I am back! Offer your brains so I can feast on them.
Ok. Fine. Don’t. Selfish people. Want to keep all your brains for yourself! Anyway, let me get on with what I wanted to say. Lots and lots…and lots of things have been happening and like always, it’s a blend of “oh so painful” and “oooh so nice”. And in the middle of all this is me. So then, without further ado, let me begin.
Keeping in sync with my affinity for things unplanned (except for a few situations, of course) I suddenly decided that since Jaipur is not that far off and most people who mattered were either out of Delhi or out of touch, it will be a nice idea to hop on to a bus and go to the Pink City for Diwali. The idea was great but the execution, not quite. To begin with, the buses starting from Bikaner House in Delhi were supposedly “full” and employees there could be seen openly selling tickets in black and making what they called “Diwali profit”. A press card or a police ID proved extremely helpful though, as I later found out. The bus rolled out of Bikaner House at sharp 1.15 in the morning. At least punctuality was a virtue the RTDC still has. Now, I was on the seat in the middle of the last row. Shaky but spacious. At least I could stretch my legs, though it’s a different thing that parts of my body like the neck, would also get stretched but that was inevitable. Then I suddenly saw this woman walk up to me and stand right in front of me, moving her head left and right like she was watching a tennis match! My estimate said she was around 29, unless she used one of those anti aging creams. So then she sat down and handed over her bag asking me if I could shove it under the seat in front of her. I did. Then it happened! Like the Tsunami…like a volcanic eruption…like a hail of bullets from an air raid…like Rajnikanth’s 60 kicks in a second…she started rattling away at a speed so fast that I doubt if even Michael Schumacher could keep up. The topics included things like how the government servants were cheating people out of money and how her uncle, a crime reporter had secured her a comfy seat, among a zillion other things. Finally, after 20 minutes of a monologue, I guess she lost steam. And went on the mute mode. The experience was so intense that I took me a good 40 minutes to get my concentration back to my Sudoku book. But my ordeal wasn’t over. The two guys sitting on my left then started off in a language that I presume was Hebrew or Arabic. All I could make out was that they sounded like they were clearing their throats repeatedly. I even thought of offering them cough drops. No offence meant though. They went on talking and talking like they’d had a crate of Red Bull. And people say I am talkative.
Suddenly the bus halted. Two guys got in. And one of them reached his seat bonking against the lofts on either sides. The guy was visibly and audibly “high”. Stoned off his mind or sloshed beyond repair, I don’t know, though. His friend had a sheepish “I apologise” look on his face. Once on his seat the stoned/sloshed chap started eating. And boy could he eat!! By the time he finished, there were 6 empty packets of chips, 4 chocolate cake packets, 4 empty sandwich packets, all tossed on the floor of the bus. Instinct told me to kick him in the groin and tell him to pick it up. Even better, stuff it in his mouth. But it wasn’t needed. The conductor did the rest. Though, the being a Volvo, the smell lingered on for a while. Then this guy caused a nuclear explosion. Now I know what people in Hiroshima would have felt like. And I am not elucidating the point.
Somewhere in the middle of all this and old Bollywood music, I dozed off. But I was shaken up, literally by the “firing” woman next to me. She woke me up like either the bus had been hijacked or set on fire. I saw the bus entering a food court run by RTDC. She said she had to go…(you know, go for emergency) and if I would look after her bag. It was more a statement than a request and in my zonked state of mind; I must have nodded my approval because she bolted for the door, stepping on my foot in the process. Bored to the edge of my seat, i got off the bus and got myself an apology for a frappe for Rs. 25 at the counter. As the bus began to leave the RTDC Midway, I climbed back on and sat in the bus. Rest of the journey was thankfully uneventful.
On reaching Jaipur, I walked up to the local bus stand out of my sudden desire to travel in a local bus here. It was 7 in the morning and the guy issuing the tickets was smoking beedi after beedi, turning a blind eye and a deaf ear to the monstrous board right outside the counter that said “Smoking Prohibited. Fine upt o Rs. 200”. So I clicked a nice little picture of him with smoke rolling out of his nostrils and told him and if he didn’t shut that thing off right then, then I would walk up to the nearest police station and get him arrested. He scowled. I scowled back. He grunted, I growled. And after such show of power, he had no choice. I took my ticket and just then it started raining. So I ran under one the tea stalls and drank tea, accompanied by fruit cake from “Rachna Backery”. Decent fruit cake. When I walked back to the terminus, the guy stubbed out his beedi the moment he saw me! I was proud of myself and saw an elderly woman smile gratefully. Nice start to the day it was. The bus came in. And I hopped on for another journey. But that’s for later. That’s quite another story!
