On this 15 August

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Ideas whose time is up

Religion: We know now that earth is not flat and the sun doesn’t revolve around the earth and stuff like that. And more, like evolution and natural selection, which explains things like kindness in us. We still have unknowns and we still have unanswered questions, but those questions are more educated. Since our ignorance is not the same anymore, or our idiocy, our Gods and his prophets have to grow up to stay relevant. The morality preached by holy scriptures is grotesque, if not immoral and violent, and the revealed truth is anything but the source of truth. Classic Religion as we know is way too stupid for this era of Internet and cloning. And way too costly in terms of human life!

Organized Religion: Religion is bad enough as it is, but when it’s organized it turns into totalitarian regime, looking quite similar to Communism, Nazism etc. It eats religion hollow leaving no trace of meditation and spirituality, and makes it exact opposite to what it is supposed to be. But that’s not why it must go. Why it must go is the rise of nation-state, and the modern realities of passport, visa etc. Religion as an organizing institution has become obsolete. We are not tribal groups anymore; we are nation states now. Sometimes loyalty to religion creates confusion and conflict. Some of you might leave your country to wage jihad for ISIS. But we would like to keep crackpots out of this discussion. Nuts like you deserve a Caliphate.

Nation-State: Businessmen close down factories in their homeland and outsource jobs to foreign people to make more profit.  Employees seek opportunities in foreign firms at foreign locations and they compete against firms of their own countries. Nobody knows, let alone cares for, his neighbor and whatever happens to him. Love for your culture is out of fashion and considered retrogressive. What do you stand for, if not your cultural identity? State? That who leaves you when you are hungry and sick?  And turns back on you when you have wealth? What do you need state for – to pay tax and to fight against imaginary enemies? Patriotism is stupid, if not hypocritical, in this age of globalization. 

Marriage: Do we need love and companionship? Yes. Do we need approval from phone-and-internet relatives? No! Not in the world shaped by migration in which we live among shadows and noise. Who cares who and how many you are living with? When you don’t give a fuck to society, what do you need their approval for? Sounds bohemian? Well divorce used to sound outlandish few years back. Today it doesn’t even raise eyebrows. Because couples are breaking up all the time! The old system is falling all over the place. It’s not working! The contract between man and woman and their families must be re-written with due respect to woman’s power and other changes that are staring at us. The need for children cannot bail out this creaky system for long.

Family: Who needs family? The characters of Ayn Rand don't. Independent individuals with creative and futuristic minds can live without nonsense perpetuated in the name of tradition that's part and parcel of community life. However, men and women, especially kids, old, weak and sick people, do need family. But with modern fetish like career, success etc. occupying the focal point in our collective consciousness, people are investing less and less in their parents and children in terms of time. With increasing mobility and migration, not to mention inflated cost of living, and myriad temptations lifestyle magazines offer, raising kids is not the most exciting thing for young couples. Besides, modern women don't like their cribbing in-laws hanging around. In case oldies make themselves useful by helping with diapers, a symbiotic relation can be happily thought about. Otherwise, the changes in our attitude have shaken the very foundation of this institution. The joint family system has already collapsed. What is left now needs blood and oxygen.

On Porn Ban

Your choice is your prerogative. It's your business and yours alone.

But do understand - if you contribute to the demand, you DO support the supply. That's how the game is played. It's called economics. You cannot jerk that off.

So here it is - if you like to see that type of stuff, you DO support that type of exploitation. In fact, coming to think of it, what you do is more than mere supporting. You sponsor that.

Of course you are free to decide for yourself. Rather you are obliged to. Nobody knows enough to decide for others. At least I don't. I want to make a limited point.

Porn != loveMaking; Porn != careerOption; Porn == trafficking & violence. This is deductive, and is not a function of ignorance, denial or forgetting.

And there is a dying art of seduction.

#YourChoice.

Order! Order! Order!

Let's get this straight - courts resolve disputes and they maintain law & order; they don't give justice.

And what's justice anyway? What does it mean? With passing age, I am getting less and less certain about more and more. But I feel with reasonable confidence that Justice is arrant nonsense of a concept. It's just another human invention that has no meaning whatsoever. Just like God, it's doesn't exist!

No court has ever restored a loss of a victim. Because no court can. Once a loss is made, it's made forever. You cannot undo that. You can pronounce judgements, even minimize losses, but you cannot dispense justice. Even in the best case, how can you make up for the lost time, and for the pain that one goes through while justice takes its course?

What you do with a murderer or a rapist might save his potential victims, but that has no bearing on his victim. Understand this - delayed or not, justice is always denied. When a man-eater is killed, only those who have not been eaten feel safe. That too is important - people must feel safe, for themselves and for their loved ones. It's lonely world out there - nobody should be allowed to deprive anybody of whatever little comfort or support one has. Though Justice is an esoteric concept, everyone including a child can sense injustice. And nobody accepts it. Nobody should.

Today, a terrorist will hang. Perhaps it's necessary. Yes it's necessary. Violence must be discouraged and fought against. Though Capital Punishment is cruel and medieval, I am ambivalent about its abolition simply because I don't think anybody has any right to forgive an offense made against others. It's easy to tolerate others' pain, isn't? We the People dying in 3rd world can live with only so much 1st world liabilities.

Anyway, let's leave larger issues like judicial reforms for some other day. Right now I cannot help feeling a little sad about the whole blast episode. I wish this mad cycle of violence stops and no life is ever brought to an end like this. 

Minority

Minority doesn’t mean Muslims, though the words have become synonymous by mis-usage.

Here are few facts - Muslims are the 2^nd largest population in world and the fastest growing by a wide margin. In the Indian subcontinent, Muslims are almost as many as Hindus and at least ten times bigger than any other religion (Christianity for instance). And in India, they are not only the 2^nd largest but also more than all other minorities combined.

Hardly a species facing extinction! Then why Muslims are called minority?

Your guess is as good as mine. On my part, I daresay that they are the only majority in India. Let me explain.

In the context of electoral politics, politicians look to tap votes. No other group of people can influence the result of an election as Muslims. Monolithic or otherwise, they are veritable bank of votes! On the contrary, Hindus don’t see themselves as Hindus. They are loyal to their little caste affiliations. Some of them think for themselves. They too vote in blocks, but if and when they do, they vote in caste blocks. None of these caste blocks can come close to Muslims numerically. Muslims remain the largest vote bank. And that’s precisely why all political parties court them at the expense of so-called majority.

No matter what, no political party in democracy can stay in business without the blessings of majority. That's the scared law of electoral politics. In India what misleads is nomenclature - a majority is a majority even if you call it by any other name. It's fun and effective if you call it by its antonym. 

