The biggest question that comes to my mind after reading and hearing a hoopla of editorials and expert advice on free and liberal media, political reforms and unreliable stances taken by people in power is, is it really going to make a difference? Will there actually be a time when one would be able to raise his voice against the powerful and be heard and be safe? Will there ever be a time when there will only be real reforms and no political and powerplays working towards individual benefits?
I don’t really need to answer any of these questions. The answer is pretty clear. The tendency of someone else making a benefit in a conflict between two people has always been there and it will continue till there are conflicts. As a person sitting in my room wanting to get real information which is unbiased and reliable is a far off dream for its probably impossible to get one. My biggest worry relating to getting a hand on factual and unaltered information is the unreliability of the sources. The news media refuses to bring out real news and instead relies on created masala to sell. Laundered with power and money, unfazed with the lowered reputation and credibility we continue to get information that is hard to believe.
And this unreliability is not just restricted to the news medium. The news itself is about the erratic behaviours, scandals and scams, the blame game and unauthoritative dispositions. Whether its is the government or the corporate there are innumerable instances being reported everyday that destroys your trust for things around you. I sometimes crave to kill all in news for all the news are such where there is nothing but anger to be born.
Thursday, February 10, 2011
Saturday, January 22, 2011
why should we suffer?
We, the common people are destined to suffer, mutely. This is our fate and we have so very well learned to live with it. People who are capable of taking and implementing decisions that can make a difference are not responsible enough to actually make anything different. The big hoopla of the India Beaming and Shinning seems to like a big hoax to me. With anger and frustration within I read endless sagas of bigger and better scams hitting the news papers with the politicians smiling at the wake of their victory. I can sure say that we are fast developing in this one respect that every other scam is bigger than the previous one.
2010 can be marked as the year of scams with herculean magnanimity that not only effect the Indian demographics but take us to another level internationally. Days are not far when we would be known as the nation of scams, a shift for better from the nation of the largest population. Every big name, every person sitting on an influential position and every sharp mind is working towards finding out ways to create a fool proof scam scheme to rock the nation.
The list is not small, CWG, Sukna, Adarsh, 2G and what not. Defence, ministries, sports, business, media, bureaucrats all of them are engrossed and extremely busy in their lives revolving around these scams. And what the resultant is the common people suffering.
Why should we pay for onions more just because the government left it rotting in the godowns?
Why should we suffer a ‘bandh’ or a loss of public buses just because a certain party leader was found guilty of a scam and his party supports didn’t like the verdict?
Why should we be scared and sitting at home for safety just because few political leaders find it highly profitable to make two communities fight and rot to death?
Why should we face never ending governing discrepancies due to a lack of proper governance?
Why should we live our life adjusting to what is happening just because the government is oblivious of our plight, or pretends to be oblivious?
Why should we shut our shops and face heavy losses because someone has a problem with the language English?
Why should we change the course of our lives because someone is still thinking in the 18th century?
There are so many questions exploding in my mind, so much so that words are coming hard and thick. Someone long back told me, reading newspaper helps you create a broader perspective of what is happening around you. I say, if this is what is happening around me and if this is what the newspapers give me then I don’t want to have a broader perspective. I am happy in my ignorant world, atleast I am not enraged with the level of degraded souls operating our country.
2010 can be marked as the year of scams with herculean magnanimity that not only effect the Indian demographics but take us to another level internationally. Days are not far when we would be known as the nation of scams, a shift for better from the nation of the largest population. Every big name, every person sitting on an influential position and every sharp mind is working towards finding out ways to create a fool proof scam scheme to rock the nation.
The list is not small, CWG, Sukna, Adarsh, 2G and what not. Defence, ministries, sports, business, media, bureaucrats all of them are engrossed and extremely busy in their lives revolving around these scams. And what the resultant is the common people suffering.
Why should we pay for onions more just because the government left it rotting in the godowns?
Why should we suffer a ‘bandh’ or a loss of public buses just because a certain party leader was found guilty of a scam and his party supports didn’t like the verdict?
Why should we be scared and sitting at home for safety just because few political leaders find it highly profitable to make two communities fight and rot to death?