Adios.
Sunday, October 18, 2009
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Gods Wanted
I had been suffering from an extreme lack of ideas all this while. Hence, no post. But today, out of the VIBGYOR, I thought of something. Here it is:
The world is changing. And fast! Infrastructure, technology, science and everything else, is undergoing a drastic change. Why should mythology and divinity be any different? In addition to the good old Gods, we need a few young and contemporary ones too. So here is a look at how the recruitment ad for these new Gods will look like.
The department of Divine Resource Management is recruiting for the positions mentioned below. The salaries are negotiable with additional perks like 50% of food and money offered to the deity by devotees. Please read the roles and responsibilities carefully before applying.
God of Traffic Control
The candidates should be skilled in traffic management with minimum 1 year of experience in managing Godly duties. Candidates from departments like War, Wisdom and Destruction will be given preference. Role will include managing traffic in the busy centers, miraculously fixing malfunctioning signals, answering prayers about reducing traffic etc. Ideally, the candidates should be between 40 – 150 years of age, and should, in no way exceed 200 years. Additional responsibility includes cleaning up after accidents as well.
God of Reality Shows
The candidates should be skilled in managing viewer mindsets. They should be well versed with the concept of TRPs and should respond quickly to prayers from producers, directors and viewers. Rewarding fair participation and punishing sleazy practices will also form a part of the role. Minimum 1 year of experience required. Candidates from Knowledge, Music and Intellect will be given preference. Age should not be more than 50 years. Computer literacy is a must.
God of Pollution Control
The candidates should have at least 5 years of experience in various departments. Role will include pollution control, rewarding environmentally aware creatures and punishing reckless creatures. Must respond to prayers from all species within 24 hours. Age should not be less than 200 years. Fraternizing with God of Natural Resources, God of Industrialisation and God of Capitalism will not be tolerated. God of Capitalism does not refer to the US.
God of Advertising
The candidate should specialize in conning techniques and influencing mindsets. Prior experience in any form of communication will be preferred. Should be able to respond quickly to any prayer from anyone in the advertising business. Perks will include a part of the profits. Age, preferably between 50 – 100 years.
All applications should reach the Department of Divine Bullshit, latest by doomsday. Applications received after that will not be tolerated. All applications can be mailed to holycrap@worship.com or alternatively, the candidate can call 1800 – HOLYCRAP for further details.
Till I write something stupid again…
Adios.
The world is changing. And fast! Infrastructure, technology, science and everything else, is undergoing a drastic change. Why should mythology and divinity be any different? In addition to the good old Gods, we need a few young and contemporary ones too. So here is a look at how the recruitment ad for these new Gods will look like.
The department of Divine Resource Management is recruiting for the positions mentioned below. The salaries are negotiable with additional perks like 50% of food and money offered to the deity by devotees. Please read the roles and responsibilities carefully before applying.
God of Traffic Control
The candidates should be skilled in traffic management with minimum 1 year of experience in managing Godly duties. Candidates from departments like War, Wisdom and Destruction will be given preference. Role will include managing traffic in the busy centers, miraculously fixing malfunctioning signals, answering prayers about reducing traffic etc. Ideally, the candidates should be between 40 – 150 years of age, and should, in no way exceed 200 years. Additional responsibility includes cleaning up after accidents as well.
God of Reality Shows
The candidates should be skilled in managing viewer mindsets. They should be well versed with the concept of TRPs and should respond quickly to prayers from producers, directors and viewers. Rewarding fair participation and punishing sleazy practices will also form a part of the role. Minimum 1 year of experience required. Candidates from Knowledge, Music and Intellect will be given preference. Age should not be more than 50 years. Computer literacy is a must.
God of Pollution Control
The candidates should have at least 5 years of experience in various departments. Role will include pollution control, rewarding environmentally aware creatures and punishing reckless creatures. Must respond to prayers from all species within 24 hours. Age should not be less than 200 years. Fraternizing with God of Natural Resources, God of Industrialisation and God of Capitalism will not be tolerated. God of Capitalism does not refer to the US.