Let me not go pedantic on the technical definition of the word minority. But one would imagine that minorities are generally the people on the periphery. They are relegated outside the system and its discourse. They are not significant let alone powerful. In short, these people don’t count an awful much.

In India, people of North-East are real minorities. Leave skull-cap type identity politics, they have real integration issues in their own capital. It's hardly surprising that our politicians don’t talk too long about them. Politicians don't see enough return on investment. Their situation is pole-opposite to that of Muslims who hog the whole minority space alone, leaving nothing for real minority groups like homosexuals and transgenders and tribals etc.

Coming to think of it, the politics of India has been hijacked by two groups – Muslims and Corporates. The former has number-power and the latter has money-power. Everything else has become minority. 

Bhakt

Hindu-bashing is the only thing that brings both Blue (Left) and Red (Right) together, especially in media and academia (starting from schools). This Hinduphobia not only shapes Western minds from impressionable age but also influences international politics and policy-making, and affects the position of an ordinary Hindu in increasingly multicultural society he lives in. He is a soft target everywhere for everybody, like a meaty bird that cannot fly. Worse, he is delegitimized and demonized before he is slaughtered. And there is no place for him to go!

Last month an elderly Hindu gentleman was assaulted by none other than police and before a single murmur of protest from the ever-apologetic hey-Sam-I-am-not-really-a-Hindu-but-a-wannabe-let-me-kiss-your-ass diaspora could be heard, the left-liberal voices loudly forewarned that this incident is expected to be exploited by Hindu right-wing fundamentalists! That was wicked but clever! Now keep your mouth shut or prove them right. No matter what, you retards fell in their trap!

There was a time when even Jews and Muslims too were discriminated against by the Right. But they have a sense of organization. They understood the rules of the game, organized themselves, found sympathy from the Left, and got the syllabus sanitized. Hindus are doomed to not understand anything from their history of holocausts. And as they say, history doesn’t repeat but it does rhyme time to time. Become a sheep and a shepherd will turn up from somewhere; or a butcher!

Have a look at the predominant narrative in mainstream media – Hindus are Aryan invaders who conquered and subjugated the native Indians – Dravidians – and terrorized them with ritualistic Vedic violence despite repeated efforts by Buddha, Mughals and British to civilize them. Hinduism is a degenerate caste-based system of idol worship (including idols of animals, even phallus) and other medieval practices like widow burning and child marriages. It’s responsible for economic backwardness, ecological damage, and relentless offenses against religious minorities, women, dalits etc. In short, if India has to develop and modernize, Hinduism has to be defeated.

If you found that outlandish, you are ready for a shock. That was plain vanilla. It gets hardcore fantastic with Wendy D, and even she is as mainstream and credible as anyone could be. 

I don’t intend to respond to this charge sheet here. I'm not sure if I need to. However, our own narrative has been prepared, answers are being articulated, questions are being asked, and the overall process of intellectual decolonization has belatedly but thankfully begun*. The frontline might be pushed into their territory. And that’s shaking the status quo in its roots, rocking chairs and bottoms sitting on those chairs for years. These Nehruvian bottoms don’t want to budge from their position of unchallenged monarchy and the power that followed. But the elephant is in the room, and it looks mad. Now what does the progressive mob do? The easiest way to win a debate without doing anything is to call names. So the name-calling has been started on war footage.

Hindu Fascist! Hindu Fundamentalist!

By the way these bottoms know neither Fascism nor Fundamentals of Hinduism.

The latest in the cuss-series is “Bhakt”, as if it’s a cuss word. And it indeed is for the MacBastard commies. It’s apparent that they know nothing about Bhakti, or Bhakti Movement, or Bhakti Yoga. To them they are not at all important.

Given their mental make-up, they are likely to confuse Bhakti with Faith, which is understandable given their Western sensibilities. And faith implies blindness, uncritical and unconditional submission. Well commies, here is the news - Bhakti is not faith. Put it simply – it’s another form of Love; like poetry is another form of expression. And it is meant to solve a specific problem in the spiritual quest. I am going to heed Jesus and won’t cast my pearls here. Read chapter 2 of Gita if you want to fill up your tank so that your tap stops blowing air.

Whether the so-called Modi Bhakts are critical of Modi or not need no rhetoric. The proof of pudding lies there on social media for everyone to see. Following yours truly would be edifying in this matter.

Dear commies, this is your last chance to keep peace. Let’s have an open environment for fair intellectual exchange. Let’s have free and fair debate in pursuit of nothing but truth. Let a student have equal exposure to all the versions. Let him weigh all the evidences to make up his own mind, because the process of concluding is as important as the conclusion itself, if not more. Let’s stop indoctrination.

Otherwise, let us assure you – Bhakti will show its Shakti. Hindus are rising after a thousand years of colonization, not by ritualistic Vedic violence but by making positive contribution in this world, and they are not going to live like Dhimmi anymore. If that hurts you, I am not sorry. 

*Read Rearming Hinduism – Vamsee Juluri and Breaking India – Rajiv Malhotra & Aravindan Neelakandan

Gita: Not Harf-e-Aakhir

Premchand, in the preface of his Karbala, urges Hindus to read about Islam. That's funny because Hindus don't read much. And I am talking about the creme de la creme of them who are nothing but degree-holding clerks. It's another matter that these smug dudes have opinion about everything.

One of these progressive dude butted in sometime back claiming that both Koran and Gita urge to fight. At the same time these universal equalizers maintain that all religions teach peace and everybody loves peace etc. I am least interested in wasting a single word on these overweight retards anymore. But I do want to contrast Gita with that death manual, because the comparison is stupid at the first place.

This post is not going to be a theological in nature. There are experts for that. I will talk about something else.

The first thing that struck me about Gita is this - in the context of Mahabharata, Gita just happens to happen. Krishna and Arjun were friends for years, and they were not very far from each other. But Krishna never preached him. In fact, Krishna never preached anyone in the whole epic. Gita is not a sermon; it's just an answer to a question, and this answer is given only to him who asks the question. Not before, not elsewhere, not to anyone else! Krishna might not have said a word otherwise. And that's remarkable.

Coming to warmongering, the language of Gita is unmistakably contextual not only to the story but also to the specific situation in the story. And that must not be overlooked in its interpretations because it's a specific answer to a specific question instead of a general sermon by a prophet. It's entirely another matter that the philosophy of Gita has been proved to transcend contexts like nothing else.

Also, Gita highlights the importance of seeking and asking questions and reasoning as per the age old traditions of the Upanishads, which is the defining characteristic of Dharma (or Hinduism). On the other hand, that death manual is nothing but a series of unsolicited sermons that's forced upon all and sundry. It has nothing to do with seeking and asking questions. In fact, it positively forbids questions and demands absolute faith and complete submission without any hint of a doubt. And that too from everybody, everywhere, all the time! 

