Saturday, January 3, 2009
Double Standards?
Looking at the Israeli offensive in Gaza, I was all but amazed at the worldwide response. Not that I support terrorism, but calling firing a few rockets and killing 4 Israelis terrorism, versus slaughtering 450 Palestinians, atleast a quarter civilians (UN figures), being justified makes no sense. When did lives of people from different countries start having different value? According to the current world view, it seems so. Only now in europe, protests have begun over these attacks. From what history tells us, such wars only postpone things, and it seems that the greater powers of this world have deemed that this is a feasible method to repeat since it does not cause much collateral damage. To those in the decision making positions, it may seem practical, but is deeply barbaric to subject the residents of these parts of the world to such constant torture and fear, many of whom have nothing to do with terrorism. After such acts, where many innocent people are slaughtered from afar, won't more people be pushed towards committing acts of terrorism? It seems like a vicious cycle, and someone will have to blink to save humanity, and considering the balance of power, it will have to be the ones with the larger guns.
Sunday, December 7, 2008
The people who dwell beneath our faces
The credit for this entry goes to my sister, who actually thought of this. Since this seemed like a pretty nice topic to write on, here goes.
Me and my sis were discussing all the differences between USA and India, things that we've noticed in our brief stay here. There was one thing we agreed upon, the bordering-on-weird insistence of people to say thanks for everything. I mean, if someone is especially nice or something, then it makes sense, but saying it all the time doesn't make much sense. It reduces the sentiment to a mere polite necessity, something people must follow. Not that I'm against politeness, I've experienced my share of unpleasantness back in Delhi, something that any other delhiite will attest to, we're not the most polite lot. To tell you frankly, atleast initially, the politeness and thank you's seemed very nice, they were a breath of fresh air. Even the things like cars stopping for you when you cross the road, in India, that's a death wish :) . But then came Thanksgiving, ooh and how that changed things.
To people who're not familiar with what I'm talking about, Thanksgiving here, is like the mother of all sales, once you set aside the obvious festive stuff, which I'm not too clear about. The so called "Black friday" is like a huge event the whole country gears up for, and sales announcements go out months in advance. At first I thought, ok, so it's a sale, so what. I didn't pay much attention to all the stories about people camping outside stores days in advance. Then came friday. Not feeling too enthused to camp outside anywhere in the kind of weather New York, we left at 11 in the morning, and made a customary stop at Walmart. The signs were there, the usually empty parking lot, was choc-a-bloc full. There were masses of people around, and I found myself thinking, this feels more like home, well, chandni chowk atleast. The differences were clearly apparent, no cars stopped for people, no one said thank you, or anything like that. People were even downright rude, honking incessantly, the likes of which you wouldn't face in Delhi even. That confirmed something that had crept into my mind over the past few days. That the politeness that people present, is well, a sham. no one really feels it, but people still project that smiling face and talk politely.
The inherent fakeness of the whole business is kind of shocking. People from the west repeatedly criticize people of the east for being impolite, which is not all false, but still. It probably is still better than faking it, that's something I probably I hate the most. And that slowly tied itself to a lot of other things in my head. The first, and seemingly obvious thing is to tie it to the declining birth rates in the west. Ok, don't laugh and fall over just yet. Everyone knows about the issue, and it seems like a simple logical step. No one would ever want to marry someone without knowing that person from the inside (I mean the personality perverts). That would be a herculean task if that required first tunneling through a mountain of enforced politeness. It simply would take some serious thinking to be sure that what the other person is doing for you is actually real, or if it's a front. I remember what my father says, being an avid, and pretty good photographer, that the best shots are captured when you don't pose. True beauty lies in the moment, and in that impromptu, unrehearsed action. After seeing a lot of the photos, it's kinda hard to deny it. That brings another thought to mind, whether the unrelenting march towards "civility" is actually as good as it's touted. Ok, not killing each other is fine, but being polite all the time is stretching it. Because, forcing people to be polite doesn't change them, it just pushes that inherent malice deeper inside layers of jargon. If the many thousands of years of "civilised" existence have shown, this malice can never be rooted out of people. Which kind of explains the reason why civilizations at the pinnacle of their existence die out, human society simply cannot withstand the barrage of sophistication.