God of Advertising
The candidate should specialize in conning techniques and influencing mindsets. Prior experience in any form of communication will be preferred. Should be able to respond quickly to any prayer from anyone in the advertising business. Perks will include a part of the profits. Age, preferably between 50 – 100 years.
All applications should reach the Department of Divine Bullshit, latest by doomsday. Applications received after that will not be tolerated. All applications can be mailed to holycrap@worship.com or alternatively, the candidate can call 1800 – HOLYCRAP for further details.
Till I write something stupid again…
Adios.
Monday, April 20, 2009
The circus is in town!
Five years have passed and psephologists are busy again. The reason is obvious. The circus is back in town, with the complete ensemble of clowns, trapeze artists, flame throwers (they are particularly in demand) and ring masters! We have given this circus a very fancy name: election.
Gnawing away at the roots of the world’s largest democracy is the very crux of the democratic process! It all began with an irate journalist tossing a shoe at the home minister. Then another shoe was tossed at yet another politician. Surprisingly, both shoes missed the mark. I sometimes wonder, if they were meant to hit the target at all. Then suddenly all the political parties stood up and took notice of issues which had earlier vanished into oblivion. What followed was a spate of hate speeches against individuals, parties and religious segments, stomping the entire fabric of secularism. Graves were dug up, and the issues that had been put to rest were raked up again. All for a few votes!
Media is going berserk, holding debate after debate, trying to find sense in this insanity. However, I find a little tint of political alignment despite them claiming the analysis to be impartial. For the common man who casts the vote at the polling booth, it is nothing more than a choice between the devil and the deep sea. I mean really, are we as a country, despite our claims of rapid development, that retarded as a 62 year old democracy? Can we not find one single person in this milling crowd of 1 billion people who will lead the country without thinking about personal gains? Is this the picture that we want to give the world out there? And then we still wonder why tourists come to this country looking for elephants and snake charmers on the road! That’s the picture we have given the world out there. We have told them that we’re just a bunch of clowns.
As a friend of mine often says “we have made a Mickey of ourselves” in front of the whole wide world and we are projecting ourselves as an immature nation. Someone talks about age in politics, someone else picks up demolished mosques and religion as their favourite weapon and the rest, either follow the herd or say things that will probably not make sense even to a 5 year old. Grow up!
But all said and done, I don’t know how much of an impact a piece like this is going to make because I don’t even know how many people will read it. So till it does make a difference, watch the circus and make sure you get the tickets for the front row!
Adios.
Gnawing away at the roots of the world’s largest democracy is the very crux of the democratic process! It all began with an irate journalist tossing a shoe at the home minister. Then another shoe was tossed at yet another politician. Surprisingly, both shoes missed the mark. I sometimes wonder, if they were meant to hit the target at all. Then suddenly all the political parties stood up and took notice of issues which had earlier vanished into oblivion. What followed was a spate of hate speeches against individuals, parties and religious segments, stomping the entire fabric of secularism. Graves were dug up, and the issues that had been put to rest were raked up again. All for a few votes!
Media is going berserk, holding debate after debate, trying to find sense in this insanity. However, I find a little tint of political alignment despite them claiming the analysis to be impartial. For the common man who casts the vote at the polling booth, it is nothing more than a choice between the devil and the deep sea. I mean really, are we as a country, despite our claims of rapid development, that retarded as a 62 year old democracy? Can we not find one single person in this milling crowd of 1 billion people who will lead the country without thinking about personal gains? Is this the picture that we want to give the world out there? And then we still wonder why tourists come to this country looking for elephants and snake charmers on the road! That’s the picture we have given the world out there. We have told them that we’re just a bunch of clowns.
As a friend of mine often says “we have made a Mickey of ourselves” in front of the whole wide world and we are projecting ourselves as an immature nation. Someone talks about age in politics, someone else picks up demolished mosques and religion as their favourite weapon and the rest, either follow the herd or say things that will probably not make sense even to a 5 year old. Grow up!
But all said and done, I don’t know how much of an impact a piece like this is going to make because I don’t even know how many people will read it. So till it does make a difference, watch the circus and make sure you get the tickets for the front row!
Adios.
