Saturday, September 25, 2010

HATRED SELLS BETTER THAN LOVE



Even if they remove the video ever, the "idea" will not die...

hatred is a better commodity than love, to sell :)

i remembered a movie called "the wave" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wave_(2008_film)) which is based on the idea of an experiment called "The third wave" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Third_Wave) in which a group of students asked a teacher, why did German people accepted mass murder of people by Nazis and instead of giving them an answer, make them go through the process of brainwashing to realize that it does not takes superhuman capability to believe and perform anti-humanity activities, instead one just has to stop asking questions and making out reasons (this is what i understand as "training to be a sheep")...

This behavior is so widespread amongst humans from around the world and from different ages that the answer must lie in human behavior (both as an individual as well as MOB)...

I suspect if our brain is more receptive to excitement produced by violence than the calmness produced by love...excitement of violence calms down the inner conflict and confusions by channeling our anger towards one particular direction whereas love tries to "passify" the excitements to equilibrate the emotional high states over a period of time, which might be counter intuitive to the usual functioning of brain (which is to have data for processing, not having data might be disturbing)...

Also, usually a person finds identity within a mob which is much stronger than when he is alone...it has been repeatedly noted down that in a mob the same person who will burn down his victim alive and enjoy the show, would piss in his pants if slapped on a street when he is alone...

In the context of video, i guess any kind of censoring will only empower this "idea"...rather i would suggest a solution which shabana aazmi gave to shahi imam of jama masjid when he called Indian Muslims to join afghan Taliban to fight against US forces...she said "drop him by parachute into Kabul, this solves his problems and ours too"...How many of these preachers will accept to live "without security" in Kashmir for "thier cause"

KASHMIR



I havent seen Harud yet but it seem to be a movie needed for a very long time now...


Recent unrest in Kashmir for past few months seems to culminate into one of the most serious problems of our times. The blame game of apathy of Indian government towards grievances of Kashmir and hidden agenda of separatist who misuse the idea of freedom to cloak their religious arguments, has grown into serious stone pelting and police firing situations where human lives are lost. I am supposed to have an opinion  and i must clarify i rarely align my versions to official versions of nations and governments so here is mine...


I do not have first hand experience in this issues so my opinions expressed here are limited by that fact, but as i see it, hardliners/fundamentalists are aligning people's anger (generated due to bad political governance over the years and excesses by military) towards creating a strict Islamic state which may easily amalgamate into Pakistan in the name of religion. The "Only" Islamic nature of their demands makes it sound illegitimate from a secular point of view. Fundamentalism turned Pakistan into a rogue state and beggar economically despite having all the potential in its rich culture, heritage and hard working people. Do i want the same fate for Kashmir, NO.

Also issues of human right violation by security forces are valid. There has been excesses and violations.In a conflict zone, this is obvious. When a soldier experiences an innocent looking teenager blowing up his buddy by a grenade, next time he blows up any other innocent teenager without checking properly, which will then be categorized as excess. Some other times, security personals take advantage added powers of immunity from prosecution, to settle personal scores or to get awards and medals. 


This fact is then used by hardliners to instigate general population against the security forces. This vicious circles eat up human bodies which both sides choose to ignore and rather start playing the blame game around the argument "You started it first". 


In any case, a human life is lost and unfortunately human lives are categorized differently based on their affiliations...this vicious circles consumes human lives for sustaining itself... 

The issue of (so-called) freedom is very important here...Pardon me if u feel offended for me using the connotation of so-called before the word freedom, but it feel so hollow to talk about freedom in this context. Text below will explain some more around this idea. 

A minority of Kashmiris would like to have "free" country but fail to state how will this country survive...can tourism support economy?...and whats the guarantee that they will not want to divide further based on regions and religious affiliations, again in the name of freedom?...Leh and Laddhak people never asked for freedom so how will they make a country cut off from Pakistani side by Leh and Laddhak? 


A group of harlined Muslim fundamentalists just don't want a Hindu majority to "rule" them mainly because "their maulanas say so". Their sentiments (based on religion) are as much valid as that of fundamentalist Hindus in Gujarat who ask for India to be a Hindu nation by any means. This is the group i despise the most and this is the group which scream freedom the most, which then feels so ridiculous. 