The second thing about Gita that makes the comparison look what it is - silly - is the fact that your faith or lack of faith in Gita and/or Krishna has no bearing on your Dharma. You stay a Hindu even if you know nothing about Gita. You stay a Hindu even if you accept Gita in parts. You stay a Hindu even if you reject Gita completely.

Here are some facts that must be understood. Hindus are not people of any book or followers of any prophet. They have no commandments or dogma. They need not worship God let alone idols. There is no concept of unbelievers or hell. Nobody asks them to evangelize/proselytize or wage holy wars. And if someone does, they are free to ignore. There is nothing conditional or organized in Dharma which is mistaken as just another religion for lack of corresponding idea in the West. What Hindus share in common is a tradition of quest, a legacy of scientific pursuit of spirit, and a profound ignorance about themselves. That's why they are bullied by brutes.

Anyway, unless it's factually wrong and misleading, we Hindus are least scared of criticism, even rejection, no matter how severe it is. But reject a single verse of that manual and you reject the touchy-feely prophet and his fear-based death cult. You turn guilty of apostasy, which is an unforgivable crime punishable by death. 

Need I contrast anymore?

Monotheism --> Totalitarianism and Violence

One is often disturbed by widespread violence that is raging in the world. Our history, though abridged and sanitized, is soaked in blood. And one wants this violence to stop once and for all. But wishful thinking is non-thinking.

Thinking about it, it’s apparent that one of the major reasons behind violence has been the belief that truth is singular. Consequently, one version becomes gospel or the last word and the rest becomes untruth, evil, and worth fighting against. You cannot have a truly plural society with a singular truth. Tolerance is tense by its definition.

All Abrahamic religions believe that there is one and only one God and that God happens to be their God. Other God or other Gods and their worshippers deserve to be fought against. That’s the very fundamental, not mere fringe, of their faith, and of their culture. This belief not only justifies aggression but also makes a virtue out of it. You get the moral license to intrude, in the name of evangelism or jihad. 

The singularity of truth is seen in non-theological Western constructs like Communism that demands nothing less than complete revolution. No wonder the rise of communism is accompanied by complete destruction and countless deaths. It hates everything lock stock and barrel, and allies with all anti-national and counter-cultural forces to meet its delusional and misleading ends. No wonder commies are pally with jihadi terrorists and evangelists in India and elsewhere.

In short, war is the logical conclusion of monotheism and subsequent political systems. Monotheism is religious monopoly, and totalitarian by its very nature, manifested in inquisition, jihad, communism, capitalism, fascism etc. Only polytheistic societies could foster a worldview mature enough to welcome individualism and plurality. Only polytheistic societies could have peace, if they are not destroyed by monotheistic fanatics. All gods, invisible or visible, should be allowed to live in heaven with all their followers and unfollowers on earth in peace.

The bottom-line is this – one must never intrude into other's house. Your freedom ends where his nose begins, even if his nose is unsightly. And this is true not just physically. “No God but our God” is a seed of violence. Nothing decent could come out of it. It’s medieval and it must be relegated to the nearest garbage bin where it belongs.

We must remember that non-violence is the only sensible macro-political strategy in an age when technology could amplify madness to infernal levels.

Halal

Arabia, about 1500 years back. Mohammed and his followers were in do-or-die conflict with rest of the population. 

The war, as usual, was being fought at every level, in every corner, including the market. This is what this post is about. This post is about economic terrorism.

Near about 99% population would have been non-vegetarian in the deserts of Arabia in the times of Mohammed. And food and animal farming would have been one of the predominant sectors of the economy. 

Given that, if one managed to capture the supply side of the food industry, the production of meat, he would pretty much capture the economy by the scruff of its neck. 

The question was how to effect this economic coup. How do you make your people take the war to their home and hearth, without being ugly naked about it? Let's devise a strategy that sounds convincing; let's Allah reveal something technical this time.

And lo! you have halal, which means that the animal will be slaughtered only in the name of Muslim God by chanting Allah-o-Akbar, implying that only Ummah would control the production of meat and dominate the food industry. Halal is a certificate not just to stamp food or even its means of production but the people who could produce it - what's allowed (or halal) to be consumed could only be produced by those who are allowed to perform the necessary ritual. Others could shut their shop and go home.

In other words, halal is nothing but an economic sanction on non-Muslims in order to establish a monopoly in food market. It means nothing else! Rest is smokescreen. It was genius of an innovation, evil but effective. Combine this with jizya (tax for protection), and you wreak a veritable holocaust on kuffar or dhimmis, without spilling a single drop of blood.

The only question now is - how important is understanding halal today in the globalized economy? Well, I would rather you reach your own conclusion. But when one steps into a Nepalese restaurant in downtown San Francisco and reads "We Serve Halal Meat Only", one cannot help but wonder.

Ordinary Gandhi

Your surname is Gandhi. Can you, dear reader, relate to this situation? Can you even imagine?

Let's look at the crux of it - you have all the wealth of this world, and power. And everything else, in excess. You cannot have more, though you can do as much as you want. Will you work? What will you do? What would be your motivation?

Don't read any further before answering these questions.

Consider yourself lucky, dear reader, that you don't have to answer the Sphinx/Yaksha. For you, these questions are optional. You went ahead to read further.

At this point, let me take back my words. You don't have everything, let alone in excess. The Sakya prince was not a moron to have left his kingdom if princes have everything.

Coming to think of it, princes are often deprived of the most common, but most vital, things in life. They have company even if they want solitude, but do they have friends? Can they trust their friends? Can you have friends without trust? Can they loose themselves to simple pleasures without getting themselves high? Who is not an addict, by the way?

Ditto for love. Can he have simple joy of being loved, admired and accepted? How does he make sure if she loves him? All of them swear they do. Pause for a moment. This is not an ordinary loss. This is massive! Is that why he runs away to faraway lands to find some semblance of love, just like his father did? Does that make him a philanderer? 

Could you be any different? 

I think that there are two type of people - anonymous and celebrity; and as a rule of thumb each side needs much more imagination and sympathy than they usually have to make any sensible comment about the other.

The man in question, in my opinion, is not perfect. Far from it. But none of us is. He is an ordinary man stuck in an extraordinary situation, like a deer in the headlights. He should just run away, to find his love, and his motivation. But how many of us do, just because we should? We keep hanging around; so does he.

Cricket World Cup - A Thought

Yuvraj Singh, match of the tournament of 2011 cricket world cup, was diagnosed with cancer soon after his team won the cup.

