Why being unselfish citizens may lead to our demise?

A few days back, I was involved in an interesting discussion with a new friend of mine. The election season was coming to an end and people were more or less anticipating what was quite obvious at the national level. During the conversation, I casually asked him if he had exercised his right to vote. Although being knowledgeable about his own constituency and the candidates representing it, he remarked on how this time around, by voting for the most popular candidate at the national level, he had voted for the greater good of the country. After a few minutes, our discussion went off into a whole new level of irrelevance and the essence of our original question got lost completely. Since it was very early in the morning and we wanted to keep both our sanity and our friendship intact, we conceded mutual defeat and walked off. But it brought to fore a major question in my mind which was, “Why being unselfish citizens may lead to our demise?”

Let me be honest with you at the onset: I failed to exercise my right to vote this year due to genuine circumstances. That may put me in a hypocritical position, but such is the beauty of democracy: I can still talk about it and voice my opinions.

I hail from a small state which was famous for its wealth and prosperity. I used to speak about my state with passion and conviction and had a sense of pride instilled in me during my childhood days. That sense of pride eroded slowly during the last decade. The same state is now famous for its drug addicted youth and is under a debt of 1 lakh + crores. The government is mortgaging state properties to raise loans for paying employee salaries. We all knew who had done this to our state, yet there was nothing we could do about it.

In a democracy, people elect their representatives. These representatives in turn, sit in the parliament and formulate policies which directly affect us. The election for Prime Minister in India is not like the Presidential elections in the USA, where people elect the candidate directly rather than the sum of their representatives. So a perception that people are voting for the candidate at the centre does not map to the idea of Indian democracy. In fact, a top-down approach in this scenario can be extremely dangerous. We might end up sending criminals, murderers, scamsters, mining mafias, gangsters, communal rioters and hate mongers to the Parliament. I find it difficult to understand such a viewpoint: Are they trying to say that if I want a ‘strong’ leader at centre, even if I have to vote for a gangster-drug lord, I should not hesitate to vote for him. You do not entrust a wolf with the security of your sheep. Case in point: If I follow the top-down approach and vote for my representative, it would be the most foolish thing to do. This word foolish can be conveniently replaced with ‘suicidal’ here.

Google came out with an interesting tool to know about the details of the candidate representing a constituency and who you might vote for. Although the message is very subtle, this is the idea that I firmly believe in. Look out for the best candidates in your constituency and give YOUR vote to the one who DESERVES it the most. Leave aside the questions of which party he belongs to, what caste or religion he hails from. Vote for the best candidate in your constituency and let the numbers add up and decide who leads us at the centre. Let the best of US represent us at the Centre.

On a more positive note, things may not be as gloomy as they sound. As I learned recently, the market has a way of reaching its own equilibrium point after a period of shuffle and struggle. I see that the people of my state have realized the deteriorating conditions and voted for the right candidate this time around. The time has come for us to rise up again and conquer what belongs to us. The time has come for us to demand the prosperity and bright future we so rightly deserve.

This One Time

This one time, on a long haul flight,  I end up sitting next to a man probably twice my age, and we don’t talk  for the entire flight.

It is only as we start our descent that we exchange a few words. I comment on the book he’s been reading, that I had almost bought it at the airport bookstore.  “Good thing you didn’t,” he says, “it was nothing. Just a good way to kill a few hours.”

And then he adds: “But what did I expect? There are really only two original stories in Western literature, and all others are just variations on those two.”

Really?

“Yes, it’s the one about the man who sailed on the Mediterranean for forty years without finding his way home.  And then there’s the other one about that nice Jewish boy who gets nailed to a cross.”

Now there’s a conversation I wish would have started earlier.

But by now we have already landed and we deplane and I loose sight of the man at baggage claim.

To sign or Not to sign

The recent gathering of the UN Security Council asking all non-NPT states to sign the treaty as a non-nuclear state will once again trigger debates over this dormant issue. In an ideal world, perhaps, there will be no nuclear weapons. But in today’s hostile world in which the nuclear powers refused to dismantle their stockpile, India would surely like to keep its option open. Of course, the decision to sign the treaty is more political than scientific. The general public is not aware that what has been tested is a thermonuclear device; to make it into a full-scale weapon is a different process altogether. The use of data from a single thermonuclear test for “weaponization” will be unwise and erroneous. As Richard Garwin points out, “It is possible to build simple nuclear weapons without nuclear explosion tests, but there will always be a nagging doubt whether or how well they will perform” and “without nuclear tests of substantial yield, it is difficult to build compact and light fission weapons”. From the American point-of-view, this is a strong argument to ratify the CTBT, pressuring India to follow suit. From the Indian point-of-view, this makes an even stronger case for not signing the treaty.

