Bemused!!

I have just completed reading a couple of posts-one about morality and another on Indian culture. The essence of the “morality” post is parents should teach children to respect everyone as all humans are equal and realize that failures are common and a good job and endless wealth is not everything. People should stop aiming high after they reach a point and be content with what they have. It sounds a good attitude for us Indians. I think the dismal performance of India in olympics can be attributed to this trait of being content. Also as all human beings are equal, I think we should limit the copies of writers like chetan bhagat (am not his fan) to the same number which the less fortunate authors sell. The writer further says that if all people were given an opportunity, they would flourish. Why don`t we offer the opening slot to Agarkar?
The post is so irrational that I don`t even find the need to dissect it. The second post suggests that we should be proud of our culture. There is nothing that is absolutely good or bad. It depends on the interpretation of the observers. There are some indomitable evils like caste system, racism and sexism. The seemingly good and appreciable things in Indian culture are respect for elders, family relations, strong marriage system and social harmony. Coming to social harmony, are MNS from Angola to be feared? Why can`t they live in harmony with us? Leaving the burning issues aside, it is only in India, we find people tugging at the newspapers of their co-passengers.
Family relations in India are funny. We need our family to give us a sense of support as if we are lame and a feeling of possessing and being possessed so that we can manage to adulterate ourselves. We respect elders just because being born earlier gives them the right to expect respect and it is not Indian to deny people even if they are not deserving. All our models are like that. Karna could not think what a brahmin would do with his kavacha kundalas. Rama did not judge if Vibheeshana who had no guts to talk Ravana into giving up Sita would make a good king or not.
Have a look at the marriage system. If marriage is a prison and you hate it, we do not want to be bound by strong chains which we cannot break. If marriage is a prison and you love it, it does not make a difference if the chains are weak or strong. If you think marriage is not a prison. either you are insane or you are one of those paper guys who makes 1000 bucks for a small space of “50kpm 26 5 “11 beautiful bride wanted”
There were also some seemingly improper traits of our perfect Indian culture as in that post. People are greedy for money. Yeah, the day when your morals can buy you a pint of vodka, what is the need for money? Just go to the bar and tell the waiter that you are the most righteous creature.

P.S.1. All these post scripts are going to be UG`s quotes.
P.S.2. A messiah is the one who leaves a mess behind him in this world.
P.S.3. Man cannot be anything other than what he is. Whatever he is, he will create a society that mirrors him.
P.S.4. Gurus play a social role, so do prostitutes.
P.S.5. By using the models of Jesus, Buddha, or Krishna we have destroyed the possibility of nature throwing up unique individuals.
P.S.6. That messy thing called ‘mind’ has created many destructive things. By far the most destructive of them all is God.
P.S.7. Nature is busy creating absolutely unique individuals, where as culture has invented a single mold to which all must conform. It is grotesque.

A trip to Daman

This saturday, we had been to Daman. “We” = kartik,arun,sana and me. I had not slept the previous night and we had to catch a train at 9 am. We found some room to rest our bums. Anyways, it was a 2.5 hr journey. We got down at Vapi and took an auto(of course, along with its driver) to Daman. It is quite close to Vapi, say 10 km. We checked into Hotel Marina. All of us were so tired that we slept immediately after lunch.(never try prawns goan curry). We woke up at 7 and took a stroll. We saw the river bed and Nani Daman fort. Chocolate ice-cream was good. We had a chicken manchow soup and chicken fried rice each for dinner. Then, Sana and I bought a 1/2 bp and 1/4 smirnoff. We went to the beach and saw drunk people dancing there.
We wanted to see how it feels to drink at a beach. I could not complete the damned kingfisher.(I hate beer). We went back to the room and boozed to the hilt. I had smirnoff and managed to sleep well while sana had an 1/2 and had to puke a couple of hours later. I could not sleep for more than 6 hrs. We went for some sight-seeing on sunday. We saw the Bom Jesus church, —- mary church, moti daman fort, devka beach and jogpur beach and clicked a few snaps. The sand at jogpur beach was like snakeskin(so smooth). Prawns fry was good at the I-dont-remember-the-name restauarant. We went boating at Mirasol water park. We had a small nap at the room and were at Vapi by 7. We took a train from Vapi to Virar, a local from Virar to Borivali and an auto from Borivali to home. We were at home by midnight.

