What About Me? What About Us?

The country has to returned to normalcy after the long drawn dance of democracy. No more rallies, slogan shouting, traffic jams, propagandas, netas and netagiri... Some sense of respite could say! Finally the fiasco is done with, lights off and the drama over... No wait, is it over? Yes so to say the political ignominy and excitement has come to an end.

But the day to day drama of people in this land of paradox, has that come to an end? Well, let’s see-

In the dark corners of this land thousands each day live with the hopeless agony of food scarcity, the twinge of not being able to feed one self and loved ones, the pang of seeing someone die every odd day due to chronic hunger, the trauma of stooping down to the level of a beggar or thief for Some Food Babu, Some Food.

Yes we are surely waiting for the benefits of what do you call it the Food Security Bill! By the way you can have your laugh we do kill rats to fill our stomach, we have learned how to eat wild berries and not die. And yes! Now that the forests are gone we can only count our days to die!

Not a shirt on my back not a penny to my name. Wonder why? Oh I just married off my youngest daughter. Lucky I only have three daughters. Have? no Had. The elder one was burnt alive because I could not give a motorbike to my son-in-law, who is a businessman himself. This time I took no chance I fulfilled all their demands, hope this one will survive.

Don’t ask why is did all this. Dowry Oh no, we don’t believe in dowry, we Indians are modern and very broad minded. Cash and Kind we give in a daughters marriage is for her well-being only, all of it belongs to her. Yes surely and that is why grooms family like blood thirsty leech is ready to sell their son to the highest bidder.     

Rape is the new buzzword in this country. Every newspaper, television channel each day reports about some or the other story on RAPE! A girl was gang raped...minors raped and hanged...women raped in a moving train...father rapes daughter...uncle rapes niece...

Enough I say! Nothing will happen to the perpetrators of the crime, the law fails the victim and media reports will go on and on reporting about it. Can the mind-set of the people be changed? What rape are we talking about when visibly some abuses a girl in the open? What about the constant ogle, dirty comments that girls face each day? Did I miss child abuse even of little boys, sodomy, marital rape? So much for being part of a cultural rich society, where people do not have right over their own body.       

Did you know that in certain part of this country there are people who are Chinese or Japanese, Korean possibly. The region is somewhere near West Bengal, northeast India it is called. How many states that region has, no idea. Cannot go there for people believe all the year through there is terrorism.

Does anyone bother to know that the North-eastern region is home to vivacious tribespeople and many other non-tribal communities. That it is a hub for bio-diversity and holds in its bosom some of nature’s greatest bounties- Cherrapunjee (highest rainfall in the world), Majuli (largest river island in the world), Loktak Lake (only Floating lake in the world) and the list can go on. But why to talk about all these because north-easterners are only stereotyped ignoring the fact that in culture, education and in almost all domains if not better people here are at par with anyone else all across the country.      

Most of the people of this country are obsessed with religion, gods and goddesses. Some who wants to make a living can do so by selling goodies related to gods, it’s a huge lucrative market. At every nook and corner of this country one can find a mandir or masjid or church or gurudwara. This obsession is claustrophobic for those who understand that gods cannot give solution for every problem or rather any problem. Being spiritual is not the problem being a religious bigot is the problem in this country.

Religious fanaticism has led to enough bloodshed and loss of dignity and has it stopped yet? Well the answer is but obvious. My son had small tea shop infront of the masjid, on the day of the riots they killed him as they thought he was a muslim. Another lady lost her entire family in the riots and now has become a lunatic herself. The stories are endless but question is has the outlook of the people changed at all? Or at a drop of a hat we will witness another massacre in the name of Religion!

Governments will come and go, bureaucrats will change, new polices will formulated and life goes on!! But- What about me? What about us? Living in the very many corners of this country does life change, rain or shine the seizures of life doesn’t seem to abandon us and every moment is a new struggle.

A battle to breathe till one day nature decides to take its course and wipe us from the face of this earth… For me, for us The End, The Bliss, The Redemption, The Happiness will then arrive!!      

Who Are You ?

Who are you- a nameless, formless being, walking around on the face of this earth? Who are you, whose facade is indiscernible layered in mire and yet your stride stands tall! Who are you- your eyes glowing like a tigress, yet naive like a fresh blooming flower? Who are you, trying to shield this mystifying world? Who are you, with bruises in your mind and body, yet the poise does not fade away? 