To clarify a bit, I'm a bit partial against all the sophistication. I mean who hasn't seen a scene in a movie where no one knows what all the forks are for! To put it simply, having too much sophistication really kills the fun, so lighten up, and try to not be so stiflingly polite :P
Me and my sis were discussing all the differences between USA and India, things that we've noticed in our brief stay here. There was one thing we agreed upon, the bordering-on-weird insistence of people to say thanks for everything. I mean, if someone is especially nice or something, then it makes sense, but saying it all the time doesn't make much sense. It reduces the sentiment to a mere polite necessity, something people must follow. Not that I'm against politeness, I've experienced my share of unpleasantness back in Delhi, something that any other delhiite will attest to, we're not the most polite lot. To tell you frankly, atleast initially, the politeness and thank you's seemed very nice, they were a breath of fresh air. Even the things like cars stopping for you when you cross the road, in India, that's a death wish :) . But then came Thanksgiving, ooh and how that changed things.
To people who're not familiar with what I'm talking about, Thanksgiving here, is like the mother of all sales, once you set aside the obvious festive stuff, which I'm not too clear about. The so called "Black friday" is like a huge event the whole country gears up for, and sales announcements go out months in advance. At first I thought, ok, so it's a sale, so what. I didn't pay much attention to all the stories about people camping outside stores days in advance. Then came friday. Not feeling too enthused to camp outside anywhere in the kind of weather New York, we left at 11 in the morning, and made a customary stop at Walmart. The signs were there, the usually empty parking lot, was choc-a-bloc full. There were masses of people around, and I found myself thinking, this feels more like home, well, chandni chowk atleast. The differences were clearly apparent, no cars stopped for people, no one said thank you, or anything like that. People were even downright rude, honking incessantly, the likes of which you wouldn't face in Delhi even. That confirmed something that had crept into my mind over the past few days. That the politeness that people present, is well, a sham. no one really feels it, but people still project that smiling face and talk politely.
The inherent fakeness of the whole business is kind of shocking. People from the west repeatedly criticize people of the east for being impolite, which is not all false, but still. It probably is still better than faking it, that's something I probably I hate the most. And that slowly tied itself to a lot of other things in my head. The first, and seemingly obvious thing is to tie it to the declining birth rates in the west. Ok, don't laugh and fall over just yet. Everyone knows about the issue, and it seems like a simple logical step. No one would ever want to marry someone without knowing that person from the inside (I mean the personality perverts). That would be a herculean task if that required first tunneling through a mountain of enforced politeness. It simply would take some serious thinking to be sure that what the other person is doing for you is actually real, or if it's a front. I remember what my father says, being an avid, and pretty good photographer, that the best shots are captured when you don't pose. True beauty lies in the moment, and in that impromptu, unrehearsed action. After seeing a lot of the photos, it's kinda hard to deny it. That brings another thought to mind, whether the unrelenting march towards "civility" is actually as good as it's touted. Ok, not killing each other is fine, but being polite all the time is stretching it. Because, forcing people to be polite doesn't change them, it just pushes that inherent malice deeper inside layers of jargon. If the many thousands of years of "civilised" existence have shown, this malice can never be rooted out of people. Which kind of explains the reason why civilizations at the pinnacle of their existence die out, human society simply cannot withstand the barrage of sophistication.
To clarify a bit, I'm a bit partial against all the sophistication. I mean who hasn't seen a scene in a movie where no one knows what all the forks are for! To put it simply, having too much sophistication really kills the fun, so lighten up, and try to not be so stiflingly polite :P
Saturday, November 22, 2008
Peace
Peace
Peace, a thought with a noble sense
Nowadays, just a tattered fence
Which sought to change the world
Into a livable place
But is now waiting for someone,
To give it, the coup de grace.
