Earth Hour Failure or Success

Wow the funda was good and I thank each n every person who participated in that.
At least it helped in saving some amount of electricity. At 8.30 pm on Saturday I could see lights turning of and more or it was quite successful in our neighborhood and the fact that it's not that hot helped a lot. People were quite happy to come out and get some air in the parks.

I took off on my bike just to see how it is to see the city in Darkness. To my surprise there was no Darkness at all. Thanks to big companies and shops, they were just happy to get along their daily business. This I thought would be ignorance of the fact that it's an earth hour. What surprised me the most or rather shocked me was the "Hoardings". Then I thought with money you can get away with anything. What I can't understand is that what specific use this hoardings has to society which can gobble up so much electricity.

A minimum of 6-7 neon bulbs for 12 hrs a day do eats away into the common man's power supply. But then, the so called common man dont have that much money I suppose. Why the government is so careless, why they cant categorize the use of electricity. Why they allow these useless advertisements to run away with power. May be the government itself is dependents on this MNC's for their cash crunched treasury. Still they do pass over the burden to the working class by hiking taxes, increasing price of basic commodities. More than anything why do people has to bear all these. Why can't they protest?(no body has time). Have they forgot that they do have rights or they dont want to remember that at all. No use I suppose, u read this, think for sometime and then leave it. All that we have to do is to adjust our budget, why bother getting into some complications by protesting. Carry on the world is as good as it seems but remember it will change and these bloody politicians will make sure that it changes. Enough of bothering, now get back to your work...

A Moral Check....

Lot of mess around this Valentine day...
The Moral Police.. the Cultural Activists...
Oh god, they sometime really suck...
This time it was the Pub culture which started the fire..
Everyone was praising and taking part in that "Pink Chaddi" movement..
Oh crap.. will that change anything...I assume the rivalry only got deeper n deeper..

Just one question to everyone..
You like ur friend to come with you to a pub
but wud never like your Brother or Sister doing the same..
Why?
Some will argue as long as they stay in limit its ok..
but what is the limit?question is not tht.Who decides the limit..
Every individual is different and they have their own set of Moral rules...
Then the limit is definitely decided by they themselves.
But what he/she forget is that they cant make other people to stay within his/her limits..

Youngsters say they venture out to pub coz they wanna enjoy time with their frnds..
It was not long back that frnds used to gather up for a dinner at home and enjoyed their time and have some wonderful dinner..ya some parents do not allow Alcohol... but most of them dont mind if it's a beer function...Parents are also changing..they allow minor freedoms so that the child dont feel entirely tied down...

Nowadays the other most common culprit is PDA(Public Display of Affection)...which some people are trying to impose on a culture that is quite reserved..Just don know why are they doing things in open..what do they wanna prove...its just a show off I think..

Everybody is trying to catch a culture that's far more western. No matter how hard people try to imitate, their imitation will always be at least a century behind.Coz people are just following their lifestyle, regardless of the actual mindset they should be in. No matter what, until and unless they dont take western mindset into consideration,whatever they do will still be termed as "following".What we miss is that people there are free to think, free to adapt and most important they are open to any idea. They believe in doing something new every time and every time they do it it set standards for people over here to follow.And what do we do..Blindly follow..Thinking that what they do is cool and they are enjoying...

People will do what Americans do when they are in US..
But why can't they be an Indian when in India....
As the old proverb goes "While in Rome do as Romans do"..
I just changed it..."While in India do as U like"
Coz Indians actually forgot what Indians do.... ;-)
The moral Police forget that Indians are the greatest forgivers...
The so called modern people forget the privacy of a relation...

I will not be wrong if I say the culture is going for a toss..
And by Culture I didn't mean Superstitions...
By Culture I meant:
A Promise to be good to others,
A Thought for a peaceful society,
A Service to help those in need,
A Trust to believe in others...
A Sense to differentiate between good and bad..
A Mindset to embrace all cultures without loosing what we have within...
A Faith to understand everyone,
A Prayer for the equality,
A Blessing to free the humanity...

....These are my views.. put in your views and opinions about the recent happenings...this is an open discussion... all are welcome to post their concerns...

What's Happening....Who is to blame...II

Old players are saying it should be dealt this way or that way... but I guess when you are not in their shoes(Soldier's) you can say anything...Those who lay down their lives are really brave.. But they are being treated in a way that they wud themselves be ashamed if they were alive... The common Police man... Poor guy.. Govt. is too much worried about the economy that they are building infrastructure like anything but our old Police infrastructure is still the same... I can say it cent percent if the Police had got better weapons, better Armour, better equipments for self defense and communications, then the toll wud have been may be around 10% of what it is now.Even with those outdated equipments they are willing to jump into the scene and lay down their lives shows how courageous they are, how determined they are.. I salute them,but these bloody politicians instead of making things better they wanna ride on this sentimental Patriotic feeling just to get back into politics.. shame on them..

