I am a Secular & a Fanatic

Okay so art can also be shitwork & I thought that I was an exception (am disappointed rather). This lingual constipation is the result of an exhaustive 3hr session (15min intermission excluded) of watching ‘Shootout at Lokhandwala’. Now the movie was not that bad (after all it had all the cleavage show, the cool abuses, and yes the bullets and the skull crunching scenes) but I can have my personal preferences. & SOAL didn’t fit in there.

But what do I do? Protest against it or stone all the theatres screening it? Perhaps I can file a PIL against its screening….after all it has hurt my sentiments. As a responsible citizen of democratic nation (don’t forget the Article 19 of our revered Constitution), I have all rights to express myself (though it contradicts with another Article 19 again but who/I cares).

Definitely it is for the artist and his Freedom of Expression to portray Saraswati as nude or have artistically (read scantly) clad models (hot ones) in saffron. He can do what he pleases to do……no fundamentalist can have a right to stop him. What if it hurts the sentiments of an entire barbarian orthodox race. They simply can’t understand the greatness of the implicit message in the piece of art.

I never agreed with storming & burning of the places which have been accused of desecrating our culture but I also do not agree with the alibi of Khujaraho & Kamasutra. Fundamentalists & fanatics are a danger to the society but so are the pseudo-seculars or the Fanatic Seculars. What occurred ‘000s of year back reflected the society of that age. Today it’s different. We must realize that ours has become a conservative society & painting nude Goddesses is not going to reform us. It’s a shame if our communications trashes a faith followed deeply by millions, however against we are against such customs & traditions. We need to balance between the definition of modernity & vulgarity.

social animal

I was born a social animal; Man was born a social animal. How true is that? Does living in a society comes to us naturally or we adapt to it because of our inherent need for survival?

The hunter man started to build societies, not because of any particular liking for each other but to be able to feed himself and to protect himself. And the modern man constructed great cities on the same foundation.

But do you ever observe a child, who unlike pups or cubs or kitten is more engrossed in him/her self. The child is a grim reminder of what we are and how quickly once we gain knowledge of surroundings; begin writing essays on the societal nature of man. For the child there is no time to indulge with his nanny or mother; the phenomenon is too engrossed in his own little universe. Just keep feeding him and he will reciprocate with those few broken words of perhaps gratitude or affection.

Rarely does it face a competition from other for its food, never will it ever learn from its peer, but from the already social beings.

But wait a minute; are we missing some issues here – how do we justify its behavior when it is not in its ‘natural’ looney self? Is it experiencing a schizophrenic personality or has it learned to be dependant on the elders and is therefore indulging in its act of pleasing them. Freud did make some gross allegations against it for all its sexual advances and thoughts. WoW!!! I never thought I was so romantic (pervert would have been a better term but didn’t use it at it might hurt sentiments of all the kids including me) as a kid, & the worst part is that I don’t remember a thing. But hey we are diverting from the discussion. Will we be ever able to decipher what goes on in the brains of the kid or for that matter you & I? Will we ever be able to predict as to why ‘Tommy’ wags its tail & why keep oscillating between being gregarious at times to want to be the last person on the universe at others? If we can’t predict such things, it doesn’t matter as we will continue to be the same – the most enigmatic being on planet Earth.

random thoughts after the pirated '6th Sense' DVD malfunction

Do I believe in sixth sense, do I not believe in it?... actually that’s not the right way to put forward my query; it should be rather put forth as: should I or should I not??

I don’t know…..consider myself to be beyond the ape-brained creatures that still inhabit my land. Superstition, evil, (G)od, totems mean nothing to me & yet….

There are instances you can associate in the lingo of science as ‘mere coincidence’ that take place day-in & day-out in my life. That I am even writing about such occurrences seems as an act of defiance against the established (yet unproven order). The line I am treading is the line that demarcates the boundaries between myth & sci-fi.

I write for myself & for many of us who perhaps never even remember such random acts of coincidences. And if we do, we just let them pass with a smile (or is it the fear of getting into something which is way beyond out ‘popular’ imagination?).

You sit on the naked terrace of your house dangling your feet, smoking away your ‘journey called life’ & suddenly this random fear runs down your spine – if there is an earthquake what will happen. You simply get back to the comfort of your slightly uncomfortable bed to wake up in the morning and find that a disastrous earthquake rocked your country killing 1000s you never knew…..jus 4hrs after your random thought.

Okay that was a coincidence and so will be a long lost close friend who had disappeared a decade back leaving back only his memories and no contact details calling back one day suddenly only when you had been thinking about him. That you remembered him even before (say 30 days in a yr) and on those occasions during the last 10yrs he had not called up is a valid point. But that he had to call me up only on that 1/30 days of a 365 day yr makes me think.

These are 1-off random incidents that keep happening in our life, without reason, sans any logic. Will these remain illusive as our dreams of inter-space travel, enigmatic as the existence of Satan, or just pure unanswered random thoughts about our existence.

I don’t know for sure…

so they say

So they say so….

It’s a new day,

Life lies ahead

Surf the bay

So they say so….

Who cares

& listens to the wind

& surrounding layers

so they say so…

sorrow is brief

number the stars

stop counting grief

so they say so…

wear your smile

& as with snake skin

shed every mile

so they say so…

night will die

horizon in sight

take wings fly

so they say so…