Sunday, March 29, 2009
That girl who changed me forever
To begin with, this is not what I originally planned to write about. But things so happened that at this point in time, this is the foremost thought in my mind and hence, its here! Anyone who reads this: I DO NOT WANT SYMPATHY OR TOO MUCH ADVICE. Just a genuine and heartfelt prayer will do because what I am going to write about is extremely close to my heart.
I am in love with the most marvelous woman I have known. We were together for a brief period and then things so happened that she wanted to walk out. That was over a year ago. Since then, I have prayed, cried (and I do not do that very often), lived with a hope that she will be back. I even tried ways to stop loving her but nothing would just help! She got back with the guy she was seeing earlier and then she broke up with him again and is with someone else now…or so she tells me. But yes, in my heart I believe that I will win her back. She is probably at the juncture where I was when I was her age. She is 2 and 1/2 years younger than me. I am telling you, this woman is simply wonderful and I believe that one day she will see how much I love her and understand it. But till then, the wait is what hurts. I have never really loved a woman so much and if you have known me, you would know that I am not lying about this. Do me a favour, pray for me. Please.
Thanks…
I am in love with the most marvelous woman I have known. We were together for a brief period and then things so happened that she wanted to walk out. That was over a year ago. Since then, I have prayed, cried (and I do not do that very often), lived with a hope that she will be back. I even tried ways to stop loving her but nothing would just help! She got back with the guy she was seeing earlier and then she broke up with him again and is with someone else now…or so she tells me. But yes, in my heart I believe that I will win her back. She is probably at the juncture where I was when I was her age. She is 2 and 1/2 years younger than me. I am telling you, this woman is simply wonderful and I believe that one day she will see how much I love her and understand it. But till then, the wait is what hurts. I have never really loved a woman so much and if you have known me, you would know that I am not lying about this. Do me a favour, pray for me. Please.
Thanks…
Monday, March 02, 2009
How did I originate?
Ok…it’s been a long time since I have blogged. So I am a little…sort of…umm…let’s say…alienated from the feeling. It’s like not having asked any girl out for a date for a long time and then when a girl pops out of simply nowhere…it feels strange. Nevertheless, let me make an attempt with the hope that you will like it.
After all these years of intense investigation and research, I have finally unearthed the secret of how I came to this world. Now, before you snigger and jump to conclusions, let me clarify that I am talking purely about my interpretation of why I am the way I am.
The year was 1983. The month was December. My parents got married and my paternal grandmother, for reasons known best to her, wanted a grandson. Such was a case with a lot of grandmothers back then but honestly, I personally find no reason to crave for a grandson. Anyway, my parents were obviously under a lot of pressure. So they got down to praying. And as we all know, a good bribe works well not just with humans but with deities as well. When their petition for a son reached God, He was pretty tempted by the various things he had been offered as a bribe so He decided to put this file on the express route. There were other couples who had also placed their petitions so all the humans manufactured at that point of time were booked. Now, when my parents’ petition reached the production department, the craftsmen were a little vexed. All that they had in surplus quantity were animals and some raw material. But the raw material itself was not enough to manufacture a human.
Now, God…being God…came up with a brilliant idea. He decided to mix and match things. Anyway, everything that God gives has a tag that reads “Goods once sold will not be taken back” so that ruled out any chance of an exchange! He picked up the raw material and gave it a human form. Then he picked up the porcupine and took off its hair. Hence I have hair that looks like a porcupine and no matter what I do, it keeps bouncing back to shapelessness. From the giraffe he picked up the height so I ended up being absurdly tall. I do not mean that I am the tallest you will come across but I think my height is absurd nevertheless. Though yes, on the positive side, it allowed me to date the most wonderful woman in the world and her being tall made me feel a little less absurd. For the ears and the nose, he roped in the dog and trust me, it is not one of the best things to have the ears and the nose of a dog because I have ended up hearing and smelling things I would have rather done without. From an elephant God picked up the appetite so I keep eating all the time! Damn! My nose was borrowed from a seal which is why it is round and broad. I mean…that’s one thing I hate about myself!! There are a few other thing I would not mention. In short, I am a mix and match of several species and once God had put me together, he marveled at the strange thing he had created. And for the past 24 years, my parents have time and again debated whether it was a good or bad to push God into sending them a little warped human so soon! No wonder they never wanted to have any more kids. Once bitten…twice shy after all!
Adios.