The Eye in the Sky

Today I saw a man and a woman, apparently lovers, entering a motel. The man signed with an alias, whilst the woman looked around suspiciously. They were both married and hid their wedding rings in their pockets in an attempt to suffocate their importance. They spent the whole of their lunch hour in the motel room, delving into each other's thoughts and fantasies in a dour attempt to relieve the stress that had built up in their respective lives. They exited as suspiciously as they had entered, thinking nobody had spotted them. Still both remained unfulfilled.

Today I saw a man hijacked in his expensive German motorcar. He was travelling in a residential area when, suddenly, a man walked across the road in front of them. The driver forcefully applied his brakes and swerved to avoid colliding with the man. Once stationary, he opened the window and shouted, "You imbecile, do you think you own the road or something..." While this was transpiring, another man came up from behind the car and started screaming at the driver to get out of the car. The driver slowly got out of his car, but his hand suddenly darted towards his side, obviously in search of a weapon. His attacker saw what his intentions were and shot him in the chest at close range. He then picked off the man's gun and sped off in the car. Nobody had seen them, nor did anybody want to.

Today I saw a child learning at school. He was only in his early teens, but displayed a maturity beyond his years. He eagerly listened to the pearls of wisdom his teacher was telling him. He had a thirst for knowledge and decided the only way to quench it would be to work as hard as he possibly could. This is very encouraging to see in a child so young. He has seen what has happened to those who did not take school seriously, his cousins were like that and now one was living alone on the streets and the other suffering from AIDS. He has set his sights on passing matric, going to university and, one day, owning a professional soccer club. Taking into consideration the determination and consideration I witnessed today, I wouldn't put it beyond him.Today I saw the police making a drug bust. They had spent the whole year trying to catch this drug syndicate. Eventually they recieved a tip off from an unknown person and they followed it up. They caught five of the offenders red-handed; these five were visiting the place where the manufacture of narcotics was taking place, just to make sure everything was going smoothly. Crores of rupees worth of drugs were seized, but how much of that reached the station, only the recording officer knows. That deed determined months of hard work being put in by the narcotics bureau- all it took was one man to put all those poisons on the street for children to buy.

Today I saw two people getting married in a church. They were both in their early twenties and probably still studying. The bride walked slowly down the aisle, contemplating her future with her groom. Her father was tentative, not knowing what the future had in store for his only daughter. The groom stood anxiously with the priest and waited. There was no turning back now - this was to be the beginning of a new chapter in their lives. How much everything would change now that they were married; for their sake, I hope they had been true to each other before this, that they did not display facades to shadow their real selves. But both gleamed with joy and love; theirs was going to be a lasting relationship - a scarcity today.

Today I saw a farmer being murdered on his farm. He was an elderly man, probably in his seventies; a widower whose children and grandchildren lived far away. He heard a noise during the night and went outside to investigate, taking his shotgun with him. He saw a figure running through the darkness, but refrained from firing in fear of hurting an innocent party. Another noise came from the cattle barn. He walked as quickly as he could. As he reached the door, he was clubbed from behind. His frail old body could not withstand the blow and he fell pathetically to the floor. The men took his shotgun and raided his house, taking as much as they could.

Today I saw a baby being born. Its mother felt excruciating pain while its father marvelled at the miracle happening before his eyes. He could not come to terms with the fact that it was a product of his devotion to his wife. He also wondered whether this child was going to be the hijacker or the hijacked, the adulterer or the faithful, the bride or the groom, the policeman or the drug-dealer, or the child with the passionate will to succeed .........

The magic of Slumdog - still strong

Hey ppl... I am back again with my usual banter about SlumDog Millionaire. I had tried really hard to suppress all my negative feelings, being a realist, that there must be something really 'attractive' about this movie, else why would it win so many Oscars. Then a new development came into my notice just today. Apparently, the all-girl 'groupie' Pussycat Dolls were so inspired by the spiritual connection they shared with the movie and it's score that t hey decided to do an Americanized version of the same. The lyrics are posted at the end...

