Long time...

It's been some time...

Life's been up and down, sideways, knotty...but good. Nothing spectacular. But feeling peaceful. After a long time.

I know not what lies ahead, on so many fronts. But there's somewhere within me, this feeling that I am happy. In a way that I haven't been for a long long time.

Thank you life.

Stoppppp..!!!

The past two weeks have been more than hectic. Work flying in from all directions; you think you've sorted one thing out, when you realize that there so many others to work on. Think a holiday is needed soon !

A shady nexus

Ok, so two months have passed since India's latest (and worst) terrorist attack. While NDTV dutifully exercised its monopoly over English news reporting, other channels (notably Star TV) pulled no punches in Bollywood-ising the unfortunate incident. While the general coverage of the incident was quite poor in India I thought (I abhor Barkha Dutt and her pseudo-intellectual patronisation of anybody remotely more intelligent than her!), a lot of outrage was - rightly - expressed by news reports on how this incident was so brazenly allowed to occur. The almighty and all-powerful politicians were being fired left, right and centre, and angry citizens aired their views on generously provided air time by channels such as NDTV.

I noted of course how people such as Bal Thakrey and similarly jobless yobs kept quiet on the incident, but was surprised why no news channel reported this. (Given that until the attacks occurred, the same yobs were getting high beating up innocent North Indians who chose to make something of their lives by arriving in Bombay)

Two months later, it's all back to business as usual of course for the news channels. Nationalism and patriotism is history once more, as media dedicates its energy to resume covering the nitty-gritty of the Indian polity. Today I watched in horror as some yobs (belonging to another one of those yobby, tin-pot political parties in middle India) decided to beat up women because they were in a pub....And we're back to what we do best. While the Honourable Prime Minister gets his heart fixed, and the country is without a leader, some goons in Bangalore say, "fu&* this...I'm bored...let's go and beat up some people..." No arrests will be made obviously. Obviously the media will report this and obviously Barkha Dutt will gather another "We The People" meeting and enjoy the sound of her own voice.

There is a very shady nexus between the politicians and the media in India, and they both know it exists. The one could not survive without the other. Now you might say that this nexus probably exists in a lot of other (Western) countries, too. True, it might. But the point is that in India we keep going on about sound-bytes like "change", "progress", "India shining"...blaah. The reality is that Indians are incapable of any meaningful progress. And that's because we're an incredibly selfish people.....

What life throws at you..

No one says life is easy, but sometimes it can get excruciating - whether it's difficulty with money, problems at work or at home, or general frustration at where you think you're not headed ! Different people in different places and circumstances face their own problems, and while some are clearly, visibly, tangibly, worse off than others, the argument that "..you must be grateful for what you have because so many don't even have what you do.." can get annoying: I don't give a sh&T. I am unhappy here and now and that's all that matters, right?

It's very easy to go down that route (I know I have), but the problem in so doing is that you risk losing all perspective on life itself. When you seriously try and make yourself realise that this life...whatever it maybe, good, bad, great, etc. is only going to last for the next, I don't know, 50-odd years at the most, that feeling of dispensability dawns on you. Then you have to tell yourself, "I will not let this get me down...I will rise...I will change..I will make the most"...why? Well, because unless you have suicidal tendencies, you don't really have a choice. The day when you're not alive anymore will arrive.

You might as well make the most of it...or try to anyway.