beginning of a new era?

had been discussing about how rapid social changes are going tobe in the next decade. i foresee the 2010-2020 to be going thru as rapid a social/moral changes all over the world, as the 1990-2010 period had been.

in here, i see the fasttrack watch adverts (where break up and move on is shown as just another fun thing to do), ND Tiwari scandal (these things are done by even governors/octogenarians!), and many more to come..
happy new decade anyway ;)

what's the difference between these two

What's the difference between these two pictures?





maybe 10,000 more people are seen the 'babri masjid' destruction photo.
ultimately shouldn't both be seen as terrorist, anti-humane activities?
shouldn't these questions be asked to conscience? (these pics are just examples, used to drive home a point).

2 themes:

themes are to think about... something to think about. here are 2 of them.

A1) if 2 ppl / 2 grps meet.. and one is propogating peace and non-violence, and the other propagates violence and control, then guess who will win? - if the violent person/group attacks, the peace loving group/person will have to do something to defend themselves.. right? Thus making them part of the 2nd grp/violent grp.. right?

A2) suppose there is a situation – like its shown in a movie.
A hero is accused of something. Something like a financial crime/fraud… but his intentions are good – he’s trying to bring about a positive change in society thru that.. (or he could be shown as suffering from childhood abuse… or he’s angry and had very negative experiences, unfairly dealt with by system/corrupt politicians, and he’s aggressively responding to that..
There are supporting actors.. like hero’s girl friend… who decides to stick with him (because she loves him deeply, or for another reason – she is scared of independency, and wants to cling on to him, or becoz she sees competition in a pretty girl colleague of the hero…
There’s another colleague who dispite everyone against the hero, goes on to support the hero… (again, becoz, he’s a good guy, or he’s a really bad guy – who wants to nail the hero, so he wants the hero to admit/plead guilty… or becoz his daughter is kidnapped by a criminal boss, who orders him to make the hero look bad…
There’s another colleague, who’s arch enemy of the hero… becoz, he is jealous and hates him.. or becoz he’s just pure evil, and wants to control everything, or becoz the hero’s father is an escaped Nazi, who got settled in usa with an assumed name and nationality – other than german… and enemy of hero is son of a Jew who was killed by hero’s father (well, its very filmy, and seem far fetched… I did that to drive the point home v. strongly).

… I added the reasons behind every characters actions into different things – to show that its not actions, but the intentions behind them that makes something or somebody noble or evil…
Its easy to see through, if you remember just some stories you’ve read, or some movies you’ve seen..
In our real life, things are much more complicated becoz we have no real idea about the real intentions of people around us… so its not easy to judge and label ppl into good/bad categories within seconds.. movies and TV let us do that.. so we get hooked on to them… hooked on to that un-real world, even tho we criticize the artificiality of those shows/media/movies…

What’s wrong with this story?

disclaimer: this is a fictional account, but could be culturally/morally shocking. please do not read ahead, if you detest such boundary crossers.

2 psychiatrists are sitting and casually chatting. Seems like their work is done, and they are catching up with gossip after work. One shrink is sitting in a big chair facing a desk and across the desk, there are 2-3 small chairs. Other shrink is standing near the window, and looking half out and half in.
A youth enters that room, greets and says he wants to talk. The shrink on the chair looks a bit bored, but without saying much, he points the youth to a chair across the desk.

The youth says, he is following up with the shrinks treatment (establishing him as a client), and both client and doctor are familiar with each other. The youth then talks about some of his current problems… the shrink kinda shrinks into his chair with an inevitability and throws a what-to-do-now look at his colleague.

In between the youth’s talk, the shrink on chair motions him to stop… and asks his colleague, who seems half in and out of that room.. “hey, does this sound familiar to you?”. The standing shrink turns a bit more in, and says, “yeah, my client I told you about that other day, he had some of these symptoms.. haha,.. so gay man”… and both the shrinks laugh.

The youth waits few seconds patiently to continue with his problems.. the shrink in the chair also turns towards him to hear the story out till end. The youth hesitates, and then asks, “is this client’s name mr. so and so? “.. the standing shrink turns around a bit, thinks and says.. yeah, that’s his name. the youth jumps out of the chair, and says, excuse me for a minute, and flips out his mobile and walks out of that room.. the shrinks re-start their gossip chat without losing another second.

