42 questions as I begin 42

All I have are questions for you...

“The wheels of the bus go round and round, round and round, round and round…”

In recent years, having gone through brief periods with my nephew as he went from being a tiny 1-month spud to a wiry five-year-old, I’ve reacquainted myself with this rhyme. And it struck me that few philosophies, let alone songs, capture the Sisyphean march of life as poignantly as this nursery rhyme. 

So, here we are on Earth, aboard the bus with its ceaselessly spinning wheels.

The doors on the bus go open and shut

At some point, we all board this bus, often kicking and screaming. The day you board the bus marks your inexorable merry-go-round and you start tracking your spins around the sun every 365 and something days. The wheels go round and round and you keep racking up your revolutions.  

The wipers on the bus go swish, swish, swish

Bear with me this analogy. Those wipers are friction, the resistance, the obstacles you must clear to keep the windshield of your future from fogging up.

The horn on the bus goes beep, beep, beep

The horn is the existential cry. We didn't ask to join this ride but here we are with this incessant beeping—like some dreadful alarm clock—reminding us that time’s slipping. The wheels are spinning and revolutions are racking up. Our best defense? Noise-cancelling headphones and the endless scroll of TikTok.

The people on the bus go up and down

A profound line on the roller coaster of human emotions. Up and down we all go—joy, despair, envy, boredom—as we watch our fellow passengers chase their tails on life’s treadmill. Or it could just be the mundanity of being an ape on planet Earth, jostling and moving trying not to fall on our faces.

The babies on the bus go, "Wah, wah, wah"

Life has many little annoyances that demand full attention. Next question. 

The mommies on the bus go, "Shh, shh, shh"

The women are left to silence the disruptions, patch up metaphorical (and literal) boo-boos, and forced with the task of generally preventing the bus from turning into a full-time madhouse.

The daddies on the bus go, "I love you"

The men donate big pieces of their brains to the dicks. 

And so the bus goes.

Tell me a better philosopher than Verna Hills. 

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As always I’ve buried the lede…

This month, my bus ride completed another sun-lap and I entered year 42 of my life. I have a good towel and unbridled wanderlust and I am hoping this year gives me the answer to life, the universe, and everything like the guidebook I bought a long time ago promised.

Frankly, I need the answer but I doubt it’s going to be a single one. I don’t have advice, answers, or solutions to be a mentor, life coach, or advisor to anyone. We have everyone on LinkedIn for that. But if your specific kink is questions, I have loads of them.

The spirit of this newsletter has always been to blissfully befuddle you leaving you with more questions than when you started. With that in mind, here are 42 questions that’s been clattering around in my brain.

Some are downright silly. Some are best discussed with some mind-altering substances. Some require just a Google search that I have not gotten to yet. Some are kinda sad and some are just things that came to my mind as I typed. Some may need me to live my entire life before an answer while some may never be answered.

But all of them have been questions I have thought about in some form or other in recent years.

So, onto the questions….

1. What is consciousness? Is it just us feeling alive and moving? Is it the universe admiring its handiwork? Is it only discernable by losing it after a night out of drinking?

2. Why do gloomy, rainy days make me happy?

4. How did a lot of humans become obsessed with white skin? Inherently what’s good or bad about the lack of color? Is it just bad PR for Melanin?

5. Are cats secretly our overlords? If so, what’s their secret plot letting us think we run things?

6. Why does music make me feel emotions? Can music be used as a brain hack to achieve something magical?

7. Do multiverses exist? Is there a version of me somewhere who works in a corporate job and actually enjoys it?

8. What do I do with my time if I don’t do a regular corporate job? Can I do that for the rest of my life?  

9. How much money is enough money? When do I feel safe enough to start ignoring it as a sign of my success? 

10. Will I ever learn to swim fully?

11. How are kids born with individual personalities from the same parents and the same nurturing? Who sneaks in the upgrades to their OS?

11. Does free will exist? Or, are we all generative models with bodies?

12. Why does Kettle Sea Salt & Vinegar taste so good? Why does vada with sambar dip taste so good? How many times have I eaten in Annapoorna and why is it more than 500? 

13. Should I color my hair purple? Or green? Will changing the hairstyle I have lived with for the last 36 years make the universe implode? Or would it just be N?

14. Should I get a tattoo? Will it look weird when I age? What will I even get? 

15. Why do I feel the void when I sit silently for 15 minutes? 

16. Will I publish a book? More than one book? Will I be proud of it? Fiction or nonfiction? Will I ever sneak my own book into a store and place it on a shelf?

17. If I had to pick a place to live the rest of my life where would that be? Will the name of the country start with a T and end with a D? Will I be able to see the sea from my house?

18. Can one eat a croissant in public without looking like an idiot? Can one eat Ramen without getting at least a few drops on the t-shirt? Can one eat biriyani for lunch and not take an afternoon nap?

19. Why is it that I feel good whenever I write? What’s happening in my brain? Can it be bottled as a potion? 

20. Why do I take the same photo of the sunset in the same place a hundredth time? If I saw something and did not take a photo, did I even see it? 

21. Will I ever see an iceberg? Will I see the big cats of Africa? Will I get to see Aurora Borealis? Will I ever meet Stephen King? 

22. Is it spelt yacht or yatch? Will I ever solve Wordle in one? Why is N so much better at word games than me? 

23. Will I be able to deal with all the death and sickness that will inevitably happen around me with equanimity? 

24. Will RCB ever win an IPL? Why does cricket feel increasingly insipid? Should I start playing a sport? 

25. How does the lunar eclipse work? How does the moon work? And the tides? 

26. Why do Indians honk on the road all the time? Will there be a time when road rules will exist in India? 

27. What will be Tarantino’s final film? What’s Nolan’s next movie? Will I ever be able to write a movie script, just for kicks? 

28. Why are adults so boring? 

29. What should I create in my 40s when I still have energy and time that needs commitment for the next decade? 

30. How will climate change affect my life in the next decade? Should I be doing more for it? Buy a boat?

31. Is it too late to buy Bitcoin? Should I buy Meta? What next big thing should I buy shares of?

32. Can I lose the muffin top I have? Should I aspire to get more ripped? Should I ever try to run a marathon?  

33. Can I own and run a cafe? Will I have the discipline?

34. If I cloned myself at this point with the same memories and experiences as me, would both of us react in the exact same way to situations or is there more to being a person? How would I feel if Me2 found Me boring?

35. Why do I feel blue on a Sunday evening even when I don’t go to a regular job? 

36. What will be my name written on the Starbucks cup today? 

37. Why are men so lonely? Why is everyone so lonely? Should I start a support group for men?

38. Will my dad ever take me seriously? 

39. What new, incredible experience lies in wait for me in the coming decades? Will I continue to have the privilege of experiences in the coming decades? 

40. Will I remain disease and pain-free? How long?  

41. Should I taste Durian at least once in my life? 

42. Will robots love, eventually? Will we meet aliens? Will AI rule us all? 

Could be Worse,

Tyag