Bra & the Social Cause

I like the women who fancied revealing colors of their bra as their Facebook status. They were “doing it for a social cause” you see ! These days one hardly finds someone with any slight bother to spare for the social betterment. Yes, we all expressed our confusion at the start over this color phenomena, posted desperate questions and on learning the entire episode, should I say, enjoyed fantasizing about it all ? Like some cheap imagined-porno-graphic-novel thrill ! Lovely, the women did it for a cause. We’re all indebted. Breast Cancer is in real need of awareness you see !

Unsure if this is an expression of self-imbibed over-sensitivity or my inability to “catch-up with the modernizing, forward thinking world” or perhaps my hypocritical “narrow-mindedness”. I haven’t been able to reconcile that yet but what I DO know with a great degree of certitude is that it irritates me. This shallow, unfinished, condescending un-understood understanding of us, The modern, educated, informed urban generation. The ease with which we find ourselves inspired by snobbery . The innocence behind one own fooling. The penchant for making fashion of every issue and another fashion of associating with it in rather unconventional ways. We’re such a creative lot ? Aren’t we ? Not to forget – Concerned and Conscious.

“…you see there are too many things around us and in this maze of information the only way to draw attention to something is by being weird, wild and bold… this way we could help the cause…” Someone said to me. Rightly so ! Poonam Pandey (or whatever the name of the recent national stripper is) was a genuine, concerned supporter of Indian team. Immensely patriotic. So much so that she was even ready to bare it all “ to get our boys going”. How unselfish of her ! Poor girl was ready to compromise with her personal sanctity for the good of the nation !

In such an honest and fashionably patriotic world, I don’t even know why men like Anna Hazare live with a foolish hope. Hope that the benefactors of his struggle will even bother. Hope that Satyagraha could even save us from the gloom. He should instead spend time on finding the right PR team, a backend support staff complete with strippers, fashion consultants (to design his wardrobe), brand ambassadors, some media darlings ( May I suggest Rakhi Sawant / Rahul Mahajan here, Mr.Hazare ? ). They could do a better job of this “campaign against corruption”. We need change and radical thoughts to grab attention you see !

I can’t contain this bitterness of sarcasm and social satire in me anymore. Folks, My apologies !

But don’t you think this is something worthy of our attention? A cause whose time has come? A man, 72 years of age and deserving of a retired life watching sunrise over the mountains from his rocking chair, has chosen to fast unto death. To speak up. To be disobedient. To be stubborn. All this to achieve something that would make OUR lives better. What was the need for him to take on this at this stage of life. He might be gone by the time any change is auctioned. This is for US. For our sake ! and we choose to remain mere spectators – albeit sympathetic and compassionate !

Just one update on facebook, replace your “non-veg joke forwards” with one for this man, substitute 100 minutes of chat with girlfriend-to-bes with 1 minute of message to 100 people. We all can not head to Dilli. Nor can we fast ( I can’t !) but can we atleast take the pain of expressing our solidarity ? To speak up and not be muted, to rise and not be crushed. To let the poor old man know that we are there. Behind him ?

Let us display our strength, our frustration at being fooled constantly - by the politicians, beauraucrats, corrupt businesses and the media-on-steroids. We are listening but when we decide to speak – it will be a roar !

It wouldn’t take you longer than peeking into your shirts, throwing some light , decoding the color and typing it up on facebook status update box – I am sure of it. Trust me on this one !

My friends, I know we all want this. We can be the ambassadors of change. If only we decide to even whisper.

I have spoken and doing whatever I can. With this writing. Its time I speak of “Us”

PS : I meant no disrespect !

Those in Bangalore – Please phone +91 9880244380 / +91 9845026693 to know how you can speak up. Also do visit Freedom Park (till the 10th April)

My response to the Business of Climate Change

I write this with an almost prophetic fear of being condemned and called names. Critics of the propaganda have been denounced as vicious debunkers and wishful conspirators. This has been the spear with which the “pro-climate-change” lobby has been surging forward globally on their mission to strategically instil fear into the minds of its citizenry. Looking back now, the entire evolution pattern of the climate-change fiasco seems like that of some scam. Voices have been silenced, crushed to insignificance, data extrapolated and fundamentals mis-assumed. Global Warming was recently (and very subtly) rechristened and reconfigured. “Climate Change” suited the purpose better and yes, also provided a comfortable buffer zone for the gamblers. “Who knows if it is warming or cooling? Stakes are high. Let’s de-risk and call it climate change instead. It’s a safe bet” they must have thought. We are being forced to believe that we humans have suddenly (by the virtue of some random spontaneous mutation) turned into nature killers and that thousands of years of man-nature equilibrium has been destroyed almost relatively overnight.

