I have been blogging here for over four years now. I have visited these pages often searching for peace and stillness and over the years as I go through the posts I can feel a remarkable change but now the time has come to turn the page and move on. For the first time I am hoping that there are greener pastures on the other side of the fence waiting to ensconce me in a colorful pageantry of life.
My new blog can be found here
Sunday, June 13, 2010
Tuesday, May 04, 2010
Extinct
All the talk of endangered species or extinct species creates a kind of surreptitious fear in me, thinking of the joy that the future generations are missing out on; the joy of being able to appreciate the beauty of the being. But here I am not going to talk of living species being endangered but human characteristics which are endangered, some of which are on the verge of extinction. I had talked about the lack of honesty in the auto drivers’ in my previous post and since then I have observed a variety of other characteristics fast diminishing in the human population.
I have often rued at the fast pace of life wondering where we all were heading to with such fast paced lives, characterizing the end result as ‘a road to nowhere’. Indeed of what I see, it has led us to absolutely nowhere. Most of the people that I see around me are not happy to be at home, they are at their scowling best when left alone at home. We take immense pleasure in retail therapy only to discard what we have bought in an hour’s time and venture out to indulge some more. The conversations revolve around exhibitions, sales, shopping malls, etc and never about you and me, our families, what we want to do with our lives or see that our children grow up to be sensible and sensitive human beings.
Sensibility, sensitivity and innocence are fast disappearing, the rapid onslaught of consumerism which teaches us that materialistic attitude can make us happy aren’t helping either. Are we sensitive to the plight of a homeless shivering in the bone-biting cold or towards the urchin scavenging for food in the garbage so carelessly tossed by us on the outskirts of every city. For most of us they are nothing but eye-sores on the face of a ‘Shining India’ and even on our blissful existence ensconced within the walls of our high-rise apartments overflowing with the latest gadgets which are only eye-candies meant to be shown off and never the route to happiness. Don’t you find such an existence hollow? Where you are never happy left alone, where you are always craving for company no matter how inane it is. Where the idea of fun is to hang out in some plush coffee shop, order the most sinful and expensive coffee in order to show the cash stashed in your wallet and then gossip. One might have gone to watch a sensible movie (by sensible I mean something which has helped you enrich yourself in whatever way possible) but fell asleep midway only to emerge after the stipulated 2.5-3 hours and proudly proclaim, “Guess what??? I went to watch XYZ movie at INOX/IMAX/PVR and the AC was so powerful, the seats so comfy, you know I booked the extra comfort seats for 300 bucks. Man, they are awesome!!!” Mind you not a word about the movie, instead you only hear the person raving about the interiors of the movie hall like someone else has never noticed it.
Is this the kind of life you want? Where you have no one to share your feelings and emotions with, where your best friends change and the change can be as swift as change in light, where the mantra is ‘Move On’ or ‘Think Hatke’ means duping your parents, where you only have fun when you are bunking classes and whiling away your life on the most inane conversation in coffee-shops or food-courts. Your whole life is nothing but a pretence in which your biggest insecurity is to be accepted by this society and for people who do not conform to these are branded misfits or even worse, abnormal.
But here is the best part, for those who choose to stay away from these and have some meaning left in their heads and lives have a pleasure, which is of watching and amusing themselves with the obtuse pageantry of this world. For this entertainment is never-ending.
I have often rued at the fast pace of life wondering where we all were heading to with such fast paced lives, characterizing the end result as ‘a road to nowhere’. Indeed of what I see, it has led us to absolutely nowhere. Most of the people that I see around me are not happy to be at home, they are at their scowling best when left alone at home. We take immense pleasure in retail therapy only to discard what we have bought in an hour’s time and venture out to indulge some more. The conversations revolve around exhibitions, sales, shopping malls, etc and never about you and me, our families, what we want to do with our lives or see that our children grow up to be sensible and sensitive human beings.
Sensibility, sensitivity and innocence are fast disappearing, the rapid onslaught of consumerism which teaches us that materialistic attitude can make us happy aren’t helping either. Are we sensitive to the plight of a homeless shivering in the bone-biting cold or towards the urchin scavenging for food in the garbage so carelessly tossed by us on the outskirts of every city. For most of us they are nothing but eye-sores on the face of a ‘Shining India’ and even on our blissful existence ensconced within the walls of our high-rise apartments overflowing with the latest gadgets which are only eye-candies meant to be shown off and never the route to happiness. Don’t you find such an existence hollow? Where you are never happy left alone, where you are always craving for company no matter how inane it is. Where the idea of fun is to hang out in some plush coffee shop, order the most sinful and expensive coffee in order to show the cash stashed in your wallet and then gossip. One might have gone to watch a sensible movie (by sensible I mean something which has helped you enrich yourself in whatever way possible) but fell asleep midway only to emerge after the stipulated 2.5-3 hours and proudly proclaim, “Guess what??? I went to watch XYZ movie at INOX/IMAX/PVR and the AC was so powerful, the seats so comfy, you know I booked the extra comfort seats for 300 bucks. Man, they are awesome!!!” Mind you not a word about the movie, instead you only hear the person raving about the interiors of the movie hall like someone else has never noticed it.
Is this the kind of life you want? Where you have no one to share your feelings and emotions with, where your best friends change and the change can be as swift as change in light, where the mantra is ‘Move On’ or ‘Think Hatke’ means duping your parents, where you only have fun when you are bunking classes and whiling away your life on the most inane conversation in coffee-shops or food-courts. Your whole life is nothing but a pretence in which your biggest insecurity is to be accepted by this society and for people who do not conform to these are branded misfits or even worse, abnormal.
But here is the best part, for those who choose to stay away from these and have some meaning left in their heads and lives have a pleasure, which is of watching and amusing themselves with the obtuse pageantry of this world. For this entertainment is never-ending.
Friday, January 08, 2010
Strangers
Auto drivers are a cursed lot in Hyderabad for a variety of reasons ranging from their rude behaviour to tampered meters and their unreasonable demands. But 2 days back I came across an auto driver who willingly admitted that his meter wasn't working properly and this action of his left me completely dumbfounded for a few moments. For someone like me who has gotten used to arguing with these guys and consider it as natural as breathing, it was a rude awakening. I still chide myself for not being in the right presence of mind to appreciate him enough. A part of me also wants to thank him for the dignified manner in which he chose to behave because it made a tiny,wee bit of me believe in humanity once again.
They say there are two sides to every coin and I believe that the good side shows itself less than one would have liked. Hence though there are people who have managed to chip the wall of cynicism that I have built around myself, there are countless others who re-enforce it with double the brick and mortar that was chipped away.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)