the machinations of a modern life

its time to call a spade a spade.
india is a pathetic country, we dont respect our fellow humans , we dont care .. we have no respect to the rules , regulations , we can buy out of anything that we do.
patriotism is bullshit in a place where the common man is not respected.

our commonwealth games is a shameless exhibition of corruption , ego fighting , parading our inefficiency.

our bhopal gas tragedy is an example of why anyone with money can do anything and not fear any consequences.

our goverment gives a shit about anyone. they want to be in power and earn money.

our industrialists dont give a damn. but why should they ?

and people are comfortable in reading times of india everyday , read page 3 , read the fight of the ambanis which if any sane individual reads knows its a big bullshit story.
are they competitors ? no they are not .. they are just keeping customers in the reliance family. its an illusion that we have a choice between them, at the end they get their business whether its mukesh or anil. an amazing marketing masterstroke that even dhirubhai would be proud of !

people are happy talking about "others" and "things" and "stuff" , they gossip .. they pride in having great friends whom they talk about behind their backs. people are happy in becoming an engineer and scoring the highest and this they believe makes them the best.
someone says oh i think i am the best , why .. cause i scored the highest grades. okay well so how does that make a difference ? do your grades help you to get a job just like any other , how does one have a false sense of superiority ?
and why does the highest grades give us that sense of superiority ? why do people think they are so so so self important and arrogant and stubborn.
oh yes i am doing a phd and so i am original. so how does that make a difference ?? does anyone pause to think , or just accept society's standards and assumptions and preconceived notions about life ?
i think we should think less about our degrees , our grades ... yes i believe they are important , important enough to get us trained in a certain field of expertise. but we shouldnt have a false pretence of greatness ?

people are selfish , self centered ..and we have the audacity to make judgements at western culture. our own culture is degrading and breaking into pieces.

oh please oh please just because i am born in the land and i grew up doesnt mean that whatever happens is the best.
i cringe when people talk to me about patriotism , do something about your country.

and what am i doing .. i dont know , i just feel helpless. but however i feel no sense of attachment to my country since i was born there, i feel no patriotism , i feel cricket is a bloated game of self centered fatsos , i was a fan too .. but growing up i realized it neither is the best sport nor the most popular by any standards. we yearn for a superstar who is the best in the world , we havent found one. sachin , he is great but just great in cricket which can never be called a world sport.
we dare say when some random actor or actress from the west feature in some random bollywood movie its a hollywood one.
we want to be important.

indians are obsessed at being important ,
we are obsessed in the fact that we are big and powerful

hence i respect aamir khan , i respect sachin tendulkar. but the media is india's biggest failing.

the common man is india's biggest failing. its time to raise our bars and then talk.

what am i doing , i dont know. why dont i be the difference i want "my" country to be... well is that the contradiction when i say am not patriotic. nope i give a shit , i give a damn ... but the sense of growing up there has instilled in me a certain sense of belonging so when i refer to it i call it my country.
well in my own way i am i guess ,i dont want to send money to the orphans in india , i dont want to do some social service , the ngos .. i hate NGO's.
i just want to do my work , i just want to work on something that will make a difference. in my own way i would like to be a better human being first and then contribute to society with my skills.

i dont know what i just wrote about , but it feels good to let it all out. am not claiming to be anything different from the above but nor am i what i said above. i am just letting it out and wanting to lead a sincere life without any pretense.

gulaal : review

a classic movie that again brings to fore the emotions of a man set to test. a man who breaks down and acts randomly, a man's blind passionate about his ancestors right to a state, the two children who will go to any lengths for society to treat them with respect.