The entire propaganda came to its full force with the release of “An Inconvenient Truth” – a work of one Mr. Al Gore. Although his love for the nature and worry for what is happening with it are not the things that I would like to question, I have my serious doubts. Is it a mere “co-incidence” that after the movie’s release The US energy Dept announced a grant of £2 billion of which more than £305 million will go to utility companies for the implementation of smart grid technology(The Telegraph, Nov 2009) . Silver Spring networks, a California based energy solutions provider is one of the front runners in this technology and most companies that bagged the grant have contracts with Silver Spring. It just so happens that, Al Gore’s venture capital company invested over £45 million in Silver Spring Networks just the previous year. Not to mention, Mr. Gore’s personal fortune has risen from £1.2 million to £ 60 million since the time he quit politics (Telegraph, Nov 2009) much of which has gone into investments in green technology such as carbon trading markets, solar power, bio fuels etc. No, this calls for no suspicion and indeed the climate change movement is pristine and devoid of any human greed.

Project Global Warming appears to be one of the biggest Public Relations scams of 21^st century. It has been dressed up, quite elegantly, as science while it is far away from it. It is propaganda with hidden economic agendas. The crisis has been custom manufactured to keep the citizenry in fear of an impending disaster and elicit the most out of them in form of consumption. My only problem with the fiasco is that the conversation of environmental depletion and looming crisis is being held in a language of economy and finance. If it were any serious, the proclaimed crisis, immediate government measures had to have been enforced cuts in luxurious consumptions. If it were as serious as claimed, reflex response would have been to shift to need mode of living like most of us did during the recent financial turmoil. However that is not the case and talks are of newer “Green technologies”. If excessive human consumption is what that led us to this stage, efforts must be on to cut down on it. But nobody seems to really think this way.

Airlines have started a fancy campaign of collecting donations to reduce per capita carbon footprint of passenger’s travel. The blame game is at its full play and the needle is constantly made to point towards the consumer. Polythene bags at hypermarkets are being charged for, people forced to comply with norms of the new green environment and asked to pay to get such a compliance authenticated, and billions of taxpayers’ monies are being laundered into research projects to look into the enormity of the crisis. Every part of the capitalist empire is claiming its share of the feast. The corporate media is leaving no stone unturned in capitalizing on the frenzy. Newer Ads “promoting green living” are being extracted out of corporations. Tailor made hysteria packages are being broadcasted to maintain the fear. Cards and merchandises sold on “Earth Day” and many more of such days are in planning.

Governments have assumed the role of a school bully, not quite changing what happens but claiming their share in everything that does. Hence, you now have to buy your right to pollute the environment. Licenses to kill the nature are being auctioned in markets, mathematically constructed to make money for the big boys of school. The Cap-and-Trade scheme chooses to un-see the fact that its contribution to bringing down carbon emission is relatively nil. Corporations can still poison the nature but only that there is a price tag on the indulgence this time around. Governments have been kind with the supply of these licenses. Market is burgeoning and you can now buy these licenses from a variety of outlets including the fellow players. No one ever cares to notice that the suffering of nature has remained significantly untouched.

The “Go Green” movement is in the process of being consecrated into an ideology. An ideology that is substantially backed by the governments and businesses which aims at maintaining some element of fear in the electorate as fear brings in submission and submission means business. The environmental molestation is being legitimized by dossiers and contracts and this is now a democracy. Business pursuits have been morphed and dressed in the name of climate change to create newer business avenues and revenue models. Why is it that “going green” is being referred to as a new trend in consumption when it has to be the absence of it or at least conscious cutting down of the same ? Why are businesses taking the liberty of charging premium for their eco-compliant products? They seem to be taking advantage of the guilt smitten consumers who have been forced to believe that they are the masters of the atrocities against nature.

With virtually every venture capitalist and other big names of the industry having chosen the green track, it is imperative of the government and businesses to invent crisis and discover business opportunity in it. Richard Sandor of Chicago Climate Exchange estimates that climate trading could be a “$ 10 trillion dollar market” (Investor’s Business Daily , April 2010) and this is just the trade bureau. Estimates of the entire industry value bring in unimaginable numbers on board. World’s first carbon billionaires are now gearing up to be unveiled in a display of the rescuer pride.

In all this drama, only the constituencies are left lurking in the shadows with no imaginable gains. Ordinary people have once again been fooled, then it was World Peace and now it is Climate Change. The mass hysteria has once again churned out opportunist businesses that will soon disappear heaving a sigh of “good-god-we-finally-managed-to avert-it”. Chapter will be closed and no one allowed to even investigate if there was even anything to be averted !

