The real 'machos'

Like an earnest employee, I was standing in the lift (elevator) waiting for my floor to arrive. Hurried even though I was, the lift had to stop in between. In entered a person with an assumed grandiose gait. Wrist bands on the arms, uplifted shirt-collar, strong perfume, goggles perched inside the front-pocket – I mean everything that you can think of to be associated with a so-called macho. He didn’t dither though to hum a tune in the presence of his superiors. And mind you this was an office premise.

He might have been the subject of my questioning, but in reality, I meet everyday several such machos. Studs driving their cars wildly with songs blaring full sound, philanderers hitting on everything conceivably female, the hunks puffing out with their gauzily dressed girlfriends in front of cinema-halls or discotheques. The grandness of these actions is hard to miss. And I am not complaining; for this is the time and prerogative of them, and more so, who am I to object.

But it confounds me hard when I see everyone copying it. I mean, every boy or girl, with supposedly defined good looks seems to believe that he/she has a right or in fact, duty to act like a stud or a coquette. Starting from even the school days, he will come attired in fancy clothes, flirt with the girls, treat studies as a burden, throw discipline and morals as playable; all the rules to follow to be anointed a macho are already laid down by his predecessors. Beautiful girls on their part have to be trendy, acting as superiorly divine beings, with an anathema towards any less charming person or thing. Their rules too are defined since the time of machoism. And why not? Everywhere for them, it is the macho who wins. In movies, it is the person who lags behind in studies, who comes late, who treats everyone as secondary, is the hero and the prize of all. In ongoing life too, we doff our hats to the one who can brag how he cheated in exam, how he dodged his assignments in office, how he drove wildly to scare the hell out of everyone. In short, anyone who is and acts smart is macho.

But what they don’t realize is the ultimate truth of life: in real life, it is the doers who win. All around me, the successful persons are the ones who have valued life as the house of many flavours. The best persons of my school, college, university, job lives have been the ones who have been good at everything; studies, sports, music, social behaviour and norms, even flirting, and not to mention the ever-needed qualities of honesty, sincerity, integrity, braveness etc They know what is Newton’s second law, are good at playing soccer, can strum a guitar, are courteous to teachers and elders, have a besotting girlfriend, and if needed, can help the friends, fight a war, support a cause, even catch the moon. They are not ostentatious, but possessor of qualities. They are who I call macho.

But who to tell these pretentious ones? They have their own world, aloof from the other pleasurable tenets of life. In order to relish something flitting, they miss on the durable ones. Such are the vagaries of life that everyone understands the truth someday. The machos too will ….

Stop and look over, "Life is beautiful !"

Why miracles don’t happen in life? Because they are not meant to. Life itself is such a miracle. Have you ever wondered about the vast expanse of earth in front of us, and the ever teeming life there? It is an amalgamation of stories: love, hope, spirit, peace, success. You name it; every good is present in this world. Yet we fail to feel or even spot it. We never bother to stop and relish it, because such is our preoccupation with the supposedly fulfilling family-life, work, obsessions etc that we take these for granted. Then one day, we come back and realize, “Is this the same place we have been living in? Where was it all these days?”

It is such an oft-repeated philosophy that everyone stands by it. But very few are able to even understand, leave aside execute it. The moments I have been able to do even an iota of this, I have felt non-pareil moments of blissfulness. The words have just sprung out then, “Life is indeed beautiful”.

Hail the watershed moment!

Wow! What a victory by the UPA, nay Congress. I had been glued to my Internet throughout the counting day. My prayers, viz of any alliance (UPA or NDA) getting a sizable number of seats, were definitely answered. But what was more reveling was a sense of some political emancipation soothing through me all the day.

For the first time, I felt Indian polity has arrived. I was deeply skeptical about the results, considering how the Indian electorate votes. The whole exercise is, or was, based on regional or caste/religion dispensation of the candidates and the voters. The seemingly uneducated/poor rural people have been the targets of the sighs of this wrong and myopic voting pattern. They are granted sympathy of being unrefined, but are also not spared the blame. Ah! They are much beyond our erudition. The results of 2004 National Elections and Assembly Election in AP were the apt case in point. But this time’s results surpass everything.

There is uniform voting all over the country, and the uniformity is in the selection of a national, just and delivering government. Consider the performance of Nitish Kumar in Bihar, Naveen Patnaik in Orissa, SS Chauhan in MP, or the booting out of Left from WB and Kerala. The electorate has rejected incompetence and Mandal/Kamandal malignance. I am going overboard, but the signs are really there for all to see and change. I had felt the same about Indian economy about 10 years back. Now it seems the most maligned of sectors, Indian polity, too is knocking on those doors. It is for us now to open them with arms of acceptance, appreciation and participation, and let the Indian polity usher in an era of deliverance.

India's electoral middle-mix

57 % voting in the fourth phase of election! It is a respectable number if you consider the past figures, but still think, just 57%. The elections are meant to be a pan-population exercise, and not a percentage one.