maqbool

blind faith , blind love is dangerous.
but at the end there is no love no faith , only obsession and ego. love and faith are human constructs , whats real is a man's ego and his obsession for possession ! misplaced realities of these things lead to disastrous consequences.
maqbool beautifully, very powerfully brings out these kind of concepts. macbeth is honored to have given inspiration to such an amazing movie, the characters breathe life into shakesphere's 16th century text !
powerful and amazing and deep performances by pankaj kapoor, tabu , om puri and shah .... though sometimes i felt irfan khan was lost, trying to cope up with the character that he was playing or maybe thats how the character is intended to be. but i think the credit rests with the director, how does he get the best from these actors, the way they talk, act , look ... the eyes in this movie conveys a hundred different emotions and passions.
the ability of what one thinks is love can change the best of man, can lead the strongest of men to act in ways they can only be ashamed of. maqbool is the story of emotions put to test , the story of a man who is caught between the deep love he experiences for a woman and the loyalty that his conscience demands for his master. the story of a woman who eggs, prods and manipulates a man to make him hers ... the couple whose innocent and sincere feelings for each other are caught in the crossfire of higher stakes , the two policemen who provide the insight and anecodates at important points of the film and finally the grand old man who controls all that he can see ! its a movie that has to be seen for the sake of the gripping drama.

the regionalism debate

As said before one needs to be chauvinistic, divisive, exclusive and also to whip up emotions to enjoy front page status in every newspaper and newschannel. while almost every indian devotes time, resource, energy and his opinion to read, digest, watch, debate on this currently burning issue of regionalism. what of it ? telangana, marathi etc ... the sena's new chief would never have imagined to hog so much media limelight !! thanks to srk he is now front page news, few months ago it was 'udhaav-who' now its 'udhaav-everwhere'. its only a sign of how incompetent we as indians are that such people enjoy such liberties. its the sign of our times when now people justify every act which in unjust with a fact that chaltha hai yaar or well he has done so many good things !! and its also comfortable for a person to know that he is gauranteed a job just cause of him being from a particular state. are not the means important as the ends ? we talk about being vindicative to form our opinions, we talk about being assertive for our rights, we talk about being violent to fight for our rights .. but where in all this is the india which largely celebrates peace and harmony among its citizens, where is the india which celebrates gandhi jayanthi in remembrance of mahatma gandhi the proponent of non violence.

i am appalled by people, educated people .. sane and logical people supporting such causes. why do they do it ? some logical or rational reason ... ??? i really don't think so though they always and every time justify saying well these are my reasons and it makes sense to do so. but always and always its irrationality of emotions which plays a bigger part in such issues. and sometimes people justify the choices they make rather than reasoning out to make a choice. cause if they did so most of the times such arguments will fall flat on the ground !
its not surprising to see people say about bangalore being such a dirty place now that so many people from all over india are camping in that city ! (personally its a statement that makes me highly irritated!) well unfortunately the opposite side of the argument is that without these people bangalore wouldnt be the city it is today ! why dont political parties ask for regionalism based reservation in IIT's and IIM's ... cause without merit the very survival of 'regional people' is in limbo ! one of the arguments given by a person on national television was that i am taking care of my family. well if you want to do so improve the skills of your children , improve the facilities at your home .. dont drive out people or ask for reservation in jobs ! its like the argument given against the nano ... more cars on the street bad for infrastructure .. well utilize the funds from people to improve the facilities and not increasing your own bank balance and waistline ! i cringe at how soceity accepts and publicizes such people and their opinions and viewpoints ... well one does have the freedom to express an opinion but if some criminal says killing is justified , or if some terrorist organization justifies its acts saying its their freedom of expression .. ?? we need to understand that freedom comes at a cost and the cost should be acceptable to society ! they have the freedom to give their opinion but we as responsible citizens also have the freedom to support or not. and dont you think such opinions and divisive politics exist only due to support and acknowledgment of their ways by the people on the streets.
and well we can clearly see the politics being played out in the commercial capital, one party putting up signs at a building site of the opposite party sarcastically asking them to recruit regional people and sell the flats to only regional people ! well said but the party saying it is no less.