Now remains the question of Minorities in kashmir. 


Its not surprising that this word "minority" is categorize based on their religion, which indicates the hidden intentions :). Who should they support. Hindus and Sikhs would like to remain being part of India for their religious reasons which makes them feel to have a secure future. They also control a appreciable portion of economy so their demands have a economic "feel" too.

This is all about Kashmiri opinions. Indian opinion is against further divide, based on religious and egoistic issues. 


The most amazing point in the whole argument is the hidden part of "religion" but thats rarely accepted or even acknowledged. Even though Kashmiris boast brotherhood across religious lines but past performance of this brotherhood is so fractured that it seems hard to believe them with any confidence.

So its right to say that the real problems/solutions do not lie in economics and genuine aspirations for true freedom. Its actually RELIGION. Both sides tries to avoid this arguments for the sake of loosing their secular face which makes them internationally accepted as a "valid" party in the argument. After-all in the era of religious fundamentalism "it no more cool" to have an argument based on religion. So the arguments are hidden under the cloak of more "appealing" universal ideas like freedom, democracy etc.

Since rationality is not so popular way of life amongst us as a specie, so its impossible for me to state a solution. Otherwise it would have been as easy as rational symbiosis. India and for that matter of fact any country, do not make sense in parts. We make sense only as a one country. 


Without central India's ores, industries in Gujarat, Maharashtra and south will die of starvation, without tourism in Kashmir, Goa and Kerala, we would have little to show in "incredible India" campaign. Without North east India we would loose the true variety which is the essence of "Indian character". We don't make sense in parts, we make sense together. This reason is not based on some irrational faith, rather its based on pure logic that we, as "independent" parts can't survive by present standards of prosperity. "Genuine" good intentions would have attracted kashmiris over other parts of India and the problems would have dissolved over few generations (definetly by now). We would have reduced separatist support to bare minimum if good governance would have made them feel comfortable with India. Separation of religion from state as a habit, would have had a contagious effect by now and Kashmir could have come up as a secular place. Economic packages are usually defines as aids to beggars and beggars cant be choosers. That is a fault of both the beggars and aid providers. Economical self empowerment of kashmiri people would have had different effect.


Its pretty hard to define a solution now. UN resolution calling for plebiscite presents another problem, Kashmiri demography was changed by Islamic terrorists when they killed non-Muslims in mass numbers and hence dragged the remaining out of the state making it easier for them to win a vote based on religious argument.


Good governance with rational way of judgement could be a solution but it doesn't seem to be possible in coming times :(


So i feel bad to conclude that unless people on both sides of argument adopt rational ideas, its hard to solve and pretty easy to move in circles running along with swords in hands aiming for each others neck.

Saturday, September 18, 2010

As I See It All

There is no fairy tale and there is no fairy world
there are only PEOPLE unfurled
some with knives to do the damage
and some with the cuts plus a message

Messages which echo till eternity

With broken hearts and damaged spirits
we make walls, islands, mountains and our limits
We soon forget the lost hope we once treasured
let anger and sorrow permanently anchored

Amongst all this, I forget the basic rule of life

Fairy world is my imagination of my undamaged self
All imagination needs a reality with physical shelf
I shelf up that imagination in me and walk all around
Try to run very fast with my hands bound

And i fall down and realize

Life is more than my despairs and fallouts
Its actually the referee of my boxing bouts
If i bow down and let IT hit me hard
I will never get the HAPPYNESS green card

So i must collect my broken fragile piece

And i will rise bigger than my sorrow
Taste the sweetness of every tomorrow
Because i am not a bloody coward
I may be hurt but i ain't countered

I still hold my image in the mirror with pride and smile back to it

Come next time and i will be here
waiting for you all, reading Shakespeare :)
I will not take these blows easy now
what do you expect me, to bow! :P

No sirs and madams, i will stand tall

Because now i am myself and i am a whole
I tamed time and learnt art of wormholes
through these i travel back and learnt my true worth
I phoenix-ed each time after the damage, my new birth

I made myself more than what i was

And i learnt that things happen for good and bad
but i should only take them as experiences to add
Fuck that cuts of yours you gave me and my life
Now I do not fear you coming with your knives

Because I AM FREE and I AM.