Why should we face never ending governing discrepancies due to a lack of proper governance?
Why should we live our life adjusting to what is happening just because the government is oblivious of our plight, or pretends to be oblivious?
Why should we shut our shops and face heavy losses because someone has a problem with the language English?
Why should we change the course of our lives because someone is still thinking in the 18th century?
There are so many questions exploding in my mind, so much so that words are coming hard and thick. Someone long back told me, reading newspaper helps you create a broader perspective of what is happening around you. I say, if this is what is happening around me and if this is what the newspapers give me then I don’t want to have a broader perspective. I am happy in my ignorant world, atleast I am not enraged with the level of degraded souls operating our country.
Thursday, October 21, 2010
For the Changing India
The Buddha says that one of the four truths is that everything is changing. Change is the only constant force in the universe, which can neither be stopped nor be avoided. The only way to sustain life is to change along with the changing times and the ones who don’t, perish. This is the very nature of the Indian demographic. The last one-decade has seen a formidable change in every aspect of individual as well as national life and this just seems to be the beginning.
From being known as nothing more than one of the most populated country, we have come to a point where even America says we are a very important part of their international policy and that they look forward to our corporation. The thinking, the lifestyles, the goals, the ideologies, the geographic make up, the economic standards, the value propositions, the science, the music, the movies, the man and the woman all are changing at a brisk rate. We are increasingly becoming more and more volatile in the way we live and things we want from life. And this is why I would say that ‘Change’ is what represents India to me, in the present scenario.
We are no more the people who reclined every evening in the drawing room watching television with the family to end the day, every single day. We are no more the families where the man was the one who came back in the evening from work. We are no more the unsatisfied and quiet consumers who had no choice and grunted our teeth if we didn’t like any product. We are no more the education system where marks and scores mattered more than intelligence and the options were restricted to only science, being the most valued and commerce being for the average. Arts was a felony and Fine Arts unheard of.
The days no more end at 10 o’clock in the night, outings are no more restricted to going to your relatives place, or for a once in a blue moon picnic. Girls are no more like a distant dream for guys and guys are always available for girls. There are more people to talk to, there are more things you can think about, there are more places, within and outside of India that have opened up for us. The airplane is no more a mystery, the phones have become a toy of a two year old, the computers are a part of our biological system so much so that we don’t excrete, we delete data from our stomach these days. Call it technological intervention or progress, we have come a long way and things have changed in a manner that was beyond imagination only till a decade back.
India has the largest youth population in the world and they, without any doubt, are going to build the future of the nation. Here too ‘change’ is at the centre of their existence. Its being called the ‘impatient generation’ that wants everything quickly. Its no more the bunch of young energetic people seen lost in the dreams of filmy, romantic college life. But its more to do with the fast pace running around in the pursuit of a better career. School kids have access to all those things that were once upon a time virtues of collegians.
The priorities have changed from neighborhood friends to online friends, from sports to video games, from face to face to facebook. Kids now know middle finger and a number of porn sites. Live-in relations and pre-marital sex have become legal, a concept or a word that would have got you locked in the bathroom by your dad few years ago. Marriages are no more on the agenda and even if they are people hardly bother which ‘gotra’ the girl is from, the region, the religion, the ‘kundli’ and all the so-called deciding factors are being shunned away by the modern minds. The Individual is what would matter at the end of the day. Of course there are contradicting views and raised eye-brows, but these are just small hitches in front of a wave that are soon going to get swept away.
The geographical boundaries are collapsing, slowly but surely. More and more displaced Indians are there to be seen any and everywhere. Some even have difficulty pointing out where they belong, they prefer calling them the ‘Ideal Indians.’ Australians, British, South Africans, West-Indians are playing for India. Bill Gates is doing charity for Bihar. Obama is looking forward to Indian corporation. Vietnamese are studying the Indian BRTS system.
And the list just gets bigger…
• Finally there are sports other than cricket in India.
• Railway is making profit.
• We have Young Politicians.
• Ministers are taking in stricter measures in curbing the violence in Maoist hit areas.
• Courts are giving verdicts in less than 25 year per case.