Great leaders fought for it for years
And saw a glimmer of hope
Another few, took only minutes
To make it a worldwide joke.
Many people used it,
Like caste and creed
And disposed it off as they pleased.
The real meaning behind it is forgotten
It is just an instrument,
Used for means so rotten
And now I wonder
Whether the time has come
To let peace, rest in peace?
Peace, a thought with a noble sense
Nowadays, just a tattered fence
Which sought to change the world
Into a livable place
But is now waiting for someone,
To give it, the coup de grace.
Great leaders fought for it for years
And saw a glimmer of hope
Another few, took only minutes
To make it a worldwide joke.
Many people used it,
Like caste and creed
And disposed it off as they pleased.
The real meaning behind it is forgotten
It is just an instrument,
Used for means so rotten
And now I wonder
Whether the time has come
To let peace, rest in peace?
-- Me
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Looking back...
Even though I'm still short on time, I realised I do best when I'm facing a deadline :) , so here goes.
Doing my usual timewasting, I stumbled across an invite to my (high) school's alumni meet in January. To people who don't know, I'm from the Delhi Public School, R.K. Puram, a name whose fame is rivalled probably only by my other alma mater, IIT Delhi. Ya you will obviously disagree, but who cares, it's my blog, not yours. And when I read the date, and a comment by my close friend, I realised it's gonna be 6 years I've been an alumni dipsite (ya that's what we're called). And that's what made me realise it's been that long. In many ways I'm that same person I was then, in many ways, I'm very different. On the outside, I look much the same, probably a little geekier, some side effects of IIT there, heck some time back my nursery teacher recognized me without breaking a sweat! . Inside, dunno, I'm much the same, but very different. Whenever I look back I'm always amazed by how naive, how innocent I used to be. I guess we all do, that's why the cliche (ugh! never knew I'd say that) "the good old days" exists. People who keep track of me through this blog are likely to imagine me as this depressed guy, I don't usually write when I'm happy, I just enjoy that time.
Getting back, the past is such a wonderful thing. People remember their school life as a horror or a wonderful ride, it's sorta difficult to be lukewarm about it. I guess it's a mixture of both, else there won't be million dollar industries to cash in on it. To tell you frankly, I was never one of the "cool" kids. I never regretted it, even when the maiden mobile movie enterprise from my school came out :P . Maybe especially then. If you don't know what I'm talking about and are from India, what world were you in! I was kind of the archetypical studious boy, minus the specs for most of my school time, and as I'd like to believe, minus some of the geekiness. Frankly, I'm a lot geekier now than I was then, but then, IIT does that to you. The simple fact is that when I look back, I remember all these wonderful people I met, all the experiences I had. I'd never wish to change any of it, who I was then made me who I am today, and I'm pretty happy with that. The funny thing is how I used to imagine, that 6 years down the line after passing out from school, I'd be set, decided on what I wanted to do with my life, and actually doing it. Now I realise, I only have a vague idea of what I want to do with my life, and I'm not quite there, and probably we never do. If we do get to where we want to go, that makes you lose your purpose to live, which is probably the worst thing that can happen to anyone. I guess the best we can do is to always remember that child inside of us. That's why, I guess, they say, no matter where you go, don't forget your roots, where you come from. I still remember myself as a wide eyed little kid, holding my mom's hand, entering the school on my first day, as I do my last. I still remember entering IIT for the first time, and leaving it for the last time. I guess I'll always remember coming to UNC, and definitely leaving it too. I've had some good, some bad, and some truly wonderful memories, made my best friends at these places and had some of the best times of my life. If I give credit to who or what has made me who I am, these places and the people I met there, come second only to my family. These places will forever remain enshrined in my head as those wonderful places, which regular places in this world aspire to be, but never achieve, inhabited by such wonderous people whom even fiction cannot match, with memories to match. These places, ladies and gentlemen, are my heaven, and forever they shall be. In the words of the mughal emperor Humayun, "Gar barruye zameen asto, hameen asto, hameen asto, hameen asto", which roughly translates to, if there is a heaven on earth, it is here, it is here, it is here.
