever you say
but some day soon
you will forget my name
just a distant memory
that lingers by the day
can't say I wasn't told
the rules of the game

to have loved and then lost
I wonder why it hurts
I once thought that the memories
would carry me through
but day after day
it just gets worse
I wonder when it will be
that I won't ache for you

I will love you forever I say
but some day I hope
I will forget your name
For I know what it is I need
to move on with my life
to find someone else
to rekindle that flame

Update

The update to the soldier who lost 2 kids in a car crash while they were on their way to see him in the hospital...his third child died yesterday.

http://www.ksat.com/news/14511279/detail.html

I don't know if one person should deserve all that, again I wonder, if we call God our father and nature our mother...how can a parent be so cruel?

Who would you blame?

So the first thing I saw in the papers* while sipping my coffee at work was... GAP, New Delhi and child labor. Reading through the news article, I was struck by how no one got any comments from the government on the whole issue. And am sure the government probably is not bothered by it anyways.

Businesses have always been pro their own profit, which is how they get money and investors. Of late there have been noises about the social responsibilities of the businesses. But the true fact is that it is upto the law and the society to uphold that fragment of social responsibility and make sure that the businesses follow it. In the case of our country, sadly, the government is the one needing the most of governance and maybe some soul.

After the whole tehelka ka tehelka, I guess everyone knows that the politicians in our country don't really give a damn. Those who talk with such nonchalance about children being butchered probably arent bothered by them being made to work in inhuman conditions. Unless of course the issue becomes big enough to threaten their position at the top. Then we might see some movement but only in the letter of the law, not the spirit.

I can't really blame GAP either, or any other such company. If the government of the country does not give a damn, why should the company do so, when for it these kids are just faceless employees, mere machines to do their bidding. No, I think most of the blame should fall with the people of our nation. For am pretty sure that even after reading this story (or maybe watching it every 2 minutes on aaj tak) people will still buy GAP with pride, only wincing at the big bucks they pay for that merchandise. No one will give a second thought to the ruined childhood and broken dreams of so many innocents. Maybe that's what they talk about in economics. Too much of a resource makes us blind to it value. And that is what's been the problem with the Indian society. There are just too many of us that there is no value of a life or the sweetness it brings. I never could fathom how one could love their own child so much while being totally blind to the existence and misery of another's. The sad part is, I know that if I were to go back in that environment, in a few years I might just turn into those very people am talking about right now.

*I wrote this a few days back but didn't realize that I sent it to draft instead of post!