Gone boy

I'm not in touch with my childhood friends anymore. Kids i played cricket with. Kids i spent my summers climbing hillocks with. Kids i raced to the Trombay jetty with. Kids i learnt how to ride a bicycle with. Kids i basically grew up with. A lot of them, like me, have changed over the years. The way i remember them aren't the way they are right now. People say time heals everything but the truth it can't heal memories. They keep changing. You can't heal something that refuses to stay constant. After my school ended and i joined polytechnic in another city, my connection with them suffered. Whenever i visited home, it was the usual fake chit-chats. I'm about to hit 30 and i wonder what happened to us. We used to be a happy lot, getting sunburned in the ground that wasn't meant for any sport, let alone cricket. Our lives were simple and we sought small joys from smaller things like sweet samosas (yes, it's shaped like a samosa but stuffed with milk cream) and mango faluda. I still have a sweet tooth but i don't think my mouth waters anymore. On the contrary, i feel a void because of the realization that every little thing is so damn fickle. What is important today is rubbish tomorrow. The only consolation is the steady change. In the recent past, i've met a few of my oldest friends and they aren't the innocent kids i rubbed shoulders with once upon a time. They are different now. Life has chewed them up. Their dark circles betray the several hidden stories in their eyes. Hindu kids who used to extend their palms for niyaaz are now hardcore Hindutva stooges. Muslim kids who used to play in the temple backyard today believe their ugly beards make them a better human being. Christian kids who once didn't bother are merrily pushing the church's agenda of proselytization on Facebook. One thing is common to all of them: they feel they are absolutely right, which needless to add, is a dangerous assumption. 

What's next? Evaporation

Where does creativity come from? I don't know. It doesn't matter where it goes though because it's difficult to track it on a timeline. After a while, everything becomes a derivative of a derivative of a derivative. Every second theory ends up as a deduction and the core of an idea gives rise to several idealets (yes, i love coining words which nobody will use, including me). Take for instance, fire. The discovery of fire is attributed to man (for some reason, they can't imagine a woman making such a remarkable discovery) but how many today know how to create fire with stones. Wasn't that the original script being the greatest human discovery of all time? Looks like the idea quickly moved from the discovery of fire to the invention of fire. And here we are today, lighting one another's cigarettes with burning cigarette and not to forget, destroying our planet by burning oil. One day at a time, out of sheer respect.

The point being creativity moves like a river but just before entering the ocean, it tries to stay unique by creating ripples on the banks. A river can't and shouldn't fear about losing its identity. It's part of a perpetual process. Something the ideators and the so-called creative folks should consider while asking themselves why exactly do they do what they do. Because there is this fear of entering the ocean and becoming worthless. Doubts like "what if i stopped coming up with ideas tomorrow?" are a strong indicator of a healthy mind but we are missing the point here. It won't make a huge difference to your creative reflexes if you stop coming up with ideas tomorrow. You'll continue to breathe and function as usual. Your bigger worry should be "what will happen if i managed to find solace in not coming up with ideas tomorrow?" given how deductive ideas are nowadays. 

Wait

I have nothing to say 

Not that i did anyway

Although that didn't stop me 

From expressing myself 

And saying stuff that we don't talk about 

In daylight or that darkness called common sense

We do what we have to 

I am here for myself, not others 

Maybe because i like talking to the air

Painting the silence with despair 

Hoping someone else feels the same

Like a tortoise left alone to swim 

But i could speak as if words mattered

But i could scribble as if doodles breathe

But i could theorize as if it'd solve problems 

But i could argue with nobody in particular

But i could rant until my anger finds ice

But i could render a short story untold 

Maybe i'll try tomorrow

To see if there's something to share

Until then, you, you and you take care

Oh, the one in the corner, you too. 

The dark shade of agenda

"If you want to end racism, stop making everything about race." 

- Morgan Freeman 

Whenever a person hijacks a cause to promote one's personal agenda, the cause suffers. And that's exactly what is happening with the Oscars. The Academy, as we all know by now, is white, old and elite for the most part. So, the charges of racism against it ain't a surprise news. But over the years, there have been more than enough instances that proves things are changing. One can't measure the rate of the paradigm shift simply because Oscar isn't a race where film personalities run and win. It's a very complex process. The mechanism is so tiring that a lot of the films (some very deserving) give up even before the nominations are announced. Speaking of which, it's ridiculous of the Smith family to spiel just because Will Smith's work didn't get recognized by the Oscars. So much so they have decided to boycott the annual ceremony next month. 

Let's take a step back and see where they are going with this. 

If these black powerful personalities didn't have their skins in the game, they would have been far more believable. Presently, their attitude comes across as that of a sore loser. They conveniently forget that the 21st century has been starkly different when compared to the previous one. In the past 15 years, we saw how the so-called minorities from the world of entertainment made their presence felt. When they do that, too much credit is bestowed upon their talents while not enough shoutout is given to the industry. On the contrary, the entire industry—Hollywood in the aforementioned scenario—comes under the radar of unfairness when the racism card is flashed. What Will's move does is it weakens the case of those black actors who are going to be awesome and shall deserve recognition in the future. If a black actor wins an Oscar next year, murmurs will be in the air on how s/he got it just because the Academy didn't wish to be the villain anymore. The whole merit on which an award (big or small) is supposed to be based on will be eroded. 