“The absence of proof is not the proof of absence” – we’ll be told !

Revival of spirit

Its been long enough to make me feel guilty of unwanted abstinence from feeding this space. I have been trying to understand what is it that makes things happen and what is it precisely that has been keeping me away from this space . I had created this platform to communicate my feelings and liberalize my paradigm of thought and I have suddenly found myself feeling "burdened" with the weight of responsibility - of having to feed the blog. I therefore decided that only genuine feelings would drive me to write words and it would never be a mere call of duty !

Well, it has been a very long hiatus indeed. Days have been kind enough to keep me alive and happily so! Its such a magical feeling to realize that you have been living a dream for quite some time ! Many things in life now has been a product of year of juvenile dreams and aspirations . A revisit to the hopes and aspirations of the past has been the key driver of a happy life in the recent times.

Just back from a week long trip to England visiting various interesting cities and oddly interesting people as well. Its wonderful sometimes to feel a wave of inspiring spirit blow into you and its almost mystical as you are left with contemplating on where it actually came from. Iam trying to understand the same at this time.

More Soon !

I said - "Diwali"

Traditions are history that forgot its time! – It is often said and widely believed.

To understand and come to a definitive conclusion on the significance of all the symbolic attributes of any particular religion/tradition is a rather perilous attempt to understand the importance of the same! It is often debated in the social circles whether it is wise to follow festivals in a way that has been done for years or be relatively embracing and celebrate in synonymy with the cultural practices of region.

Celebrating Indian festivals on a foreign soil has been a rather anthropologically enlightening experience!

I just returned from a party that saw people gathering and dancing to welcome and celebrate the happy occasion. What was quite controversial in this version of the festivity was that it was a pardonable act to consume alcohol and welcome the Goddess ( To bring more money - to drink more !). Goddess Lakshmi was being welcomed in a way that is quite unlikely in the rigid Indian Society where meat and alcohol, on a general scale, is forbidden on auspicious occasion. Muffins replaced mithai (Indian sweets) and alcohol replaced its absence ! J

It is perhaps worth a thought whether any deviation (contrasting in this case) from existing traditions spell doom or bring in more contextual meaning and retouch to celebrations. The problem with most people is that they confine their outlook of Religion and its practices to their perspective and what’s more dangerous is that anything beyond their conception is fake and evil. These Diwali parties could top the list of to-malign-list of RSS or Ram Sena Sevaks or grab the primetime slot in the mediocrity-hungry media for a Debate . How can anyone consume alcohol or dance with women on such an auspicious occasion ? Who gave the right to these kids to distort Indian culture and tradition ? It reflects on our upbringing ! . These are common accusations you can expect if you are on the other side.

But ! Hang on !

Haven’t we missed the whole essence of things and gone over the board with taking life too literally ?

Diwali is a festival that shares diverse histories in various Religions and regions – While in Jainism it is marked to celebrate the spiritual enlightenment of Mahavira, the Sikhs celebrate it to mark the home-coming of Guru Har Gobind.It is also,to most, the celebration of homecoming of Lord Raam. It is interesting to note that the underlying essence of all these events is symbolism of the victory of evil over the good , the celebration of the Light within every individual that guides the soul to a realm beyond reality. It is the occasion to rejoice the spirit of Mankind in its entirety and the route taken to attain this level of personal gratification is indeed purely personal.

Why isn’t it socially legal to experiment new flavours in festivities? If Indian culinary heritage could adapt and embrace Potato (introduced by European explorers) and re-introduce it to the world in over 200 hundred different varieties of cooking it then why not let the natural cycle of mutant traditions follow its course ? Why have festivals diverged significantly from their importance of being a symbolic of Celebration of Humanity and why have we narrowed our outlook and celebrations to what we have inherited in form of rituals and customs. What should anyone suffert guilt and regret for having decided to live life happily and being happy is so relative ! Is even the whole debate of westernising Indian cultural practices a valid one or is it just an act for the sake of its being ?! I felt the happiness in everyone when they danced to the tunes of Bollywood music in an inebriated joy . They were having a gala time and the reason for it was to celebrate the Festival of Light that represents so many things for so many people.

I enjoy peeking into the windows of curiosity and making myself believe completely opposite of what I would rather otherwise . It is just an effort to spark cultural thought process and it is nice to challenge the strongholds of religious and chronological inheritance with an outlook completely different. While I don’t mean to either endorse or disregard the new practices and nor do I mean to obstinately question the conventional practices simply because they are age-old, My attempt is to sincerely put to question some of our very basic understandings of Society and Culture and accept an answer that justifies itself. I would love to see a society that ceases to accept and never stops investigating into relevances of various of our understandings. In this way we would at-least emerge more confident in justifying what we do ! The light that guides Human Evolution is Knowledge and that comes with constant and stubborn curiosity. Lets celebrate the festival of "Lights" !

