Kill the hippies?

If I am allowed a bit of an exaggeration (of course I am) organised behavior leads to an ism akin to what was prevalent in the Nazi Germany or more recently in say a North Korea. Or on the other extreme leads to a pretty mundane and boring lifestyle that falls apart like a house of cards if a single element goes awry.  What I may sound like might be a naysayer but it is certainly not without a justified reason. It obviously involves a little generalization. You may well point out the exceptions but it will go on to prove the rule.

There is a question asked as much by people as I ask myself. Why exactly do I love India? Am I a nationalist? No. Patriot? Hell no. Does India provide the best possible lifestyle to its denizens? Not by a mile. Are people honest in their entirety? We have consistently been rated one of the most corrupt nations of the world. Why then? Why exactly do I love my country when I list a plethora of negatives about her?

There has to be something, right? What is that something? Is that something intangible? Mystical may be? And the ones fascinated by the grossest form of porn available? Please. It’s certainly not the poverty. Then it dawns on me as it always does when I least expect an answer smack in the middle of the road listening to my favorite song only to be woken up by a screeching car and a ship like honk backed up by a slow motion of events like turning the head around only to see the middle finger raised high up connected to a contorted face screaming the F word (listening to Pink Floyd helps btw. Trust me). We have strangely but beautifully versed to organize ourselves in the chaos that’s India. It’s like an interspersed web of craziness thorough which anyone and everyone that makes this country as his/her home finds a way out. Nothing goes exactly the way it’s supposed to be. The end result? The awareness level is pretty high. The brains always open, receptive to say any untoward happening that may stand right in front of you staring point blank trying to scare the life out of you. In most cases it can’t. I mean where else can you have the liberty to board a running train knowing a slip might prove fatal but still doing it or driving on a national highway on your side still keeping in mind that it might still not be yours.  Google will achieve true greatness the day it is able to map each and every street, nook and corner if it is able to achieve it even in Beta. Where else can one start worshipping the stone knowing that the divine is formless though worshipped in forms that number in millions which to the developed world looks downright insane?

If you still remember something I wrote some notches above right after the “you still trying to figure out the title” you might have made a connection there. If you haven’t still, well try again. It’s not that intelligible or is it? Not that I completely disregard everything the west has to offer. In fact there are many pluses to its stable. The quality of life in certain “developed” nations is certainly better. Now I am using “quality of life” in the most stereotypical fashion here. It is pretty easy to live and spend your life in the west to a certain extent. What it does end up making though is caricatures or humanized robots (the Japs and Germans can take a cue). The knowledge is straight from the book and not contextual. Practically in most cases it works like magic. But if something goes a little out of control it’s a ripple effect that spirals up and down every level and strata.

Every one has his/her own way of living. As nature’s way everything has to be balanced. The above description might just be enough to substantiate it. 

alienation?

"No matter what happens I don't give a damn". Or is it? Hitched on to the news channels the moment it came out. To those very channels which I don't leave a chance to ridicule. But the point here is not this. It's a more trivial issue. Who is going to build what, and where. The moment it's turned on you get mind numbing analysis pointing to histories and geographies of the world. When you try and make sense out of it? Absolutely none. You are still glued. You will turn it off in disgust. But will switch it on again in the hope of sensationalism. Something which makes your blood boil. Makes the adrenalin rush to your veins faster than you thought it should. Were there riots, any casualties reported, is it going to end soon? What? Everything pitch normal? An outward sigh of relief. Because as long as it's not in your backyard you would secretly wish abnormalities. Are we so crippled in our minds that we have become apathetic to peace and normalcy that we don't really see it eye to eye? Why is it that we can't stand united in the times of normalcy? We always need a crisis for that. 

Was I in favor of a particular decision. Frankly speaking, yes. I was. What is it? How does it matter any which ways? But yes there was a falsity here. That I convinced myself I have alienated myself from it.

For the unawares the verdict on Babri Masjid demolition came out today.

PS: This was written a long time ago. 

Everythings different. Period

Chapter1 

There is one thing that Dany Boyles Slumdog Millionaire has done. A common identity of a diversified yet united nation. Apart from being Indians we, thanks to him, almost officially are "Slumdogs" (followed by a quirky clarification of "not in a racist kind of a way"). Now this despite the oh-so-genuine clarification has set guns blazing across the lengths and breadths of nations with a multitude of Indian diaspora. 