Also watch the video of the PCD version on YouTube.

The phrase “Jai Ho” means victory. What do you think the Pussycat Dolls could be celebrating in this video? This movie has been the darling of the Western critics and moviegoers alike and labelling it as the feel-good film of the year Danny has marketed it very well. After the Oscar winning spree, Jai Ho has been growing in popularity among the Western audience - why not cash in on the fame? Big movie, big song, big remix.

I still remember the day I first watched this movie before all the hype. I liked it immensely, and really thought about the interesting perspective it ws able to portray. Never did I expect the movie to sweep the Oscars clean. What I termed as a mildly interesting movie turned out to be a big Oscar-churner, with getting 10 nominations and winning 8 of those, also winning a host of other awards and wowing audiences at film festivals the world over! I was so in doubt of our taste in movies that I saw the entire movie all over again!! In vain..

Was this movie so pathbreakingly "amazing" that Pussycat Dolls wanna "JAI HO" instead of their usual "purr n meow" and that people are taking Frieda Pinto so seriously that she may become 007's armband? Becoming a Bond Girl is a legendary honor!! And it goes to an actor with as much experience and charisma as a chimp doing backflips on the Moon?

I quote a PCD fan directly - "I love it! The original is beautiful, but with this English translation, I can finally get the literal meaning of the song." Does the song really portray what the PCD have implied in their video and lyrics. Nay...

Simply put, as a fellow blogger rightly puts it ""Third World Country image dood...it ALWAYS sells.." Guess for me theres nothing more to do about it other than venting it out here and hope that I played my part right.

But you gotta hand it to all those pussy's; they cashed in really well... Jai Ho America.

The Pussycat Dolls - "Jai Ho" (Official FULL Music Video) ft AR Raham - HQ Wide Screen 2009. Watch it at YouTube.

Slumdog or Underdog

Why is it that the Brits are always at our throats, slitting it every time they feel like it? 300 years of ruling over us didn't quench their thirst, I reckon. Or so it seems by the reception, critical as well as otherwise of the recent Slumdog Millionaire. The movie is portrayed on Jamal Khan from the Dharavi slums in Mumbai (largest slum in Asia) and how the experiences of his mishap ridden and hectic life ultimately help him in winning the most coveted Game Show of the season, acquiring a celebrity status and a whooping sum of Rs. 2 Cr. to boot. The movie is an emotional and utterly brutal portrayal of the everyday trials and tribulations that a poverty ridden individual (man, woman, child) in India has to undergo just to earn a square meal and a square meter of cloth. Based on the novel 'Q and A' by Vikas Swarup, the movie has already won 4 Golden Globe awards.

The movie was publicly denounced by Big B; he argued that the India portrayed in the movie was not the current situation of this great sub-continent and the drastic effect rendered on the minds of the foreign viewers will be devastating to the already precarious image of this Third-World nation (ironically, a phrase invented by Britain just before partition).

The critics have not been generous although in retrospect, they are merely trying to promote the movie in the foreign film industry. One of them calls the film "a modern fairy tale," a "sensory blowout," and "one of the most upbeat stories about living in hell imaginable." The economic conditions in India are not like Kenya or other third-world countries, where everyone is poor. We have middle class people, working hard to earn their bread and that is what makes us different. But it is always the 'poor' India that is shoved under the spotlight.

For Radhakrishnan, "the most glaring was the language. Despite the plausible explanation that Jamal and Salim picked up English, posing as tour guides at the Taj Mahal, it is highly implausible that they would come out of that experience speaking perfect British English, but somehow, in the context of the movie, we buy it. Thing is that if he really was as smart and articulate as Jamal was in the film, he definitely would have been making calls at the call center, not just serving chai." Will someone please go and put up some sense in that guy; you need a minimum qualification of Intermediate to work in a call centre, or is he so biased against this industry taking it's firm roots in India that he doesn't even think before uttering such nonsensical babble.

All in all, even though this movie does not do justice to the other side of the coin, it still is a glaring reminder of the facets of our country totally ignored and taken for granted. Things like poverty, population, corruption are so commonplace that the 'well-to-do' don't spare a second glance towards it. The ideals for which The Mahatma stood have truly fallen away, it's place taken by the RatRace of the Globe.