Stay, tell me who are you? Do not shy away for coyness is not your game!

Who are you- a friend, philosopher, guide? Who are you- embellished in red ready to change hands? Who are you- who lay motionless the last night when your body was being used? Who are you- whose body is ripped open to bring new life? Who are you-adorned in white, robbed of all worldly pleasures?

Implore you stay, tell me who are you?

People know you as woman is it?

Oh! What a beautiful expression to symbolize what you ought to be and should be!!  

But who are you....         O woman ??         

Where Does One Find Solace?

A walk down any random street of any random town or city…familiar faces (though we may not known them in person), there goes Mr.Sharma panting for breathe to catch the 8 am bus; for he misses it he would be late for work. Our little Champ barely 10 years old I think, wearing neat uniform and carrying the load of the world in the huge bag resting on his prettied shoulder… oh there you are Mrs. Ray rushing to see your mother in the old age home, it’s her birthday today I presume, for you are carrying a lovely bouquet…and here arrives little Miss Muffet, whistles, you look gorgeous dear, fresher’s social is it?   

So many faces come and go infront of us, some we keep in mind some we forget. This is fairly the story of all our lives, everyone is pressed for time, running the mad marathon for survival and life goes on.

But as one gasps for breathe once in a while in this maddening world and feels lost in the midst of bewildering crowd, where does one turn around for solace?

Solace I say sounds like a fancy word, but yes where does on find solace. Shopping in Malls? Rejuvenating body massage in a spa? Sipping coffee in Costa coffee? Watching films in a multiplex? WHERE!!

Or may be in the hustle bustle of this world we do not even think about Solace! May be in some corner of a busy street sitting on the bridleway with a cutting chai, observing people, soaking in every sound and scene can ease out one’s mind. Or may be reading a book in one corner of the room with a steaming cup of coffee! Or maybe just hugging one’s granny and listening to bed time stories.

But the only lingering question is Where does one find SOLACE !!

The Bizarre Journey!

Ask anyone- What is your hobby? The most matter of fact answer would be traveling! People wait all the year through to find a suitable time to sneak out for a trip; some prefer the beach and some the hills. Enthusiasm, fervor, planning coupled with some breath taking experiences marks the start and end of any traveling expedition. And with the social media being the lifeline of every person, without uploading some peculiar, amusing pictures the cycle is most certainly not over.  All Smiles!!

What about the journey called Life? Where are the pictures of this journey? Does planning work here? Who decides how the journey begins or ends? Can the pictures on Facebook reveal the essence of this journey?

Indeed the most exciting, aimless, indecisive journey one can embark upon is the journey called life. Did we choose to come to this world? The answer is known to all. Can we decide when we want to leave it? NO! As one grows older do we actually decide what course this journey takes, or is it an Illusion that we all live in. Mere puppets we are in the hands of time!!

This journey is infinite, and only ends when someone decides that the spirit should leave the body. The stupefying experiences of this journey remains etched in the mind and heart of the traveler alone, and no matter how many fellow travelers one meets, no one can ever claim to know or understand the story of the other. To Each His Own, could say! Then what about the pictures of this journey- there are numerous and beyond count for sure. But most definitely the pictures we see on social networking sites are only a fragmented depiction of this journey. What actually is or what ought to be is beyond anyone’s comprehension.

 

The date of birth and the date of demise, mark the start and end of the voyage so to say, and in-between one is tossed around from one phase to another, and the comedy of errors, goes on.

Arms open, feet grounded and mind free, let the journey of life go on astonishing. Till the time one can say Sojourn! 

                

A Walk In The Rain

A Walk In The Rain

A walk in the rain, Yes a walk in the rain, reminds me of the famous Charlie Chaplin, evidently the funniest person of all times. This famous comedian was once quoted saying that it was best for him to walk in the rain, because in doing so he could hide his tears. I got the same feeling one day, a year ago, when I walked home on a rainy day without my umbrella.

It was sunny in the morning and rain was not expected then. But, as I returned from work, the rain started pouring down. People were running here and there looking for shelter; those with umbrellas kept to the roads and so did I though without an umbrella.