Where does he go for his medication? Why does he have to go abroad? He should have found the treatment in his own country, one would expect. "India" (with a sizable non-Indian support staff) was the world champion, right? World champions should be good enough, if not the best, in basic things like healthcare, right?

Your children are not educated, even those who have degrees. Your boys are effete and your girls are molested and half your working population stands in queue of foreign embassies for work permits, of any type, of any where, as if you are not a country but a hellhole everybody wants to get out of. And you are not ashamed of all that! You are ashamed of a loss in a cricket match!

Perhaps our sense of pride and shame need to be restored to sanity.

Last week, one of our media channels - Times Now - tried to trend #ShameInSydney on Twitter, hoping to ride on the wave of sentiments similar to what they would have observed in neighboring Pakistan few days back. Thankfully, the TRP ploy backfired and what actually trended was #ShameOnTimesNow.

I was pleasantly surprised by the way twitterati in large refused to go down to the level media had decided for them. However, many creeps couldn't resist mud-slinging at a Bollywood celebrity to taunt her boyfriend - their star player - leaving a very bad taste in mouth. 

The fans should be more critical of their own performances as all of us play our own sports in our own arena. We must cheer our teams, but I don't see any glory in winning through someone else's hard work. This "Lagaan" must go. A Bangladesh or Pakistan or even India can not defeat England just by defeating them in a cricket match. We must realize that we have been thoroughly defeated in all the games that really matter. And it's hightime we lifted our game.

Let's not overload a sport; let's not outsource our aspirations to 11 men. 

For Raif*

He insulted by making a disrespecting movie. He was killed. You said, "you asked for it; why did you make that disrespecting movie at first place"? 

He insulted by drawing a disrespecting cartoon. He was killed. You said, "you asked for it; why did you draw that disrespecting cartoon at first place"? 

He insulted by writing a disrespecting book. He was killed. You said, "you asked for it; why did you write that disrespecting book at first place"? 

He insulted by writing a disrespecting post on his blog. He was killed. You said, "you asked for it; why did you write that disrespecting post on your blog at first place"? 

He insulted by uttering a disrespecting word. He was killed. You said, "you asked for it; why did you utter that disrespecting word at first place"? 

He insulted by making a disrespecting gesture. He was killed. You said, "you asked for it; why did you make that disrespecting gesture at first place"? 

He insulted by raising a disrespecting head. He was killed. You said, "you asked for it; why did you raise your disrespecting head at first place"?

He insulted by asking a disrespecting question. He was killed. You said, "you asked for it; why did you ask that disrespecting question at first place"? 

He insulted by being. He was killed. You said, "you asked for it; why did you BE at first place"?      

This is not a mere point of view. And this is not a mere rhetoric. To BE anything but "submissive without doubt" (in other words Muslim) has been seen as disrespecting in their theology, as well as in their History. Book a ticket to Iran or Saudi Arabia to have first hand experience. There is no IS or Boko Haram there. If you are scared, that's exactly the point.

Here is the fact - there is no minority left in any country ruled by Sharia, forget about fancy things like democracy and human rights. Even in countries like Bangladesh, which owes its very existence to India, non-Muslim Hindus have been systematically eliminated by Muslim Hindus**. Day in and day out, the infidel crawls in dhimmitude, precisely as prescribed by Sharia. Did these non-Muslim Hindus draw cartoons too? Or were they killed just for their being infidels***?

It is this fact alone that is making the ongoing self-flagellation on cartoon controversy a farce. This is high-time we started to see beyond the smokescreens of propaganda, political correctness, and platitudes. In the age of internet, ignorance is a cardinal sin. Wake up, and switch on the light. Face the Truth.

*Raif Badawi - a blogger who insulted by writing a disrespecting post on his blog. Punishment by Sharia court - 1000 lashes and 10 years in prison. Today he received first installment of 50 lashes.

The whole edifice of this death cult stands on Fear (mostly among Muslims) and Ignorance (mostly among non-Muslims). Raif frightens because he defies Fear. Raif is a hero as a man and a superhero as a symbol. We owe him (and people like him) our freedom.

**Hindu - a Persian word, denoting those who live beyond the Sindhu (Indus) river. It doesn't mean anything else.

***Sounds outlandish? Read Quran. Refer to Quran 9:5 to start.

Kumaon, 15th August, and Teachers' Day

Kumaon is an interesting place in an interesting way. Though situated high on hills itself, offering breathtaking scenery and unforgettable memories to come back with, it primarily offers a loci of vantage points, from where one gets to see the panoramic views of distant located hills and peaks. In other words, Kumaon is a beautiful place that draws your attention towards other beautiful places.

Not in Monsoon though. The views are shrouded by dense clouds that refuse to go away, leaving Kumaon rather introspective, to be enjoyed in its purity and solitude. The long walks, for those who enjoy walking, is blissful, among the peaceful noise of birds and waterfalls. Once you have enough of a place, you move on to another.

Provided the roads are clear. The landslides are lesser scourge in Kumaon than in Garhwal, but frequent enough to play a spoilsport.

Coming to spoilers, for a regular traveler, it doesn't take much (except traveling) to be convinced that natural disasters (including landslides, which are virtually man-made) don't hold a candle to the onslaught of capital. The surplus income of NCR is being pumped into the region in order to spoil develop the area, with a frenzy reminiscent of a Dalal Street afternoon. Consequently, natives are being bought by hook or crook and trees are being sold, only to be felled in order to clear the land for mushrooming resorts and vacation homes. The whole thing, apart from being outrageous, is utterly ridiculous. At the end of the day, in those damned vacation homes, one urban bastard will have another urban bastard as his neighbor. What will remain in what used to be a Kumaon is an extension of NCR. What else could be worse? 

No wonder Kumaon is far from what it used to be in the charming stories of Yashpal. The quaintness and the mystery is thing of past. NDTV is trying to "save the hills". Perhaps we want the same. But we have to do more. The next time your friend buys a plot in hills, don't say congrats, say damn you!

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I have no doubt in my mind that 15 August 1947 was the most unfortunate day in the modern history of India. 

The last thing I intend to do is to shock anyone. Look around you and you'll see for yourself, unless you want to be blind. Whatever good has happened in last 100 years in India, it happened well before freedom. Whatever we have of any worth today is whatever we had been given by British, from sewage system to railways. After that, it's a story of betrayals and tragedies, beginning with the division of the subcontinent, followed by mass exodus and relentless riots, which many believe could have been avoided or at least contained. Far from avoiding it, we expedited the division in the name of independence.

I can't imagine any other country that celebrates its bifurcation the way we do, in the name of independence. And what independence? I don't think we are very independent, politically, economically or culturally. I don't think we are particularly free either. Yes, perhaps we are free to mock at at our representatives and leaders, but who wanted this type of freedom anyway?

