Every so often, most writers are confronted with the question of what is their unifying theme or the one thread of thought that can categorize them into this school or that. In simple words, what do they write, why do they write and also who do they write about.
I have not been confronted with this puzzle until now but I decided to give it a thought. For long I have always considered myself as not belonging to any particular school of thought. For I have always been repulsed by the thought of unconditional conformity and that is precisely what any so-called school of thought bears down upon its followers, either implicitly or explicitly.
I do not claim to be widely read for there is still so much I wish I would have read by now. However, of those that I have read, I have been fascinated by a few people who also typically did not care to belong to a particular school of thought. The few examples that I can give here are Giambattista Vico, Friedrich Nietzsche, Karl Marx, Isaiah Berlin and most recently Steven Levitt. I would like to explain about each of their respective uniqueness in a different essay for it would deserve a lengthy treatment.
But I have often wondered that in wanting not to be part of any so-called school of thought, have I unwillingly let myself to be a part of a group of people who down the ages of history have also had the same concerns as me? Before I can begin to think of an explanation another question arises in my mind. Does it really matter whether I belong to a school of thought or not? If I am perceived to belong so be it. I do not conform to any unconditional obeisance anyway. So how should it affect my writing? In that case the question that is pertinent is what do I write and why do I write. That is the Real Deal.
But again it's such a big question to answer - what and why! But I think generally I can paint a broad picture of what it is that I wish to achieve by my writing. So let me give you the real deal then.
There are times in life when one is tempted to let go because the questions seem insurmountable, when the challenge appears too big, when all the wisdom obtained from living does not make sense and everything goes horribly wrong. At such times, it is difficult to retain composure and think rationally as if the stakes did not depend upon the anticipated actions, and yet that is exactly the path that will lead to the most logical and favourable outcomes.
There are other times in life when things go too well; everything seems fine; success appears to embrace your legs tightly every step of the way; when the world seems to conspire to make your wish as its command. At such times too it is difficult to keep your head on your shoulders; it is a struggle to keep your feet firmly planted on the ground and attempt normalcy. Yet the attempt to normalcy is the very effort that will prevent the dissolving into one's own pride.
Life is not always about success or difficulty either; there are times when the effort required to handle a situation is way too disproportionate to the stakes involved - either too high or too low or anywhere in between. The choice of prioritisation is called for and yet there is no magic balance that will put optimal weightage according to the gravity of the elements in consideration.
And there are these microcosmic junctures, phases and moments - like questions of school, college, education, career, job, place of work, investments, family, friends, community involvement, marriage, interactions within each of these parameters - that throw their own multitude of options and reactions before us wherein to do or not to do is not often the question but rather how to and how much to.
FAQ's was a brilliantly innovative management concept. The underlying belief that a large number of people will have the same questions on their minds is a truism. And creating this list of FAQ's with the expected answers has saved a humongous amount of valuable productive time. However the flip side is, we do not have comparable sets of FAQ's for all the times in life that I have just mentioned above and all the other times that are too fragmented to be considered under one single category head and hence have to be called "Others", although they are no less important than any other timeframe in life and sometimes even go on to determine life's directions.
So the tendency is to ask oneself - are there answers to these searching questions ? If yes, are those answers applicable to my life ? If yes, is it possible for me know them when I need them the most ? If yes how do I get those answers ? Are there clearly defined rational-logical paths to these answers that effort will lead me to or is it trial-and-error-to-each-man-his-own-ways ?
My purpose is not an attempt at providing one-size-fits-all solutions for all of life's existential problems; in fact I do not even propose to provide any solution at all. This space is just an expression of the thought processes I have waded through when I was confronted with existential issues and how they have engendered my opinions on the myriad concepts and categories that permeate and circumambulate life.