After all these years of intense investigation and research, I have finally unearthed the secret of how I came to this world. Now, before you snigger and jump to conclusions, let me clarify that I am talking purely about my interpretation of why I am the way I am.
The year was 1983. The month was December. My parents got married and my paternal grandmother, for reasons known best to her, wanted a grandson. Such was a case with a lot of grandmothers back then but honestly, I personally find no reason to crave for a grandson. Anyway, my parents were obviously under a lot of pressure. So they got down to praying. And as we all know, a good bribe works well not just with humans but with deities as well. When their petition for a son reached God, He was pretty tempted by the various things he had been offered as a bribe so He decided to put this file on the express route. There were other couples who had also placed their petitions so all the humans manufactured at that point of time were booked. Now, when my parents’ petition reached the production department, the craftsmen were a little vexed. All that they had in surplus quantity were animals and some raw material. But the raw material itself was not enough to manufacture a human.
Now, God…being God…came up with a brilliant idea. He decided to mix and match things. Anyway, everything that God gives has a tag that reads “Goods once sold will not be taken back” so that ruled out any chance of an exchange! He picked up the raw material and gave it a human form. Then he picked up the porcupine and took off its hair. Hence I have hair that looks like a porcupine and no matter what I do, it keeps bouncing back to shapelessness. From the giraffe he picked up the height so I ended up being absurdly tall. I do not mean that I am the tallest you will come across but I think my height is absurd nevertheless. Though yes, on the positive side, it allowed me to date the most wonderful woman in the world and her being tall made me feel a little less absurd. For the ears and the nose, he roped in the dog and trust me, it is not one of the best things to have the ears and the nose of a dog because I have ended up hearing and smelling things I would have rather done without. From an elephant God picked up the appetite so I keep eating all the time! Damn! My nose was borrowed from a seal which is why it is round and broad. I mean…that’s one thing I hate about myself!! There are a few other thing I would not mention. In short, I am a mix and match of several species and once God had put me together, he marveled at the strange thing he had created. And for the past 24 years, my parents have time and again debated whether it was a good or bad to push God into sending them a little warped human so soon! No wonder they never wanted to have any more kids. Once bitten…twice shy after all!
Adios.
Sunday, November 16, 2008
An extraordinary petition
Hello Sir/Ma’am,
I have heard you’re the President of this country and have a lot powers in matters regarding the safety of all your citizens. Hence I am writing this petition to you because my life is in grave danger. Every successive day brings along new threats.
Let me introduce myself to you so that you are better equipped to understand the gravity of the matter. I am a house lizard and my name is inconsequential. What is relevant is that through my personal experiences, I speak for the millions like me around the world. I have been living in this house ever since I remember. I have adorned the walls of this house ever since childhood and was happy to feed on the insects and roaches in the vicinity. We were a happy family of three brothers and two sisters. Now, I am the only one left alive. Two bothers of mine lost their lives due to food poisoning because they ate up a roach that had been killed by a pest control spray. One of my sisters was killed by the same spray when it was sprayed all over her by this monstrous human. She died an agonizing and undignified death. I mean, killing the prey and predator with the same insecticide is shameful! It has shattered our respect and honour. My youngest brother was flushed away when he went to take a bath and drowned. I didn’t even have the chance to perform his last rites and give him a proper funeral and my youngest sister was shot dead, quite literally. In fact, the same adolescent human who shot my sister is now after my life, armed with a shotgun that fires plastic pellets. Maybe the humans can bear the impact of those pellets but we lizards are fragile creatures. We just resemble dinosaurs and alligators but we are neither as fierce nor as strong as them. In fact, I was under attack last evening and the human shot my tail off! I was supposed to take my girlfriend out to dinner in the loft since it has a marvelous supply of roaches and a variety of other insects but this incident put me through immense embarrassment because not just the other lizards, but even the roaches and flies were laughing at me, even while running for their lives! It was disgusting, to say the least. I do not know what harm I have caused to these humans. Maybe they do not realize that I am their most natural pest control agent with no side effects and my absence shall see the rise of the creepy crawlies in this house. My brown skin compliments the beige walls of this house and to strike up a friendship with humans, I also tired making attractive designs my contorting my body into various shapes, but to no avail. My food supply is dwindling rapidly and I am writing to you from behind the tube light holder where I have been hiding for the last two days. Please send the air force, army, paramilitary forces or whatever else is required to bail me out of here and save my life. Post that, I plan to sue these humans and will be highly obliged if you help me with a few references.