Even though 57% of India’s population is twice the size of USA’s one, it doesn’t resemble every section of society. I am mostly referring to middle class here. The middle class consists of myriad of people who got educated, weathering several impediments, and are doing white-collar jobs at different parts of the country and world. Most of them are working out of their native places, or are too damned occupied to exercise their suffrage. This middle class is supposedly the backbone of India, giving the finest of technocrats and businessmen to the world. They are considered erudite in real sense too, who can discern the right and wrong of polity, and choose the apt leaders of the nation.

The whole of India has moved with them, but Indian polity still remains an aloof proposition to them or vice-versa. Part of the fault lies with this bourgeoisie, for they remain cocooned in their office shells oblivious to the world outside. Ask an IT professional the names of different chief ministers or government officials; he will be hard pressed to remember even the different states. So it is obvious he is not going to take that extra effort to go to his constituency and vote. On its part, government too is not inclined to do anything to ensure their participation. Its main target, the proletariat section, is there to be taken for a ride.

So, how can we bring this much-needed interaction? First, make voting a paramount, even if not mandatory, exercise. To ensure this, take the domain of voting to outside the constituency area too. IT and telecoms can be great assets in ensuring this. Second, start attaching corporate and office sectors with Indian polity. It is an abhorrent idea on first read, as corporate sector loathes nothing more than association with polity. But it will also help cleanse the political sphere. Finally, do away partly with this notion of single government job holding. A politician or government official, under certain cases, should be allowed to pursue his interests in other private sectors too. A capitalist and a government official need not be antagonists, but in fact can be useful complements. The idea is to mix the current ethos of India with the heart of Indian polity, which still remains a distant zone for normal people, like me.

The Earth Hour Campaign

"Switch Off on 28th March for Healthy Earth." 2009 is a critical year for action on climate change, with the world's leaders meeting at the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen in December to sign a new deal to supersede the Kyoto Protocol. Supported by




Euro countries and More details -> http://www.earthhour.org/home/

I am writing this after the period 8:30 – 9:30 pm is already over. I had expected a total blackout of the city. But it was not much different. The reason I could find soon. I myself tried to put off all the lights, but after a while, it didn’t seem feasible and wise too. There were many works hindered by it, and lighting candles would not have provided the solution either. As per the facts, lighting candles would cost more in totality. Also, the total energy saved by this exercise in whole one day is equivalent to that saved by whole China in six seconds.

Anyway, the purpose of the whole campaign is not to save energy but to highlight its importance. In our lives, there are many things which we earmark as the to-do things, because they have been deemed right by tradition or theory. But as a result, unfortunately, we miss out on many other important things too which are yet to achieve our acceptance. Environmental preservation is one of them. On second thoughts, everyone considers it ultra significant, but somehow is not able to make it his first-hand habit. Not a blatant mistake, but just oblivion or indifference because of the lack of exposure to it.

Today’s endeavour is a wonderful step in the direction of enlightening everyone.

Time to wake up, Pakistan

Before someone judges me on the basis of my nationality and religion, let me tell you that I am writing it as a human first - a human that is deeply distressed by the happenings going around in Pakistan. On first look, actually it should not bother me a wee bit – Pakistan is none of my business. But it becomes mine, when it starts engulfing the whole humanity in general and India in particular.

The attack by the militants on SriLankan cricket team is not only cowardly and abominable, but I dare say, also laughable. What sort of motive does these goons wanted to achieve by attacking SriLankan cricketers, who can hardly be categorized as the so-reviled enemies of Islam and Muslim world. Bloody, they were just cricketers who had gone to play when everyone else had refused to tour the country. So, why this- just because some injustice has perceivably be done to them, and as a result, they want the whole world to suffer. But what is most frightening is that the proportion of these sick people seems to be increasing all the time, and also encompassing the so-defined learned and educated people. I always believe that a small chunk of every society, country, religion or any group will be misguided, and continue to play nuisance with the others and the rest of that same group. But when that nonsense becomes a movement, it is unspeakably dangerous. How could you define that the attacks happened even with the ‘Presidential Kind of Security’ provided to the players? How could the terrorists carry machine guns, grenades, heavy rocket launchers with them through a crowded place, and also go scot-free without any of them getting caught or killed? It is too early to pass judgement, but it seems, contrary to my deep belief, that many people have started empathizing with the Taliban and their ideology. The implementation of Sharia law in Swat valley is just a case in point.

My call to these aggrieved people is how long will they keep blaming the West, US, UK, Israel, India etc for the wrongs done to them? We all agree, and every sane mind will, that most of these problems are the results of the political and military games played by the bigger powers at different points of time. But is this the way to avenge? If they really want to shame them, better beat them in economy, technology, sports, society etc. Become engineers, doctors, scientists. Develop technologies. Play as champions in sports. These things won’t be easy, but that is the only way. Continuing this blame game, why don’t they also know that despite many despicable acts done by US, it remains the most democratic and open society the world has right now. For all the wrongdoings of Israel, it is the spearhead of many new technologies. For all the antagonism of India, it is the most promising country in the world. So, please stop this obsession with others, and look inwards.

