Guitar, Buddhism, Wilde and Cancer

 

DP19

As you may have guessed from the title, a lot has been going on the past two days in my life. Firstly, I completed my 50th book of the year (yes, I know I said I’d stop reading until the end semesters but I couldn’t resist), The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde. It is undoubtedly one of the best works of fiction I’ve ever read and probably will ever read. This is the book since The Da Vinci Code that I was simply unable to put down. The story of a man who sells his soul for eternal youth. There is a romanticism simply in the one line description of the book. One of the main characters of the book, Lord Henry, is, to put it in layman’s terms, the villain of the book. Yet each line attributed to him is an absolute delight to read. He speaks the truth and his words pierce you like a dagger. I’ve never fell as much in love with any fictional character than I did with this spoiled connoisseur.

I had read up a little about Buddhist philosophy and the concept of Nirvana was particularly interesting so much so that I picked up the Dhammapada, a collection of sayings by the great Buddha. The book was small but its wisdom far transcended its size. Some of the Buddhist ideals are really worth applying to in our lives. I felt a sort of liberation simply by reading the book. Although I do not think I will be able to apply the principles of asceticism and stoicism that the Buddha so staunchly propagates, I do find myself wiser knowing about it. According to Buddha, Nirvana can be attained only when one is free of desires. When one is stoic to the face of pleasures, he/she becomes indifferent to grief. It is indifference to these multitude of emotions that can give you freedom from the continuous, hapless cycle of rebirth. I, however, feel differently. I believe that we ought to embrace these emotions to the fullest. We need to allow grief to sear holes into our hearts and in turn let joy fill in those holes. Emotion is paramount to human existence. It’s what makes us alive. It is the mother of all art. It is what survives in the sands of time.

The second book I’m reading on Buddhism is a certain Siddhartha by Hermann Heese. I’m almost halfway through the book and so far, it has turned out to be a pretty interesting read. Although I do not identify myself with all the principles of Buddhism, I do intend on visiting a monastery soon. If there is one word that could sum up this entire religion, it would be peace.

Today, I finally summed up the will to resume playing the guitar again. I went through the first two weeks worth of course material of Berklee’s Intrduction to Guitar. It felt really good to play the instrument after such a long time again.

Last, but not least, I ended up writing my term paper for Engineering Electromagnetics course. It was on the possibility of a correlation between cancer and increased exposure to electromagnetic radiation. Honestly speaking, I learnt more researching about this topic than all the classes I have attended combined. It would be really cool if profs assigned a considerable portion of the course grade to term papers. That would do wonders to my GPA and would actually imbibe some knowledge of the department I’ve come to hate so passionately.

(And in case you’re interested, you can find the paper here)

Hiatus

 

As of today, I have read over 48 books this year and over 35 books since the beginning of March (see The Kindle Effect). The latest book, Tuesdays with Morrie, was of the motivational and spiritual genre and an extremely light read. The book prompted me to add a few more similar books to my To Read list.

End Semesters are approaching and naturally, I will not be able to read as much as I have been doing for the past couple of months. So, I’ve decided to take in a sabbatical for the rest of April, until the examinations end. I’ve read a lot of stuff from an extremely diverse set of fields and I felt that it was time I took a break and reflected on the stuff I’ve learnt rather than absorb new material in the coming days of stress.

Therefore, to occupy my free time, I have decided to turn to the arts, namely music and language. I will be resuming learning French from Duolingo. It has been over 6 months since I practiced French. I’ve been out of touch for too long and I have a feeling I’ll have to start with the basics all over again. Not that I mind. I thoroughly enjoyed it the first time.

And as far as music is concerned, again, it will be resuming an activity I had forsaken some time back: learning the guitar. I’ve borrowed an acoustic of a friend of mine which is vastly superior to the Zinxing Guitar I have and considerably more merciful to my fingers. I plan on going through two beginner courses in order to get acquainted with the instrument: Berklee’s Introduction to Guitar and the Beginner’s Course on Justin Guitar.

It has always been a dream to speak French fluently and sing whilst playing the guitar. Hopefully, I’ll be able to do both with acceptable efficiency in a couple of months or so.