I don’t know what came upon me but I was melancholic-perhaps it is very true that the weather decides the mood. Tears were rolling down my eyes I felt, but I myself was not sure of it with all the water running down my face. The clouds were gray and dark, and I felt dull myself too. But the rain soothed me, I felt as if the rain was caressing me and washing my pains away.

 

I knew many would be dreading the rain that day- with or without umbrellas. In some place, a little Johnny would be wishing for the rain to go away so that he could play, and in some ill-fated place, people would be worried for their homes- some with poor shelter and some with the fear of an impending flood.   

But some people would be glad, their days of drought would have ended, those would be the luckier ones who long for even a drop of water. And it was quite probable that some lovers would be thanking the rain for holding them together longer.

I knew everything has a flip side, and I saw it myself that rainy day. There I was all drenched up and as I walked, I saw beggars even in the rain begging for their life, children playing in the rain enjoying the moment to the fullest, the vegetable vendor packing his goods while behind the vegetable shop a young women whose forehead was smeared with vermillion, kept staring out of the window at the road imaginably waiting for her husband to return.

Getting wet to the skin is normal for anyone even me. But the walk in the rain that day let me experience the feeling of elation and twinge at the same time. I realised that a blessing for someone may not be for the other. And that the rain was Mother Nature’s message to mankind that she still controls the space we dwell in and nothing is certain.

Social Media: Has It Brought Human Liberty

Facebook, Orkut, Twitter, LinkedIn, Ibibo, Zorpia and the list goes on.  These are nothing but various means of social media networking. Social networking is a latest phenomenon on the World Wide Web that has gained immense popularity with the people. Social media is well-liked because in actuality it is for the people. Bringing all category of community together in one place and offering a platform for them to intermingle is really a big thing indeed.

Here the concept of Global Village as defined by Marshall McLuhan is in effect, where geographical distance is even less of a impediment to the real-time communicative actions of people, and consequently social spheres are significantly extended by the ingenuousness of the web and the effortlessness at which people can explore for online communities and network with others that share the similar interests and concerns.

In today’s day and age Social Media has evolved as the source of information, a public sphere for discussing matters of concern and generating public opinion. It is to be noted that the Web is filled with millions of individuals who are looking out to meet other people, to draw together and share first-hand information and experiences about job openings, developing friendships or professional alliances, building alumina association, business-to-business marketing, discussing hobbies like golfing, gardening, etc. The topics and interests are as wide-ranging and rich as the story of our universes.

Social media has definitely initiated a process of human liberty where people can carry out endless number of social activity without even venturing out from one’s own room / cubicle.    Social networking has empowered us in the present day to climb the mountains of connectivity so easily cutting across geographical, caste, community, gender and religious biases. 

Here is a quick run through the limitless activities people carry out via the Social Media-

·     

•   On a basic level communicate and keep in touch with friends and family, by uploading pictures, videos, status updates, etc.
•  One step up, connect with school /college /university friends or acquaintances thus creating a huge database of ex- students. Same goes out for members working within the same office / company.
•  Further up, the most tempting aspect of creating association with unknown people based across the globe (definitely keeping in view the risk involved of communicating  and sharing information with the wrong person)
• Yet another interesting area being explored by people through the Social media is Marriage. In India, finding ones soul mate in earlier days was left to the jurisdiction the elders of the family. But today youth who wants the decision making power in his / her hands is using the potentials offered by the social media to the best advantage. Websites like Bharamatrimony.com, Shaddi.com, Matrimonial.com, etc, have become common names. 
•  Higher up the strata is the advent of Social Media Marketing, today advertisers are leaving no stone unturned to reap benefits from the mass popularity of the social media. Like never before advertisers and sales persons can find the target audiences at one place and easily over haul them with pertinent information about a product /service.
• Any kind of information pertaining to current affairs, internationals relations, education, employment, hobbies, marriage, games and even tittle-tattle, all is readily available on one platter i.e. Social Media. 

Having discussed about the varied activities carried out by means of the Social media, let us explore how it has brought Human Liberty. Social media has been successful in creating what Jurgan Habermas calls the Public Sphere. Through Social media the Public Sphere has been created in the virtual world where once can express ones opinion on grounds of anonymity having a high chance of finding people who share the same ideas.  The recent example of Human Liberty with the help of the Social media is the mass mobilization of people for Anna Hazare’s movement against corruption. Also, the mass support which was garnered during the USA presidential election, where Barack Obama practically reached out to each individual via Twitter, are excellent instances highlighting the liberating process that has been triggered by the Social media.  