the ruchika story : as society degrades

as the media gets all worked up and ignites the fight against a person who requires not an iota of sympathy or remorse we as a society have to take stock at the situation. we have to realize that this is just the tip of the iceberg , there are thousands of instances in which people suffer unjustly. there is something degrading the very quality of life in the society. one may say there is this nexus between politicians and the judicial system and the common man is helpless. but i ask why is there a nexus ? i ask why do the politicians and the police want to collude .. for serving their own corrupt, selfish ends. but why , why do we let such people in the first place ? why do we as citizens and we do call ourselves responsible allow such people to hold posts which are so crucial for the running of the goverment which impacts every single man in india. as i say there is this new CM being elected in one of the states , who has this history of corruption and a tainted reputation ? what can the people of the state expect from such a man ... how do we have a right to ask for justice when we are the ones who send them to become the chief minister. how is a man who himself has no respect for the law , has done deeds that are condonable .. how do we expect that man to treat his people right , to serve fair and right .. wont he be surrounded and surround himself with people of such nature ? we need to think and think deeper.
a quick analogy , in all the schools that i have studied and in every class i have always heard that the class representative or the class monitor is the guy who generally tops the class and is honest and sincere in his work. never do teachers pick out the guy in the class who scores the least and gives excuses / insincere in class. so when we are given the power to elect representatives for us , in real life we elect ..........................
coming back to the case i wonder , how come there is even a doubt that the guy in question is not put behind bars immediately. apparently i think the case for molestation has been proved , so why is there even a question mark on what to do with him , shouldnt he be immediately put behind bars. whats the inquiry , the special teams and the new FIRs hullabulla in all this. this again talks about the incompetence or rather the abetting of the criminals in our country. i think about his wife as a woman how does she without remorse actually support him through all this ? how come his daughter who studied in the same school not talk against her father .. no one is perfect , even if its ones mother or father or child. a crime is a crime and one needs to be unbiased.
we as a society should also realize our responsibility , what we are having right now is a quick fix solution. it happened in the jessica lal case , maybe some other case in the media in which justice was served , then ruchika ... but if we dont address the root cause it will keep happening. and the media will keep having a field day investigating the case, the people of india will be appalled and become suddenly all moral about it ... when we are the people who actually sent rathore to that post. justice needs to be served immediately , 19 years is long enough .. but we also need to serve justice to ourselves , isnt 60 years long enough ?

the illusion of passion

as the new years dawns upon us , its a start to another year ... resolutions are made , people make up their wants and do and donts list. goals are set, 'things' are need to be bought and in between all this no one ever takes a resolution that they are going to live life ! LIVE it and not succumb to the pressures of soceity. people are comfortable with an excuse , but this is what i want to do .. i want to earn money , you want to become a stupid saint and one should do what one wants right ? but then are we born with these wants , this passion .. no one is ever ! it is bred into us as we grow , society tells us over and over again that playing cricket and making it to the national team is the greatest career ever ... its bred by those corporates who dole out lakhs for every teeny weeny advertisement which never makes sense , its bred into the person by his poor parents who sit in a hut and watch with open mouths at the 'material things' money buys. its bred into the person by friends , relatives every goddamn person in society. and then this suddenly becomes the passion , the true calling , the thing which a person can forget everything else. two hundred years before no one had a passion for cricket so where did this true calling suddenly erupt from. i see this as no passion or true calling but just bending to the pressures of modern soceity. we do things , we want things as defined by others ... no one has an individuality of his own and maybe its not possible ! and then every person wonders why is he not happy ?!
take it with a pinch of salt , whatever one does or does not .. whatever happens or does not is just not the end of the world. and live life , experience nature and experience ones body. its not that this should not be done, its not that one should give up everything in life since it does not mean anything .. but we should all just realize it should not override everything else in life. we are part of the system , we are part of society and this is bound to happen .. but who gives me the right to decide if its right or wrong . how can i say if the other person is living a hollow life or leading the most fulfilling part of his life ! how can i even judge that passion is an illusion , maybe there is this passion that every person should look for .. but what if its built on false foundations and false premises ? and we see it everyday around ourselves. lies , hope , promises , deception , money are the key for the key to many of a persons actions. the joy and sense of fulfillment that comes out of living life is lost or is it so ? why is money suddenly so important ... was it so when the sages wrote the vedas , when its a widely accepted fact that life in those times where of a much higher level. and can suddenly one say life is an illusion itself , but then if its so what difference does it make to have a passion or not .. someone can have , somone can be a cricketer , someone can find his true calling .. at the end everything might be an illusion itself :P !