• Mein Kampf sells more than The Story of My Experiments With Truth
• Gandhi is cursed as he made one entire state a dry state, no offence.
• Movies have replaced Ishq with LSD
• People now hate love stories
• Luxury is cheaply available
• International is no more out of reach, its almost domestic now
• Bata is as good as Nike
• Ferraris, Lamborghini, Ducati and all the other names are not just names anymore
From the time I come to the college in the morning till the time I go back in the evening, something changes on the way. There is something new to be seen every time I re-visit a place. Whether it’s a newly constructed building or a deforested land, the change is everywhere.
I am not judging here or passing a verdict as to where we are going is good or bad. There are views from the conservatives that we are going to the dogs. The people who are changing with the world say it’s the only way and there is no problem with that. I don’t know which point of view is right or wrong, but I see India and I see it changing rapidly. There is a drastic shift from where we were few years back to where we have reached now.
Not just the national level, but also the individual level has seen a considerable change in every aspect of life. Be it the carefree nature of the youth or the acceptance of the elderly. Be it the disposable salaries or the need to do something more than just earning for self. The nature, the attitude, the minds, the hearts, there is change outside and there it is within.
From being known as nothing more than one of the most populated country, we have come to a point where even America says we are a very important part of their international policy and that they look forward to our corporation. The thinking, the lifestyles, the goals, the ideologies, the geographic make up, the economic standards, the value propositions, the science, the music, the movies, the man and the woman all are changing at a brisk rate. We are increasingly becoming more and more volatile in the way we live and things we want from life. And this is why I would say that ‘Change’ is what represents India to me, in the present scenario.
We are no more the people who reclined every evening in the drawing room watching television with the family to end the day, every single day. We are no more the families where the man was the one who came back in the evening from work. We are no more the unsatisfied and quiet consumers who had no choice and grunted our teeth if we didn’t like any product. We are no more the education system where marks and scores mattered more than intelligence and the options were restricted to only science, being the most valued and commerce being for the average. Arts was a felony and Fine Arts unheard of.
The days no more end at 10 o’clock in the night, outings are no more restricted to going to your relatives place, or for a once in a blue moon picnic. Girls are no more like a distant dream for guys and guys are always available for girls. There are more people to talk to, there are more things you can think about, there are more places, within and outside of India that have opened up for us. The airplane is no more a mystery, the phones have become a toy of a two year old, the computers are a part of our biological system so much so that we don’t excrete, we delete data from our stomach these days. Call it technological intervention or progress, we have come a long way and things have changed in a manner that was beyond imagination only till a decade back.
India has the largest youth population in the world and they, without any doubt, are going to build the future of the nation. Here too ‘change’ is at the centre of their existence. Its being called the ‘impatient generation’ that wants everything quickly. Its no more the bunch of young energetic people seen lost in the dreams of filmy, romantic college life. But its more to do with the fast pace running around in the pursuit of a better career. School kids have access to all those things that were once upon a time virtues of collegians.
The priorities have changed from neighborhood friends to online friends, from sports to video games, from face to face to facebook. Kids now know middle finger and a number of porn sites. Live-in relations and pre-marital sex have become legal, a concept or a word that would have got you locked in the bathroom by your dad few years ago. Marriages are no more on the agenda and even if they are people hardly bother which ‘gotra’ the girl is from, the region, the religion, the ‘kundli’ and all the so-called deciding factors are being shunned away by the modern minds. The Individual is what would matter at the end of the day. Of course there are contradicting views and raised eye-brows, but these are just small hitches in front of a wave that are soon going to get swept away.
The geographical boundaries are collapsing, slowly but surely. More and more displaced Indians are there to be seen any and everywhere. Some even have difficulty pointing out where they belong, they prefer calling them the ‘Ideal Indians.’ Australians, British, South Africans, West-Indians are playing for India. Bill Gates is doing charity for Bihar. Obama is looking forward to Indian corporation. Vietnamese are studying the Indian BRTS system.
And the list just gets bigger…
• Finally there are sports other than cricket in India.
• Railway is making profit.
• We have Young Politicians.
• Ministers are taking in stricter measures in curbing the violence in Maoist hit areas.