-------------------------

Note:

wormhole is a concept in physics where we can make a hole in time and travel back and forth
HAPPYNESS is deliberately misspelled to emphasize the concept shown in the movie "pursuit of happyness"

Monday, September 13, 2010

Beyond Barbie Dolls

As humans, we make relationships. Some of them come  (so called) natural to us when we are born, but some of them, we make over the course of our lifetime. They makes us happy if they flourish the way we wanted them to and makes us sad otherwise. Happiness makes us feel good about things around us and sadness makes even a grand comedy movie look dull. Experiencing these emotions is directly proportional to the intensity of conviction we have/had. As i see, life is sum total of the experiences with relationships that we had with humans as well as ideas.

For me humans always represented ideas. Here the idea of the Barbie Doll(s) comes up. 

Its pretty, It touches good, can smell good, can make us feel good too. But the "real stuff" is missing.

What the hell is this "real stuff"...

The real stuff is unexplainable in words...its best felt/experienced...

Its the aura. Its somethings which charges the day. It shoots up hormones but at the same time instills calmness. Its eternal. Its permanent. Its a company which understand without words. Its a hand to hold on and a hand worth offering a helping hand of yours. Its the inspiration to "be good". Its the unstoppable fire which burns inside. Its the stuff which makes the relationship go beyond hurdles of testing times. Its the confidence in each other. Its the good face of humanity. Its the strength of the identity of your existence which is shared with the partner. Its simply EVERYTHING...

I am glad i know some of them who are beyond Barbie dolls. Sometimes they try hard to fit in this Barbie world and fail and I hope they will realize the reality of thier core idea of being inherently different than masses.

May the insanity and romance never die :) Amen \m/

Note: i hope that readers can understand that the term Barbie Dolls represents more than just the opposite sex. One of my review for the movie American psycho which talks on the same lines.

Friday, September 10, 2010

Right to suicide

The idea for this post came out from a conversation with a dear friend Lizzie who is training as a nurse, and i must confess that i never thought about this issue as much as i now think which i believe is important to think about.


Generally, suicide is accepted as BAD idea. Reasons vary from religious and social morality to the argument in favor of living the tough life instead of giving it up. To analyze this ideas, I prefer a game which i call "why and why not", which will be clear further down the post.


Almost all religions accept suicide as a bad idea since life is given by god and hence should be treasured. Society wants individuals/society to grow and hence would term suicide as a bad idea. Individuality of an individual give him/her right to do whatever with his life including ending it.


Being an individualist, I will go with the third idea above. But i  would also like to add that, like any other decision in life, one must explore all the possibilities against it. A thorough investigations "for and against" a particular decision is the key to right decision.


Majority of humanity goes through at least one situation when we do consider suicide as an option. Stepping off from the train of "painful" experiences seem to be the only way out. But, is that the ONLY way! This must be judged carefully. This is particularly difficult in an emotionally charged state at that time. But so are most of the decision making times and when it comes to life and death, why not give this thought a chance.


Sometimes, we do ignore our own potential (consciously and unconsciously) and this makes us feel weak. Here the well wishers (family, friends and in general people you love) must be sought to advise (not to dictate decisions!). Maybe they can introduce you to a hidden value which might be useful for you to eject out of the mental trauma. You can always find at least one human being, fit enough to talk to and you must talk to him/her.


In the case of incurable physical sickness (as judged by medical science), if a well informed patient decides to end the pain, i see no reason for anybody else to stop him from that. Either cure him/her by all possible means or let him go off if (s)he wishes to.


I changed my opinion that suicide is always an act of cowardice, thanx to Lizzie. But i still fail to imagine (maybe because i lack first-hand experience of an extreme situation) a situation, whose solution can't be found and it seems that there is no option. To me, suicide is honorable to myself and hence acceptable, only when i break my own honor code for myself.


BTW i remember a great Iranian movie on this subject by Abbas Kiarostami called "the taste of cherries". see the trailer below:







and one more sequence from the movie "Rog"

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