Doing my usual timewasting, I stumbled across an invite to my (high) school's alumni meet in January. To people who don't know, I'm from the Delhi Public School, R.K. Puram, a name whose fame is rivalled probably only by my other alma mater, IIT Delhi. Ya you will obviously disagree, but who cares, it's my blog, not yours. And when I read the date, and a comment by my close friend, I realised it's gonna be 6 years I've been an alumni dipsite (ya that's what we're called). And that's what made me realise it's been that long. In many ways I'm that same person I was then, in many ways, I'm very different. On the outside, I look much the same, probably a little geekier, some side effects of IIT there, heck some time back my nursery teacher recognized me without breaking a sweat! . Inside, dunno, I'm much the same, but very different. Whenever I look back I'm always amazed by how naive, how innocent I used to be. I guess we all do, that's why the cliche (ugh! never knew I'd say that) "the good old days" exists. People who keep track of me through this blog are likely to imagine me as this depressed guy, I don't usually write when I'm happy, I just enjoy that time.
Getting back, the past is such a wonderful thing. People remember their school life as a horror or a wonderful ride, it's sorta difficult to be lukewarm about it. I guess it's a mixture of both, else there won't be million dollar industries to cash in on it. To tell you frankly, I was never one of the "cool" kids. I never regretted it, even when the maiden mobile movie enterprise from my school came out :P . Maybe especially then. If you don't know what I'm talking about and are from India, what world were you in! I was kind of the archetypical studious boy, minus the specs for most of my school time, and as I'd like to believe, minus some of the geekiness. Frankly, I'm a lot geekier now than I was then, but then, IIT does that to you. The simple fact is that when I look back, I remember all these wonderful people I met, all the experiences I had. I'd never wish to change any of it, who I was then made me who I am today, and I'm pretty happy with that. The funny thing is how I used to imagine, that 6 years down the line after passing out from school, I'd be set, decided on what I wanted to do with my life, and actually doing it. Now I realise, I only have a vague idea of what I want to do with my life, and I'm not quite there, and probably we never do. If we do get to where we want to go, that makes you lose your purpose to live, which is probably the worst thing that can happen to anyone. I guess the best we can do is to always remember that child inside of us. That's why, I guess, they say, no matter where you go, don't forget your roots, where you come from. I still remember myself as a wide eyed little kid, holding my mom's hand, entering the school on my first day, as I do my last. I still remember entering IIT for the first time, and leaving it for the last time. I guess I'll always remember coming to UNC, and definitely leaving it too. I've had some good, some bad, and some truly wonderful memories, made my best friends at these places and had some of the best times of my life. If I give credit to who or what has made me who I am, these places and the people I met there, come second only to my family. These places will forever remain enshrined in my head as those wonderful places, which regular places in this world aspire to be, but never achieve, inhabited by such wonderous people whom even fiction cannot match, with memories to match. These places, ladies and gentlemen, are my heaven, and forever they shall be. In the words of the mughal emperor Humayun, "Gar barruye zameen asto, hameen asto, hameen asto, hameen asto", which roughly translates to, if there is a heaven on earth, it is here, it is here, it is here.
Saturday, November 15, 2008
Life
This is one more of my old poems, while I still am plagued by lack of time
Life
You can be surrounded by friends, yet be all alone,
You could have won the greatest prize, yet lost it all,
You could be the happiest person in the world, yet find no reason to smile,
You could have known a person a lifetime, yet find a stranger in front of you everyday.
You could have seen all the world has to offer, yet not seen anything at all,
You could be the richest guy alive, yet poorer than the beggar on the street,
You could be the most powerful & influential person, yet be the most helpless.
Life is not about what you choose, but what you do with what has been given to you,
It’s about leaving your past behind and think about the present, yet not drift into the future,
It’s not just about pondering over who you are, it’s about putting those thoughts into action,
Because you are unchangeable, irreplaceable, and so are those around you,
Because where there is good, there is evil, and it’s not in your power to root out all of it,
But what is, is to overcome it & look at the bright side of life,
Because you have but one life, so put it to good use, and relax and leave the rest to life.
