You must be knowing this ‘festival of light’ called Diwali, the most popularly celebrated in India. Which is actually less light, and more noise, pollution, absurdity and utter non-sense in today’s world. But well no point in ranting or even trying to make sense of it now. This is a small lazy lighting in the house to continue the tradition of decoration which no one knows why they still do it though.
I just read this article on the NYT called The Good Men of India, which I totally recommend you to have a read as it’s well written and looks on the total other side which fails to make headlines or the news and remain as untold stories. And well, so well written that you might forgot about my small piece of mind here and this will remain unread as well. 🙂
There is a telling phrase that best captures the Indian man in a relationship — whether as lover, parent or friend: not “I love you” but “Main hoon na.” It translates to “I’m here for you” but is better explained as a hug of commitment — “Never fear, I’m here.” These are men for whom commitment is a joy, a duty and a deep moral anchor.
This is what perhaps that got to me a bit more than the rest. Both my country and the world are disgusted at the stir of news of reported rapes and sexual harassment in the past year following the very tragic rape incident in Delhi, in past December 2012. The rage could be seen everywhere, on the media, on the internet, and the absolutely hypocritical and meaningless candle marches which were for so called change and peace, while most as I said and a known fact, most don’t want to get their hands in the actual need of the hour.
Say aside for my usual, human outrage, I don’t tend to go along the flow for such things, since I’m aware the only thing I can do for my part as of now is be a decent human being myself, and not go around saying what everyone has to do or what has to be done.
But the purpose of this piece is, that most are quick to stereotype and generalize practically anyone with a certain set of attributes from origins to geographical locations to simply personal preferences these days, and with these developments, many of my non-Indian friends out there must be having this thought at least in some corner of their minds, that are we Indians (men) so hungry for sex and we can’t keep our guns in our pants? I’m no hardcore patriot or something, but being an Indian and a decent human being (which I like to believe), this does sadden me. And what I highlighted above reflects this beautifully, the write of which I’m very thankful.
I’d like to think of it as, you know you’re in India when “I love you” is less common, and “Main hoon na.” (Never fear, I’m here for you) makes more sense and is far more alive. That I like to believe, is the real side of the few good men in country (and by extension the world) which remain untold stories. And these people are worth fighting for. 🙂
For now I won’t be able to write a companion post for what I want to share, or in some ways don’t want to as I might be able to do justice to them. Here I want to share 2 awesome posts, on both topics which I feel strongly about.
One is a post written by a good blogger friend of mine, Why Can’t I Be A Football Fan? She talks about the difficulties and rather idiocies faced by women here. I won’t go further, do read it yourself, irrespective who and where you are. It has been making a few rounds notably. I just want to extend this not only to the game, but literally everywhere.
Not trivializing the rather very important issue but now just going away from seriousness to bit of the humour side, this other one is just a random blog post I saw before typing this while reading through blogs: Girlfriends are like fried rice. Boyfriends are like popcorn. The writer makes a amusing analogy there and in a way describes the truth behind them. Now at least I know what to call who I’m looking for 😛
Have fun reading.
… is pathetic if I have to describe here in one word.
To elaborate on this, I don’t know where to begin with, as things are pretty much messed up in all directions. As much as we all love to point fingers and bad mouth the politicians and government (which is true not at all questioning that), the problem is equally because of the ignorant, arrogant, unaware and not willing to open their heads or no anything citizens. But here I’ll stick to rant on the government for now.
For now on my part, the only service I can do is first be aware myself, and use my power of talking and writing. Otherwise this will remain just another one of the zillions of everyday rant without meaning.
Looking at the recent string of events here in the country, I want to talk about women. Being a guy, dedicated to the as we put it (which I still don’t know why really) ‘the better half’ of our lives, for her who probably was your first friend, and especially for her because of whom anyone who is alive on the planet (even if you are an animal intelligently capable enough of reading this) right now. And just note, while I don’t want to trivialize this issue at all by making some puns, just that without a usual pun or two might end up making you cry and your device wet and then blame me, we don’t want that do we?
And how do the proud men (and equally disgustingly women too), so called leaders and citizens treat her? Just like a commodity, piece of shit. Not being harsh, but the truth, No matter how proud one is of your so called culture, religion, community or whatever the fuck is its, facts show largely otherwise. The horrific Delhi Rape case which occurred in December 2012 threw the country in outrage and hit international news. I refrained from writing anything on it because, for what? What did all those stupid (extremely I might add) candle light marches achieved? In the recent years, I saw birth to a new class in society, the ‘candle march’ class who will do nothing to prevent something like this from happening, do nothing to help and only such drama while at it.
Oh pardon me, I was supposed to attack the government and not the foolish people right? Well the irony is, after that ‘incident’ the only thing which has changed is the increase in the no. of such sick assaults and rapes happening, and what’s the use if all this horrible acts which were happening for years brought to highlight but nothing done upon? And then comes the wonderful media, various NGOs screaming human rights and the politicians in the mix without knowing even basic communication skills let alone English. The horrible mindset which is so ridiculous I don’t even want to type here, I would rather spam tell the government go fuck yourself a hundred times and that would still be more decent!