Despite divide and rule policy, which couldn't have been a success without our support anyway, they managed to integrate us into a nation. We could have done better than going back to square one. They gifted us democracy when they left, and we degraded it into Indian Democracy. And this adjective - Indian - has nothing to be proud of. if it's "Made in India", it has to be mediocre.

I have no doubt that a British subject had more access to justice than an Indian citizen. And he had more dignity and much more opportunities. We never deserved independence, or democracy, or even the light bulb. How can we understand democracy if we don't understand the concept of queue, if we don't have basic civic sense! Not yet! No wonder we are where we are!

Today we stand squarely defeated, from Kashmir to Kerala, and we are not even good enough to play for pride. Today, after 65 years of independence, millions of Indians are living outside India for better living and they don't want to come back, unless they can buy a little US for themselves here in India. Thousands are lining up in foreign consulates for visas. And most of those who can't escape feel trapped, imprisoned by borders, and they dream to break away from this prison at first chance that comes by.

And why not? Those who can make choices repeatedly choose West for education and medical needs, including those shameless bastards who have been ruling India for decades. They can't accord minimal respect to the institutions they have built and controlled. What scam can be bigger than this - Mr Gandhi studying in a college in UK or Mrs Gandhi flying to US for her treatment! What breaking news could be more sensational! You won a world cup and your cricketer can't be treated here! It's like getting a designer hairdo while your bottom is bare.

I don't want to lay everything down on the mat. I think I have said enough. Persuasion was not my agenda anyway.

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Teachers day is basically a birthday of a gentleman who was knighted in 1931 and ceased to use his title after independence. If he teaches anything to us, it has to be expediency.

I would imagine this day to be in honor of someone in the league of Buddha, Chanakya, Gandhi, or even Tagore who left a wealth of knowledge to us. But unlike Radhakrishnan, they were not buddies of Nehru, whose birthday is called children's day for reasons only a congress-man could guess. Nehru wanted the Sir be the 1st president of India so that they could do their pseudo-intellectual chit-chat in their colonial palaces. By the way, his choice for party president was Rajgopalachari, another anglicized gentlemen who was perfect for drawing-room chit-chat. Sadly, both these guys were rejected by the party, to the chagrin of Nehru. But that's a different story. 

However, this is the only day dedicated to our teachers. Let me use the occasion to express my gratitude to the people who made me what I am today.

1. My parents, who allowed me to disobey them.

2. Master Moinuddin, who said I was a good boy. 

3. Vijay Kumar Mathur, who taught me that you got to do what you got to do.

4. Pratyush Singh, who made me believe that ghosts blink when you stare them into their eyes.

5. Rajesh Kumar, who showed me why martial art is an art and not a sport.

  

RSS and Indian Culture

What is culture? I don't really know. I don't remember anybody telling me about it in school. But we all talk about it, perhaps without knowing what we are talking about. Or perhaps we do know it, but we can't nail it down in exact words. In that way, culture is like love. Just because one can't define love doesn't mean he doesn't know what love is. Romeo loved famously without perhaps knowing (or caring to know) about love.

Can someone be called cultured without him/her knowing what culture is? I'm not sure.

Based on my experience, my understanding of culture involves cultural relativism relativity, meaning one is more cultured than other. Frequently, those who talk more about culture are usually considered more cultured. That makes many of us culturally talkative, as it were, to win the cultural argument. The talk of White Man's burden obviously makes the white man look cultured than a colored man. Similarly, an upper caste Bengali gentleman raised on Ray and Tagore, and more importantly, talking about Ray and Tagore, is likely to look more cultured than a lower caste peasant. 

At this point, it's pertinent to wonder how's culture different from civilization? In school, these words were used often either together or interchangeably. I have a vague understanding that civilization primarily involves application of technology and architecture to build civil infrastructure - and that's why West seems to be more civilized than us, since our cities don't even have decent drainage systems or proper pavements for pedestrians. On the other hand, culture involves the human elements, apart from the more visible works of art and aesthetics.

The visible works of art - that explains why there are many who believe that culture is something to be reached out to, and to be seen, in art galleries, in theaters, and in musical concerts. This is the type of culture they show in those incredibly misleading "Incredible India" campaigns, in which you see snapshots of our cultural bestsellers like Ravi Shankar, Kuchipudi and Tajmahal. This is type of culture that the business class people collect and display in their drawing rooms. 

On the other side, many believe that culture is something that reaches out in to you and that you can't run away from. It's in the air; it's something you breathe in and breathe out all the time. It forms you and shapes you. For instance, in Hyderabad, much more than Kuchipudi, what shapes you is the sound of beggars knocking the window panes of your car at every other traffic signal, and your learning to look away in strange mix of pathetic exasperation and indifference.

That way, one's cultural health depends on one's cultural environment. The culturally conscious could afford to keep cultural hygiene to some extent by confining themselves to galleries and keeping away from what's going around in culturally polluted world, but complete cultural immunity is impossible. Culture, or lack of culture, is uncannily contagious.

Then there is an interesting divide between cultural practice and cultural precept. What is Indian culture - what we practice or what we preach? Female feticide or "Yatra Naryastu Pujyante, Ramante Tatra Devata"? Or both? Or is this duality absurd?

Well, the thought of absurdity takes me to RSS. 

I have met many of them, in different stages of my life, and all of them had one thing in common - they were all very difficult-to-like people. Without exception, they came across as supercilious and pig-headed to me; and their know-at-all and morally presumptuous attitude towards others seems grating. Worse, they manage to prick the worst in you, again and again. Long back, when I was in intermediate, I bumped into one of them in train. As revealed later, he was not at all impressed with my appearance, since I was wearing a pair of denims. Besides, I had music plugged in, which he might have assumed to be loud and anarchic. After exchanging a few casual words, if that could be called exchange at all, he handed me over my cultural report card which had reds and crosses all over. He commented that I belonged to a culturally dislocated generation. Valentine's Day had passed recently and he had a thing or two to say about that too. He hardly bothered to believe, ever listen to, my opinion. I tried to reason with him but after a point I felt that I had had enough and I decided to stop his juggernaut of nonsense.

I said it's rather cheap on his part to enjoy all the blessings of West and cursing their culture at the same time. Why didn't he mount a bullock cart instead, if that was Indian enough? As for the Indian railways, railways had been given by the British, and whatever was Indian in the Indian railways was rather unflattering - infernal filth and stink, beggars and eunuchs and pickpockets harassing the hell out of you in their own unique ways, occasional news of robberies and horrible accidents, outrageously frequent delays and people sleeping like dogs on platforms, not to mention deafening noise, theft of public properties ranging from rails to fans to even mugs that they keep in lavatories and finally, people, people all over, tides of people pushing and stepping on one another in mad rush of everyday Indian life. 