I really appreciate the Karkare's family for rejecting Narendra Modi's offer of One crore.. Politicians are trying to measure the value of life of a martyr.. how cheap...No matter how much crore's gov spend or donate to the family who lost a son/daughter nothing is gonna change for the family.. they will still cry abt their loss.....Still their sacrifices are wasted.. When will People learn about life?When will Media think in terms of loss rather profiting from loss? Last but not least when will govt. take a stiff stand against the terrorism and provide the basic infrastructure to the armed Police n Military? Dunno still they blame each other?When will they stop that "Pushing Responsibility Away" game? We need answers to all of these...

Just look around you.. You will find for last few days suddenly the country has come alive.. everyone is talking about what everyone shud do and what cud have been done.. the age old Indian method.. Crying over the spilled milk..(or in malayalam "Chattha kuttiyude jathakam vayyikyukha")... Now notice this, this conversations will cease as soon as the cricket starts or some other issue comes up.. In simple words we need constant reminders like this that wud remind us that we are Indians first..So sad.. I dont find any wrong in the statement of Dy CM quoting "This small incidents do happen in big cities like mumbai". Can anyone point out whatz wrong in that. Sorry I cant see any casualness in that statement.. I am not supporting him but I am not against the statement. He said what every common man has to say(other than who lost someone they know). Why?? because until and unless you loose someone you will carry on as if nothing happened.

Each and every year new attacks and incidents take place..They are the real wake up calls for a week or so.. then again we all willl go into that old habit of sleeping, until our own home catches fire....(Ariyathey pilla choriyambole ariyoo)You will never know how it feels until you go thru that feeling... Isn't it true?? Think about it....but dont limit it to thinking only.. Be Vigilant..Be aware of what's happening around and be ready to help Police and others...



...................

What's Happening....Who is to blame...

Ya what tht happened was far away from me.. and as far I know I dunno anybody who is killed..
So why shud I bother anyway? Dunno how many children are orphaned, dunno how many mothers lost their sons and daughters.. and number of the relations lost list goes on...
Lot of calls came inquiring whether everything's alright.. I just thought what wud have happened if I didnt picked up the phone...Really wished if today was my last day...Wished I being one of them killed...Really can't believe in God now.. No Ram , no Allah and No Jesus.. Coz now humans are the gods and they are the demons too....

What's govt. doing...Is this the right time the media blamed the gov for being a mere spectator (As they always do)...Well excuse me, they(media) are only thinking abt how to make the news a sensational one and to increase their TRP's.. I wished some of their relatives shud have been killed in the attack.. then only they will know how it feels...Who knows? May be they will make it another TRP increasing news saying they have lost someone dear of their colleague. Fucking bull shit...Media sucks.. Pardon me for my language...I wished some MF media persons are reading this...

Media and Gov aren't the only culprits...or are they the only one's who shud be blamed for... we really forget while we point finger at them, four fingers are pointing towards us.. I guess you got the point...Everyone's quite busy, dont even have to time to think what's happening around the society until n unless it affects us...So what can we do.. I cant tell but definitely I did one thing I deleted all those bloody news channel out of my viewing list..How will that help.. I dunno but I believe they dont deserve my time...I am not telling all of them are exaggerating .. I still hang on to Doordarshan... I think they dont gave breaking news.. they only give us the truth...Sorry for this outburst at media.. they have themselves to be blamed for coz they are themselves making a mockery of this democracy (Freedom of Speech)...

Now the real matter.. no matter whomever we blame the we would still end up doing nothing coz we are not ready to blame ourselves...Why us?? Why not?? that wud be my question... No matter whatever the Intelligence or the government has to do the final line of responsibility falls on to us.. The worlds biggest Intelligence agency failed and WTC came crashing down.. Now whom do we blame..Govt can't send CID's behind each n every person of this country, then half of the people have to employed by the govt..Thatz not possible... So being an Indian citizen we shud come forward and help the Police n Govt out..We can at least take care of what's happening on or around society.. I think thatz not a big ask.. If we alone can't manage a building with few flats in it then how can we expect a mere 540 person to manage the whole country...


to be contd...