Anyways, apart from the usual ranging from utter non-sense to false promises by the government to the momentary burst of enthusiasm by people, nothing much is happening. There are those who are trying to bring about change but just mocked and looked down upon by the real useless lot. So don’t be on the latter.
While the government has a lot to do to make things better, first change will start only from us, the people. It’s only your will which determines and what truly matters. Rest just follows. Respect women, and not only women but everyone regardless of sex, age, beliefs, race or anything else. Unless someone is not worthy of it and the world is better off without whom needs to be shot dead, but that’s not for you or me to decide.
That was my side, you can say from a guy’s perspective. As a woman, here is a wonderful piece I read some weeks back on Women’s day, where the writer nicely puts it from her side, how and only when the situation of women will improve when they stop sympathizing for themselves and getting so called special women privileges.
IndiBlogger had a meet with The Times of India for this campaign Mumbai For Women, an initiative to highlight the city’s duty towards its female citizens. A duty that the city (and I must add the country and perhaps the world?) has been repeatedly ignoring.
Here is perhaps (one of) the best examples of a 2 AM photo.
Pardon me as I’m not much of a social climber you see, and hardly get communication in the day let alone at 2 AM, well except for when some have some work to get done by me in that case you can make the scenario out.
Besides since it’s phoneography month going on, and since I still haven’t able to figure out how to take a screenshot in my relatively new phone Lumia 920, I decided to go with something more realistic as usual. As I already stated above, this is well suited for it. It’s a picture of Maggi noodles (the most common/standard one, Masala flavour) which I cooked around that time last night as I was extremely hungry out of not eating anything the whole day which wasn’t great in any case.
In India if there is something and probably if it’s the only thing that a person knows to cook, it must be this. It is such a huge part of food here in India, that people just consider the word ‘Maggi’ as the instant noodles (and adding prefixes/suffixes for the other flavours) despite the fact there are other branches of food stuff like sauces etc. available too. Heck I can easily say 90% to perhaps even 99% if I may that barely someone even knows it’s manufactured Nestlé. Many might even think it’s a national or even local thing. It is perhaps in the heart of every Indian, because of being relatively cheap and extremely handy, it stretches out even in small parts of the country. There are so many recipes using this.
I’m no exception here. When I was in another state in a crap of place for 2 years of study, Maggi was the safe haven for me and millions of other students even today. Even at home right now when there is nothing and whether it’s in the afternoon or late at night when nothing is available, no money, Maggi comes to the rescue for the hungry. Especially for a hungry demon person like me who can manage to eat the equivalent of three regular people and at times is usually hungry! Just like it happened yesterday among countless other times. In the packets, behind they print small stories of people with their various stories which they have to say, like how it has come to the rescue late at night at work, or for preparing something for unannounced arrival of guests. Stories of daily life with Maggi.
Cooking Maggi is one of the most done things by me (and so many like me) perhaps in my life. And especially after sort of literally living on it for 2 years, I’ve become the Maggi expert who can measure and put together the ingredients and water just with a glance (getting the amount of water wrong, more or less is the biggest pain in the ass which can totally ruin it you know). Heck people specifically make me cook it at times. Thank you Maggi for being for the hungry stomach all these times. And writing this has made me even hungrier now, I might just go and cook another bowl for myself!
So the difficulty I usually the first time play a game on, looks like the same applies to life here. I so wish I could have chosen the easy option, but the more I think about it, it reveals current is less medium and more hard. What do you think?
So I just finished watching beloved former president of India, his excellency Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam live on his talk for Transforming Indians to India, proud for which my family, friends and most people I know are working towards. (Check out the site and on respective social networks pages) It is a the national moment for empowering our youth and bringing about change in the country.
“Small aim is a crime”
Coming to which, what about me in this equation? Dr. Kalam in his very inspiring (as always) talk had asked the audience to take some vows to bring about change in ourselves, change around us and subsequently the history of our nation, and very importantly write down what each one of us wants to be remembered for. Whoever is unique in our planet is remembered for something, and if we want to be unique, we have to be remembered for something. This is not the first time I’m hearing this, and perhaps won’t be the last, but it makes me wonder to myself for the lord-knows-what-time, what do I want to be remembered for?
“Everyone wants to be unique, and everyone else around work day and night seeing to that everyone is just everyone else.”
So quite true. Almost infinite walks of life ranging from engineering, doctors, inventors, artists, and so on, there are so much possibilities in each one among them (now that’s infinity to the power infinity who knows how much infinite times) Yet many of us struggle for what we want to do and where are we going.
I’m still not certain what I (truly) want for myself, and where I want to go. But one thing is for certain, after thinking about it, if I want to be remembered for something, that would be for for change. Being different. In complete context yet to be determined. So till then the search will be on, and never settle.
“Where there is righteousness in the heart, there is beauty in character.
Where there is beauty in character, there is harmony in home.
Where there is harmony in homes, there is order in the nation.
Where there is order in nations, there is peace in the world.”
– Dr. A.P.J Abdul Kalam
The solution for much debated and talked about world peace all comes to we individuals, righteousness. So simple, yet most difficult right? It would be a good time to start over, as it’s never too late.
You can watch it here:
The Nameless One 