That's what you see all around yourself and that's Indian culture for you! What is kept in museums is not culture; it's a mere showpiece. Moreover, the defeated races like ours should retrospect and effect a comprehensive reform instead of hanging on to some imagined history and preserving the very things what led to our defeat at first place. Otherwise, extinction is just a matter of time. 

I knew I was not completely correct. But I had to offset the wind to hit the target. He retreated into his cocoon. After that, I don't know why, I felt sorry for him.

 

IIT - Autonomy without Accountability

There is a much-hyped tug of war being played out in media between HRD and IITs about JEE. IITs don't want to tamper with their tried-and-tested formula. Why change something which has been working well all these years? HRD, however, intends to shake the status quo, and democratize the admission process, by any which way.

The IIT fraternity is more or less united in bashing HRD. How dare they, these good-for-nothing politicians, enter the hallowed precincts of the academic mecca without leaving their shoes out? They have already done enough damage, haven't they, by opening God-knows-how-many IITs in every little town of India. Now they are hell bent on breaking the very backbone of IIT system!

Well, it's a pity that after more than 50 years JEE remains the backbone of IITs. To say the least, it's a failure. One could go ahead and say that IITs as a whole involve a systematic theft of public money. Where is the taxpayers' money going? Where is the ROI? Where is the accountability? What the hell is happening?

IITs' ready-made explanation that expat alumni are pumping money back to economy is, well, lame. It's like shooting first and deciding the target later. The system has clearly deserted its stated responsibilities and have been pandering to the ambition of the bania* class. It's a failure, if not an outright scam. And scam it surely is, if you ask me. Nothing has been working well all these years. It's high time this titanic of a  failure was acknowledged. It's high time something was done about it.

May be we are racially infertile when it comes to technical innovation. May be IITs can't be reasonably held responsible for it. May be they can't be held responsible alone. May be our education system needs wholesale overhaul. They alone can't help too much. Even in that case, when the issue is not lack of intention but lack of competence, what justifies what they have been demanding - autonomy without accountability, and boatloads of subsidies?

There is no shying away from the fact that these institutes have hardly been known for their accomplishments in technology. They might be a fantastic names to have in your CV, to network, to prepare for CAT, to recruit or to get recruited, but they are anonymous in the world of technology. There might have a few exceptions, but exceptions only prove the rule. There are questions to answer - why the same students do better abroad? How many students who come through JEE aspire to complete their masters or doctorate from IITs? How many of them stick to their discipline? And how many don't? Why the IIT management is so acutely touchy about the entrance exam and not so about their archaic pedagogical practices? Given the degree of autonomy and the quality of students they manage to intake, not to mention the number, their output is nothing short of pathetic.

But the booming market and the skyrocketing starting packages have kept these issues hidden under the carpet. Indian middle class is too backward to make an educated inquiry about what goes on in campus; or perhaps too busy feeling proud and dreaming big. Besides, Indian media have more urgent issues to cry about. This is a happening place, by God's grace. You get to see five star scams everyday on TV. Who has time to count how many men (and women) of technical consequence have been produced by these institutes in about 300 years of their combined history? How many Nobel laureates walk in those sacred corridors? Which IIT APJ Abdul Kalam is from? 

IITs do have their success stories. I remember a few myself, and most of them someone selling something, now on internet. The rare ones include the legend of Infosys, the idea whose time had come in 1990s. I don't know what Infosys stands for - business of technology or technology of business. At this point the only exception coming to my mind is the firm where I had started my career - Geometric - since they started with an innovation in CAD-CAM as their USP. Anyway, in the classic genre, one of the most memorable stories involved his highness Mr. Rajat Gupta, who has fallen from great highness height. I will come to him later, but my definition of success will stick the objectives of IIT - to promote technical innovation. Sounds rather out of tune in 2012, isn't?

Coming back to our dear Lucifer, no IITian could truly believe that what he did was an aberration. He was not wrong as such, he was just not discreet enough. Or he was bit unlucky, poor chap. Remember your lab courses; fraud is practically taught there. While seniors teach you to speak foul language so that you could survive in the real world, the lab assistants harass you till you learn to make wise adjustments with readings to survive their scrutiny. Aberration! What the hell are we talking about! Our integrity is regularly sold cheap, and it's a well known fact in market. Witty they might be, but ask any walking female in DU, and she will tell you that the last word she will associate with the IITians is character. Too bad! Even from her standards!

Coming to the least talked - the curriculum, which was dated even a decade back. Thanks to the killer combo of inertia and hubris, it's unlikely to change without twisting arms. The bania breed is opening e-shops and reaping rewards of soaring sensex, bringing random glory to all and sundry - their alma mater, their schools, their family, their friends and their pets. What is there to complain about? What else do you want? Why to change? Any change in entrance exam is likely to keep out the Kota and bring inside bunch of rustics who have no idea how the world works. They will waste lots of time time in useless things before realizing the truth. What good will come out of that! 

Many IITians would hate to admit that IIT is a moribund system, which needs to be reformed to be revived. The prospect of being ordinary, and earning reputation again, and again, from zero, is dreary. For me, what was dreary was my encounter with IIT Delhi, where I always felt out of place, and I have been waiting for a change. However, the choice of change is rather weird. Even the harshest critic will concede JEE was the only thing that was good in the system. Not just good, anyone who has taken this exam knows how beautiful, beautiful, that exam used to be. Let's hope that the removal of JEE will serve a purpose. It will warn the people who are in charge, the fat headed lot, that the next change is waiting at the next corner. And that could rock chairs and kick asses. So mend ways; in no circumstance autonomy can be gifted without accountability. 

I wish they wake up. They better wake up now. Throw water if they don't. Or acid for all I care.

* the closest desi word for bourgeois. As I had written long ago in this blog, in post-1992 India, we all live in market and we are all bania. It has no reference to a particular caste per se.  

Shanghai - Not a Movie Review

Shanghai is for adults only.

At this point I must clarify - though pornography etc are rated, apparently for adults only, they are majorly patronized by minors and sophomores. In all likelihood, they are made mainly for non-adults. The restriction is, I believe, just a marketing ploy.