A Sneak Peak into Current Affairs

Didn't get enough time for blogging, frankly speaking hadn't had a decent topic to write about...
It doesn't mean I have some topic right now to write this.It just happened to me that I should put up my view on the current affairs.

Terrorism,What does that mean? Frankly I am clueless. If we go by the definition we can elaborate it as a phenomena of creating fear in minds of people.What kind of fear? Is it fear of dying or Is it fear of living?Newspaper will have a story related to that term everyday.Hollywood and Bollywood are making billions depicting this theme. Recently I saw a movie Mumbai Meri Jaan.... One dialog caught my attention the most, when a friend of Madhavan says "Everybody got quite adjusted to this act of violence". It was just a film but if a person has to say like that then definitely one thing is sure , he never lost anybody related to him in such an act. I am not saying he should loose one, but I am just thinking why dont people try to assess the loss of life. They will not understand how a family survives when its breadwinner dies in a bomb blast.Such is the sorry state of a country like ours. People dont know who resides in their neighborhood. When something comes up in paper then only they tend to think about it that too if the terrorist lived anywhere in his society.

One thing I noticed.. Years ago terrorist were those people who didn't had any educational background, were unemployed and were easily convinced into the so called fight for freedom.But things have changed drastically, now they are IT professionals , people having good source of income.Why then they have to fight someone Else's war? Aren't they educated enough to pick up the difference between a real war and a proxy war? A war that is being fought keeping them in front by some other big radical mind. Can' they see where this path is heading or are they so vulnerable to the follow these radical ideas without even questioning? Can't they see by doing this they are only shedding the blood of innocents? May be they can't see or may be they are so blinded by the so called freedom that they would even kill their own in order to achieve it.I think there's a flaw in basic education system. What flaw I don't know? I studied what other studied but I never thought that way and this thinking is not related to my religion or my faith. I believe in every faith , but that faith is now on the roller skate. Don't know whether it is going up or going down.Can't make it as I feel I have been left out of that.


Kashmir has always been the center stage of conflicts and disputes. I still remember people praying that their kins in army should not get posting in those areas. But now no place is safer. The war that started with the theme of getting an independent Kashmir has lost it's value over time as the whole world is coming against it. So the so called independence theme is slowly and steadily giving way to Communal ism. Communal crisis.. Is that what they want to create or Is that how they feel they can split up this Country. India has seen all sorts of invaders from time unknown and despite all those cruelties and slavery one thing that hasn't changed is that India has survived them every time.This time too it will. I think no other country shows this much patience. After sept 11 WTC incident America didn't waste any time to attack the so called terrorized country. Many people ask why India is waiting after all this act of cruelties.Peace has always been the main agenda of Indian think tank, otherwise this so called neighborhood would have been a quite human less place long ago.But once this patience runs out the their so called GOD will not be able to save them. No GOD preaches to kill innocents to get freedom.Actually no GOD preaches violence at all. By their doings I can feel that they are not doing it for any religion or any cause but only to satisfy the person behind them and create the so called fear in everybody's mind.


to be contd....

Consumerism

Today I had a chat with my school mate. We were just having a casual chat and he was asking me about the city I am living...So what can I say about this city. I told him I am not happy with the ways things are going here...

me: even though I am happy with my work here.. but I dont think I will make a consensus with my mind to settle in here..

in simple words this city Sucks

Junaid: acha....ohhh

y is that so bad

me: i wanna be on the calmer side of life.. not this bhaag daud..

and people dont have time for anything else.. always working n shopping

Junaid: ya..true fast life...those trains people etc

me: if u r not working then u r shopping or watching Ads,,

Junaid: ya true

ya...n very crowded also

this is big problem of city

me: and relations dont hold much value.. perhaps I thought I wud get something near south India.. people have more time there to spend..

Junaid: ok i c...

me: its not abt crowd dear.. its culture thtz changing

Junaid: ok i c...

me: u know Consumerism...

Junaid: ya...true

me: thtz the culture here... u work hard to make ur home comfortable but u didnt get enough time to spend at home.. what an irony..

Junaid: ya very true

life just goes behind chasing..non chase able dreams

me: and one more thing tht i am worried abt is the children.. they r now considering parents as bank accounts.. so i guess where tht relation goes...

obviously to dustbin..

Junaid: ok i c..

watch this article on consumerism

http://www.storyofstuff.com/

me: parents dont get enough time to spend around them so they buy them things.. the very things tht take their children away

Junaid: true...both parents working..not much time for children...

no proper inculcation of values culture

me: so what do u think where we are heading??

