Gandhi Jayanthi- the new perspective

I was browsing through the morning newspaper and came across an interesting article on Gandhi Jayanthi. Well for the illiterate, it’s the birthday of Mahathma Gandhi.

A journalist decides to go on a journey to Sabarmathi Ashram in Gujarat. He got into an auto-rikshaw from the railway station. He gave the address as ‘Bapu’s Ashram’. The journo had seen the pictures of an old structure in the papers and books but never have been there in real life.

The auto driver takes him to a huge structure. The journo gets confused, ’Is this Bapu’Ashram?’

‘Ohh, sorry. You should have told it in the first place.’

The driver takes him to another spot. The auto speeds away as soon as the journo gets out. The journo is more confused as he can’t recognize the place from the pictures. Slowly he realise that the place is the abode for a demi-god who goes around with the name ‘Bapu’. Soon the sales men Sadhus alight imploring him to pay a visit to the ‘bapu’. These guys are on deal with the auto and cab drivers, who drop the unsuspecting visitors to ‘Bapu’s Ashram’.

It seems everything is on sale- religion, love, relations, ideology….

Hope you guys had a cool Bappu’s b’day

A private e-space

I took a stock of ‘Think’ and found to my little amazement that a major chunk of posts deals with women. I don’t have a reason for it, may be the mind might be filled with delicate beings. And since most of the comments and feedback are positive, I believe I am quite a nice guy.

Jane forwarded me a link on how she was stalked by a creepy guy on the internet and another one in which she was confronted by a porn producer.

The amount of personal information we put on the internet is mind-boggling. Strangely, our virtual self turns to be more true than the real one.

The USP of social networking sites are they stroke our hidden urge for voyeurism and sexual erotica. All the talk about security is big time bullshit. We tend to get more public figures in the virtual world and more secluded and private in the real world.

I am not acting a saint here. For I am one among them who is guilty of this pleasure.

The celebrities have used the internet and social networking for self marketing. The principle of ‘those who live by sword’ came in real for them. If they are having a ‘bad hair day’ or a ward robe malfunction, the ‘fans’ knows it in no time. I think we Indians are notorious compared to others.

It’s important to respect the private space. But in a free world, I doubt how realistic its going to be.

Branded for life

Guys and Gals,

Apologies first. I haven’t been able to follow many of your blogs or comments in the past week. I have this trouble in motivating myself. I am very reluctant to pat myself at the back. So for the past one week I have been roaming around feeling like a loser. This happens when you are one among the few in office who haven’t won a recognition/appreciation or when you perform too badly in your guitar classes.

Back to the blog:

My brother got an SMS which was meant to be funny.

A couple breaks up after a long courtship.

The girl goes around saying ‘He is a loser’, ‘He is insensitive’, ‘He has a tough mother’ etc.

The boy goes around saying, ‘Dude, she is a slut’.

Have you noticed our women get branded too easily? Or am I wrong? Some women consciously try to avoid any tasteless tags but some don’t bother at all.

There is a girl in my neighborhood. She has an ordinary face and an extra ordinary figure which she compounds by wearing good clothes. She has a huge number of male friends and regularly hangs out with them. So whenever a talk about her comes up, the aunts would have seen her at multiple places with many guys at a single time.

Another famous figure who’s a victim to the vicious branding is Sania Mirza. She got all the attention because she was a hot number on the court (and off it). I remember she was the most googled person once. As soon as she started losing we branded her as an upstart, undedicated, etc. But wasn’t it too much to expect a Wimbledon from her? Was she wrong in marrying a guy she chose and calling off the engagement with another. Why do we go after her when she broke no law and is a harmless creature?!

I saw a photo of Yuvaraj Singh with a huge paunch and why isn’t anyone after him questioning his dedication?

Fevered

Monsoon is a beautiful season. But it’s the time of the year when Kerala is besought with all sorts of fever.

Thankfully, I had no bout of fever this time. I wonder why was I spared when everyone else coughed and sneezed around.