I love to hear J

Shubh Diwali

Just a matter of Perspectives !

If I were to believe myself for believing in looking at life from a mathematical perspective, I would like to start with understanding, what perhaps is the most consequential ideology of life – The Idea of Religion !

Its somehow hard to understand and even harder to trust the understanding that life is perhaps all a matter of perspectives and all the definitions that claim to deconstruct this surreal term to justify existance , exist for their own sake ! The catalyst that initiated a cascading series of thought-reactions in my mind about Religion and its beauty is perhaps ironic for its product but its interesting in a way that’s more important than the origin.

The greatest invention of mankind in the years of its existance , in my belief, is the concept of Religion. The vast expanse of thought that the concept encompasses renders a bipolar nature to the matter of Religion. It has been very successful in installing surreal system of faith in a rather ferocious species of creation. The fear of the omnipresent and the concept of a higher being could perhaps not be anything more than human perspective and hunger for something beyond their reach but still its very interesting indeed to observe and understand how ths etherial “concept” has rather given birth to itself and thereby claiming an actual identity. If I were to explain and present the concept of Religion in a systematic and mathematical way , here would be it

Thoughts * Belief = Reality
Belief * Reality = Faith
Faith * Reality = Religion

Its interesting how something that does not claim any existance , is revered upon as the omnipresent. Its interesting because human race seems to be in a constant act of re-enforcing their figment of imagination with another piece of imagination ! Its interesting to observe that something so chaotic and random as evolution rests on an organized underbelly of surreal-policing – the doctrines of which are constructed, framed and followed – all by us – the creators ! Yet this system is as much a property of ours as it is not, it is the construct of the race at large to which every individual contributes and yet it is so far away from the possibilities of human thought !

Not very often do we ever dare to contemplate on these realities of life as they somehow spark a sense of “escalation/elevation” in all of us . We, as a race , seem to have already defined our limits and are happy to believe that no matter how farther we travel intellectualy there is always a horizon and horizons can never be met ! This very surreal and abstract system of belief has been a key to the growth of civilizations. Religion has categorically differentiated humans in various groups but well these groups are just various outlooks that we can have towards life itself.

I often find this un-passable roadblock in my intellectual pursuit , a dark end that opens to million of roads , each of which lead to the same destination and interestingly in the same co-ordinates of space and time ! As I end this seemingly confused piece of writing , my only aim is to have you thinking !

What is the way we see the world is different with every person. What if my Red is your Blue and your Blue my Black ? We have always been taught relatively and what if the “Absolute” is absolutely relative ? I was always taught to call the colour that I see as , say, White but what if I don’t see White in precisely the same way as you do ? What is I see White as you see Black ?

Or perhaps life is just a matter of perspectives. Things are reality because “we” would like to believe so ! and belief in reality re-inforces the belief itself and gives birth to faith and belief in faith is Religion ! What if life was a high-order mathematical game , of which, we are just one small part. Our beliefs and ideals are purely a work of “us” and if not us who else would end the bloody savage called religious-absolute-righteousness ! We are all a part of higher consciousness that’s beyond the reach of an individual. Its time and the time warrants some awareness.

The Question is – To be or not to Be !

Awaiting responses!!

Friends,
I have decided i shall reduce the frquency of my blogposting, its getting a little too hectic and information overload is dangerous too !!! :-)

However i will be active on comments section and awaiting your comments on my posts below.

CHeers

Lets paint the Indian Identity

Iam unsure as to how best i can adress this issue to the masses and at the same time elicit the kind of response i expect. However, i shall try.
Friends, I have been working on writing a book aiming to elucidate India. I have been travelling to cities,meeing people and experiencing various cultures in order to get the idea of India in as many perspectives as possible. India has always been a distant ecret. Even if you are a part of it , you never know most of it.
Kashmiris can characteristically be diffrentiated from a malayalee or a bengali and yet all ofus are Indian in all respet. We are identified as Indians. The new age bangalore techies, who breakfast their way to the office, endorse pizza and emulate the best of accents still prefers to have masala dosa on thesuday morning!!!
We have remained a country that accomodates almost everything that comes its way. Everything that entes India is embaced and goes on to become the part of Indian Identity.
So what exactly do you think the Indian idntity is. Are there any defining moments or people or places or picture or anything that speaks India for you? How best you can give clarit to this surreal yet existent identity??