A topic to write

The problem with blogging is that one is always writing for others to read rather than whatever jumble of thoughts that tumbles out of one's mind. Those thoughts have to be ordered so that they become readable, edited so that nobody's sensibilities are affected (incidentally, the grammar here is interesting, nobody is almost clearly singular whereas sensibilities are plural, {have you heard of a sensibility?}), and censored so that one's own privacy is maintained.

The sentence above is a clear example of what I mean (and if it is not, then my point only gets underlined further!).

So, what does one write about? Love? Religion? Cynicism? How does one classify one's thoughts into this kind of order?

But lets take a topic to write about. Let me give you, gentle reader, my take on rituals.

In today's age, rituals appear pretty meaningless. In fact in one of my own earlier musings, I had mocked one such ritual. However, one does need to take a look at why such rituals may have come into being.

If we examine ourselves in detail, we would notice the development of certain habits within us. The formalisation of such habits is rituals. On a bigger scale, rituals helped people pass time when there was no radio or tv or internet (or blogging for that matter). So you do a set of things on Diwali (to suggest a common festival). The set of things you do may be different (from taking an oil bath in Tamil Nadu to playing cards in Punjab.

A classic example of rituals is the practice of 'japa' where one repeatedly does something like say 100 hail mary's or vishnu sahasranama etc. The act of such litany is to force focus on the ritual itself. What this does is clear other thoughts out of your mind giving it rest and rejuvenation. In short, Hail Mary is better than Bloody Mary!!!!!