I generally refrain from relating these things with religion. But now, we can’t deny the truth that these are related to religion. I have friends who practice different religions, but the best of them are those who are moderate ones, for they can view the wrongs of their religion with a reasonable eye. So, we need some sense going with our beliefs. Even the most moderate ones whom I know, agree that Islam is more rigid with its ideologies. Not a problem, but it surely is when one starts defying the logic. How can one debar the girls from education in the name of religion? How can one force someone to grow beard when it is his choice? How can one ban music, sports, entertainment etc when it is our soul to all intents and purposes? If they believe that these things purify them, then they better be eradicated. One extreme example of this happened when I, along with my friends, was sitting in a lawn in front of Al Asqa Mosque on Temple Mount in Jerusalem. An elderly bearded person arrived to us, and after the usual hello-givings, he started preaching us that Muhamed was the last Prophet of God, and so we should follow him. If someone doesn’t follow him, he is useless to arrive on this earth. I was just stunned to hear that someone can actually harbour these kinds of thoughts. Ah! Muhamed better arrive again to earth to teach these people.

Whatever I , or many others, have been writing or preaching does not and can not find its intended audience because they would be busy planning the next attack. I know these hurt the moderate, intellectual Pakistanis and Muslims the most. But in this hour, the need is for the conscience and beliefs to be right and clear. Nobody can afford people moving from this zone to the other zone of insane barbarians.

If this is not checked, we might be headed towards another World War. I am a bit cynical here, but unfortunately, all the things – economic recession, growing unrest, a motiveless mania all point to an impending conflagration. The First War was fought on Imperialism and Colonialism, the second on Nazism and Fascism, the third might be on Islamic Fundamentalism. As someone had dreadfully presaged, it will start from the Middle East and South Asia, with attacks on India on eastern front and Israel on the western front, soon engulfing Europe, then finally drawing US and China to complete the trash. The only point to take solace from is that the World Wars sounded death knells to those sick ideologies of Imperialism and Fascism, then it might do so for this Fundamentalism too. If that is the case, better it be tomorrow then, than living in an age of counter-accusative hate and distrust.

The BackPack of Travel

Earlier people might have called them vagabonds, but today they are the esteemed ‘backpackers’. The first time I had heard of one traveling the whole of world for two years, I was instantly jiggered; the gumption, leave aside money and time, needed to do so is monumental. But that is travel - we may never understand the joy of it unless we do so.

This is not to mean that I am a big time traveler. On the contrary, I am a much laidback person, preferring a cosy day at home to a slog in the outside. But whenever I had managed to visit some places, I have been overwhelmed. Part of that comes from the sheer occasion of being present at those places, and the rest of it from the sweet and sour travails of reaching there. I can’t categorically say though whether the occasion was better or the experience. I think it has to be experience.

I believe tourist spots fall into three main categories. First, the most likable 3’S category (Sun, Sand and Sex). Go flipping around the periphery of Europe, S-E Asia, Caribbean - in fact all the exotic islands, one can find these places in plenty. The buzz of life or night-life, on beaches or discotheques, is hard to find anywhere else. But as with most things salacious, these are ephemeral. The second type of tourist places is the ‘Nature Trail’. Mountains, snow-laden hilltops, steep cliffs, deserts, water resorts etc provide enough of excitement, challenge or recreation for the hardened nature-lovers. Indeed there is nothing more soothing than natural beauty. But there is another genre which is probably more esoteric than all these, at least for some. The Historic and Religious places. Some are absolutely smitten with history and religion, so no wonders they feel truly whelmed on just being at those places. It is not uncommon for them to feel vicarious about the legends and stories –true or untrue- associated with those sites.

Not tough to judge by now, if I have to place myself in any category, then I will fit in the third slot. I do like buzz and nature, but somehow those experiences don’t last with me forever. Talking of my recent trips, I have liked Manali coolness, or Ayia Napa intoxication, or St Louis’ Six Flags topsi-turvyness, or Nile’s felucca ride or London Eye merry-go-round or Israel’s Dead Sea. But nothing can match the excitement of their historical counterparts: ‘Vaishno Devi darshan, Baths of Aphrodite, Dayton’s Air Museum, Luxor’s pharaohs’ tombs, British Museum, and the whole of Jerusalem. In fact, the most lasting image till now of my whole travel-career is walking on the alleys of Bethlehem in Palestine on the Christmas 25th Dec Night with the Palestinians and us exchanging looks, glances and also glares of many unanswered and unfathomable tenor. That is what I call experience, and that is what I always try to find: the feeling of the place.

Take whatever one may; the reasons are galore, and only one is sufficient to drive one away on a trail. I wish I too could pack my back up one day, and get oblivious to the world around. But sometimes the word ‘backpacker’ isn’t meant to become everyone, at least not to me who didn’t visit the Taj in spite of living only an hour’s drive for five straight years :)