Perceptions of a world engaged in schizophrenia..

Ive always wondered if every tiny action on earth was preplanned. If that is the case our pretense at decisions and thoughts must be  quite useless. So does that mean we are all acting like zombies, acting out in a skit with rehearsed dialogues? It sure doesnt feel like it though! If everything even your success or failure or even what you are going to talk is pre planned and pre ordained where is the concept of your indivudual personality/soul/mind whatever you may choose to call it in the picture? Let me mix a teeny bit of Hinduism in this zone which propogates the concept of Karma. In laymans terms and also trying to be terse about teh definition here,Karma is what you bring upon yourself , so essentially you at the end have the right and will to make decisions and live the consequences of it. If thats the case doesnt the concept of "Fate" take a beating?

You can change your destiny they say ....and how do you even begin to do that?Who even knows what their destiny is!

Isnt the very word Destiny rigid? It echoes of something you cannot alter and something that is already in store for you. So who are all these people who claim to have strived and altered their course of life? If that's possible for one man why isnt it possible for another or was that pre planned too, that this person is going to change his/her destiny .But hold on now,when you have the power to change something arent you also indirectly telling that nothing on this planet is written on stone and eveything is transient?So doesnt the concept of Fate take a beating there?

Should we live on optimism and hope that eveything we want will happen because its all in our hands or should we live on the pessimistic despair and hopelessness that no matter what you do your "Fate" always has the last word.

Is the Journey in your hand but the destination your fate? If thats the case how many different paths can you take to one destination, however much you alter the journey if your path is always going to drag you towards one destination which fate has ordained for u, where is the thrill in calling it "I changed my FATE!!!" No you didnt, maybe we all just happened to take a detour and reahed the same point.

FATE,DESTINY,KARMA whatever word we give it, it raises hopes for some and squashes hope for another.Looks like we are living in a schizophrenic world which presents a different persona to each being looking at it, its core being the same. 

The search for the core still on.......

Freedom

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Cities/Mangalore/Ram_Sena_on_pub_attack_Were_custodians_of_Indian_culture/articleshow/4033150.cms

Yet another year and yet another "Pub clean up"!

So what was the prime motive for this one now? Well, the women have strayed from Indian morals and customs said the perpetrator of the attacks.And what may I ask are these lofty Indian customs and morals that deem it fit for a few handful of men to victimise women under its name?  

Who are these people who tell women how to behave and how to respect moral code? Can they do it themselves? If all they wanted to do was uphold womens values they would not be the ones kicking the girls,pulling their hair and throwing them out.Maybe according to these men thats how women are supposed to be treated.You can kick them and pull their hair and slap them all under the name of trying to save them from "Non Indian Influences". 

What is the knowledge of Indian culture these "Men" have?If it is culture you truly seek go back and read the history of our country where women were treated on par with men, where they had a equal say in society.Dont blanket your disgusting Male egotism and need for publicity under the garb of a custodian.You want to protect women then protect them against molesters,rapists, wife beaters,people who promote female infanticide.The list is endless for you to choose from.You need not have to run to the nearest pub and stamp in your ignorance there.

How we allow such extreme forms of nuisance to flourish in our society year after year and still expect our children to uphold and understand human values is just beyond me. Isn't the right to exist and right to express your opinions and desire the same for one and all?

"Moral Policing" -A fancy term for an unpardonable crime. Now many of you might not agree that it should get counted in the genre of "Unpardonable crimes" but if we belong to a creed of people who had to fight for our long and hard won freedom , any action and I mean absolutely anything which is in contradiction to the freedom of the citizens of our country gets classified as an "Unpardonable crime".More and more such incidents make you reluctantly believe that "Freedom" is not a term that can be used equally by both the genders.

A couple of days into the incident and we all(womens organisations in particular) shout and scream and yell terms like 'Dont Talibanise India' etc etc, but the end of such acts is nowhere in sight."Unbalanced ,unfair" we can cry ourselves hoarse but lets face it,the situation around us doesnt show any signs of being altered.We as women have been led to believe that we are in fact free to do whatever we want and are on par with men.True freedom does not come from merely walking about the streets at any given hour, but it is ours when we can think on our own accord, not colored by someones elese's thoughts and fears.

A child is not born discriminating , we as adults and parents feed the poison of discrimination into our childrens heads slowly ,surely and steadily and corrupt their mind of all equality they could have had.Lets face it as girls ,we are either taught to live timidly and in fear or taught to trample over the opposite sex.Extremes is what we have been fed.The rare one who dares to break the mould and to rise above and think(leaving gender out of her thinking process) is branded with myriad imaginative terms.

I have known a few so called"Liberal" people (men and women) to claim "Oh well maybe the girls had to pay the price. who asked them to go to a pub and drink in the first place? Its better to be safe than sorry!"