The youth calls up someone on phone and asks him to be at the shrinks office as soon as possible… the other one on phone seems to agree. The youth sits down in a chair outside and waits.

After some minutes, another youth comes in from outside, enters the waiting room, and greets the youth who was waiting. They shake hands and chat, and then smile and hug.. and hug again.. and enter the shrink’s room.

They greet both the shrinks loudly and say.. hey, we know what was with us two now.. we are together now. See ya later. One of the shrinks says, try to take an appointment next time… and winks at the other shrink.

The youths holding hands, walk out of the room.. curtain.


……from asian cultural perspective, the things that are wrong would be different, and from a western/europian cultural perspective, some other things might seem wrong. There are lots of politically incorrect things happening in this little scene, but what’s acceptable and what’s seen as shockingly inappropriate is based on your cultural background. (this scene is a completely fictional creation, to be aware of cultural and moral influences on all of us, and how they color our perspective, make us snap happy in being judgemental, and for getting insights, and does not mean disrespect for anyone.. jeez man, nobody got robbed or killed… and shut up or get bludgeoned ;)

Enthu

......hey, recently had opportunity to spend time with high school (indian 8th to 10th std) students from poor slum areas, a group had organized a free discussion form/training for them.
initially they were not really enthusiastic... they seemed to have lots of negativity and aggression. it's like - we generally didn't take any favors / free services with 'gratitude'... i think inside them, they are insecure about getting exploited, and as well as, see themselves as demeaned about taking such a free service..
they try to maintain, i am cool, i am on my own/independent, etc kinda shade. (oops.. disclaimer: I am not trying to judge, or stereotype a group based on their economic strata. Just jotting down my thinking process here).

lots of them have dreams of becoming a mafia/criminal don... they come out with such names (some of those people/names i didnt even know.. they connect such people with quick wealth... glamour symbols like - expensive mobile (which is a major craze for them), car, going to five star hotel, etc.. these dreams/aspirations may seem juvenile/infantile to other classes (middle/upper)... but if you dig deeper/unlayer, then you can see that they are absolutely denied these things.. (for example, their aspirations include - taking a taxy/cab, or an A/C cab.. with full confident (that they can pay the fare without worrying about it).

so, it seems bit sad too.

and their role models include the people most visible.. especially in their community/nearby areas... big intellectuals, diplomatic (read boring) achievers/celebrities dont seem to excite them enough.

they seem to prefer louder fashion statements... without really thinking about the influences/causes behind them.. grabbing attention seems to be the funda behind wearing something. (and again, if you think - getting attention is like a basic need.. if you dont have food, you wont be worrying about a classy diner place to have it. so give me attention first.. then later comes respect.. (and i am not even sure i will get respect anyway).
- discussion about 'how media influences' with them was well received ;)

there is anxiety about 'may not be able to perform well in exam/s'. what kind of future /future career will unfold infront of me, worries them as well.

all in all, i guess i learned more... was able to deal with some of my stereotypes... and being non-judgemental.. whew! that's allways tough.. its a new battle with it everytime ;)

and as i heard:
How many roads must a person take
To be consumed,..

How much peace must a person make
To find that detachment…

How many people must a person love
To find the right one…

How much wish should be there
To find a winning lottery…

What must a person gamble
To be finally famous,

Why must a love remain to poke
Coals of lost dreams and pain…

How much more rhetoric will it take
For you to say, shut up.

the goods

Don’t we all love to be fooled into buying something?

And how should you sell?

What if you were asked to plan an ad campaign for an ‘x’ product? Say toothpaste… would you really put in just the basic info, and say – its ok to buy this paste? Or would you like to discreetly add your paste into the dream life style / dream world your buyer wants to be in?

Check out these scenes from ‘the goods: live hard, sell hard’. (spoiler warning – don’t read ahead, if you don’t want to know its story).

The main character, don ready, talks about America and freedom, inside a flying plane, to be able to smoke a cigarette… and gets the whole plane full of people shouting to be free… including the flight staff.

Again, on don ready’s script, a used car place owner, comes on TV and lies, he’s about to die due to cancer, and he wants to sell his cars for the last time… such a claim (or advert) seems stupid… but is a lie about death a lie, and a lie about non-existent quality not a lie? Or acceptable lie? (

[i am not not judging advertisements or people here... if you can keep aside being judgemental about what's happening around us, and see it as a human behavior, (like animal or bird behavior, or just as 'nature'), then you'll see much more of the world and be amused... You'd know yourself better too.. but its not easy, i keep slipping up all the time].