Build Significant Associations

Social media enables people to be their real self. While intermingling with people online, one gets the opportunity to know them more and hence, break the ice. People belief one another which ultimately lead to meaningful relationships. Social media is meant to bring fresh opportunities, approachable followers and lifelong friends.

Spawns Traffic

The more networking an individual does the better are the chances to generate greater traffic. This process entails more real and valuable efforts and not just merely bombarding people with meaningless information or spamming. Sites like LinkedIn targeted towards professionals prove to be exceedingly advantageous. Hence, every social media has its own specific audience and user demographics which allows its user to find people as per their requirement and interests.

Augment Visibility

When a user creates more social profiles and generates more content on them while interacting more with the links, an individual is likely to boost online visibility. This helps advertisers to increase the visibility of the company site and the brand / product/ service too will gain popularity and fame. Also, people get a chance to meet leaders and players in the related industry and over time, new relationships build and grow.

Facilitates Mind-sharing and Insight

In the process of interacting with people online, one gets a exclusive perspective into their lives and their problems. One can help and counsel them and in turn, receive feedback and trust, thus ensuing in mind-sharing. Because social networking is human focused, it creates a great thriving atmosphere to get feedback, conduct research and gain insight. Although it is known that people do not want to be told, forced, spammed or made to do anything but when the entire process involve them, the environment changes and evolves into a society on the World Wide Web. 

But all said and done about the liberating process that has been triggered courtesy Social Media. One thing that cannot be denied is that Social media is also a creating a generation of people who are at a fast pace becoming unsocial and evasive about the actual society they live in.   It is notable that due to this feature of the internet, people are making friends with so many other individuals whom they never see in their lives but spend hours chatting with them without knowing who they actually are. Teenagers who need to go to the fields and play with their real friends are busy with unidentified people on the net chatting with them, emailing them, talking about their welfare and a behavior that projects that they are even more to them than their real friends. 

Social media is breeding an environment where people are more engrossed in virtual communication and one to one interpersonal communication which forms the essence of the actual society is taking a back seat.

Thus, in summation it can be said that despite the all pervasive process of Human Liberty which has been set off by Social media the drawbacks it tags along may be disturbing for the real society we dwell in.

Comfortably Numb Are We!!

   Yet another bomb blast, rocked the Dil walon ka sheher Dili at 10.15 am on 7/9/11. Nothing New, Nothing Uncommon. Terrorists carried out their allotted task with perfection...So Hats Off To Them..And Hail The Indian Government who left no stone unturned in Shedding Crocodile Tears / Condemning The Blast / Visiting The Blast Site & Most Importantly Calling The Bomb Blast by The Terrorist a Cowardly Act.  (I only wonder who the actual coward is!!)

  And this way the days moved on!! But stop what about the Aam Admi who is at the receiving end of all this pandemonium, brutality, resentment, ordeal and emotional outburst. What does he / she do, when each individual is bound to be affected either actively / passively by such non-stop instances of carnage and angst.

  Terror attacks massacre countless innocent lives. Such repeated occurrences are intended to incite fury, elicit rage, but one cannot help but concur to the fact that with passing time there's been a distressing numbing of our society, which has been witness to string of fatal bomb blasts and other variations of terror attacks.

  I am no psychologist / sociologist to give hard core comments but my observation compels me to say that the regularity of such terror attacks has triggered the process of habituation.  For most of us today a vicious bloodbath gets condensed to a simple piece of information. And sadly enough casualty / death just become just a number. Who knows may be in some corner of our minds we even associate the event with a scene in a movie. Slowly may be our conscious has been brutalized and a numbness has developed in our hearts.

  I am sure it happens with all of us following every terror strike, our foremost reaction is to confirm if family and friends are all right. Once everyone's been accounted for, life gets back to the ritualistic routine.

So is it that we have begun to accept things as they are for we know nothing much is going to change. For we are tired of Condemnation and Condolences? For we just want our friends and family to be safe and live life without any hassle and tension.

                                       For Its Easy To Be Comfortably Numb!!