Thursday, October 8, 2009

The great Indian PORN show

Porn is entertaining for few of us. But, the question here arises that can entertainment be served as porn ?

Reality Shows:

"A participant performs the ultimate act of pornography as he disrobes himself in full public view of all that he considers most intimate, stripping himself of not only dignity and self-respect but dismantling in the process, the trust he evokes from those he loves most. We watch in voyeuristic disbelief, with a combination of fascination, horror, guilt and smug superiority at someone's else's misery. It is a spectacle only when participants disclose something scandalous." Santosh Desai (Source)

Society has been constructed in the manner in which relationships are not based on absolute honesty. In fact they are based on insulation of an individuals real feelings from all. A little privacy is given to each of us so that intimacy can be hidden for the greater good. If a person needs to confess to his beloved ones, he / she should tell them in private, not because money involved in it. And I have written about it long back ago.

Television:

Showing interest in the personal lives or lifestyle of celebrities are favourite prime time of our television. TV shows end up ultimately with sex,vulgar,gossips and this idiotic things which are not done for only money to few well elite's greed of money. These have already lost any interest for family or social values. In the name of freedom and choice they want to put the voyeuristic interest to others.

We have in effect created a market for preying on someone else's personal misery. Pimps and prostitutes are jumping on the Television for their greed of quick money and we sit numb and turned into something worse than eunuchs. We behave as self-indulgent audience of consumers who wanted to be entertained no matter what the cost to characters.

Television by virtue of lacking depth and being located in real time allows for no introspection. It does not allow you to interact and alter the content. We represent just a vote or 'a sms' to them. We flick from channel to channel and rest our eyes on whatever stimulates us. We are swept away by its combined force while retaining the illusion that we are in control. We keep talking about how we should change the channel if we don't like what we see without acknowledging how the channel is changing us.

Media:

"What the media basically does is, it just strips everybody and makes money out it. The only difference between a strip-teaser and the media is that a strip-teaser bares herself so that others can enjoy her and give money, and the media strips others so that some others can enjoy and give them the money." - RGV (Source)

Porn business is in full flow and stripping each value what our society believes in. For the sake of adventure and quick fame, people are turning towards fake family shows, reality shows and entertaining news channels...

News channels have huge ability to make something out of nothing, make your emotion rush. It’s the height of manipulation. Few video clips from youtube, images from google search, music from here and there with a non sense story is the prime time coverage of news channel.The word 'Exclusive' and 'Breaking news' have lost their significance due to constant repeatable use at every hour. Even Images, ads and videos are created and seen more from the point of view of consumerism than as an expression of ideas. The media in India loves to speculate because they are constantly in need of stories. The manipulation of your emotions with back script music, melodrama and biasing makes you not a viewer but a potential consumer. The pre conceived notion of entertainment is gone. TV channels are not in our hands, we are in theirs..

Honesty is important, but not at the cost of entertainment. There's a fine line between portraying reality and stereotyping. The problems of our nation like poverty, hunger, illiteracy, naxalism, unemployment, corruption and natural disaster. We readily import the nuisance but always shrug off to import cleanliness, honesty, patriotism, sacrifice etc. because these need to come out the closet of A/C rooms of these people and need very hard work which these people are not used to.

It’s the manipulation and unreliability of methods media use to determine what people want and label as TRP ratings. What media should fix is error in the systems, not the society. Media is trying to reconfigure society by exposing the hypocrisy of others. But media itself has little understanding or control over its own actions. You will be labeled as dictator or censor on talking about self regulation. What a pity..

West:
The West is entranced by India's poverty and filth- that's the USP of India for them. Slumdog Millionaire represents the 'poverty porn' (word first coined by Times reviewer only). They don't want to show us just who we 'really' are or positive achievements but show how our lives are growing materialistic and controversial. And our our elites are clones of the modernized west.

Conclusion:
TV shows or media is not interested in the truth but specifically seeks that truth which will cause damage to the individual's self esteem and poison relationships. Children are treated as Mini adults if they are potential consumers or just neglected completely. Our society has taken voyeuristic path and children turning on to the habits of adults. People love to see other's in pain. 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. Really rich exploit the proletariat in much the same way as the men exploit animals.