Then, don ready is talking to his enemy in that movie, and manages to talk about his enemy’s dream, and shamelessly plugs in a car he wants to sell – seems impossible? Hmm… think back about what kind of crazy things you’ve brought before… a few months back, or some years back… everybody does it.

Also check out what’s a Nigerian buy back, in used car sales… so similar to breaking up and patching up again.. ;) Couldn’t resist that meanness ;)

Anyway, astala vista for now.

dogma

recently had some discussions, debates with my friends... these were quiet chilled out, and open... stereotypes, what's acceptable and not in today's degrading morale standards, who's a freak in a society, and who are all to blame etc. were some topics opined on freely without worrying about political correctness...

i was stuck by the impact of culture in childhood era, in each one of these opinions... exposure to role models (or in general, other people around them) also seem to leave imprint like beliefs.
there seems to be a growth in rigidity (difficulty in questioning long held beliefs/opinions, and lack of willingness to even listen to new concepts/ideas/opinions... forget trying to learn anew.

for example, a vegetarian from birth, expresses disgust and inability to even think of eating non-vegetarian food... sometime to extend of inability to eat if a non-veg food is near their table.
a non-veg food eater expresses same/similar emotions/effects, when asked about a type of meat (such as pork or cow meat - pork not eaten by muslims, cow meat not eaten by hindu's etc).

i've heard similar strong opinions about various issues.. as if those opinions are 'gods word'... few of these opinions categorized as:-
homosexuality - as a menace to society in general,
gender equality - women should not be given so much liberties/equal status,
casteism - where some or one caste is seen as superior,
racism - degrading blacks (as per their own terminology), even tho the opinion makers wouldn't have met many african descendants, except few cursory glances across the street, that too just on enough occassions to be able to count in fingers.
religion and existence of god/s - and also about un-natural powers of some cult guru
and so on...

one person might hold a logical/rational/scientific view about some aspects, and also hold illogical/irrational/non-scientific views about some other aspects... often these become contradictory... but the beliefs accultured during childhood age (maybe even upto 20 years of age... kinda become foundational structure...

i find this contradictions, and need to have myths to have an identity amazing.
if you have anything to share, please do comment... ;)

holy spiderman

imagine that! it must be the most lousy tv news report ever. well, it was about a guy, who accidentally overheard about a terrorist bombing plan, of a city, was unable to pretend that he hadn't heard about it, and got kidnapped by the 4some gang of terrorists and taken to their lair.

fortunately he was able to escape, to the attic of that building, call up the cops on mobile phone and miraculously the police were able to capture the 4 terrorists, and defuse their bombs from 3 major areas of the city.
that's not the main part of this tv news report...

the guy who thus saved the city from 3 could be bombings is obviously interviewed on tv live, and he says, he was not afraid, and could do all that becoz of blessings of his god 'spiderman'. he even has a spiderman worship area in his house, and spiderman prayer and hymn book... probably the only one copy in existence.

so, if you are to interview him, how would you go about it? deride his belief (religious or comical) or appreciate his heriocs?

scared sadhu

Mid day in the month of June.. from around night 10pm to next day 5pm, I had a whirlwind of experiences…

Thinking about self as a ‘scared Sadhu’ (not sacred;) as my lifestyle indicates, I want to be like an ascetic and think and try to figure out many questions deemed philosophical, but don’t want to totally live like a hermit… I’d like to surf internet, check out a new facebook application like ‘what’s your real age’, go out with friends and travel, enjoy, and still have minimum hassles of earning money and work in a business way etc.

Anyway, got on to a train from middle are of Mumbai to north east direction, in a local train, chatted with a man praying to Allah with beads, and discussed religious practices with him, he was about past his 50’s mostly with a round beard and a square cap.

