Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Crime and Morality - some Incoherent Thoughts


The people of Champaran, my native place, may not have electricity in their houses but a good many of them are proud owner of things like VCD players, thanks to the porous Indo-Nepal border through which second-rate Chinese goods are routinely smuggled. The region has always taken pride in its being the entry point of Mahatma Gandhi's political career in India, and off late claims regular mention in national dailies for its innovations in kidnapping industry, which unfortunately is not doing very well because these days the hostages are not loved by their greedy relatives as much as the money that is demanded for them. However, relevant industry experience often opens conducive career avenues, most notably in local politics.

Though I am beginning to enjoy talking about this, I will come back to my main point - that the word Crime has quite a different meaning in Champaran. There exists a wide gap between legal crime and moral crime. Most of what is illegal is not immoral there. For instance, looting passengers in a running train is just being naughty. Your mother just twists your ear and then asks you to sit for the lunch. This example may sound rather extreme to you. But I have recently come to know that one of my own uncles had also done that - train robbery - when he was a naughty teenager. It could very well be a lie, because people take pride in saying such things. After all, our sense of pride is singular, just like our sense of crime.

There is a thin line of difference between business and crime - mixing salt with Urea and selling it in market is, technically speaking, a business. And the man who did this is a man of consequence today. Today he sits with other men of consequence and talks about honesty, hard work, and even spirituality. After all, with age, spirituality is a logical inevitability. When sight starts to blur, people start to see God. Till a man is young and virile, he plays other games. God is only a tired man's toy.

Crime is not sinful in Champaran. It is a philosophy in practice - child labor, quackery, smuggling etc are common affairs there. These things don't hurt our sentiments. What hurts our sentiments? What is not common? All the feminine values, like Love. The word itself sounds awkward in that region. If you translate it in local language, it sounds even more awkward. If it doesn't sound awkward to you, your ears are either used to hypocrisy or corrupted by B-grade movies. Others are not as shameless as you are, they get uneasy when they hear such words; the ladies grin and the gents walk out with their offended masculinity.

Proud are the parents whose son is obedient; no conditions apply. If the son is disobedient and decides to marry the one who he loves, it becomes very hard for his parents to breathe normally. What a shame! In case of daughter, it becomes even harder. Shame! Heart Attack!! Suicide!!! If you go on mixing salt in urea, nobody minds your business. But the community will surely mind your business if you dare to mix caste. Anything can be adulterated but the reverend caste; the reverend caste must stay pure, kept at a safe distance from the malicious influences of other caste. Mixing caste is a treason. And that's unforgivable!

Ultimately wisdom wins; reason prevails over passion. The traditional norm is to marry as per parents' wishes and then have your way later on. With age men are known to be more and more fun loving. And if a woman is smart enough not to get caught, even she can steal some fun from life. That is not a problem, as long as you keep your mouth shut, and remember the basic rules of discretion. Obedience is some sort of social etiquette, and people respect its dividends.


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When it comes to morality, it's simple - a moral society consists of successful men and virtuous women. In Muslim societies, however, the other condition is - people must believe in the words of their Prophet, and follow his imperatives. However, rules are rationalized for successful men, as long as they are successful. For women, the conception of Holy Virgin summarizes it - do give birth to Jesus, but don't get laid. Sexual morality is not a subset, it is the super set of all morality. The root of your morality is located in your genitals, and its other branches stretch into your bank accounts.

With this sense of morality people feel a sort of contempt for call center employees. At the same time, they also feel envy from them. Interestingly, both the sister emotions are engendered by the common parent - rumor. The myth and mystery of the steamy call-center nights provoke wild imaginations in civil minds. And the frustrated civility of mind retaliates - if you can not get what they have, then deny them what you have. Don't regard them with respect. Spit on their face when they are around. In your heart, however, you know that it is not fair. You know that your assumed moral superiority is nothing but a face-saving compromise with your sad state of affairs, caused by lack of looks and/or lack of luck. Had you been lucky, you too would have dug your teeth deep in the meat of life and taken a big juicy bite from it.

Monday, July 28, 2008

Watching The Watchdog


Do read The Crime That We All Committed on Outlook. The author tries to imagine the agony and helplessness of a man who woke up one fateful morning to find his only child dead, murdered in his own safe house. Hard to believe, but what was to follow was even more traumatic. He was to be taken to the point of delirium. In front of his eyes, police poked his daughter's dead body by tip of boot, and media lifted her skirt to let everyone see what all lied in there. Before he could understand anything, his house was rummaged, every towel, every underwear was fished out, and every stain was publicly scrutinized. The poor girl was murdered again, and again, and again.