Then the last night I went out for partying. I am a teetotaler, but that night I took a sip from every single variety available. To make matters worse I even had a (dry) sip of whiskey which burnt the interiors. May be it’s the potent mix, I woke up with a temperature. Guess I will have to spend this weekend in bed.

Speaking of fevers, I believe after human race, the next species to inhabit the world is going to be virus. Did you know that viral fevers can cause you renal failure? This is not hearsay, I personally know people who went through that.

The paper cup, which was supposed to be a revolutionary invention can turn out to be another cause of human extinction. A colleague of mine had some gastro failure. Doctors found his digestive system coated with wax. They pointed out the cause to be the regular use of paper cups at office. You feel stressed, bored or you simply may need a chit chat. You run to the nearest coffee machine. The hot coffee in the cup melts the glue and over a period of time you accumulate as much as wax inside you to end this miserable life.

The beautiful world of ours is a dangerous place!!!

Sexuality...Morality

I was out for my evening jog when I spotted Munna along with his hot girlfriend. What were they doing here? There were supposed to be in the evening shift! I was in a hurry to get to the juice shop and so hurried away without saying a ‘hi’.

Only the next day did I get the ‘hot’ news. Munna and his girlfriend have been suspended for doing ‘naughty’ things in the office late at night. There were smart enough to switch off the lights in their area so that the CCTV couldn’t make it out clearly. Anyway the security guy claims he saw a vigorous movement of hands and legs. To make matters worse the couple behaved as if sex is their fundamental right. Sadly it’s not so in India and certainly not so in the office.
‘Office sex’ was a fantasy seen only in porn. Now it’s becoming increasingly common. What could be the reason?

You spent almost 12-14 hours in the office and 2-3 hours for travel. To make matters worse some white guy in the other part of the world makes your life miserable to make his-more comfortable. People need some outlet to relieve their stress. Some opts to de-stress through shopping, drink, smoke and a few of them through the pelvis.

Committing adultery is not moral. But climbing into higher grounds of morality when it comes to sexual matters is certainly immoral. Our work culture is highly corrupted and needs a repair. In the rat race we tend to forget to enjoy simple pleasures of life. In the end we turn to quick-fix and crooked ways.

Network

Not so long ago people knew their relations unto third, fourth and fifth generations. The greatest use of the huge family tree came during marriage. In India, where the marriages are arranged by the relatives, much information about the proposed boy/girl and the family wouldn’t be available on hand. But there might be some distant relation living near by. He would supply the needed information on the past history, wealth, social status etc. Everyone was well networked (without much help from FB, orkut).

In these turbulent times, we are not even aware of who is staying next door, let alone our relations. So the pre-marriage enquiry has come onto a big crisis.

The common practice today is to enquire with the friend’s friend’s friend who studied/worked with the boy/girl. I have come across many predicaments as a result of this.

My good friend was enquiring about a girl he was supposed to get engaged to. She studied with me in college. He wanted to know if she had any secret affairs. The only information available to me was rumors. I have no proof for them. So should I dispense with the rumors?

On another occasion, a friend of mine asked me about a guy who was supposed to marry her friend. She wanted to know if the guy drinks. I had an information that the guy had taken to bottle when some girl dumped him. And if I dispense with my knowledge I might be denying him a new life!

Relegiosity

Being raised in a religious household is an advantage. You keep yourself grounded in times of trouble. But I was lucky to get enough space to form my own opinion.

From what I observe, the more a person shows off his religious fervor and rituals the less he is obliged to practice the essentials in his life. In other words the external demonstration is inversely proportional to the internal quality.

I feel the religious awareness has been on a very high in the recent decade. But the faithful fail to identify the essence of the teachings.

As a simple example- if we believe God is all powerful, why should we bother to defend him when someone else makes a bad remark about him?

So when someone asks me what my dream girl should be like…I reply- Of the numerous qualities, no one should tell her religion by her dressing gear or her mannerisms or other symbols.