Junaid: ya..from culture n value wise..it is certainly not heading in good direction

So coming back to the topic... I was really moved by that Site about Consumerism...
You should see this. Even though it's basically about the US but if you replace that word with INDIA then it will make better sense..Watch it for yourself .. You can definitely connect to it..Why? Coz U r a part of it.Once you watch it you will feel the way we are being trapped in a cycle... A cycle that has a tendency of not letting you stop anywhere in between. I loved that concept coz it is for real. And it has been described in a most simple sense.

As I said. its an Irony that you never get satisfied with what you have.. Somewhere deep in your heart you think "I cud have done better".. If this feeling comes for an exam then its good but here it's for a totally different thing...A thing we think we can control but we are more into getting carried away...

Similarly everyone is Earning for comfort but have no time to enjoy that comfort. Then whats the use of that comfort. What this video doesn't say is that we should curb our needs or in other words we should clearly separate our needs and our wants. Its not about money only, its about your life. You ask for a better salary and indeed you get a better salary but in short time it will not seem enough. The thing we fail to notice is that our wants are getting converted to our needs every time and we take it that way. Dont blame on economy that Inflation is real high and things are becoming more costlier rather blame it on your way of prioritizing about the things that you really need.

At least we have a country to learn from. Where moral values are going to end up? Even though we know things we still consider that, they can be changed when we need. Sorry dear it's not in your hands alone. The world around you has already changed and you can now only be a part of it. What I am telling is that being a part of it doesn't mean you always have to play as others play. Its simple logic " Be content with what you have". I dont have anything against the Malls or those big galleria's but they definitely dont have a good effect on our culture..take for instant, you go shopping on Saturday and Sunday's , you will find people just happy to found that everything under a single roof and you will be happy coz you dont have to go to different places for buying different things.

But what have you failed to see is that it is getting infectious. Why the Malls are coming up exponentially? Simple answer for that is to increase your needs. Every one in the family has something for them in there and next weekend the family members are compelled to be there again. Dont you see the irony. People justify by saying they get enough time with their family while "Malling" that's the new term I am gonna use from now onwards...Malling is now becoming absolute fun at the cost of I don know you can think of what you are loosing.. If you are not able to come up with any loss then Congrats you are the real Consumer or the Malling expert.

I am not saying I am haven't gone to mall.I have and I found what difference it can bring out in me. I have twice went to mall for movies , but lately I realized I have been robbed of with my money. Ad labs , Fame, and lot more I don remember their name they offer you movie with almost 400% the actual rate... So guess what I did, I stopped watching movies in the Malls.. not bcoz I dont have money , but bcoz I dont have the extra money.. when You can catch a movie with same effect from a nearby theater in 60-80 rupees why need of going for the same movie @ 250-300 rupees.. A simple Logic...

What ever the result gonna be, I am only worried about how things are gonna end up on the cultural side. I remember during Onam we used to have everything prepared at home and we had everyone along with us and we shared a unique bond eating together and working and playing together... Nowadays we have Paper "Ela"(banana leaves).. Food prepared from some hotel.. served by some waiters and we think we celebrated Onam. I wud rather prefer not to celebrate than doing it this way... Now dont blame that you are in distant places and due to work you can't be there for Onam. Fuck up with those excuses.. Why are you working for..rather what are you working for??Its not only about Onam I am talking about.. It's all about the simple occasions which you once cherished and now you think you are not gonna share those moments again.. it's not you who has to be blamed for.. It's Consumerism.. You will find it hard to relate consumerism as the real cause.. Think.. you are missing the link some where.......

Dont think I deviated from the topic of consumerism... Everything is related in one way or the other.. it's just how you want to see it, makes the difference...

Dont forget about the site..it will take 20 minutes of your precious time.. if you think you are gonna miss that time(20 minutes) watching this ,then you are missing something, but if you miss that video then you are missing everything.....

http://www.storyofstuff.com/

Hope it's helpfull, understanding Consumerism.....

A silent thought into "Indian-ness"....

We celebrated our 60th Independence day. Dunno How many of us really celebrated? And what does celebration means? Ya may be sending some patriotic forwards and mails to frnds. That's all...this has become the modern feeling of Indian-ness.

Indian-ness....
What is Indian-ness?
Indian-ness is not ethereal that circumnavigates around the religion or philosopy, but it is something that we slowly acquire from our parents,grand parents over time. A stream of feelings that we develop for the fellow human beings, a love for human kind. This is what our culture taught us.Dunno how much we are going to pass this culture to coming generation??