Before he could sit down and convince himself that his child was actually dead, before he could mourn his misfortune, and before he could say goodbye to her, he was dragged away from her dead body. And before he could collect himself, he came to know that he was accused of having an illicit relationship with his colleague, and he was accused of murdering his own daughter. Finally, he came to know that he was convicted for the crimes that he never could have committed. It all happened at a dizzying speed.

And when he got his senses back, he found himself locked in a dark, quiet, cell. The show was over. Everyone had left him. Everything was lost for him forever.


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It has been observed that institutions tend to become inward-looking and self-serving with the passage of time. The pursuit of worthy goals is gradually, and unobtrusively, replaced by pursuit of power. Man is born blind, and power pushes him down the cliff.

In democracy, the corruption of institutions can be checked by keeping vigil, and by keeping people vigilant. And all this is carried out by another institution - media. Such is the importance of this that it is not wrong to state that the health of a democracy is directly dependent on the health of its media. So it is important to keep media healthy.

But being an institution itself, media too is open to all worms of corruption. And when media gets corrupted, everything falls out of place. The question here is - who watches the watchdog?

In a healthy democracy, the media is supposed to watch itself. Sadly, our media doesn't. Media is supposed to report the truth. Sadly, our media does everything but that - media men investigate the case, perform the autopsy, conduct the trial, pronounce the judgment, and finally execute the convict, live on camera. They distort facts, speculate, sensationalize, and goof-up everything.

They mix truth with fiction in such a way that it's hard to know what is what. The show becomes a reality and the reality becomes a show. Someone's life becomes a reality show. Man consumes news, and news consumes Man. Media hunts down one of us everyday to entertain rest of us. Media hunted Dr Talwar and we consumed him. And even that became a reality show!

Imagine the fate of our democracy - while what is public is carefully kept private, the private is exposed publicly. We don't have news anymore, all we have is gossip-mongering, all we have is voyeurism. Camera takes us into others' bathrooms and bedrooms, shows us their diaries and letters, and peeps into their salary accounts. We the people need entertainment, a hell lot of it. Anything is fine with us as long as it entertains us. And such is the depth of our boredom that anything entertains us. Media managers mint money while we swill countless glasses of spurious entertainment.

But who cares? The entertainment-hungry people? Or the profit-hungry media? At least the media doesn't. The loyalty of media managers is towards TRP alone. The days when media consisted of men with character and values are long gone. Now media is a thriving industry that recruits thousands of third class loafers who are out only to climb ladders, at any cost. Most of them have absolutely no idea what journalism stands for; and they are ready to fall for everything. That's why most of them are seen running after the cars of celebrities like street dogs. That's why they strip their decency on drop of hat, and with equal equanimity they disrobe others of their dignity too, as they recently demonstrated in this case. High on their collective power, they stagger on and trample on everything that comes in their way, with assured impunity.

Media is too important to us, too important to be allowed to run astray. We need them back on track. So it is high time media was given a tight slap hard on their face. It is high time some character and some discipline is brought back to them. It is high time they were reminded of their responsibilities. And if they choose to disregard their responsibilities, they not only forfeit the rights that they enjoy but also face legal consequences. They must be accountable to the people, and they must not breach the boundary of social contract.

Let the media be free; let the media have their say, as long as they respect the social contract, and as long as they mention what is it that they are saying- whether it is news, opinion or mere speculation. They must not mix up things. In any case, Aarushi case must never be repeated in future. Those who hold camera must know well that they too are being watched.

Sunday, July 27, 2008

The Dark Knight


After all, it was a Hollywood movie!

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America is a bright student of std IV, and India is a poor student of std XI. Most of what America talks is childish, but that rings with confidence. India, unsure of what it knows, on the other hand, stammers when opens its mouth, and looks pretty stupid.

I had read in a review on IMDB that this movie explores literary themes. It was this that lured me into watching this movie. I do not attach much expectation with a typical Hollywood movie. And I hardly bother myself with most of them. But being right at the top of all time great movies is no joke. Well, it is a joke, but I didn't know that till yesterday, when I found myself at the wrong end of the joke.

This movie does explore literary themes, but at std IV level. This movie is an adaptation of a batman comic, and a good adaptation indeed, but of a comic strip only, not of a Tagore or a Tolstoy. It was foolish on my part to expect anything more than comic literature. But I did, and that costed me Rs 120/-, 3 weekend hrs and 1 liter of petrol.

The antics of the villain - Joker - were not funny. They were sometimes boring, and sometimes very boring. He plays role of a psychopath, but he fails to inspire fear. The reviews had led me to expect a devil of a villain but despite all his witty one-liners he doesn't look very sharp. With all paint, plaster and slurps, he looks rather disgusting than intimidating.

