half a day in the West Coast

13th of July 2020

The 'shit show', as I was talking about in the last blog, continues with some resistance. Since American Immigration aka ICE, keeping the coldness of the word metaphorically and literally intact, rolled out the rule to command all International Students who are not able to sit in the campus for classes, since all schools are running online classes due to COVID, to depart to their countries of citizenship, some major schools like Stanford filed a case against the authorities citing safety as the base of calling this rule unreasonably dictatorial. I personally agree. So now the International students, who are paying way higher of a fee for their education in America than its citizens, and who are also a promised land for accommodating higher taxes for the government when they get a job here, are supposed to be wandering in the wild until the schools either win or lose. So these brilliant minds lose a good chunk of their faith in what they are pursuing academically and also lose their reasonability and trust on American government. Thank you government! A day back, walking on an overthinking spree, I met JP. He lives in the adjacent society of apartments. So, I asked him ' how do you see this mess of a situation?'. And his perfectly timed reply 'crazy times man, gotta keep the bills paid and happiness alive' did not surprise me at all. He seemed to be a human who understands what the word 'unconditional' entails - Nothing at all. And that's why we concluded our conversation on the realization of the power of unconditional love, one has to worry about nothing and just love everything. Easier said than done, I know. But can we please give it a try now?

The other night Sinha showed up with a bottle of Japanese Whiskey, and his guitar, and eggplant. Sinha always shows up with this deadly triplet of resources. He not only manages to sing and play his own and everyone's heart out, he also cooks to satisfy the only sense left to capture- taste. He kick started the banter by asserting 'be a philosopher once you are rich' philosophy. After an initial tussle of my ideal rant 'money should not matter', and after adding the 'current-living-system-set-up-by-the-society-aka-governments-and-religions' Bias to my idealistic lake of hopelessness, I agreed with Sinha's rant. It is absolutely true for how the society demands capital for any service that has been translated into algorithms that run the process of life, both professional and personal. We are all stuck. With COVID, we are literally stuck, and everyone must be realizing the harsh reality of life without activity that earns the dough. 'I miss socializing a lot' said Sinha. I understand his dilemma as someone who wants to feed humans with food as well as tasty sounds, he must be suffering a lot within during these times. But I am not too stressed, except for not having a job, to sit at home for extended periods of time. Introverted and esoteric feelings help with this. I am more comfortable in my own silence than the noise of other humans. One man's trash is another man's treasure. But I do talk endlessly with certain humans. Sometimes just random strangers. That's what makes this blog. 'Everyone who says they are not, are definitely them, whatever they may be talking about' Sinha exclaimed. I agreed. Dichotomy is a difficult pill to swallow, but it makes total sense as how will one possess Heights of positivity, if they have not felt the depth of negativity. 'So, only the moderate human being wins. The ones who never slipped to either side. The ones who are so closed to nothingness, neither negative nor positive, that existence is happiness for them, without expectations.' We sat sipping the eclectic whiskey that had travelled from Japan, eating stuffed eggplant curry with the aroma created by the spices that flew in from India, playing songs of our heart. What else does one ever need? money, maybe!