Life
You can be surrounded by friends, yet be all alone,
You could have won the greatest prize, yet lost it all,
You could be the happiest person in the world, yet find no reason to smile,
You could have known a person a lifetime, yet find a stranger in front of you everyday.
You could have seen all the world has to offer, yet not seen anything at all,
You could be the richest guy alive, yet poorer than the beggar on the street,
You could be the most powerful & influential person, yet be the most helpless.
Life is not about what you choose, but what you do with what has been given to you,
It’s about leaving your past behind and think about the present, yet not drift into the future,
It’s not just about pondering over who you are, it’s about putting those thoughts into action,
Because you are unchangeable, irreplaceable, and so are those around you,
Because where there is good, there is evil, and it’s not in your power to root out all of it,
But what is, is to overcome it & look at the bright side of life,
Because you have but one life, so put it to good use, and relax and leave the rest to life.
-- Me
Sunday, October 26, 2008
Hope
This is one of quite a few poems I wrote a long time back, I'm going to put these up over a period of a few days while I come up with some new ideas :D
Hope
When you are down
And you try to smile,
But all that comes is a frown.
When the odds are against you
When the thought of failure plagues you,
When all friends have left your side
Then, deep down inside,
A ray of hope comes to life
And within you, ends all strife
Thoughts sort themselves out
And you are rid of all doubt
It gives you the inspiration to fight
Against all odds, against all might
It is not an instrument of the great
It isn't all just fate
It's all in your hands
It stems from the will to succeed
Obstructions in your path, there shall be,
But to those, pay no heed
Cause they shall always be
Draw strength from the will
The path is uphill
But don't lose hope
Because my friend, we shall overcome,
Succeed you will.
-- Me
Sunday, October 12, 2008
The Holy Inquisition and Wall street crashes
I was watching this somewhat interesting movie out of boredom, which briefly dwelled on the topic of the inquisitions and how the people of Venice turned from fawning over courtesans to blaming them for all the ills that befell them. And essentially how they were tried and convicted as witches. In case you're wondering, it wasn't a documentary, just something Netflix popped up on my screen. Also, in case you're about to cringe and shy away fearing yet another history lesson, well, don't, I'm not gonna explain what the inquisition was.
One fact I do wish to discuss, is how in history, women have been blamed for a lot of ills that occured. They deserve credit, they've taken the flak for a lot of things which weren't their fault at all. It's quite interesting how we tend to try and find scapegoats for everything. Whenever things are going well, we are happy and adore the people revelling in success. But as soon as things turn bad, we revile the very same people, blaming them for all ills. In history, though we didn't exactly place women on a pedestal, but they were usually the ones blamed whenever any natural calamity struck. Courtesy, religion, and the world being male dominated. The Holy Inquisition is just the worst of the kind that took place. And to look at it, history is littered with similar incidences where a few exploited people's insecurities to label a certain section as responsible for all ills. The most famous of them all is probably Hitler's crusade against the Jews, but it is probably not the bloodiest or the one affecting the most number of people. Essentially, we start becoming a one man justice system, and give them no real chance to defend themselves. That's probably the herd mentality, or simple ignorance. When we suffer by no fault of ours, we often want some scapegoat to blame.