• Courts are giving verdicts in less than 25 year per case.
• Mein Kampf sells more than The Story of My Experiments With Truth
• Gandhi is cursed as he made one entire state a dry state, no offence.
• Movies have replaced Ishq with LSD
• People now hate love stories
• Luxury is cheaply available
• International is no more out of reach, its almost domestic now
• Bata is as good as Nike
• Ferraris, Lamborghini, Ducati and all the other names are not just names anymore
From the time I come to the college in the morning till the time I go back in the evening, something changes on the way. There is something new to be seen every time I re-visit a place. Whether it’s a newly constructed building or a deforested land, the change is everywhere.
I am not judging here or passing a verdict as to where we are going is good or bad. There are views from the conservatives that we are going to the dogs. The people who are changing with the world say it’s the only way and there is no problem with that. I don’t know which point of view is right or wrong, but I see India and I see it changing rapidly. There is a drastic shift from where we were few years back to where we have reached now.
Not just the national level, but also the individual level has seen a considerable change in every aspect of life. Be it the carefree nature of the youth or the acceptance of the elderly. Be it the disposable salaries or the need to do something more than just earning for self. The nature, the attitude, the minds, the hearts, there is change outside and there it is within.
Sunday, June 13, 2010
Of all the things I think about
Of all the things I think about,
one that comes very often is the dark empty space,
a corridor that goes a long time back,
with memories getting hazy and blurred,
partly by time and partly by my memory,
darker and darker it gets,
there is no light at the farther end.
darkness where the life began,
darkness when the life will end,
in between is where we stand,
making it all worth,
trying to make it all worth,
wheeling in emotions and contradictions,
some from outside and some from within.
art of living,
art of surviving,
art of rising,
art of falling,
art of saying,
art of expressing,
art of loving,
art of knowing,
art of the endless search,
art of ending the search,
and the essence is the
art of searching the end.
one that comes very often is the dark empty space,
a corridor that goes a long time back,
with memories getting hazy and blurred,
partly by time and partly by my memory,
darker and darker it gets,
there is no light at the farther end.
darkness where the life began,
darkness when the life will end,
in between is where we stand,
making it all worth,
trying to make it all worth,
wheeling in emotions and contradictions,
some from outside and some from within.
art of living,
art of surviving,
art of rising,
art of falling,
art of saying,
art of expressing,
art of loving,
art of knowing,
art of the endless search,
art of ending the search,
and the essence is the
art of searching the end.
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
The post ‘Tare Zameen Par’ Psychology
Haven’t we all loved the movie Tare Zameen Par. Call it one man’s hard work to change the ideological viewpoint of treating your children, bringing a broader spectrum of looking at streams other than the IITs and IIMs or call it being there at the right time as we ourselves are now willing to look at things differently, it has made an impact in our normal lives.
But what did it actually accomplish apart from generous accolades from the film critics, clean sweep in all the film awards and coming to age of an actor cum artist? It will difficult to pin point any radical change in the psychology of the people. But it can very easily be said; it did make a mockery of a lot of ideas the movie very well portrayed. And that’s the truth; we are masters at making a mockery of anything serious and consequential.
Now its fun to be an artist and a teacher. An artist can do anything, live the life his own way and be the anti-social, strange looking nomad dressed up in rags and still be considered a style icon. An art teacher can make all the difference in a child’s life and has the power to overshadow the parent’s role. And how have I seen so many painters become an art teacher recently. Well I am not blaming them, the market is really tough and tight, no one is ready to shell out money on works that are too experimental.
Percentages in an exam suddenly don’t matter. All the Rjs hailed the recent CBSE science results saying it didn’t matter how much you scored. If you did score well, you will get through anything, any exam, any institute. And so what if you didn’t, you can still become an artist, or may be a teacher. Hey! These professions are in fashion now.
But what did it actually accomplish apart from generous accolades from the film critics, clean sweep in all the film awards and coming to age of an actor cum artist? It will difficult to pin point any radical change in the psychology of the people. But it can very easily be said; it did make a mockery of a lot of ideas the movie very well portrayed. And that’s the truth; we are masters at making a mockery of anything serious and consequential.
