Category: Social Commentary

  • Freedom from Freedom

    Inspite and perhaps because of the response to the last post.. Yes, maybe the easiest thing is to not take up the offers that are displayed with banality year after year, but perhaps i let an example become the theme.. The intended theme was not the offers but our callous attitude to the concept of freedom. Like i said, maybe the root of all this is that we were born free, and didnt have to experience second and third class citizenship in the land where we were born…
    In an era in which even ads have to be contextual for them to garner any response, what hoped oes a concept like freedom have, especially when it has lost its relevance and definitely has no context. The only context is the one created by the offers. Yes, it is a function oftime, but only because the child that munched the sweets happily and celebrated the holiday on Freedom Day has a bit more understanding now. And precisely because most things are a function of time, maybe we should revisit the day and figure out whether we need a holiday on Aug 15th. Is it any different from a Sunday except for the kind of movies shown?
    Perhaps the respect for freedom belongs elsewhere – in our day to day lives – by being more tolerant and compassionate and respecting each others’ freedom a bit more, and most importantly, by becoming more mature in the use of personal freedom and stopping its abuse daily.Perhaps that will bring joy to those who fought, and died for the holiday.

    until next time, freedom for a state… of mind…

  • Oh, the irony of it all…

    Once upon a time, the biggest significance of Aug 15th was that it was a holiday. And Gandhi and Roja have given way to Lage Raho Munnabhai and Rang De Basanti..
    Makes me wonder, the relevance of this day has become worse than it being just a holiday. And the irony? To make a free country, they burned foreign cloth. In a free country, we burn money to buy international brands that give special discounts on I-Day… No, this is not tirade against MNCs (hey, i use them too) but maybe, we should make this a normal day and stop mocking the efforts of a generation long gone?
    until next time, born free, perhaps thats the root..

  • The more things change…

    the more they remain the same….

    Gandhi was the man they followed then, we still do..
    until next time, happy birthday India.

  • Pati, Patni aur Woh

    Exactly the current president’s cup of tea – that what this presidential election has become – rocket science. But unfortunately, that doesnt do him much help, coz he has already backed out. But that’s only after doing a rose petal stunt of ‘will he, wont he’, and then saying he would stand for a second term only if he were assured of a victory. By those standards, i wonder how he was so active sending up rockets, considering that most of them came back faster than they went up. And forget achieving their objective, the only thing they succeeded in doing was to destroy some poor fishes’ homes in the arabian sea/ bay of bengal or create a theme park/ picnic spot for the fishes’ children. No wonder they always said there was always something fishy in India’s space research..sorry, i digress.. All said and done, doesnt look like the man who made the chikunguniya look fashionable, and the one who inspired salmaan for the ‘tere naam’ look is going to have a second term as Rashtrapati.

    Which brings us to the prime contestant – the one who has been accused of shielding a killer, of defaulting onpayments for a factory. I say it is wrong that such a person should contest for the notional post of President, Indian politics has lost a true flag-bearer. She has awesome qualifications to be PM, but the nation is into non-controversial PMs these days, sigh. Chalo, at least this way, we get to see our first Rashtrapatni.

    The current VP, was once upon a time, regarded as an almost definite P, but unfortunately for him, all his ex-supporters now only say, oh, woh?

    Why am i writing about it? Because it was so damn inconsequential, but true to his name, Dr.Kalam, has converted the entire exrecise into a PJ !!

    until next time, shall we tell the president?

  • There goes our culture….

    Heres one for the moral police…
    I read this a few days back on the ‘age no bar, sex baar baar’ scenario- More youngsters are experimenting with casual sex than they did five years ago, according to a survey commissioned by the National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO).The Behavioural Surveillance Survey (BSS) 2006, conducted on 40,000 people between the ages of 15 and 24, found that 8.4 per cent, or 1.5 crore youngsters in the country, are snuggling up for pre- and post-marital sex.
    A few days back, i heard a contest on our only 24-hr english music station- it was something to do with a new store that has opened here. The question was what the store – ‘apple of my eye’ into – apples, ‘mom and child’ shopping or apple pies. Sarika, who called in, answered correctly – a ‘mom and child’ shop and she got a gift voucher from the store…
    only, sarika is a 2nd PUC student.. now, purely out of humanitarian concern, i’m worried about sarika, will she gift it to someone else, or will the voucher encourage her to get herself a kid to redeem the voucher herself?

    until next time, not just kidding 😉