I don't have a word for this feeling. But I am sure there exists a word in the english lexicon for it..perhaps the word is a relative of 'curiosity'. For so many months now, intermittently though, I have been reveling under the heady feeling of the simple ginormous playing field that spreads for miles ahead of me.. and like a mind game I gotta collect all the goodies (read knowledge) as I travel through the field... Its the sweet thirst for this knowledge.. there's just so much so learn and there's just so much I want to get to the bottom of. And all this makes me dizzy and drunk.
I read Jurisprudence and I lose track of time and place.. There is so much more to know about it and I ache to know it all ... but I know it will take time and one need be patient with such things ... I read literature and I ache to read ALL books by a given author of my like...I wanna read Pablo through and through, to have read works of poetry in Urdu and Hindi as well.. historical more than contemporary. I'd watch some historical movie or a moving documentary, avail myself free subscription of an online documentary and there I go..overwhelmed by the enormity of all that's left for me to learn and loving every bit of it! Sometimes hating the fact that I don't have the time.. loving the fact that I have the hunger for it.. I want to know how the cosmos works - wanting to see all the best that discovery and Nat Geo offers.. then I move over to Africa and I want to know about the native history of each of those nations, I want to know all about tigers and their habits and then I want to be an expert on dogs as well... apart from these silly pursuits I want to have heard the best of music that mankind has ever heard, the best of books, autobiographies of the greats, their failures, their victories.. at times like these world becomes so small a place.. only the epistemic travails of the mind remains.. and I thrive in that .. the abundance of it all and as if all one needs to do is to jump and pluck. AND i have not even mentioned articles, news, views, opinion, studies and book of my field - human rights, cz interest in that goes unsaid.
This quest for knowledge is bewitching as much as it is infinitum.. there's simply too much that tempts me, gets my grey cells cracking and there I go googling, reading, enjoying ... and ALWAYS finding myself standing over a whole new arena of unexplored lands .. which I want to tread.. the thought is so gratifying..but I never am able to satiate the thirst..
And then there is news..my first beau.. needless to say (to myself) iin Dec and Jan, I was very much away from it. Am again catching hold of the broken strands..will take some time.. but I needed to break-away too. :)
Its not as if the love for subjects like history, philosophy, politics, anthropology struck me just now.. nor do I expect or intend to gain academic expertise in all of these..i just wanna 'know' a bit about all these - just to enjoy- plain and simple..and therein I realise that social sciences is the home of my mind. I am not 'come one come all' about these topics, am very much selective in what interests me .. but of late the subgroup called 'my choicest narrowed-down field of interest' has been burgeoning and flourishing..almost resembling a parallel eco-system of its own.
And there are the non-academic, non-intellectual pursuits I wanna follow.. I wanna travel a lot, i have realised that travel keeps me going (not just topographically).. I want to shop for stuff for my room and for that I wanna explore unconventional places.. there's an entire arena of fashion (the girl in me awakens) that now interests me.. i wanna check that out too.. but of course, these little pursuits are secondary to me in the mind for now..oh yea, I wanna learn to cook. (not happening).
So back to Juris and back to rights and liberty and equality debate.
Be careful! Curiosity killed the cat, they say. :) Just kidding.
ReplyDeleteHowever, why isn't the title of this post: The Hot Pursuit of Knowledge? Or, is it that the pursuit of knowledge and happiness are one and the same?
if only you knew how "to cook"...!
ReplyDeleteyou nailed it..happyness is what we all aspire.. and knowledge also leads to it
ReplyDeleteas for "to cook" - am i supposed to read into some hidden remark here?
lol.
ReplyDeletelet me just say, if you could "cook", you would have all the knowledge you wanted. :)
As to happiness and knowledge, have you heard of Faust?
I will try to keep to one citation a post... :)
ReplyDeletevery much heard of Faustus..you are forgetting he entered into a deal..he gave up something more valuable than what he sought..while i intend to do nothing of the sort..the title should I have told you what I'd rather pursue. Nonetheless, certainly a good observation.
ReplyDeleteheh... sir, i 'know' enough about cooking.. i was talking of 'higher' culinary skills..and if there was any pun intended it clearly missed its mark!
let me tell you another story, then. :)
ReplyDeleteOedipus - you must have heard of him - he was the king of Thebes, made that after he got it rid of Sphinx, a monster. He answered its riddle, thus forcing it to kill itself. Quite a clever figure, then. Anyway, the story goes on that he tried to find out who killed its former king, despite the protestation of the seer Tiresias. He wouldn't listen, must "know" - he was clever after all. But, as everybody knows, the former king was his own father and he had killed him, and had married his own mother thereafter. The "knowledge" drove him mad so that he gouged his own eyes - quite symbolic, wouldn't you say, since it's with eyes that we "see" (know).
Another very pertinent story here is a poem by Schiller: The Image of Sais.
Also, you may have heard about "the wisdom of Silenus". But let me not wear you out. :)
Yes, the pun was quite lost. But no sweat, we are just beginning to know each other. Everything in good time. :)
ReplyDeletenice tale.. don't worry, what I seek to know won't drive me mad and I very much love my eyes. I was just talking of social sciences, musics, books and the like.. the expanding base of my interests and the happiness it brings me. And trust me - Faustus, Oedipus, Schiller and others don't mind it. :)
ReplyDeleteYea, I am beginning to 'know' you. Your being 'anonymous' helps. :P
Of course not... but then, even I am feeling the waters here. :)
ReplyDelete...i am shy of my footprints perhaps, as i have rather large and ugly feet. ;)
There are seekers and seekers, I suppose. I have known only one kind till now, one who can be encapsulated in the phrase: Aut omnia aut nihil (all or nothing). So you would pardon my assumptions... on the other hand, i am quite eager to know others. :)
ReplyDeleteWhen are we going to have the next post?
ReplyDeleteTonight I guess, it's brewing..
ReplyDeleteWhy? Are you waiting for it? :P Just kidding.
Of course, I am. What a question?!
ReplyDelete