Conversations

I am sure all of us have been in situations when we meet old friends or cousins, have some beers, stay awake overnight and the conversations go into early mornings.This keeps happening every time you visit them or they visit you.

I have observed similar phenomenon on our work lunch tables too. Unless some one actually gets up and breaks the conversation cycle, lunch conversations can spiral into long ones...I think at some level we all want to converse.

Conversations are a mishmash of dialogues. It is sharing of information and opinion. We all have opinions and we all want to let them be known. When differing opinions don't tread common path, conversations can convert into arguments.

IMO, as we grow older our opinions harden. Our opinions crystallize into convictions, so much so that sub-consciously we filter out opposing view points and make efforts to shield from them.It's almost as if a sponge converting into a concrete.

When we are younger we are more impressionable and like a sponge we keep soaking in different views and view points. Then a point comes where we identify ourselves with a set of views and build our convictions on those views; holding on to those convictions dearly for good part of our lives.

Why this semi-philosophical BS today?

Coz this is my 200th post and I think blog is a form of conversation (with myself most of the times)

I like blogging. It's a non-destructive engagement. It's non-expensive and democratic in nature. And it can be enjoyable too. The day I do not enjoy it, I will stop it. As simple as that.

I like to think of it as a recording device. I am really really interested in knowing the trajectory of my own life when I look back. This online diary is what's going to help me see that at one point.

So anyways, last week I got an interesting coffee table book. The New York Times 100 years Page One - It is a collection of 100 years of Page 1 news. What an awesome concept, I thought. I can go and see what the headlines was on the day Neil Armstrong actually gave credence to the term 'rocket science' and landed on the moon. Or the day Henry Truman ordered the single biggest ugly moment in world's history- Hiroshima /Nagasaki Bombings. Or something not as gory as that....

I paid 50$ for that book. Hopefully for this blog I wont have to pay a penny when I want to refer, lets say, 20 years from now, what I was up to in the year 2008 when recession struck USA and the world. Or re-live the moment of India winning 2008 T20 world cup. Or just screen through some of my more opinionated posts and figure if my views reshaped at all in those 20 years or that I was just another concrete.