Shanghai is adult in adult-like way. That's why, perhaps, kids might not be able to appreciate it. You don't have to challenge their sense of thrill or appeal to their juvenile curiosity by imposing fake restrictions. This film is not very filmy, and could taste rather bland to those who are used to spices. It's an ordinary movie in which, to the utter dismay of audience, nothing dramatic takes place. No revenge, no redemption, no catharsis, not even gunshots. Besides, Shanghai is a world without heroes; mere survival takes all. And there is no justice, no explanation, and no escape. Worse, there is no "The End" to it. The script ends but the story goes on; inside your mind, and outside the theater, the story goes on. It's not unlikely that the your own multiplex was part of the story. You couldn't muster courage to order popcorn in the interval.

Shanghai is a scary movie.

Again it's time to clarify - though horror flicks typically involve cartloads of ghosts and gore, they don't really scare. The better ones manage to shock or disgust. Others just bore. The fault lies in their premise - that death is inherently horrible, and there can be nothing more horrible than a horrible death. For starters, I doubt that death is inherently horrible. And I have no doubt that a horrible life is by no means less horrible than a horrible death. A horror movie ought to depict life in its gory details, without offering escape or even hope of escape. From that point of view, life itself seems horrible, and our existence terribly lonely and helplessly futile.

The individuals in Shanghai are horribly lonely. And why not? Their relationships, with anyone or anything, are fragmented, contractual, and often disposable. They are either uprooted or being uprooted, all of them. They are condemned to live with strangers. And they themselves live like strangers all through their lives. Meanwhile, world around them changes faster than they could get a hang of it. They run breathless only to find out the ground beneath their feet has turned into a treadmill. Life goes on humiliating the weak and outsmarting others, making one feel perpetually betrayed and cheaply traded. Even destruction is reduced to a mere job. Ironically, but not unusually, one is killed by the very people who one fights for.

Final Comments

To me, Shanghai was like an underground Fight Club, where I had gone to get punched in my gut. I did get punched, and it did hurt for a while. I enjoyed the pain too while it lasted, but the punch had landed at wrong place. And that left me a bit upset.  

In the final analysis, the movie fails in bringing home the horrors of mindless development. Instead, it strays into the easy path of showing how corrupt our politicians are. As if we didn't know!

As if we didn't know that it was inspired by Costa-Gavras' masterpiece 'Z', which is a classic political thriller. Unfortunately for Shanghai, Z is a film about systematic suppression of freedom of expression under junta-rule and not about wholesale destruction under the aegis of economic development. Dibakar Banerjee, one of the most intelligent film-makers of Hindi Cinema, manages to localize the story well, but fails to fit into perspective.
 

On Deepawali - and window shopping

Francios Gautier says that he is a Hindu, not by birth but by belief, since here is a religion that imposes no condition on its followers, demands no intellectual surrender as an entry-fee, and offers no ready-made answers to seriously complex questions. It has no holy book, and no final word on anything. In fact, for a Hindu, if I may say so, nothing is too holy and nothing is too final.

Hinduism is not a dogma, it's not a comprehensive manual of Dos and Don'ts, it's an attitude rather than a faith, and to repeat the platitude - it's a way of life; and it has an inalienable spirit of quest right at its core. That's why it is essentially sympathetic to the idea of pulrality of thought. That explains its inclusiveness and so-called tolerance, what it is best known for, despite so many external as well as internal forces acting against it for so long. In the end, a true Hindu is essentially a seeker, and the seeker is not only allowed but also encouraged to find his answers to his questions.

However, that is a white man's version, which is as much moral as aesthetic in nature. For others, there exists another aspect of Hinduism too, which involves what is worldly, which is cast in stone, and which is replete with suffocating superstitions and malpractices (ranging from as uncivilized and as repulsive as animal worship to animal sacrifice, and the hemartia - the caste system as-it-is). Also, this is one religion which has gradually but irreversibly tilted towards materialism, and subsequently shifted away from spirituality, so much so that an average Hindu can be pious without slightest spiritual disposition. Religion has been reduced to mere paraphernalia of religion, which at best consist of periodic and meaningless rituals, which make no real sense to anybody. Worse, the worst form of corruption is seen nowhere else but in the temples, where the degradation of religion has been almost complete, and can not worsen much. Our gods have been excluded from our lives, idealized in mind, and idolized in matter. Our prayers are thankless and demanding, and we are ever ready to make deals with the divinity, whosoever and wherever he/she is, if necessary.

This corruption and degradation is manifest in our festivals as well. For instance, Deepawali is a festival of light, but it's certainly no more about things that light symbolizes. It is more about what is to be bought, how much and how many, deals, discounts, and the worst of all - gambling, all in name of religion. A religious Hindu is, ironically, at his materialist worst on this day. He has little patience to stop, and refect on heavy ideas like inner darkness, inner light, and inner peace. He has little time to realize that the festival of light is meant to illuminate the inner self, and eliminate the inner darkness, as it were. However, Deepawali, as it stands, has unfortunately turned into a celebration of darkness, and everything that darkness stands for.

Hinduism is nothing without its beautiful, and equally powerful, language of symbols, which must be deciphered to begin the journey that every man must undertake. The seeker must wonder, must think, and must seek. He who opens his eyes, and looks, will see. Deepawali happens when God comes back to the place where he belongs, the place which can not be fought or defeated. Until then, this world will be shrouded in darkess, and Deepawali will remain just another day of deals, discounts, and shopping.

why do dogs cross roads?

1. Why do dogs cross roads?

I see Theater of the Absurd being played out when I see a dog crossing the road. Why, I wonder, it has to? Why can't it stay where it is? What lies there that is not here? How would crossing the road help?

That brings me to an existential question - why do we cross roads? Is our crossing roads any less futile? It came to my mind when I was driving to a nearby petrol pump.

2. What entertains me?

I liked that horrible movie - "Oldboy". Technically, however, it's a well-made movie. Plus it has everything that entertains a movie-buff like me - a distorted character (an ordinary guy who is a victim of circumstances), a contrived situation (with sufficient semblance to the reality that we know), some aesthetically shot scenes of sex (as per the demands of the script, of course), and some good old gore. That's what we watch movies for, isn't?

3. What do I think of Formula 1 (in India)?

I saw things like Tomatina and October Fest being brought to Hyderabad, to satisfy the growing appetite of Hyderabadi people for anything that is 'global'. They send their kids to global schools. They also celebrate beach parties on new year eve. It's another matter that the nearest beach happens to be about 300 kms away from Hyderabad.

But Hyderabad is still backward, and about 10 years behind cities like Bangalore. Hyderabad is Bangalore in making. Hyderabad is wannabe Bangalore. And Hyderabad is pretty upset to have lost the chance to host India's maiden F1 show to Noida, for a reason as pointless as Telangana!

Coming to F1, it is one of those global games, only more expensive, more exclusive, and more bourgeois. I don't mind F1, unless it thrust itself on my consciousness, which it does since F1 is all about ads, models, and logos. To me, F1 is an indulgance, not a sport. I won't analyze it any further. I don't feel like wasting my words on something as ridiculous as F1.