I am really looking forward to a positive response because anything else will be fatal for me.
Thanking you,
Yours sincerely,
The Little House Lizard.
I have heard you’re the President of this country and have a lot powers in matters regarding the safety of all your citizens. Hence I am writing this petition to you because my life is in grave danger. Every successive day brings along new threats.
Let me introduce myself to you so that you are better equipped to understand the gravity of the matter. I am a house lizard and my name is inconsequential. What is relevant is that through my personal experiences, I speak for the millions like me around the world. I have been living in this house ever since I remember. I have adorned the walls of this house ever since childhood and was happy to feed on the insects and roaches in the vicinity. We were a happy family of three brothers and two sisters. Now, I am the only one left alive. Two bothers of mine lost their lives due to food poisoning because they ate up a roach that had been killed by a pest control spray. One of my sisters was killed by the same spray when it was sprayed all over her by this monstrous human. She died an agonizing and undignified death. I mean, killing the prey and predator with the same insecticide is shameful! It has shattered our respect and honour. My youngest brother was flushed away when he went to take a bath and drowned. I didn’t even have the chance to perform his last rites and give him a proper funeral and my youngest sister was shot dead, quite literally. In fact, the same adolescent human who shot my sister is now after my life, armed with a shotgun that fires plastic pellets. Maybe the humans can bear the impact of those pellets but we lizards are fragile creatures. We just resemble dinosaurs and alligators but we are neither as fierce nor as strong as them. In fact, I was under attack last evening and the human shot my tail off! I was supposed to take my girlfriend out to dinner in the loft since it has a marvelous supply of roaches and a variety of other insects but this incident put me through immense embarrassment because not just the other lizards, but even the roaches and flies were laughing at me, even while running for their lives! It was disgusting, to say the least. I do not know what harm I have caused to these humans. Maybe they do not realize that I am their most natural pest control agent with no side effects and my absence shall see the rise of the creepy crawlies in this house. My brown skin compliments the beige walls of this house and to strike up a friendship with humans, I also tired making attractive designs my contorting my body into various shapes, but to no avail. My food supply is dwindling rapidly and I am writing to you from behind the tube light holder where I have been hiding for the last two days. Please send the air force, army, paramilitary forces or whatever else is required to bail me out of here and save my life. Post that, I plan to sue these humans and will be highly obliged if you help me with a few references.
I am really looking forward to a positive response because anything else will be fatal for me.
Thanking you,
Yours sincerely,
The Little House Lizard.
Saturday, November 01, 2008
WE the PEOPLE
In a few moments of idleness today, I was sitting and thinking. Here is what I figured. It may not be a splendid read but might just make sense if you think over it and ponder for a few moments in your spare time, but spare time is a rare commodity and I shall not be least surprised if you find none in your busy schedule.
Throughout my life, I have often heard the elders talking about how our generation is way too different from them and how we have an entirely different perspective of looking at things. We all know that nothing happens without a reason and behind this seemingly different behavioural pattern too there is an array of reasons. Times have changed and so have we as humans. Whether we have truly progressed or regressed is debatable but here are a few things that might be the reason for us being the way we are!
We have seen and experienced a lot in these short spans of lives. To begin with, we belong to the generation that saw the turn of the millennium in their adolescence. Back in 1999, I hardly remember a person who I did not hear talking about Y2K, the year 2000. Almost everyone was talking about how the world would come to a standstill because computers wouldn’t work and things like that. It has been eight years since the turn of the millennium and nothing happened because the problems were taken care of. We belong to the generation that has seen the rise of wars and terrorism like no generation before us. From Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran to Kargil, there has been war everywhere! Terror strikes all across the globe have made us doubt the existence of humanity at times but in the race of everyday life, we have put all of it behind us. We watch the news and forget it. A lot of us are living in alien cities without our families and resort to social networking sites to keep in touch with who we call friends. I must confess that I am one of those myself and I have the time tested excuse “I have no time”. So today, saying hello to a friend means punching out a few words on the keyboard because that’s the easiest way out. We are probably a little more selfish than our predecessors but I think it is just the survival instinct coming into play. In this world, we have to live! We have seen messengers of humanity like Mother Teresa and others leave this world and that spreading fear is fast becoming the prerequisite to gaining respect. The differences between having sex and making love are fast disappearing and the idea of asking someone out for coffee is slowly losing its shelf life. Cigarette and dope sales are shooting through the roof in spite of the fact that we all understand what the flip side is. Are we then headed towards self destruction? No, not quite. I think it is just our way of combating the stress life subjects us to. In fact, the kids now growing up are probably having a harder time because the number of kids playing in a park on any given evening is dwindling rapidly. Looks like it will not be long before they go extinct and the idea of having a good time jumping around in the evening while getting all messy will be no more than a fable. Our lifestyle and we as people are undergoing a metamorphosis, thanks to the pressure that life subjects us to.
