Love Letter to Miss Karl Marx

22 July 2021 — 14.47 hours — Thursday — Nainital — Mischievous clouds are pissing ever so slightly — the million-million-year tree is my umbrella. Tea has little milk, no sugar — fried eggs have little oil, no salt.

Hey, Miss Marx

At the Academy, most kids don’t mind me, but most adult humans don’t like me. The deal is, I don’t like most people — because I’m rude to almost everyone or fail to recognize them when I see them — they, as a consequence, dislike me. And I swear to satan, bad reputation is real easy maintenance.

P.S. “The trouble with us humans is — we all love to hear the truth, but the moment we hear it, we instantly realize, we aren’t ready for it. Because truth is a lot like death — they —truth-&-death— aren’t nice, they’re just fair.”

As I was about to leave for Bombay on July 4^th 2019, I was adamant to get someone to teach Meher — someone who wouldn’t walk out on her within 2-3 weeks. We screened a bunch of volunteers. I didn’t like any of them. I knew they will disappear within 2 weeks. As I had almost lost hope, you showed up. And my instinct told me you’re gonna ‘stick’, not ‘bolt’ within a week. When I spoke with you, you showed remarkable poise, uncanny intelligence & rare conviction for a teenager.

I know, eventually, you dropped off too. I don’t fault you for that as we, humans, are deeply flawed. Life isn’t about not making mistakes, it’s about knowing when we fuck up or fall short. 

“Introspection is the mother of human evolution & every worthy revolution.”

I’m not a text or call person. But I always knew I gotta speak with you again. And when we finally spoke in mid-2021, I realized you were the same human, I had spoken with in mid-2019 — surely grown further in the forward direction. 

When I met you & you said your birthday was in January, I knew it’ll be 11^th. That’s my life. I don’t believe in anything supernatural/astrology/god or any of that magical hogwash. But my life with numbers has been no less than ridiculously miraculous. And it was wicked that I met you & her   —the person I love— with the same birth date in June 2019. Bloody numbers — from falling in love with two humans born on 2nd October & 11th September to my dad being born on 26^th January [Republic Day & Australia Day] to all three of my best friends’ DOB’s all 3 parts —date/month/year— divisible by 3 just like my DOB’s all three parts. My mom’s DOB — 22/11/55 — a sequence [divisible by 11] that appears once every 11 years — & numerous odd number coincidences that my life is drenched with. 

Anyway, that’s that on the numbers. But these coincidences were too wicked not to write about.

I don’t know what will happen to you in the coming years. Most likely, you will lose the ‘edge’ you’ve now — life does that to us all. The only way to fight against becoming run-of-the-mill human with a cookie-cutter job devoid of any true ambition barring progressing in monetary status & class, is by acknowledging that as we grow older — comfort, kids, marriage, tradition will gradually strip away all our originality.

Once we acknowledge the reality of life, we become much more prepared to tackle class & money’s lure/magnetic pull. 

I don’t even know if whatever I’m writing makes any darn sense to you. Either way, I’m compelled to write it. Everyone has a purpose. Ever since I can recall, my purpose is to write — sprinkle my soul on paper.

And the purpose of writing this letter is really simple. 

I see Hope in you. And that’s rare. But let’s not bullshit ourselves that Hope is anything real. Almost always it’s a misleading mirage.

Most likely you will fail at bringing any real positive & lasting change that you set out to bring in your lifetime. That’s perfectly alright — even a bloody legend like MK Gandhi failed. I’ve written three intense novels & nobody gives a flying fuck.

I’m never scared of failure. If anything I love failure. Failure is like a wife to me. She meets me every night

“Success, by nature, makes us comfortable & boring. Failure is what makes us keep exploring.”

At the end of the day/life, what matters is that we give our best shot. And when we’ve done that, we’ve done alright. Even if we change one penguin, one tree, one person’s —who isn’t our loved one & someone who can give us nothing— life, we can sleep peacefully in our grave forever — otherwise we will keep rolling endlessly. 

If you ask me, I frankly have no doubt that you’ll be alright. You will stick to your guns & not give up until you’ve driven real change. 

I also know that you’re ridiculously young & ridiculously delusional about how the real world works. I hope your idealism meets real world half-way. You’re as idealistic as I was at your age. Life taught me to shove my idealism up my ass. 

Always remember — never dismiss something, someone or an idea because it differs from you. Always listen carefully & always remember that you can be wrong, misguided or slightly off or totally stupid.

Understand what is truly implementable & what’s pure fantasy — Socialism vs. Capitalism — don’t dismiss one over the other. And never dismiss the facts. If you dismiss the facts then you’re just a well-spoken, good-hearted dum-dum. A good-hearted dum-dum has never changed the world for the better.

I’ve learned over the last 20 years that pure idealism doesn’t work — ever. We’ve to be open to meet mid-way with reality or at least concede certain ground. Even if you’re the PM of India or President of the US, you still can’t get everything you want. That’s the reality check we all need in our lives. We should never forget that we don’t matter. We’re just talking flesh & blood. And there are billions of us. We’re not special.  

As English comedian, Stephen Fry said “The greatest human failing is that we love to be right, rather than be effective.” That’s why I tell everyone to always listen & write the fuck down whatever a gay, English comedian says :)

Alright, now that I’ve reached the end of this first letter I ever wrote to you, I gotta say something that’s honest — even if it may sound nice. Honesty is rarely ever nice, but it happens once in trillion years. This is one of those moments.

“You’re the kind of people this world needs — perhaps doesn’t deserve — but sure needs like hell”

Stay Amazing, Stay Alive — Never Stop Evolving. Never Stop Doubting Yourself & those whom everyone holds in high regard.

Take care, Marx

Stay Awesome, Stay Awful