In the desi context, F1 reminds me of looking at a wedding album, in which the groom dons a suit and a tie, and flanked by his lesser relatives in chappals, looks rather out of place. In typical small town weather, in no time, the make-up gives in to the heat; the sweat washes away the foundation, smears the face, exposes the hidden complexion, and worse - the hidden complex.

Imitation - it's funny, it's awkward, and it's a profoundly sad thing to do. And of course it's demeaning. I am not sure if even French have Tomatina. Hyderabad has, as if we lack festivals!

On part of the middle-class metro-Indians, F1 is so desperate a pretense that it arouses pity. However, unlike the wedding photo, there is nothing innocent about it. Instead, it reeks of colossal callousness towards everything that should matter. Ironically, the F1 fanatics who are absolutely indifferent to fellow Indians claim to be proud of India (whatever that means), and the progress that their India (wherever that is) has made. And what's the index of that progress? HDI? No. Inclusive growth? No. Decreasing disparity? Decreasing deforestation? Rehabilitation of the dispossessed? No. None of them. What's it then? Well, perhaps progress of this India to these Indians means things like Tomatina, October Fest, and F1.

To those who can still think through rumors, F1 is nothing but a joke, and most of us find ourselves at the wrong side of it.

4. Mediocrity or Obsession?

That's the question. This is the dilemma of an IT coolie like me - to be or not to be the star. If one opts for the "Middle Path", which promises maximum happiness, or least unhappiness, mediocrity follows invariably. On the contrary, if one chooses to pursue excellence in something, he must be committed to the cause, and show off his passion whenever the camera faces him. Consequently, things like balance go for a toss. Keeping Jupiter aside, success is usually a by-product of persistent obsession.

If a life of obsession is success, what else is failure, one wonders. Is there a way to break away from this tug of war? What if one makes a bucket list, and do what he wants?

5. Anna verses Democracy

I agree with Arvind Kejriwal when he says that people are supreme, and they are above parliament. Parliamentarians are making a scandal out of it. But it's the other way round. It's nothing short of scandal to confine democracy to a periodic drill called election. Elected members, and more importantly, we the people, should understand this very clearly that democracy are election are not synonymous.

Besides, UK is a democracy. So is UP. As it is evident, democracy comes in different flavors. It's the flavor that matters. Just being a democracy is not enough, since democracy is not the ends in itself.

Anna is not an exception. From Aruna Roy to Arundhati Roy, people are losing confidence in Indian state. Status quo is no more an option, except for the beneficiaries of the status quo. We need reforms.

6. Steve Jobs

In "Over the Flames", I couldn't help noticing this young couple who was sitting in front of me. Both the man and the women were dipped in their respective phones. To me, that's the lasting legacy of Steve Jobs.

To me his iGadget is like one of many other toys, made for big boys and girls who are yet to grow up. And to me, Mr Jobs, no matter what media might say, was a maker of mental dildos, as it were, and that's how I see him. Still, I don't mind someone selling toys. But when someone starts selling myths, like Jobs was some sort of Edison, and some sort of transformer, then it gets funny. If Jobs was an innovator, damn such innovators, and damn such innovations. I am absolutely certain that the world would be rather better off without him or his likes.

Realism: Meta Art

"Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way", said Tolstoy, and proceeded to write about a family he, being an artist, was wont to be interested in. The tragic fate of Anna Karenina not merely touched his sensitivity but it practically possessed him, consuming him over countless sleepless nights. Witnessing her travails would have been a cathartic experience for him, sometimes even amusing, but certainly not boring. That's how it is. Artists would rather brood over a dramatic failure - the orphan, the bastard - than toast a methodical success. Artists fail to appreciate anything poetic, or inspiring, in monotony of a happy family, which - as Tolstoy points out - are "all alike".

On the other extreme end, however, broken or complicated relationships arouse feelings more visceral than usual coffee-table stuff; and tales of impossible romance are immortal classics. Moreover, extraordinary situations foster extraordinary men (and women) - of compelling personalities - who, by sheer power of their character, rouse us and drag us out of our blankets. They challenge our understanding of the world we live in, and of the words we thoughtlessly speak. They expose us to ourselves, and liberate us from the platitudes of nine-to-five banalities, at least for a few awakened moments. These moments are poetic moments, and these men are the heroes worshiped by poets.

In every unhappy context, happiness is tortured in a different way, and it needs a elaborate supply of resources to look into the details. It's hard because the questions asked are typically confusing, and answers are never offered ready-made. It's like doing the sum without ever having a look at the examples. Worse, unlike in Math, reason doesn't help much in life. As every sensible man realizes sooner or later, rationality is but a state of mind - a mood - which is neither immutable nor unconditional. Reason, the keeper of laws and orders, works reasonably well within the band of "normal" situations - atmospheric pressure, room temperature etc. In other situations, however, the my-maximum-gain attitude can be transformed into his-maximum-loss attitude, with surprising ease. Madness is contagious, and often spreads like wildfire. In the heat of delirium, modern innovations - like reason - are charred to cinders, and collapse in the debris of their own remains.

As V rightly said in "V for Vendetta", the politicians lie to hide the truth, the artists tell lies to reveal it. So, a work of art is a lie told to reveal a truth. That truth is a greater truth, which involves pluralities of perspectives, and ironies of co-existing contrasts, realizing which demands more maturity than logic affords in isolation.

An artist explores the human nature by putting his characters to an abnormal situation - catch 22 or dilemma - where choices are not easy, yet they are to be made. He teases his characters, tempts them, tests them, and traps them in morally ambiguous situations. He situates them in the unhappy stories where emotions are denied, deprived, or worst of all - pit against each other, therefore burning with greater intensities. He digs into this debris to pick the parts that survive the fire, to find order in chaos, without trivializing any of these. He helps us realize that meaning can precede the word and word can transcend the scope of meaning. In his works, without trivializing relationships, he makes us see that feelings do exist external to relationships, but not always. Art subverts generalities, without intending to offer any of its own.

Does art holds mirror to reality? I don't think it does. And if it does, it shouldn't hold a plain mirror for sure, since a plain mirror can't correct the distortions inherent in reality. Art is not a superficial truth but an artful lie which helps us see the hidden truth. Art can't intend to be a mere mirror image of reality; it's a meta reality. Realism, the rather evolved but not necessarily better form of art, resembles life more but it depends on art rather than life itself. Ironically, a realist is farther from life than an artist, who seeks inspiration not from art, but from life itself.

And happy families hardly inspire any. That's a perversion artists live with.