Consumer Culture

We are really living in the age of consumerism aka modern times. Today consumers have been turned into dustbins for private enterprises to discard their innumerable list of products manufactured more with a view to creating new needs rather than fulfilling needs. It is rather the creation of comfort zone or luxury than needs for few that converts the life of thousands into hell.

Even Images, ads and videos are created and seen more from the point of view of consumerism than as an expression of ideas. The shot of C. Chaplin working frantically in the factory to keep up with the assembly line of production in Modern Times spoke about the basic nature of consumerism and the death of the normal worker. Today, it really speaks volumes about the basic nature of any industry and the effect of consumer culture on our human society.

The sub-prime crisis in America surfaced when defaults were reported in payments for housing mortgages. The 5% population consumes 25% resources of the world. 90% of GDP is consumed in loans (Sources:Business India 5,October 2008). It is the real face of the capitalist economy of America which wants bail out package from the government. Ancient Indian had described consumerism as tendency to "Rinam kritvaa ghritam pibet "/"Take a loan and drink the ghee".

"This consumerism is not the problem with everyone in India, but there are enough such folks to make the issue a cause for concern. This is literally the first generation of young people freely using credit cards - without realizing the consequences. They see it as a necessary self indulgence. Lifestyle is their life. There are worrying stories of call center employees who are clueless about managing their money. By the 15th of the month, they've spent their salaries and continue shopping on credit cards. Then, instead of paying off the monthly balance in full they pay the minimum amount. Not realizing the horrendous 2.5-3% interest a month they're being charged. A few months down the line they are deeply in debt."(Source)

A must read for all of us : The article "Non Efficient Citizen" by Tomas Kavaliauskas on 'consumer culture and capitalism'. It was originally written in Lithuanian but it is transliterated in various languages due to its universal theme and impact. Here is brief paragraph from article -

"The capitalist order implies that the ultimate objective of citizens is to be consumers. Yet consumerism grounded in indebtedness means financial dependence as opposed to democratic freedom, writes Tomas Kavaliauskas. In the consumerist system, the individual who asserts him or herself through authentic freedom is regarded as a non-efficient citizen."

PDF LINK is here.
We often forget that "One should eat to live, not live to eat." - Cicero

The Strange Case of Female Bloggers

I am not keen supporter of feminist point of view. Really, I have feeble idea about feminism but believe in same opportunities and rights irrespective of gender to all human. In the blogging world, I find that number of blogs written by female were quite low than their male counterpart. I do not agree at all that less creativity or intelligence is behind that scenario.

Here, I read these female bloggers regularly: Rashmi Bansal, Nimmy, Piyul, AM and Gunj. I read their views on various topics because of their professional creative writing skills; not due to being of opposite sex. The point is that female bloggers or profile on social network gets more attention (profile view or album view) in internet world. I read some comments on female bloggers that are purely made to impress her by showing wit. You can find lot of clash between male in discussion at internet world but chances of getting male and female in heated arguments are quite low (by checking at orkut communities). I may be wrong or right but I sincerely believe females get more respect and liberty to express themselves in virtual than real world.

PS:This is link of Top 100 female bloggers list.

Eight Point Someone

Hi,I want you to take a look at: ITBHUGlobal.org: The Chronicle: Eight Point Someone (by Praharsh Sharma, B.Tech. Part-III Electronics Engineering student) .I am a 6 pointer but really admire this post for honest and hilarious opinion on serious matter of grades.

I was deeply influenced by paragraph below taken from the given article.These lines are gospel truth for me and hope it will be same for you.

In the course of our four years at IT BHU, we engineering undergraduates should be proud of one thing to which I am sure, all of us agree unanimously. The ability that gets perhaps, best incorporated in us during these quadruple of years, is to manage anything (that is desperately needed) out of nothing, as and when required. We all manage to learn and exercise this well in due course of our time and efforts here. In the sort of situation we are made to live, the most beautiful part is undoubtedly that, this life teaches us how to keep our cool on, when we are right about to fall into the middle of nowhere but hell. This is only because, just when we are living on the last edge and are about to be busted, life subjects us to an experience where in, a pseudo helping hand just saves us from falling into the hell. Thus, when we are in any situation of almost death, we always assume that there would be a way out and this illogical confidence is the best thing, which engineering undergraduates learn to have during their four years. We here call it the engineering preamble, truly stated by someone –

“We, the unwilling, lead by the unknowing, are doing the impossible for the ungrateful. We have done so much for so long, with so little knowledge that we will one day qualify to do anything with knowing nothing..."

Indian Ocean Music Band

I am here enlisting all the prominent articles about Indian Ocean Music Band.I am great admirer of their music.I have first heard them in KY,cultural festival of ITBHU in 2005 and afterwards on PC.I became fan of their down to earth music,lyrics and ideology.Here are the various links:

Official website of Indian Ocean Music Band
Indian Ocean Music Band in Wikipedia
IMDB Profile of the band

Good and Detailed review of Kandisa Album on this blog.

Web link of the prominent bloggers about this band:
Post from Sepia Mutiny & Post from Balancing Life(Prof. Amardeep Singh)

Detail about this Music Band

Two articles in All about Jazz-Interview of Susmit Sen in 1st and Biography in 2nd;
In Samar Magazine,good article for non technical music lovers.
Unofficial Biography of music band,
Short Interview with Indian Ocean on Sulekha,
Interview by The Live Music Report,
Short Article on the music band;
Subscribe for free and Watch the Interview on Chordvine.

News and Archives:
Indian Ocean Performance in Chennai,
Indian Ocean interview on Black Friday,
Currently in news for Aamir Khan Venture;

Various Images of this music band are here.

Meaning of Sparsh

Often, I analyze various people arriving on my blog searching for the Meaning of Sparsh (by FEEDJIT). They were getting link of my blog for meaning of the word 'Sparsh'. I have named my blog 'Sparsh' aka 'Touch'. This touch is often mistaken with Midas or golden word. I do not support that combination with blog's name.

Meaning of 'Sparsh' is Touch. It is inspired from article below:

प्रभावित होना और प्रभावित करना जीवंतता का लक्षण है .कुछ लोग हैं जो प्रभावित होने को दुर्बलता मानते हैं. में ऐसा नही मानता. जो महत से,सुंदर से,साधारण में छिपे असाधारण से प्रभावित नही होते,में उन्हे जड़ समझता हूँ. चेतन तो निकट संपर्क में आने वालों से भावात्मक आदान-प्रदान करता हुआ ही जीवन पाठ पर आगे बदता जाता है.

These lines are taken from the introduction of book "Smaran ko pathey banane do" by "Vishnukant Shastri". Sparsh is the touch (motivation) of that chetan (consciousness) for sensitive exchange of emotions. Hoping that my point is taken crystal clear by reader. Also Check, not original review of a movie 'Sparsh'.