There is a major section of a society which has started feeling that "Westerners" have stereotyped Indians. Their concern though in not entirely in genuine. Most still consider Indians to be living in straw huts, making the snakes shake a leg or two or making a gourmet meal for a white skinned man to make a living. Oh sorry there's another one now. Answering phone calls in a westernized accent where Raj becomes Robert and Neha becomes Nancy with a weird combination of Indian and American accent who go on to "troubleshoot" the first worlds problem of turning their computers on by plugging them to a power source.


Chapter 2


I once saw a stand up act by an IT professional named Sanjay Rajoura which very clearly explained the state of mind of a male IT professional working in India whose friend has recently been offered an "on site" position in the US of A. Its naturally considered that on his return to the motherland he would have at least a dozen ipods, 2 laptops, 5-6 cameras and scores and scores of other electronics and gifts which are supposedly considered his duty to carry along with him. Guys don't accuse me of sexual profiling. This is across all genders. Whats more apt for the males is the thought that when they land in the US they are given blondes to hump their brains out. Now who supplies them, whats the source, no one has ever come to know about it. But back there in India everyone firmly believes in this "fact". 


Now why I have soiled this Rajouras name is not without a couple of justified reasons:


1) Long posts generally become tiresome and boring to read till the end. So spicing it up doesn't really do much harm or does it?
2) It portrays a common perception of Indians of the life in West.


These are some of the cultural stereotypes that a common Indian swears by:

• For an average Indian a westerner (white skin is preferable) is a celebrity worth taking an autograph
• There is no culture in America
• They are brainless
• The women by default have a lose character.

Chapter 3


If you ask me it's the same shit different day. It has been going on for ages and will continue to go on like this till eternity (or whenever various religious pessimists may want it to end according to their whims and fancies). The objects keep on changing. The core remains the same. The thing is an apple is different from an orange, white is different from black. Nature has intended them to be like that. There is differentiation because things are different. And as a common belief differentiation is something considered to be evil. Well it takes the form of evil when people start to compare. A pen is as important as a sword, a sword is as important as a humble needle, a needle is as important as a thread that goes inside it and so on. Everyone/thing has its own place and its own importance. No ones big and no one is small. Its just a matter of prejudiced opinions and perceptions which greatly depends on the type of environment one is grown in. Indians are snake charmers and illiterate in some ones eyes because of some reasons. Same goes for the other way round. Its just a veil that needs to be lifted.


Chapter 4


The someone in the previous post is His excellency Vikramjeet Singh Gambhir. He can be found in here.

FightAMonkey

(Image courtesy Global Nerdy)

This first post has to be dedicated to someone who has been the source of inspiration for the title. Don't bang your heads trying to decipher what this monkey fighting business is all about. Do it if you want to. The blue bus will always be calling. And the Manekas and the Arundhatis please spare us mere mortals and find someone else to feed your souls upon. The monkey fighting business is nothing of the sort you can get a mileage out of.

Anyways coming back to the topic of (dis)interest. It was a warm summer morning in spiritual town of Rishikesh which to some has always been about rafting, camping, hiking and never about something we perceive it to be. Kind of a moral conflict in which each party insists upon its insistence over the other. The sun was rising, birds were chirping, the dew was still fresh and the audience jumped into Ganga reading the most repetitive, overused and cliched description of the morning ever. What was new though was the monkeys fighting in what best can be described by the Hindi phrase "Brahma Mahurat" (sacred morning). They were fighting proving yet again Darwins hypothesis of evolution. We surely then would be their descendants. We dont need a reason/time to blow heads off or do we? No matter how favorable the conditions are to maintain peace and harmony. As you would have guessed the carnal pleasures of whacking the brains out of each other is something we cherish the most. (don't frown and be disgusted and please wipe that smirk off your face).

By now most of you would have jumped to concluding where does the blog derive its name from. I won't take that happiness resulting from the deep rooted judgmental behavior that has been inculcated as a result of succumbing to social diktats and dogmas.

PS: "Siddhartha do you want to fight a monkey?"