India : A country that has all the ingredeints to make it the best and unique in this world. Thats the way I define what India means to me and how much I am proud of my country.Rather than an physical entity surrounded by boundaries ,"India" is actually a perception of great people like Gandhi, Tagore, Vivekananda. Its a feeling that has nowadays strives hard to find its own identity because many a times we fail to carry forward that vision.

This was Tagore's vision of a great India(Geetanjali in Bold letters) and let's compare how it fare in this said to be an modern India.

Where the mind is without fear : Fear of loosing job, loosing status , money and all kind of fear engulfed everyone.

Where the head is held high: only to bow down to self desires and greed.

Where the knowledge is free: ya Education is free only if you have money to buy it.

Where the world is not broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls: with all these riots and communalisms, this statement too doesn't hold anymore.

Where words come out from the depth of truth: can you find truth anywhere, its scandals and corruption from beginning to the top of the system.

Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection: only towards the perfection of economy of oneself.

Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way into the dreary desert sand of dead habit:there's no clear stream of reason left, everybody trying to fulfill their own dreams(dead habit), rather than coming together for a common cause of India.

Where the mind is led forward by thee into ever-widening thought and action: narrow minded people fill this country with a narrow minded sort of actions.

Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake: I am glad that Mahatma Gandhi is no more , because he would really have been ashamed. We are free physically but we are slowly giving away our mental freedom to get something that is really not ours.

I am not saying every person is straying away from truth(the real meaning if Indian-ness), but the truth is that narrow minded people outnumbered the real one's.

Is that vision lost now???
Yes we are loosing it gradually. Its true as Dipankar Gupta(Sociologist) says" Indians aren't so much modern as they are westoxicated".Similar is the view of Madhulika Khandelwal,author of "Becoming American, Being Indian". She says " In this age of globalisation with young men and women coming from their hometowns to Bangalore, Mumbai, Delhi and making money, being independent of parental censure is fast leading to the development of a new society in which those old snobberies of linguistic, cultural and ethnic origin aren't so important".

See around for yourself what changes do you see? How are we binded to the society that we are living right now that is far away from your home(hometown). What binds us to the present society and what binds us to the our hometown?. Dont think society in terms of group of individuals , think it as "the way of thinking" or perception of individuals who are living in a group.Whats the ambiance that this present society creates around us??

This aggressive globalisation is making us loose our distinct identity of being an Indian. And how will this affect we dont know as when a culture changes victims are usually the last to know about it. Now who are the victims, definitely we are not, coz we are right now witnessing this transition of time and culture. We know both these cultures coz we are in between them and we are slowly moving away from one to the other.We know what we are loosing gradually over this time, things that will never be brought back.

By culture I don't mean the superstitions, the caste difference or the blind rituals that are followed by people . It's a feeling of sacrifice, it's a feeling that keeps those men at the borders to keep us sleeping tight, it's a feeling that no matter whatever happens, we can hold on.

By chasing this western culture,it's not the things that we are loosing instead we are unknowingly sacrificing feelings. Feelings that usually used to bind people far away, feelings that people hang on to during worst ever scenarios that itself brings out the best in them, feelings that make us cry and laugh at the same time. And see now what feeling each individual has towards each other.The more a person falls behind the value of a family, the more he lives for his own the less he will concern about the fellow being, coz its in the family where an individual think in terms of us rather than me.
Relations no longer hold any value, people tend to think all these relations comes out of necessity and indeed it is becoming going that way only. Everything happens due to necessity. Necessity is slowly eating into the emotional value that has been here for centuries. Wait and watch that time is not far, actually it has already begun to happen, where children consider their parents just like an bank account.

Sandeep once asked me "One thing I cant understand is, why are the parents sending their children away from them even without trying for a life in their own land.Why are parents not aware of the future life their kids have to experience?". I replied that its the urge within those parents to see their kids economically independent, but this urge is letting those kids only earn all the time in life rather than finding time to live for themselves, coz meaning of life has changed. First it was "earning for living", now its "Living for earning".

Friends often ask me why do I always have a grudge against this fast moving world, I always tried to make them understand that I am not against but I am only worried about how it is going to be after some time if we continue this way of life.But they never understood,and sadly they feel I am afraid of being left out and in one sense I didn't tried to clarify that opinion.I have seen things happen, I have been around to places and I have seen different cultures mingle together , but never they lost their individual identity but this mingling of Indian to the west will definitely leave no trace of our diversified culture.

Think about it.I am not saying to follow the old traditions blindly but at least we can keep those moral values within us to pass on to the next Generation.

Hope this has at least made you think about the present way the society is heading to. I think there is no wrong in waiting for your responses coz I am expecting them from you.