Celebrations...

A couple of days back, I had been to a friend's wedding. And also turned 33. Both occasions called for a celebration by conventional traditions. While weddings are "grand affairs", birthdays are relatively personal. But, both are celebrated, and I wonder why?

Not just personal occasions, but even community/national events… every other day, we have some or the other religious holiday, or some jayanti or punyatithi or a national holiday. Just another reason to celebrate or have a holiday.

What is the reason and logic behind having these holidays, and the so called enforced celebrations?

Then there are these “Hallmark” celebrations. Mother’s day, father’s day, lover’s day, friendship day, blah blah blah… it seems we need a special day to show our love and affection to our special ones… hmmmm

What is the significance? Why at all do we celebrate? What is the meaning and symbolism of particular days?

Largest Democracy or Banana Republic?

Few days back some bafoon from the "political circles"(?) called us a Banana Republic. Which is an understatement, if I may. It is a no-brainer. The current state of affairs is much worst... but still people went "how dare he..." nobody has the gut,s to accept the problem and then move towards the solution .. they are instead more interested in playing the "naive ostrich" ..

The first step of solving a problem is acknowledging it and admitting that, yes, there is indeed a problem .. and then looking for solutions.

If people don't allow someone to speak truth, isn't it a banana republic anyways?

Social Media!

Once upon a time, every newcomer in the corporate IT world used to have fun with the most widely used communication tool - Email. And the fun was 'forwards'. Remember hitting 'Crtl+F' and 'Alt+Enter' impulsively and shooting a mail with 'FWD' in subject line, perhaps coupled with some other keywords to ensure 'safety'! ;) And then, there were blokes who used to religiously send Thought-For-The-Day or Good-Morning mails as a daily ritual! There were forwards of good-luck or bad-luck striking if one forwarded the mail to x number of recipients, or fund-raising for some sick child - for every forward 1$ will be credited, or blonde-jokes, or about some social-cause, or some product promotions.. variety of subjects.. I vividly remember same images being recirculated with different stories! While few others just plain, out-rightly fake news, stories or urban-legends! And of course, there was also the spamming on personal mail-ids. Over a period of time people could sensibly judge and decide what is true and what is not!

Revolutions...

Few years ago, we had a very touching Aamir Khan movie “Rang De Basanti”. Very inspiring and youth oriented. Does it have a cult status or not, is not what we are interested in. But, it certainly had ideas which were “revolutionary”. At the time when it was released, many people were motivated by it and wanted to do something to bring about a change in society, especially the youth. Others merely dismissed it as a typical Aamir Khan “masala” movie. They were the skeptics who believed that the “systems” is old enough and strong enough to be toppled by youth who are inspired by a popular media?  The idea seemed too farfetched at that point of time.

Meanwhile, the same youth was busy discovering a new media – internet more precisely the “social-networking”. The phenomenon called Facebook and Twitter had happened. The skeptics and the “system” dismissed it just as another addiction that youth is indulging into. Of course, the blogosphere had already evolved by this time. Combined with these newer tools or should we say “WMD” :) changed the world that we are now living in.

Migration

Migration is a phenomenon that’s as old as the human existence, perhaps even older. Almost all of the living beings migrate either for sustenance, shelter, better environment to flourish or simply to avoid unfavorable conditions. Human beings are no different. Since prehistoric times we can find many instances wherein people in huge numbers have migrated for atleast one of these reasons, quite often for a combination.

Modern times are no different. The underlying reasons essentially remain same. However we play around with fancy words and label them as brain drain, big American dream, refugee-camps, displacements, etc, etc. We have been witnessing this in many forms and have at times realized that such population redistribution brings along with them many changes, both good and bad.

I Love America!!!

An old guy, visibly in unkempt clothes, walks in the restaurant, orders a cup of tea. It’s almost peak hour now and the public is rushing in and out of the restaurant. Location is just outside the crowded Pune Station. I’m quietly having my breakfast, have to catch a train in an hour or so.

Waiter in frenzy serves the bill to our oldie before he asks. He’s mighty offended, thinking the waiter is dropping hints for him to vacate the seat.

“Don’t you have the decency of waiting till I’m finished with the tea> don’t we poor even deserve a peaceful cup of morning tea?”

“We too are poor dada. I’m not asking you to leave. Have your tea at your pace. No hurry” said the waiter without taking any offence.

But our man was not content. A few minutes later this small incident lead to big statements about India, Indians and somewhere I could hear the words “Americans”, “English” and “West” being dragged into the bout. Waiter refuted back in full fury saying… It’s better to die than to continue living in this sick and poor country… Why did the British ever have to leave the country… We’re only fit to be slaves…

These dialogs reminded me of popular JFK quotes. Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country. And the one from movie Rang De Basanti “Koi bhi desh perfect nahi hota. Use perfect banana padta hai.” (No country is perfect; we have to work towards making it perfect)