bhench*d, gaali mat de…

I apologize for the abusive title of this post, but tell me haven’t you heard this statement before when you saw some people quarrelling on a railway station or bus stop? It sounds so weird and disturbingly funny, right? That a person starts abusing when he wants the other person to stop abusing him.

This human nature is precisely what I want to talk about today. This kind of nature is so much prevalent among us, and most of the people practice such nature, sometimes without even realizing it.

We’ve had the classic example of much talked and rioted about Danish Cartoons. The entire so called progressive world cried foul saying that this was an attack on freedom of expression, and they condemned the protests which were happening in some parts of the world. In other words they wanted their freedom of expression, but they were not ready to take any criticism of the cartoons, thus not willing to give the same freedom of expression to those who did not like cartoons. On the other hand protestors turned violent and rioted public property of their own country and killed people from their own country and community. How weird and stupid can we humans get?

How many times have we seen people condemning one religion for fundamentalism, and then in order to face the challenge of fundamentalism of that other religion, they turn towards fundamentalism of their religion.

Don’t we see how the rich and mighty countries of the first world are trying their best towards the noble cause of world peace only by threatening other countries of dire consequences if they did not agree?

I have seen many people who claim to be rational, and while they chide someone for being irrational they themselves become irrational. There are people who claim to be firm believers of the philosophy of Ayn Rand, and then they go around showing off that they’ve read all of her books.

Only today I was reading a blog, where someone wrote a comment saying that a blog is a personal space, and the owner has all the rights to write whatever he or she feels like. In the same breath this person continued that disabling comments on a blog post is undemocratic, and it should not be done. Now if my blog is ‘my space’, and I have all the rights to convey my thoughts through it, don’t I have all the rights to decide if I want someone to comment on it or not? Another funny thing i read there was about comment moderation being accepted but disabling comments being termed as wrong. Now in my opinion, disabling comments and moderation are almost similar. The only difference being that when u have comment moderation, you can choose only those comments which you like and leave the ones you dont, whereas while disabling comments altogether you skip both favorable as well as unfavorable comments. So what’s the big deal? Why so much fuss about moderation and/or disabling? and that too when you are supposedly in favor of freedom of expression on one’s blog.

If only we can learn to practice what we preach, the world would be a much better place.

~—~

I know this post was a bit on a heavier side, so I leave you with this piece of news which just came in:

15000 atheists in London rioted after a blank sheet of paper was found on a cartoonist’s desk!

via :-)

hmm…

Even if you have not been apologised to, it’s still a good idea to go ahead and forgive.

A Short Story

“Life is made up of various stories, some long and some short.” He told her in a tone which suggested he knew what exactly he was talking.

They were sitting on a public bench at the city’s one of the busiest shopping complex. It was past midnight, and in the cold weather of January there were hardly any people around. The place looked totally opposite of what it was until few hours before. Mild sounds of ‘Kajra Re‘ were coming from a night club across the market which was still high and vibrant with young couples drinking, dancing, and believing that life was at its best that night. Both of them had entered a lounge that night, he had ordered an exotic drink named Blue Margarita, whereas she had preferred ordering a steamy cup of coffee, and then they had decided to walk out of the cozy comfort of lounge and sip the drinks sitting on the cold bench outside. She looked up at him even as having another sip of coffee, both her hands firmly holding the warm cup. Her eyes had that twinkle in them as always.

Her expression suggested that she was listening, so he continued, “some of the stories are initiated by us, but some stories…. they are initiated by others who are part of our story. We don’t have any control over such stories”.

“You are one imaginative person.” She smiled and added “You are right, but the story belongs to those others as well, since they are also a part of it, probably it’s more of their story, and you are playing a part in it”.

“Probably yes!” He became more direct, “but even such stories can have some effect on your life. I’ll tell you, a wonderful girl entered my life out of no where, and her entry was like a refreshing breeze. From the first day that we started interacting we clicked with each other, you know we had that level of comfort right from the word Go. We shared so many smiles during our endless conversations, and we also had some sensible discussions about other important aspects of life.”

“That sounds great!!! Some people touch your life in a beautiful way. It doesn’t happen with everyone you meet - that you immediately reach that level of comfort with them. Such people are special I guess, and relationships with them should be preserved.” Her eyes became brighter, even as she said this.

“Yeah! Just when I thought I had found another person whom I can call a friend in true sense, something happened and the story that she had started came to an end suddenly, just like it’s beginning was.”

“It was meant to be a short story, I guess” He smiled and continued “but i am glad that this story was made up of only smiles and laughter”.

Her expression changed, “But…. may be it’s not really an end, who knows it might turn out to be just a twist in tale, some suspense before more smiles are shared in the same story.”

He took the last sip of Blue Margarita and got up smiling “So! Who is being imaginative now?”

and they both laughed.

—- 

{ this is my first attempt at story writing, so be nice to me in ur comments :p }

Mystification

Hey! you.
Yeah, I am talking to you.

You tell me that
i am unreasonable,
and you admire me for that.

But d’you realize
there might be a reason
why i am unreasonable

May be I like to reason
but i gave up
when reasons
stopped making sense
anymore.

You tell me that
giving up is bad
but do i really
have a choice?

You tell me that
choice is always mine
but is it called
a choice
when all you have
in front of you
is not a crossroad
but a oneway street.

I am not sure
if i should be happy
that i have a straight road
to walk on
or should i be sad
for the lack of alternatives?

May be I am
just plain confused
but then
isn’t confusion created
out of multiplicity?

This confused attempt is a product of my ponderings over the kind of books I’ve been reading off late, a short discussion on Aradhita’s blog post and few conversations with a friend. So please bear with me. :)

Towards tranquility

As he got up
to the rising sun,
fading voices from past
called him from behind
yet again.

Standing
on a threshold
of past and present,
he contemplated.

There were times
when he survived,
by clinging
to the past.

Only today
did he realize
even the past
needed him
to survive.

A past
so full of love,
then suddenly
it became
past.

 

But that was then.
Now he wanted to live
and not just survive.
So he decided
to be in the present
and look up to the future.

but before he could go
leaving his past behind
he paused for a moment
to look back,
and pay his tribute.

He smiled.

You call yourself a human?

Isn’t it weird that we humans have to live with a virtue within us called inhumanity? We are born as humans, but humanity doesn’t come naturally to us. It needs to be taught, nourished and cultivated.

Our day to day life keeps throwing events at us, which tempt us to become inhuman. We see victory in others’ failure, we laugh at others’ misery. Then we go a step ahead - we start hating people, for things so inane. We hate someone just because we don’t like his face, because we don’t like the way she speaks, somebody’s mere presence starts irritating us, we hate people for their thoughts and for their actions. While cursing someone for doing something inhuman, we very easily allow ourselves to fall prey to inhumanity.
On the name of justice, governments sponsor killing, next - they declare a war on the name of country and religion. Government approved killers are awarded, and those who got killed while killing others are declared martyrs. Inhumanity is glorified.
And then there are humans who are declared as inhuman. They are criminals, they kill at will, they rape for pleasure, they use power as their toy and feel the joy in suppressing others. They thrive in cruelty, they enjoy the power and seek glory in notoriousness.

Amidst such humans, humanity still survives - and it will always survive, no doubts about that. But the point is, would it ever rule the world?

Though It’s another thing that ‘ruling’ itself is perhaps against concept of humanity, but we’ll keep that thought for another day.