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

A scene of the flood

Krishna river flowing over red alert
People caught amid flood situation near Wadi
Railway Tracks

All Photoes are taken by my sister who reached to Hyderabad from Bangalore in 60 hours through Rajdhani express and returned to Bangalore in 60 minutes through airways.

Andhra and Karnataka are facing worst flood in 100 years. Reaching Bangalore or Hyderabad was never so difficult. Both the bus and train services are affected. In this season of problems, suddenly air fares rocketed thrice the normal rate. Not more than 0.1 % of people of India travel through air route, still this opportunism shown by airlines prove that air fare needs to be regulated for making air services to the reach of more people.

In economics, collective bargaining, psychology, and political science, "free riders" are those who consume more than their fair share of a public resource, or shoulder less than a fair share of the costs of its production. Free riding is usually considered to be an economic "problem" only when it leads to the non-production or under-production of a public good (and thus to Pareto inefficiency) , or when it leads to the excessive use of a common property resource. People breed less as they become richer, but they don’t consume less — they consume more. As the habits of the super-rich show, there are no limits to human extravagance. Consumption can be expected to rise with economic growth until the biosphere hits the buffers. To be 'living luxurious lifestyle' and 'free rider' on national income is the worst crime in my eyes. World needs more proportionate than equal distribution of wealth among its citizens.

Monday, October 5, 2009

Looking Back in Time

Once, I was roaming in the Kanpur Coaching Area with my friends after completion of engineering. Throughout the whole tourism, I was flooded with my memories of how I used to travel in jam-packed auto rickshaws on the same route and many times walk for saving petty amount of money.

Its interesting how people feel comfortable admitting the lows of their life once they reach the heights. It gives you an inspiration for your own life. Self made man are worth which our society looks up for in their struggle. Social Darwinism factor gives example of them only.

It may appear romantic in future to look back on time with the nostalgic look. All of us are creative artist but a great craftsmanship comes with tuning our skills in versatile fields. It could be so funny, strange, scary or without clue, now that we are so busy with the life. But when I think of mine college days where I used to sit idle or drift without purpose. There were endless days and nights spent with time passing by in staring at natural beauty, wandering on empty roads or just discussing philosophy with friends. And, we don’t know what is exactly happening with our life at that point of time. It just appears to be in the form of inexpressible experiences. These moments of looking back cannot be measured economically.

Do you think every person (normal, successful, great, politician, whoever it is) has their own experiences like these where they don’t know what exactly their life going through and how the future is going to be? Experiences and reflections of hard times of great personalities help in redefining our look towards own goal. That's why inspirational stories or cinema always work to motivate us.

I know that I am neither an uncommonly talented person, nor a man of genius. But it has been said that every man has within himself the making of one book. Time passes by and we experience different emotions. And we observe the world and even realize on the verge of death: "There is no seer and there is nothing seen; there is only seeing."

Friday, October 2, 2009

I Write What I Like.

Usually, I write what I like but was taken back by a witty remark. Vijay Tendulkar has said a gem about writing - “It’s never about the writing. Anyone can write. It is about the observations.” So astute is his observation in this regard. Procrastination is the disease of lazy person like me and preparation of irma is lacking in honest efforts. Bahut ho gayee mere kahani, Ab duniya ke samachar padiye---

Caste:
The ongoing session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva looks set to recognize caste- based discrimination as a human rights violation. This is done, despite India's opposition and following Nepal's breaking stand in support on the culturally sensitive issue. Hence, ours dream of caste annihilation is finally getting solid paper work. ( TOI report & Official version in pdf). Thanks Anu for bringing it to my notice.

Rewriting History: Some new studies done on the basis of genome project and anthropology are focusing evolution and human migration at India in new light. Soon our history will be changed with the backing up of more scientific evidence.

1- Most modern Indians descended from South Asians, not invading Central Asian steppe dwellers, a new genetic study reports.