In fact, the hero looks more intimidating with his fleet of cars and women. He, and his alter-ego - Batman, can do whatever they fancy thanks to the mind-numbing gadgets devised by their Research and Development team. And when someone can do whatever he wants, it doesn't awfully matter who he is up against. It does, from a moral standpoint, but not otherwise. There is nothing heroic in not having limitations. It's easy to be a hero when nothing is at stake and nothing costs much. The point is that there was no genuine contest between good and evil. There was no genuine temptation, no genuine dilemma, and no genuine despair. The whole game was made-up, and poorly made-up.

Actually, apart from disproportionate dependence on science and finance, and lack of art, the main problem with American movies is externalization of Evil. Americans film-makers almost feel a scatological compulsion to import enemies - either Russians, or Koreans, or Chinese, or Iranians, even aliens, and now psychopaths - to make movies. They fail to see the evil in their own society. They fail to see their enemies in themselves - in their ignorance, in their insensitivity, and in their paranoia. They fail to explore situations that generate moral conflicts in a normal Man, in each one of us. And that's why most of their movies are childish, of std IV level, this one being no exception. "The Dark Knight" is hopelessly Hollywoodish - again with a petty theme set on grand stage.

And Bollywood worships Hollywood! It's interesting to see how disgracefully we behave under the influence of inferiority complex!

Rating - 5/10

Friday, July 25, 2008

Aawara Hoon


1. 15 Aug --> A bike trip to Coorg is on the way. If no one gives me company, I'll do an ekla chalo re. That's the meaning of independence, isn't?

2. Konkan --> By the way, what was I doing in Pune for two years? Nothing by the way, except being a passive part of a trip to Ratnagiri! Am I forgetting something? Anyways, how about riding from Mangalore to Goa? Sounds interesting, isn't?


3. Summer of 2009 --> I am going to buy a Royal Enfield ThunderBird TwinSpark next year. Well, it's not only about buying, it's about deserving also. And I think I deserve a T'Bird. Why? Because I'm going to fly all the way to Laddakh next summer.

4. Rajasthan --> Bikaner, Jaisalmer, and Udaipur. Desert Safari. wow! Rohit, I am coming! Post summer 2009 any weekend. And for a change, by car this time. :)

5. Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh --> Next in line is North-East. No plans have been made as of now, but winds swing in the direction of their moods, blowing everything with them. Who knows when the winds will start blowing eastwards?

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Long time no sight seeing, and no sight shooting either. I must have forgotten the password of my flickr account. This birthday, I have gifted myself a Canon Powershot IS S5; it's time to take the camera out of cover. Enough of march past! Time to throw the uniform and put something cheerful on. Time to wander again, head heavy with dreams, feet dancing along the dreamy way.

Monday, July 07, 2008

On Religion


What makes a man a man - eyes, or tears?

Man can see, though he can not see enough. But he can feel. He can feel pain, not only his own but of others as well. And that - compassion - makes him a man. Not efficiency, for efficiency makes him a machine, a robot.

Man has five senses. He could have more but he has five only. Some have fewer than five. There are institutions to take care of their handicap. Similarly some men can not think, or they can not think enough. They are entrusted to mental hospitals, or prisons.

Religion is another asylum, which is made for the spiritually handicapped - those who lack sensitivity, those who need to be told that killing is sin.

What's There in Name?


I am an experiment. Who conducts this experiment? - Nature. Wind blows over sea, and thousands of ripples take place.

I am also like one of these thousand ripples. From the water I was raised, and in the water I shall fall. What am I? Who am I? Am I an entity? Or an event?

A sea is always the same, though it is never the same. What is this - a paradox, or just our ignorance, our misunderstanding of things? Sea always changes, it always happens, but it never becomes. I also happen. I am a human being. Or a human becoming?

What is being - a noun, or a verb, or both? Perhaps a verb has been given a name.

And with name comes the illusion of identity, and ego. I know it, but my vanity refuses to understand. I keep on trying to be significant. I forget that I can not be more significant than I already am.

Is Geeta Heartless?


Life is a riddle to man. And to solve this riddle, Krishna preached Geeta, which is a riddle in itself. It is more than what it says literally. It requires a Guru to be explained. It requires an understanding to be understood. In short, the answer poses another question, which needs to be answered. But doesn't this defeat the whole purpose? Had Arjun been as wise as Krishna, Krishna wouldn't have wasted his words on him. Krishna must have recognized his limitation, and that's why he began to talk at first place. He should have taken efforts to minimize the scope of ambiguity and confusion. Did he do that? That's the question.

Geeta assumes existence of a certain soul. It dismisses the body, and celebrates the soul. But why do we care so much about soul? After all, it's body that we know. We know our mother by her face, and not by her soul? It is the look of her face that gives us solace. Those who don't see their mother' face don't find comfort in the fact that soul can never be killed.

Does the philosophy of Geeta help when we need it most? It does stimulate our mind, but does it soothe our heart? Don't we find it too intellectual to be human? Don't we find it rather heartless?