P.S.1. The damned apple taste stayed with for the whole of yesterday.
P.S.2. After an year or so, I had coconut water.
P.S.3. Sana had some revelations during the booze session.
P.S.4. Good that a phone call prevented me from 1/2 and probably puking
P.S.5. 26 hrs is the longest stretch I have been without food (sun 7.30 pm to mon 9.30 pm)

277

So many things to blog about (broken English sounds cool right). Today is Diwali. People in Mumbai celebrate Diwali as if they won`t live to see the next year. May be something to do with the attack on Taj! For me, its just another weekend. A few changes are I had to go to a temple with Arun (brother of cbv brahmi). All I can do there is ogle at a few girls whom I guess are forced to assist their grandmothers to the temple. We saw a movie “all the best” loosely inspired from navvandi lavvandi. It was a rib-tickling affair. Then I had a mini dinner of 3 roti with butter chicken, 3 pcs of chicken lollipop and a biryani.
I noticed a few “different” things in Mumbai this Friday. Dress code was informal for us and I chose to wear a half-sleeve shirt. As I could not get a seat, I had to stand. The bus was packed to the hilt. A girl stood by my side and started caressing my elbow. I gave an irritated look and she chickened out after some time (say 2-3 mins). It is good to see the change and may be I would have relished it if the bus was not crammed( it was damn humid that day). That day I began thinking about the changes in women of India over the past decade.
I remember the movie “Mutthu” in which rajni asks a nursing mother,”irikki anicchi rumma therumu” and that woman shouts “endha rummayo” and calls the whole village in panic. A few years after, a debutant hero rocked the country with his maiden film and mesmerizing dances. A survey said 20% of the married women in the country wanted to kiss him. I will rather post some incidents of my real life. When I was at school, there were guys who used to jump up and down like monkeys on shaking hands with a girl(no need to mention pretty as we used to be quite generous and see an Aishwarya in every one). Nowadays, a hug has become quite common. In the earlt nineties, love was a luxury. Only a few can afford to be courageous enough to fall in it. I remember the sniggers my aunts gave when they mentioned some cousin of mine who was love-struck. Falling in love and breaking up is order of today. I knew a couple of girls who were saying things like,” this guy is the most wonderful thing that has happened to me in my life” and eventually ended up single (for a long time).
And then there is someone whom I don`t know much in person; it is not the person but the action that counts. She was from one of the prestigious institutes, fell in love with a guy there and conveyed the same to her parents. Her parents agreed after some thought (perhaps they wanted to act wise). The fun came when the uncle of the girl who has settled in US for the past twenty years and who come to India (say once a year) disapproved of the marriage and said”I won`t come to India again if you marry that guy”. I wonder what difference that makes to India. May be he was trying to weigh his foolishness. The girl rightly thought so and it made no difference to her.
Even today I see a few girls who are IMO self-proclaimed torch-bearers of Indian culture( more about this in next post). I hope they find husbands no better than Bajrangdal activists.

P.S.1. Sanskrit disco from maharshi rocks.
P.S.2. So do kalisina samayana from asadhyudu
P.S.3. Mahatma movie is just average
P.S.4. Bips rocks in all the best
P.S.5. First time I saw Devadasu “naa priyuralu valla paavanamaina desamaa, naa raaka tho nee janma dhanyamaindhi” send me into laughter. Now it looks like I might utter that soon.
P.S.6. one of these days, I finished a large marie packet (nearly 40 of them). Next day, I considered myself lucky I was not claustrophobic.
P.S.7. Time to sign off with
I want to leap into the air
with my hands touching the sky
you would never have seen such flair
All you do is wish you can vie

At the stroke of dawn

It has been 23 years since I opened my eyes and closed my mind. I read somewhere that life is like a role and it ends like all roles do. One resemblance I can find to that statement is life is a drama as we have to act. Here I do not mean “act” in a condescending manner. We just put a mask to achieve our ends. What if there are no ends and still we don the mask? I have found instances of this quite often. A girl smiles at a guy who is gaga after her though her original intention was to “laugh”. When we are seated in a bus and we find a standing old man, we offer a seat though he does not ask for it. When we go to a temple to ask(beg) God for a peaceful mind and materialistic boons, we don`t even look at the beggars sitting by the stairs. We do not realize that we are not anything short of those wretches dependent on God`s mercy.

You may think I am shallow
deep down I am a god without a halo
deny it and you allow
your divine mind to be fallow

It takes me no altar
to reach a high;
when I have nectar
the time draws nigh.