22 July, 2011

Looking the other way...

brings us to the question- Why would you want to look the other way to begin with?
Is the sight in front of you unappealing, an eyesore, difficult to chew and digest or simply because seeing it would further reinforce that things aren't as much in your control as you would like to think?

I suspect the latter. Because usually I find (on intro and retrospection) that's how things are pour moi. And it's extremely annoying and not entirely liberating to be honest with yourself. All honesty does it make things unarguably clear about the prevailing circumstances, the likelihood of things being in the future or how they've actually gone down in the past. Honesty yanks off your glasses- rose tinted and otherwise and forces you to look at things and their underbelly.

And while a good, hard look at things is usually educative in itself- it isn't a lesson that you might have wanted to learn in the first place.
Ergo, selective vision or looking the other way.

You know there's something going down that you aren't entirely right with in your mind but to get involved and set it right the way you see it may involve stepping into a quagmire or opening up a can of gigantic worms! 


Now WHO is this day and age wants to deal with the creepy, crawlies of human behavior unless the pay offs are totally worth it? Not many of us. Because human behavior is often tidal in it's nature. The tsunamis take their time getting generated but the tides and ebbs keep occurring and unless you're quite sure of getting swept under or away, most of us are ok with getting wet every now and then.
Keeps life interesting even. Adds a headache or two in the process but hey- omelettes and eggs huh?

Here's to looking away, hoping that playing semi-ostrich leads to peace of mind and not pieces and that while your head is in the sand someone doesn't come and kick the living daylights out of you!


Salut!

07 July, 2011

I don't understand..

quite a few things but reading the paper gives rise to more things that fall under that particular ambit of non-comprehension.
For example- 
  • Why is it so bad to let the Tibetans living in Nepal to celebrate the Dalai Lama's birthday? Is Nepal so utterly under the yoke of the Chinese that it feels that such an occasion merits a ban?
  • How a life long coach thinks he can get away with saying that he didn't have an inkling of the "contaminated" food supplements he gave to his athletes? Dude, if they started winning more after the supplements alone, maybe it should've occured to you to check if they were merely vitamins alone? Which nutritional supplement is so kickass that it'll enhance so many athletes' prowess? Are you that green?
  • The Telengana Issue- this merits more rambling so no more bullets for now. Just prose.
I've been a gypsy all my life. Indian and all that sure, but linguistically am not entirely of my native state. I have links to Calcutta or West Bengal overall because of the people there who have a connection to me either by friendship or family. But no such sense of belonging occurs to me merely because I was born and half the people there speak a language that I do.
I happen to speak two other Indian languages with far more proficiency than Bangla and can also think in them. That by itself should speak volumes right? Being able to contemplate in a language? 
But neither do I align myself with those geographical areas of India where those languages are spoken, simply because I don't feel like I belong there.
I've finally put down roots in Hyderabad courtesy a myriad of reasons, but had things worked out differently I'd be writing this blog sitting in either Bangalore or Bombay today. 

Whether it's salacious reporting about youngsters killing themselves for the sake of a "Telangana" state of not, I'd really want to know for once, what a damn state is supposed to mean to someone. Does one's identity begin and end with the geographical and linguistic boundaries. There are people in villages who probably haven't seen the inside of a major city in a while, indulging in self-immolation for the sake of the T-state. Either they value themselves very high or they place a massive premium on their action; thinking it'll spur the powers that be to conform to the demands.

And is it really the demands of the masses? Any picture in the paper, any morcha taken out seems to be a collection of ne'er do wells who have been hired or influenced to join in to swell the numbers of the agitators. If anyone were to ask them about why they're agitating and how life will be different for them if a state is carved out of A.P they'll go into goldfish mode and just open and shut their traps aimlessly.

I do believe that while people want the better things in life, they also want to live in peace. Parents don't want their kids not going to school day after day, daily wage earners don't want public transport disrupted so they can't go and earn their livelihood and even politicos don't want to go on fake fasts on and off because guess what? Someone just might have a camera focused on them for good and then they might just have to pull of a proper stoppage of food and water and not merely do a bowel-cleansing 24 hour "fasting" skit.

In states which are geographically spread over different kinds of topography, it may very well make sense of have regional headquarters or separate centers to take care of specific needs of the people, but if every time a demand for a state has to be conceded then the map's going to end up looking like scrambled eggs. And if the formation of a separate state led to ease in governing, promise of a better way of life or at least cessation of the demands of the locals then it might make sense. But when it all boils down to a power play then effectively no one wins, we all sit on the bleachers and watch the drama and impressionable young people go on sacrificing themselves for naught.

If it makes financial sense at the end of the day, the state'll be formed. As long as life can continue being in flux despite increasing agitations, it won't. So I guess there'll be more cookouts on busy junctions, more resignation drama and more students resorting to various means to hurt themselves, and the rabble rousers will just keep screaming themselves hoarse. There's just no place for sentiments in the whole equation at the end of day.

Jai (pick a word, they're all up for grabs aren't they?)!!