DYSTOPIA

NYTimes journalist, Anand Giridhardas once asked Mufti Shabbir Alam Sidiqi, an important Islamic cleric, whether disenfranchised Muslims were losing faith in India and taking solace in fundamentalist ideas.

“What you have in India you have in no other country,” he replied. “In this republic there are rights. We can demand our rights, speak out. In other countries: eat, drink and shut up. Go to Saudi Arabia: you can’t speak. There is Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Dubai, Iraq, Iran. These things are nowhere. They are all dictatorships.”

Indian democracy should not work. Democracy brings little to the poor, the state is corrupt, politicians lack principles and ideas. Yet we as citizen with no reason to hope to continue to believe, vote, speak, petition for better India.

One fine day, to understand life of people practicing Wahhabi Islam and searching about censorship on blog in Middle East, I came across this blog: The Religious Policeman.

It states on its first page: In Memory of the lives of 15 Makkah Schoolgirls, lost when their school burnt down on Monday, 11th March, 2002. The Religious Police would not allow them to leave the building, nor allow the Firemen to enter.

That shivered me deep inside and I dig the digital archives for complete archaeological survey. The blogger has been commenting on Saudi Arabia, off and on, for two years. I have read it completely now and the whole trauma of horrifying real life stories is not going way. Power, Politics, Money and Religion have clubbed together for violation of each good emotions, humanity stands for. It has confirmed my worst fears that we humans are living in dystopian society. Here is living example of George Orwell's "1984" in this world. A concrete jungle made on petro dollars...

And then I just cherish in vanity that I have taken birth in India. How lucky I am to have freedom and human rights.......

I had got a mail...

If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?

"Does observation affect outcome?" Yes, it does in writing. We can assume the unobserved event functions the same as the observed event in a rare case of writing where external observation is not needed. Sometimes event is self conscious. That is the beauty of writing, it makes you reflective...

I insist everyone to write and to clear their point of view or express experiences. Or it may serve the purpose to inflate weak ideas, obscure poor reasoning and inhibit clarity. This has happened to me long back ago. A great fellow from 'downsouth' had given me his valuable time and comment to improve my writing skills. I got a mail on asking his opinion on one of the blogpost. The email can be traced back on the date of 16th June 2007 when my blog was just 3 months old with full of spelling and grammar mistakes (Later I edited and republished blogpost on his advice). The person has asked to keep his name hidden here in public sphere. Enjoy that email which is still one of the guidelines followed in mine writings and helped in standing out than fitting in the blogland:

"You need to improve your grammar drastically. I had read a few of your posts earlier too (way to IT-BHU, legacy etc.) and the worrying part (sorry to say so) is that your grammar has not improved much. Elementary grammatical mistakes are accepted today but gross mistakes tend to suppress the feelings that are brought out through the medium of writing.

Your narrative style is excellent with a chronological and sequential flow of events. I can sense that you have that keen sense of memory and observation with an eye for the fine details (something I hav not been able to develop till now) and would provide a lot of entertainment and nostalgia if you can put the bricks together. I must admit I was in peels of laughter reading the post. My suggestion would be to write shorter, read it once before posting it and review errors as perceived by you and get both reviewed by someone so that you can have a feel about your grammatical sense.

I also feel that you write without a lot of reading and it simply doesn't work that way. Read slower and and try and appreciate the sense of the sentence. Bahut fatte ho gaye ab ke liye. Keep calling for help.

Cheers,

Senders name

Not everyone knows how to express creativity, but everyone has the capacity to be creative.

Shit does not always float. Things change!

In the words of Irshad bhai only-- "हर आदमी जो सही दिख रहा है, कही अन्दर से टूटा हुआ है। "
And in mine words-- "जीना महँगा हो गया है और ज़िंदगी सस्ती हो गयी है."

I am just sum of these two lines in reality. Rest written here is broken and chaos of my mind.

I am trying hard to inculcate and dissolve ideas into mine reading material, thinking and writing. From now onwards, the frequency of posting on blog will be low and only original matter will appear. More composition, less compilation and adaptation. Instead of plagiarism, a phase to produce mine naive thoughts has came. Shit does not always float. It has to be flushed in sewer one day. Things had changed inside me now!.

Yeh woh Manzil to Nahin:
This is not the article I want to publish here just a day before. A disorganised, disoriented and unthemed writing. But this is how life is, unclear and changing our subjectivity of perception on recollection. Too much order was taking the breathe of the blog, hence a break from established pattern.

Under any 'ism', man exploits man, so the idea of utopia or holy struggle goes in smoke and a grand illusion surrounds regarding every topic. If racism, religious intolerance, and sexism are wrong, can nationalism which is so often upheld as noble, be right? All the emotions can be manipulated in wrong direction by radical falsehood thrust of oration skills. Logic and analysis fail and everybody is happy to just follow. There are thousands who claim to have read Bhagvad Gita but have yet to meet person who actually understood the philosophy and practiced it.Take a example like the principle of Karmayoga only. More than deliberate blasphemers of a scripture, the unconscious misinterpreters of a sacred text are the innocent criminals who bring about the wretched downfall of its philosophy for their own convenience and prejudices. There is no use to fight over the credibility of God who will ever come out to prove himself right or wrong.

I don't want to be fed any boring facts and figures. I'd rather starve my mind a bit and have to search out nutrition in stranger places. People want to breathe a live of luxury and flamboyancy with the route of credit also. The luxury industries is doing what it takes to cater to the whims & fancies of rising class. The aspirational lifestyle doesn't limited to material objects but it has evolved into unique and personal experiences. Our society has taken voyeuristic path and children turning on to the habits of adults. People love to see other's in pain. Yet there are those who have managed to find the balance, ensuring they do their bit to propel their nation forward. That gives me inspiration to preach and express my feelings. Acceptance, Care, Respect and Recognition are terms for which a man struggle. Parallel cinema to caste discrimination or gender inequality, everything revolves around these 4 words only. In the Rebel against the establishment, getting wasted on high dose of liquor or drugs and crashing bike in high speed around a blind turn is no solution. To rebel means to stand for something what you truly believe in till last breathe. The modern idea of world is about equality and the transcendence of social barriers, not about narrow dividing walls. In this sense inspiration may well have come from Rabindranath Tagore’s song: Jodi tor daak shuney keoo na ashey tobey ekla chalo rey. (If none heeds your cry to march together, just walk alone, no if or whether.)

A good news for my fans that I was quoted in a international e- magazine;India: A wave of suicides among farmers. Just learned one lesson of lifetime yesterday: To lead people walk behind them.