Who

I lusted for you,

I wanted you,

I loved you with all that I am.

You turned it away.

In anger I cursed you,

In pain I bled for you.

You turned it away.

I loved you. I needed you.

You turned me away.

But who is the stronger now?

I'm the one you want to be

Calm but unbroken,
Tame but unbridled
Fettered but free
So you smirk my way
tell me I'm headstrong
and I laugh in your face.
I know the rough parts of me,
the worldly needs in me,
I know how to cross my ankles when I sit.
I know the pains of love
and the scars of hate.
I know ridicule and jest and maliciousness.
I know my limits
I know how to break them.
I know what turns me on, what
keeps me going- I know the ending to my own story-
know the price I pay for this knowledge,
feel the shackles of responsibility...
But I know how to rattle my chains
and still get what I want.
You'll never break me.
You'll never bridle me.
And I'll always be free.
So go on and smirk and think you
know me better-
I know me, the soft and the hard,
the gentle and the strong,
the delicate and steely.
I know me.

I'm the one you want to be.

Dedicated to a patriot...

The recent bombing activities in Mumbai have left the Indian public feeling nostalgic. A general notion had crept that public places, in recent times, had become unsafe. Shattering this, the terrorists have reinforced that a luxurious place doesn't necessarily mean a safe place. It is of immense embarrassment hat security standards at such elite places are so dismal. Most of us have seen one or the other hi-tech movies using latest technology and were in awe of the latest gadgets used by lawmakers and lawbreakers alike. These viewers will be left in a state of shock if they have a look at the video footage of the so called 'luxury abodes'. The quality of these archives is indiscernible and is worse than a cheap camcorder available in your local market. Surely the annual turnover of such MNC's can accommodate such meager amounts. The phrase 'you learn from your own mistakes' is meant for a human being, not for large scale organizations responsible for other people's lives.

Mumbai, the financial capital of India, is a city in tandem. Every year, nature wreaks havoc on the city in the form of torrential rains. Not so long ago, the city was mostly ruled by little goons aka 'bhai'. Add to this, the general unkempt nature of the city, the relentless pollution and the obvious problem of population, the city never provided a welcoming gesture to the tourists. Yet they came, because India, despite its shortcomings, has the second largest GDP growth rate in the world, as well as being a land of immense beauty and culture. These recent bombing activities have not only served as a warning to the Indian public, but also to the foreign visitors coming for business or pleasure. Think about it, the most luxurious hotels, and the railway station: why were these places chosen for the bombing. It may be to serve as a symbolic gesture for all visiting dignitaries and business man. Mumbai, the city of dreams, has always been considered by the poor as a haven for seeking fortune, which has indeed been a stepping stone to it's success. They are trying a to induce terror in the minds of common men and are achieving success in that too, what with the media amplifying the situation many times by showing the news over and over again. It is indeed a crippling way of looking at the incident, but nevertheless, something that we must be aware of.

Yet, in spite of all the humdrum and the hype created by the media, the public will soon find a way to survive and get on with their life. For that is what we have always done and that is what we’ll always do... Move On.

Personal Observations

So it goes. I'm trying very hard not to let the shadows over take me. Even if the shadows are in my own mind. They say you're not going insane if you can question your own sanity. I'm not so sure. But I'm trying. Trying very hard. If I'm truly unable to face up to my own past, will I finally be consumed by it? Can I stand up to my own shadows, or will I have to admit defeat and go on the 'happy' drugs of life?

And so it goes. And I'm still trying very hard not to let the shadows overtake me.

Its time for me to stop and take a breath- to look around and see what I can see. Not that I'm going too fast, But I'm too deep, too mired down in the mundane, slowly drowning without even knowing it. I have to take a step back and look at the whole of it- at least that which I can See.

Perhaps I'm so deeply embedded in the little things that I've really become detached from Spirit and so yearn for adventure, for change I know I don't need. I wish I could meld the two, so I could function smoothly between, instead of having to flip back and forth, using energy and resources that are limited to begin with. This is my goal, to achieve fluidity; as I grow and learn I believe it can happen.

Through it all there is this lethargy, a weariness that grows every day, an increasing desire for true silence. I fight myself even as I am resigning myself to the care of Spirit, and it is exhausting me.

I've begun to wonder how much further I can go alone. I wonder if I even want to.