What then is the solution? Do we just sit and wait till doomsday to arrive? No. Though, I don’t want to make this sound like a moral science lecture because I don’t think I am qualified enough to deliver one by any parameter but maybe what we can do is sit for a while everyday and go over everything that happened. Maybe we can say hello to the people we really care about just once in a day to let them know that we are thinking of them. Maybe we can take a look at the old photographs and revive the memories entombed in them. There are a lot of things we can do. They need not be of epic proportions. They can be small things because sometimes small things make huge differences. Some people might have an excuse that they don’t have time but remember, nobody has the twenty fifth hour in the day and yet some manage to do all this. So does it mean they are more efficient than the ones who just crib about the lack of time? Think about it if you have a moment.
Adios.
Throughout my life, I have often heard the elders talking about how our generation is way too different from them and how we have an entirely different perspective of looking at things. We all know that nothing happens without a reason and behind this seemingly different behavioural pattern too there is an array of reasons. Times have changed and so have we as humans. Whether we have truly progressed or regressed is debatable but here are a few things that might be the reason for us being the way we are!
We have seen and experienced a lot in these short spans of lives. To begin with, we belong to the generation that saw the turn of the millennium in their adolescence. Back in 1999, I hardly remember a person who I did not hear talking about Y2K, the year 2000. Almost everyone was talking about how the world would come to a standstill because computers wouldn’t work and things like that. It has been eight years since the turn of the millennium and nothing happened because the problems were taken care of. We belong to the generation that has seen the rise of wars and terrorism like no generation before us. From Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran to Kargil, there has been war everywhere! Terror strikes all across the globe have made us doubt the existence of humanity at times but in the race of everyday life, we have put all of it behind us. We watch the news and forget it. A lot of us are living in alien cities without our families and resort to social networking sites to keep in touch with who we call friends. I must confess that I am one of those myself and I have the time tested excuse “I have no time”. So today, saying hello to a friend means punching out a few words on the keyboard because that’s the easiest way out. We are probably a little more selfish than our predecessors but I think it is just the survival instinct coming into play. In this world, we have to live! We have seen messengers of humanity like Mother Teresa and others leave this world and that spreading fear is fast becoming the prerequisite to gaining respect. The differences between having sex and making love are fast disappearing and the idea of asking someone out for coffee is slowly losing its shelf life. Cigarette and dope sales are shooting through the roof in spite of the fact that we all understand what the flip side is. Are we then headed towards self destruction? No, not quite. I think it is just our way of combating the stress life subjects us to. In fact, the kids now growing up are probably having a harder time because the number of kids playing in a park on any given evening is dwindling rapidly. Looks like it will not be long before they go extinct and the idea of having a good time jumping around in the evening while getting all messy will be no more than a fable. Our lifestyle and we as people are undergoing a metamorphosis, thanks to the pressure that life subjects us to.
What then is the solution? Do we just sit and wait till doomsday to arrive? No. Though, I don’t want to make this sound like a moral science lecture because I don’t think I am qualified enough to deliver one by any parameter but maybe what we can do is sit for a while everyday and go over everything that happened. Maybe we can say hello to the people we really care about just once in a day to let them know that we are thinking of them. Maybe we can take a look at the old photographs and revive the memories entombed in them. There are a lot of things we can do. They need not be of epic proportions. They can be small things because sometimes small things make huge differences. Some people might have an excuse that they don’t have time but remember, nobody has the twenty fifth hour in the day and yet some manage to do all this. So does it mean they are more efficient than the ones who just crib about the lack of time? Think about it if you have a moment.
Adios.
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