An amateur philosophy

With ‘Te Amo’ from Dum Maaro Dum playing slowly in the background in my small room, I was reading Khushwant Singh. I haven’t read him too often earlier. Only at times, very erratic. My reading today was also in bits and pieces. The music that’s playing in the background is one of my ‘5-starred’ i-tunes. And so I was often closing my eyes and singing the song as it played along... it feels nice... makes you so light... Sunidhi Chauhan has such such a mesmerizing voice...

Khushwant Singh is a really good writer... Even though I am concentrating more on the music than the book, I am getting engaged to the book... I sometimes wonder how these authors get this power from... Is it god-gifted? Or can it be acquired? Was Steve Jobs god-gifted? Or did he learn all this and then ate the apple? Did Sunidhi Chauhan get this voice by birth? Or was it learning and practice? Did god gift it to her? For free, is it? Huh! Don’t even make me get into the god thing! I reserve it for some other day of deep diving!

Khushwant Singh just made me read a few lines over and over again! Once, twice, thrice and again! It is just a small expression! Just one poetic expression out of the thousands that I will probably come across in this book! And these are the expressions that make me appreciate the authors! How truly someone said that the pen is mightier than the sword... Their prowess in telling an entire tale in a word or two makes me feel so jealous! It separates the good from the average... It separates me from him... He just said ‘... an amateur philosopher of ... love’. In short, if I remove the dots ‘An amateur philosopher of Love’. What’s so great in this? It describes every under-25 romantic on earth, that’s it!

Now that I am more than 25 years of age, please allow me to relax the age limit till 30. So, it describes every under-30 romantic on earth, including yours truly.

There are 3 talents that I really appreciate in people – the ability to sing (Sunidhi type), the ability of write (Khushwant type) and the ability to create (Steve Jobs type). I was staring at a huge, tall building in Mumbai the other day. It was almost 3 in the night. I and my friend were discussing life on the top-floor, our amateur philosophy of love, relations and lust (now do you realize how aptly Mr. Khushwant Singh summarized our discussion of 5 hours?). And while talking, we were looking at that tall building. It is under construction, almost ready to kiss the sky. But we weren’t amazed by its size. What struck us was the vastness of the engineering behind it. A CEO or a manager can give instructions to make it... make business plans for profitability etc... But there is the engineer who made it. The guy who designed it. The person who precisely made the calculations so that the 70 floor building does not fall down! What a huge task! What a fucking brilliant mind! Creator of the best kind!

We wondered and wandered around the tall building... and then looked back again at our 'amateur philosophy of love'. It’s so true, isn’t it? Romanticism makes us live in illusions. And hence the romantic philosophy is always blurred... grey... immature... ‘amateur’ in Mr. Singh’s words... it often falters... but then comes back stronger... makes you learn the bitterness of love... the thorns with the rose... it continues till you become a pro... and then there isn’t ‘love’ anymore... there’s life... U cannot call it ‘A mature philosophy of love’. U can rather call it ‘A mature philosophy of life’. Love must remain amateur. Unexplored. Uncharted territory. An unknown taste. The kind that only be discussed over the pegs of Black Dog on the top-floor of a friend’s place. The kind that is mixed with hate. The kind that is always wrong!

That’s right! The amateur philosophy is always wrong! That's why it’s amateur. But that’s the fun. Philosophers don’t bother logic, do they?

I am sure that everyone has been an amateur philosopher of love, sometime or the other... or at least every true-blue bong has been so... early or late... I am no exception... The late nights on what love is, what exactly is a relation, what is womanhood, the pain and the gain, the differences with lust, the romantic poems, the references to Tagore et al, the good-old times, the new girl around the block, the cutie that appeared only once in canteen, the hottie who dances to English numbers... How could Mr. Singh describe all of us with such precision? ‘... amateur philosopher of love...’... amazing!!!

My track has changed... its playing ‘Pherari Mon’ from Antaheen... I am back to music!