Next a family of 5, husband, wife, 2 girls (maybe aged 7-8 and 3-4, and a 2 year old boy… made a paper bird and gave to the eldest of the girls, the smaller one wanted one for herself, as I didn’t have paper, another passenger next to me tore a piece of paper from some sheets he had with him and gave to me… it was amazing cooperation and harmony around… I couldn’t believe it’s a local train compartment at 11.30pm at night.. the mother of that family was wearing a black Purdah which covered her face, except for eyes, as well… I was stuck by the differences in dressing up, but the same human vein in all of us runs the same and thus everyone socializes and mixes up so quickly and nicely…

Went to a friend’s house, stayed overnight.. chatted about various stuff, argued and analyzed n number of concepts and things… returned back to Mumbai… chatted about psychology near a tea shop, chatted with a taxi driver who drove me back to another near by area, he told me that he’s been working in Mumbai as a taxi driver since 33 years, and now feeling tired of Bombay and wants to go back and settle in his native village… how people call, ‘hey taxi’, as if they are talking to that taxi–automobile and not to a person, the driver… how respect in greeting someone has gone down over the years along with increasing crowd and population.

Reached home, relaxed, ate a mango for lunch, watched some movie… slept.. another ordinary, ‘nothing happened’ day.. of course, thought of a short story called ‘idream’.. and it becoming a movie… an indie film ofcourse.. bye.

i understand you...

I understand you…
When we say that, we don’t really realize the complexity of emotions..
Let’s harp a bit on those old gender stereotypes… a typical male gesture of denying grief… somebody, let’s a say woman, who has known grief tells him, ‘I understand you’… but she really doesn’t. because a grief-denied is different from a grief-accepted emotional state. Acceptance of ‘grief’ gives it some additional tones (of emotions), and denial of grief may add bit of frustration, guilt, anger etc. in to that state/shade. (we also tend to use other sensory organ words to describe emotions, like a visual, where we say it’s a shade… or say it has a different tone (musical/auditory).

Maybe we really don’t have words to describe emotions in their own category… maybe we haven’t really understood this sixth sensory organ. Of course, ‘emotion’ itself is difficult to define. How much of our thoughts and behavior gets included as ‘emotion’? the difficulty in showing our emotions, like through food (taste), music, paintings, sex & smell (audio, vision, kinesthetic/touch, nose in that order). Maybe smell still remains a bit unknown in definition terms.
We live in a world created by the education and culture etc. to keep us from exploring ourselves. Basically most force is used to learn what’s good behavior (for the society/clan) by elders. Any deviation in thinking/exploring on your own is punished through various systems and emotional blackmails. If subjective reality is not along with THE objective/social/clan reality, then every effort to get them in line through morality to insanity… though I have difficulty in telling them apart ;)
Thus we are taught from early enough to suppress emotions, deny, and most of all not to share and express them. Thus our emotional communication suffers from multiple blocks… sad isn’t it ;)

re-blog

been away long... from blogging..
currently bit at peace with work schedule... getting a breather... to create some own space.. met some old friends, travelled a bit..
watched lots of movies too..
mainly, movie on john f kennedy's brother, "bobby", and movie starring meryl streep and philip seymour "doubt" stands out.
bobby shows the day and night of bobby kennedy's assassination, kind of like oscar winning 'crash', but bobby's passion, and his repeated usage of word 'compassion' stood out... i had absolutely no idea about this 'bobby' guy to much extent than reading it somewhere... this movie is criticised for bit too emotional, but its not over the top, and enjoyable if not viewed with excessive cynicism.

doubt handles a very sensitive issue.. regarding doubt on a priest's conduct with his altar boy... powerful drama, though might seem bit slow to some.. again compassion or lack of it in even christian institutions stands out in this movie.. compassion which is considered as the main theme of almost all religions in the world often remains in the subconscious level when compared with fanaticism of following rituals...

dawn to dusk, there are 3 parts of this movie. but the part one directed by robert rodriguez and written by quentin tarantino stands out... salma heyek's dance in a everything-in-excess-saloon/bar is amazing... the lawless town of mexico, with 'titty twister' bar/saloon exists in everyman's imagination, i guess... but not easy to accept such a fantasmorgaphic (made up word ;) happenings even to self in this moral policed world... the underage kids in the bar is a touch of genius on the writer's part. of course, its not for everybody.. the guitar and music of this movie of course rocks.
cya guys...

indea...

well, its been so long. now i am back in india, mumbai.
so many changes, no blogs. guess it depends on the time you get. when too many things are happening, you are busy doing them.. and when you find plenty of time even to write blogs, then suddenly there is nothing to write about.

anyway, i am back. chill...