Hmm... so this is all it boils down to ,lets be safe rather than sorry . So starting from today all the girls should stop going and doing things they want to do and live in fear under the guise of being "SAFE" . We will never tell the miscreants to clean up their act but rather will tell the persecuted to remain SAFE and stay away from such people.A woman who goes to a pub (which is a scandalised term in many indian households) will be henceforth asked to remain safe in her home and not indulge in such "activities" but a man does not feel the need for this safe haven.A woman with a drink is a social stigma, but nope not a man .After all arent we the ones who have coined the phrase "Boys will be Boys" which brushes away anything a man does.

This is not a cry for womens rights but a cry to stop being hypocritical about fancy and oft distorted terms like "Value","Culture,"Morality" and etc.

Charismatic pelvic thrust ????

This is what I picked from an Indian Newspaper:

"Anil Kapoor, Shah Rukh: SHOW STEALERS

    All the Hollywood A-listers were present at the 66th Golden Globe award ceremony, and our dear Rahman did us proud by bagging the coveted Globe, but two of our desi superstars – Shah Rukh Khan and Anil Kapoor managed to steal a part of the limelight, too! Where the rest of Hollywood sat and clapped their hands in the most elegant sort of way, Anil who was excited for obvious reasons, gave a standing ovation to Danny Boyle. And was just short of doing that Lakhan type of a jig. Adding to the masti was Shah Rukh, flashing his dimples, throwing kisses at the audience… and opting to do the ‘pelvic Indian dance’. They were our heroes that evening, like they are every other evening. But we are happy they showed the world what our Indian cinema and personalities are... cheerful, fun-loving and charismatic! "

I can understand over the top praise for Rahman!His music was good and he won.

But really now, did Anil Kapoor and the "Pelvic thrust" comment made by SRK really define Indian "Charisma"?

When people are thrust onto a global stage the last comment they should be making is about ill-conceived stereo types. Is Indian cinema and Indian dance in particular all about Pelvic thrusts? Looks like everything SRK states whether it is nonsense or not is lauded by the Indian press.

We thrive on stereotypes and dont ever want to come out of the mould,no matter how fallacious they are.

Im sure every Indian watching the Golden globe would have cringed in their seats watching Anil Kapoor act like a kid lost in a candy store... 

What difference does it make to Indian Cinema whether a Golden Globe recognises the movie or not? Correct me if im wrong, the movie was directed and produced by a britisher with the only Indian connection being the actors (who weren't nominated by the way) and the story of course.

So whom exactly was Anil Kappor doing a "Lakhan Jig" for ? Hmm lets see.....

Was it for himself? He wasnt nominated and his role in the movie if not anything was meagre. So that would seem pretty stupid.

For the Director Danny Boyle? Hmm thts interesting, Ive never seen him come up with such jigs for any of his other Directors.

Still wondering....

I just dont understand why Indian Cinema craves for outside recognition,the Golden Globes and Oscars in particular. The likes of Satyajit Ray didn't crave for an Oscar to recognise their cinematic genius. But maybe thats just it, true genius never seeks validation.

If what Anil Kapoor did was a snippet of what Indian Cinema and its personalities are, I surely hope the likes of Irfan Khan,Anupam Kher etc check themselves into some other galaxy!

I hope the press stop touting such ridiculous behaviour as a ode to "Indian personalities."

Prayer for a miracle....

Where were the self appointed custodians of the localites when Mumbai was defaced by the "REAL OUTSIDERS"? Not one was visible on the streets of the city along with their band of followers trying to reclaim Mumbai for Mumbaikars.So, all the talk about being there and protecting the interests of the manoos came down to Zilch.

Every citizen of this country was united as one against the people who dared harm one of their own. Each and every one shared the grief and shock of a Mumbaikar whether he was in Chennai or Delhi. This should be enough to prove to the politicians that their partisan policies didn't cut any ice with the "MANOOS" of this country.

I guess the pledge we all learnt and recited in school wherein we say "All Indians are my Brothers and Sisters" needs to be reiterated to politicians in particular.Not a single one of them displayed any sense of solidarity given the nature of events.Instead they were busy bickering and pointing fingers at one another while the real manoos of Mumbai bore brunt to an inconceivable and unpardonable act of hatred.

Time and again some or the other part of our country has come under the wrath and fire of unexplainable acts of extremism.Its the same every time, we cry out in anger and disgust and then slowly we are inured to the situation until another one bigger than before strikes us.For a couple of days the newspapers and TV channels are full of reports and blogger's like you and me vent out about the situation blaming the politicians. And after that its back to business as usual, the incident is lost and forgotten ,only to be marked by fancy name tags like "26/11" etc etc.Will this ever change?

Waiting for the Phoenix to emerge from the ashes...