Now its fun to be an artist and a teacher. An artist can do anything, live the life his own way and be the anti-social, strange looking nomad dressed up in rags and still be considered a style icon. An art teacher can make all the difference in a child’s life and has the power to overshadow the parent’s role. And how have I seen so many painters become an art teacher recently. Well I am not blaming them, the market is really tough and tight, no one is ready to shell out money on works that are too experimental.
Percentages in an exam suddenly don’t matter. All the Rjs hailed the recent CBSE science results saying it didn’t matter how much you scored. If you did score well, you will get through anything, any exam, any institute. And so what if you didn’t, you can still become an artist, or may be a teacher. Hey! These professions are in fashion now.
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
this made me sad...
Came across a very serious, rather unfortunate side of a man today. A silent, mostly ignored, honest and a humble hard worker. Have seen him getting lost in his thoughts so many times, staring into the empty spaces, for long, and then all of a sudden as if he remembers he is still alive, comes back to the real world and then gets back to his work.
A victim of a well planned and listed out assault that crushed all that he had. Forced to leave the homeland, uprooted from his own house, deprived of all that he had made for himself from all his life’s hard work, gone in one day, left to be wondering for the rest of his life, “what the hell was my fault.”
And trust me, such strong emotions is not even his nature. Very calmly he narrated me the whole incident. One sentence each. One tragedy in each. One major loss in each. 20 buffalos butchered. 400 poultry dead. House crushed to rambles. Family left tortured, tormented and totally scared to even share what they had experienced. And there are many such people around us. Many such families who are struggling to make their ends meet, for absolutely no fault of theirs.
Reason? One man’s power, few deadly sins and a lot of greed and non-rational thinking.
“None of us drink tea at home,” he said. Not coz they hate it, coz they cannot afford milk anymore. “ I came to Ahmedabad coz I was left with nothing else,” was his last sentence before he put his thin brown frames on his dull, expressionless eyes and got back to work.
A victim of a well planned and listed out assault that crushed all that he had. Forced to leave the homeland, uprooted from his own house, deprived of all that he had made for himself from all his life’s hard work, gone in one day, left to be wondering for the rest of his life, “what the hell was my fault.”
And trust me, such strong emotions is not even his nature. Very calmly he narrated me the whole incident. One sentence each. One tragedy in each. One major loss in each. 20 buffalos butchered. 400 poultry dead. House crushed to rambles. Family left tortured, tormented and totally scared to even share what they had experienced. And there are many such people around us. Many such families who are struggling to make their ends meet, for absolutely no fault of theirs.
Reason? One man’s power, few deadly sins and a lot of greed and non-rational thinking.
“None of us drink tea at home,” he said. Not coz they hate it, coz they cannot afford milk anymore. “ I came to Ahmedabad coz I was left with nothing else,” was his last sentence before he put his thin brown frames on his dull, expressionless eyes and got back to work.
Monday, May 3, 2010
Mann Ka Ek Kona
Man ke kissi andruni kone mein ek darr sa laga rehata hai…hamesha…
Ek uljhan… jo sulajhti hi nahi…kahi main wo nahi to???
Aur agar main wo nahi to fir usse main na-pasand to nahi???
Fir chup sa rah jata hun… dil ko behalata hun…
Ki nahi… main to main hun… koi aur nahi…
Lekin shabd yahan saath chor dete hai…
Kuch sochta hun kuch aur hi bolta hun…
Is kush-ma-kush mein bolne ko kuch bachta hi nahi…
Fir soch ke ghode duadte hai…pankh faila kar nikalte hai…
Man ka ek aur pehalu… baareeki se dekhna…
Gaur se sochna… darr ko duur kar dena…
Na kuch samajhna…na kuch dekhna…
Bas… khud ko sambhalna…
Baat yahi khatam… mann ke darwaze band…
Aankhon par patti aur dill mein chuppi…
Na koi dekh sake…na koi sun sake…
Na andar asake… na main bahar ja saku
Deewar… aur sirf ek darwaaza…
Na baat… na mulakat…
Main hun…aur bas main…
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