"The finding disputes a long-held theory that a large invasion of central Asians, traveling through a northwest Indian corridor, shaped the language, culture, and gene pool of many modern Indians within the past 10,000 years"

2- Modern humans migrated out of Africa and into India much earlier than once believed, driving older hominids in present-day India to extinction and creating some of the earliest art and architecture, a new study suggests :-

"University of Cambridge researchers Michael Petraglia and Hannah James argue that similar events took place in India when modern humans arrived there about 70,000 years ago."

Attendance Issue: The bureaucrat's way of ensuring accountability is: Make sure people are physically present in the office, whether they work or not. Babushahi pretend to work and show off as they are busy. In most of our colleges only, we apply the bureaucrat's way of ensuring accountability of student by attendance: Make sure students are physically present in the classroom, whether they study or not. I may be wrong in my argument, but the need of min. percentage (75%) of attendance by students is same as new rule of min. 40 hours of work per week by teacher. [Even, Animesh Sir supported my observation]. And the funny point is that most of the teachers ensuring students attendance with tour de force are opposing this rule. Life hits hard, you never know........

Quote of the Day: Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, Mark Twain said, it is time to pause and reflect.

Thursday, October 1, 2009

Thodasa Roomani Ho Jaayen

I have passed 8 months in Hyderabad and it has been pretty average time of my life. Time flies away at least the effortless one. As the title suggest no bullshit today. Just few quick, rough and minor updates supported by the light hearted comments (that too copied from here & there ).

Me and mine home town, Azamgarh has lot of bad fame attached to them. Azamgarh is now nicknamed ‘Aatankgarh’ by a nasty friend of mine. Whenever he pinches me too much on this issue, I sarcastically reply him- " Don't disturb me man as I belong to sleeper cell of terrorist." [ Actually Sleeping heavily in office during night shifts for practice :) ]

Career: Prof Sunil Handa from IIMA quotes: The question we need to ask yourself is “will you be happy with a boring, glorified, clerical job throughout your life?”. Keep questioning, keep improving. I have a hypothesis that MNC just exploit our talent and most important phase of the life (22-30 years) for ours need of quick money to stabilize in the life. The most hindering block in any less traveled path taken is 'acceptance'. Acceptance by society, family, friends and never ending list pile on. However, acceptance comes with time and success. And, parents are not very specific about the choice of career; they only want ours happiness.

Cricket Fever: The campaign of Dhoni's team is over at Champions Trophy. Apoorv Singhal comes up with his ditty on India: "O Captain my Captain! our fearful trip is done, The rain saves us the shame of losing two on the run, The port is near, the bells I hear, the Oz horns are blaring, While follow eyes the steady keel, the media grim and daring. I was in staunch support of SA but cheering SA in any tournament feels like staying with a repeatedly unfaithful girlfriend, but the heart overrides the mind. They are bunch of chokers... As for the low crowd attendance at ODI games, who in his right mind would want to be sitting & watching two of the world's top teams competing in a crunch game in the cricket stadium when you could be sitting in a boring office following the cricket on Cricinfo? Getting the point guys ..

Movie Fever: 'Wake Up Sid' would be releasing tomorrow with the them of coming of age movie. There is a dialog in trailer that "come to office for 30 days and the car is yours." One person commented (pun intended) "Lucky us who have to sweat? out for EMI’s and all that stupid stuff :-) " Watch few movies of John Hughes if you are really interested coming of the age drama. He had directed lot of youth oriented films like Ferris Bueller's Day Off (Have seen it 100 times), Breakfast Club and Sixteen candles. He had given voice to the teenage rebel spirit without making them a rebel without a cause.

Now, for upcoming 2nd October remember Mahatma Gandhi who quoted: Be the change you want to see in the world. I have to ask that any of you has been fed up with impossible deadlines and graveyard shifts.. Break away before burnout from the work. Join the protest with the slogan Kaam ka Bamboo, Mat le Shambhu from now on. Chao......

Watch this Offisial Atyachaar..