And actually we don't need to go too far back to look for evidence of such acts. The recent Wall street crashes and global economic collapse is a simple example. We were quick to blame the bankers who handle these things. Well, not to say they aren't at all responsible for what's happened, but simply, the majority aren't, and it's this majority that's been hit the worst by this. But then why do we blame them? jealousy. We've watched these people enjoy a lavish existence, by apparently doing no work, while we suffer and slave in our daily lives. Well, it's a little true, it's hard not to feel envious of their existence, and we inherently bide our time to hit back at the ones we feel jealous of, it's simple human nature. And since now it's our time, we blame the entire kind of bankers for all ills, a kind that needs to be purged or controlled to fix things. Similar arguments tend to be used in communal riots, an event that's sadly too common in my own country. Even more so, I've heard many more such arguments in the "war against terror". So why does that deserve quotes? we've so simply put the tag of a terrorist on just about every muslim we see, that it's actually disturbing. The people we vilify as terrorists, do we ever try to find out what plagued their lives. While I still don't condone their actions, I can see why some would take up arms. They are shown such similar arguments against the west, like you are shown against them. They have their own insecurities, some have probably suffered a personal loss as well. But the general fear would probably be sufficient to induce such a condition. Any smart person knows how easy it is to brainwash a scared person, you can simply make them do whatever you want. Manipulation of others is like a primal tool we all have, and use subconciously everyday. Some are better at this than others, and most of these people, become leaders in little time.
What you can take from this? look at someone who the world, or even you despise with an impartial eye. Look at the circumstances that made them do the things they did, what would you do in their situation. And before judging "I'd never do that still!" remember what crazy things your mind can make you do when insecure. And maybe look at that person, and give him a second chance, a benefit of doubt to earn your respect, before you move on. Maybe if we all did that, the world might just be a better place.
One fact I do wish to discuss, is how in history, women have been blamed for a lot of ills that occured. They deserve credit, they've taken the flak for a lot of things which weren't their fault at all. It's quite interesting how we tend to try and find scapegoats for everything. Whenever things are going well, we are happy and adore the people revelling in success. But as soon as things turn bad, we revile the very same people, blaming them for all ills. In history, though we didn't exactly place women on a pedestal, but they were usually the ones blamed whenever any natural calamity struck. Courtesy, religion, and the world being male dominated. The Holy Inquisition is just the worst of the kind that took place. And to look at it, history is littered with similar incidences where a few exploited people's insecurities to label a certain section as responsible for all ills. The most famous of them all is probably Hitler's crusade against the Jews, but it is probably not the bloodiest or the one affecting the most number of people. Essentially, we start becoming a one man justice system, and give them no real chance to defend themselves. That's probably the herd mentality, or simple ignorance. When we suffer by no fault of ours, we often want some scapegoat to blame.
And actually we don't need to go too far back to look for evidence of such acts. The recent Wall street crashes and global economic collapse is a simple example. We were quick to blame the bankers who handle these things. Well, not to say they aren't at all responsible for what's happened, but simply, the majority aren't, and it's this majority that's been hit the worst by this. But then why do we blame them? jealousy. We've watched these people enjoy a lavish existence, by apparently doing no work, while we suffer and slave in our daily lives. Well, it's a little true, it's hard not to feel envious of their existence, and we inherently bide our time to hit back at the ones we feel jealous of, it's simple human nature. And since now it's our time, we blame the entire kind of bankers for all ills, a kind that needs to be purged or controlled to fix things. Similar arguments tend to be used in communal riots, an event that's sadly too common in my own country. Even more so, I've heard many more such arguments in the "war against terror". So why does that deserve quotes? we've so simply put the tag of a terrorist on just about every muslim we see, that it's actually disturbing. The people we vilify as terrorists, do we ever try to find out what plagued their lives. While I still don't condone their actions, I can see why some would take up arms. They are shown such similar arguments against the west, like you are shown against them. They have their own insecurities, some have probably suffered a personal loss as well. But the general fear would probably be sufficient to induce such a condition. Any smart person knows how easy it is to brainwash a scared person, you can simply make them do whatever you want. Manipulation of others is like a primal tool we all have, and use subconciously everyday. Some are better at this than others, and most of these people, become leaders in little time.
What you can take from this? look at someone who the world, or even you despise with an impartial eye. Look at the circumstances that made them do the things they did, what would you do in their situation. And before judging "I'd never do that still!" remember what crazy things your mind can make you do when insecure. And maybe look at that person, and give him a second chance, a benefit of doubt to earn your respect, before you move on. Maybe if we all did that, the world might just be a better place.
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