Adios Facebook

Living in Mysore, away from my friends, facebook  helped me connect with many set of friends, lost friends from my school days, SJCE friends, fellow volunteers from Divyadeepa, family diaspora separated by the  oceans, former colleagues, other interesting people and numerous acquaintances such as  Free Software Movement folks, Homeschooling group and so one.

I would indeed miss networking with 350 odd people. But I would also gladly miss the expectations and the feeling of envy, jealousy, complexes, and so on through numerous feeds that spam your wall.

Someone "likes" someone's photo and I feel bad. I add a post and expect others to "like" it or comment on it. And keep checking for status updates every now and then. Its your birthday and you expect your dear ones and some "special" ones to wish you. If they don't, you feel low.

Inner noise is such a bad thing. It keeps talking to itself and you lose control over it. The source of this noise is the virtual world. We see numerous objects and get attracted by it. We crave to have it, thus living in the future. If we don't get it, we lose sleep over it, thus being in the past. In between this swing between the past and the future, we forget the now.  To live in the state of now, I have decided to quit facebook.

Yes, I do agree that like anything else, FB is only a tool, and it depends on how we use it. There are perhaps many of you who are able to truly use it as just a tool. You might call it my weakness, but so what? I am not shy of admitting it. Perhaps, perhaps, when I learn to control my mind, I might connect again.But for now, I want to be with myself, and lead myself into the reclusive realm of the void.



ದೇವದಾನವರ ರಣರಂಗ ಮಾನವಹೃದಯ ।
ಭಾವ ರಾಗ ಹಠಂಗಳವರ ಸೇನೆಗಳು ॥
ಭೂವಿಭವಜಯಗಳ ಭ್ರಾಂತಿಯಲಿ ಮರೆಯುವರು ।
ಜೀವಾಮೃತವನವರು – ಮಂಕುತಿಮ್ಮ ॥ ೧೯೨ ॥

The human heart is a battle front of gods and demons.
The fighting force is feeling, emotions and stupidity.
In the delusion to conquer wealth and the world,
Forgotten is the life's ambrosia - Manku Thimma