Wht the.......

01.Why do people decide to put a winky/smiley etc etc after asking "How is married life?" Am I getting worked up or has everyone else succumbed to unwarranted imagination!!!

02. "Arranged Marriage is not SPICY enough" with the ubiquitous winky following it of course---- I tried and tried to understand the import of this one and in the end cried.( Ok that was a cheesy bit of rhyming stuff going on there, but given the situation ,cheesiness is in order)

Someone please BAN the wink emoticon since it is futile to drill sense into some heads about its appropriate usage!

And the winner is.........$$$$$$$$$$

Welcome aboard to a world where the winner is declared on the basis of the bank balance.Have you ever looked around and felt like the world is getting a crazier place to live in simply because you have to do a lot of unnecessary things just to fit into this world?

Success is equated to the amount of money you make.There is a crazy rush for people to buy/invest in huge properties and flats and et all...Now this one always stumped me why would you kill yourself with a huge loan to be kept paying off till you are ready to drop dead so that you can buy multiple properties??? Hey buddy isnt one gonna be enough for you to live in? The last time I knew/saw we can exist only in one place at one time... whats the mad rush to kill yourself for then?

Im not against ambition and love for materialistic pursuits, but im definitely against a pursuit just for the sake of it or for the sake of others. Sometimes I think people buy /expend themselves only to stand upto a particular level in a society which will judge them based on the property/assets they can show . Whats surprising is that you talk to the same people and they will give you a sermon on how their parents had an easy life and how life in the villages and the 'old days" was better.. Well ,excuse me... but aren't you the one complicating your own life by living upto someone elses's standards and confusing them to be your own?

I guess we are living in a planet which has been zombied out by "Success" criterion that revolves solely on money and how much of it you can churn out. Everything has become a basis and standard for how much you earn.It scares me especially on how we are influencing the coming generation.We no longer dare to encourage our children to go and find their calling in "alternative" fields simply coz the monetary benefits are perceived to be less. Are we doing the right thing here? We are stangling true talent and making our children Factory products.Each one sounding and looking the same. All in the name of competition.

Hmmmmm......

When you have just shifted out to a new City /Town /Village /Country or even just moved out to a new street the one ubiquitous question you are faced with is "so how do you find life there?". First and foremost isn't life the same everywhere? "Yeah Scotty!the life form here is different,the human species here has actually found a way to generate 6 hands!". But seriously it got me thinking and I started noticing all the things that truely felt different or weird in some cases compared to the place I have lived in all these years.

1. The moon always appears bigger than back home .Its almost as if you can stand on a hig rise building and grab the moon!Hmmm The moon was a far away object of fantasy in my land but here it looks enormous, takes on a more scientific approach when you look at it not a poetic one. Maybe thats why song writers back home sing songs praising the moon whereas here it is just "THE MOON."

2. Certain highways have deer crossing symbols,now I know its not unheard of.But here's what tickles me ,its a straight highway ,no turns or twists and the symbol pops up saying "Deer crossing next 1 mile". Wow! How the hell do the deer know that they need to cross the road right about here? I mean they are deer for heavens ,cant they just prance about and start crossing the road even before the symbol????

3.I find it extremely weird that you can actually walk upto a theatre 5 mins before the latest release and still get tickets for it.Doesnt matter even if it is "BatMan".Now this just depresses me, its almost as if you dont need to plan to watch a movie. Miss the hulaboo of getting tickets for new releases 2 days in advance.Booking tickets for the latest releases used to be like a festival celebration.

4.The foothpaths or the so called pedestrian walkways are not accesible to vehicles from the main road!!!. I mean, come on what if I want to ride the bike on the walkway to beat the traffic? Creativity on the roads is stifled in this part of the world I tell you.

5.People log onto weather.com to religiously know about the weather and only then leave their homes.And what's weirder is that the forecast is true more often than not.Now where is the fun in going out prepared for the rain?How the hell are you supposed to comprehend songs like 'Barso re' if you are always preparing to stay dry!

6.Brocolli in Pav-Bhajji in Indian restaurants.This is not just weird and depressing ITS SACRILEGE!

7.Buying Milk in cans :-(

8.There are 'Stores' on one hand and then 'Indian stores' on the other hand.

9.Sarees ,Salwar khameez ,kurtis and kurtas etc are no longer called clothes but they are called "Indian Costumes" (even by Indians).I always felt costume was a word you used for the kind of clothes jokers wear or probably something you would pick up for a fancy dress party.Why call clothes you wear in one part of the world on a regular basis a COSTUME? Ive never heard of Trousers being called "Western Costume" in India.

10.There is an election going on in this country and you dont find a single poster anywhere! I mean c'mon whats the point if you cant print posters and throw/Park them all over the city? Thats what is fun about elections!