And for what? 

Just because Will Smith and his wife thought he did a splendid job in Concussion (2015)? 

Guess what, all the five actors who got the nod this year were superb. Eddie Redmayne just pushed the threshold of identity in The Danish Girl. Michael Fassbender did to Steve Jobs what Forest Whitaker did to Idi Amin and Jamie Foxx did to Charles Ray. Bryan Cranston brought Dalton Trumbo back to life and it's a shame that his film earned only one nomination. If one excuses his aversion to lose weight for the role (you can clearly see that the thin body double wasn't convincing enough), Matt Damon owned Mars. Lastly, Leonardo DiCaprio did everything humanly possible to earn his nomination. So, if Will thinks that he should be guaranteed nomination every single time he chooses a non-blockbuster film, then he's sorely mistaken. Maybe he needs to accept that his colleagues were better. Or that the jury on nominations is as democratic as it's private. It's not answerable to anyone. Not even to him no matter whether he thinks he was extremely awesome in Concussion. Also, if he doesn't wish to be a part of the circus, kindly leave but try not to make it a race issue. Because that issue is much bigger than his million dollar cheques. 

Leonardo DiCaprio is white.

The Academy has ignored for over two decades now. 

He goes back and works harder. 

Wolf-crying racism ain't his style. 

Will, learn something from him.

Be like Leo. 

Kill Bill

I just ranted about food wastage in our country, in the parts where the good ol' middle class values have eroded to great extent. Here, i'm going to beat my chest about the ridiculous electricity bill that our apartment received last week. It's a bi-monthly figure and shows—believe it or not—₹88703! There are four residents in our apartments and we are barely in the house during daytime for six days a week. ₹8000, not ₹88000, makes sense given the heaters have replaced the ACs. We haven't contacted the Haryana State Electricity Board yet but our best guess lies in either a defective meter reading or somebody is stealing power from our line. Either way, it'd be interesting to see where this fiasco leads to. 

Moral of the story: With great power bill comes greater headaches. 

Problem of plenty idiots

You can't really talk about environmental degradation if you own a car and haven't planted a sapling in over 200 years. Similarly, you can't take a higher ground (if you are a guy) on Sunny Leone's morality while you enjoy her porn. Similarly, you can't lecture on feminism (if you are a girl) when all you want to do is upload DPs with your cleavage on show. These are the tricky spots of taking a stand. You can't be swinging when the issues at hand are of grave nature. If you do, you are fundamentally making a fool out of yourself and delaying progress as well. One such issue happens to be the wastage of food. Nearly 40% of all the food on the planet goes to gutter. If you reading this, i'm sure you'll be well aware of the scale of wastage. I'm sure there has to be somebody in your group of friends who is known for wasting food. But what about you? Does wastage have to be of grand scale to be noted? It begins with morning tea when you choose to leave those last drops of tea in the cup. You never bothered to ask yourself why exactly you do that. Is it a matter of establishing your status? Especially when you know that the tea is strained and doesn't have tea filaments settled at the bottom of the cup. So, what makes you do that? Does it have something to do with your narcissism that you want to have a mirror inside the cup too? 

OK, this was breakfast. 

Let's move on to lunch or dinner.  

I don't understand two Indian aspects of eating:  

1. Why take more food on your plate than required? 

2. Why waste it? 

How difficult is to avoid these two conditions when we all know there are not only kids but also adults dying of hunger in India (no, you don't have travel all the way to Africa when there is a shameful reality closer home)? I don't think we as a nation have reached that stage where we can pretend to face the problem of plenty. Not yet. The reason why i take a stand here is i haven't wasted food since the age of seven. Whoever i grew up with or spent considerable amount of time with over the years can vouch for me. I neither waste nor let others do. The credit goes to my dad who turned into a villain when it was required. I was in second grade and i remember once taking more than needed on my plate. Because of my insouciance, he did something drastic: he didn't let me get up from the floor (yes, we didn't have a dining table back then) without me eating my food. "Anna da maryadi...blah blah..." [Where's your respect for the grain of rice?] I stuffed myself as much as i could before breaking down and weeping. At the end of the drama, the plate was clean and i received a lesson for life while my ma smiled at my not-so-funny status. 

NB. Years later, my friend Rojel expressed his hedonistic opinion that food is going to waste whether you eat it or not. He was taking a microscopic view—metaphorically as well as literally—of the situation because he could afford to. Those who go to sleep hungry won't take a peek into his microscope. 

Laws of moral physics

Do we need to understand art to appreciate it? If you're going to say yes, you'll have to answer my next question. How do people who don't get the nuances of music able to enjoy it then? Why do we tap our feet or snap our fingers while listening to good music? Our utter lack of basic knowledge, let alone expertise, doesn't get in the way of us relishing what our eardrums catch. 

Now, hold this thought here please. 

What about justice? Do we really need to know the laws to infer what's just or what isn't? The most natural answer to this query would be, yes. But aren't something just beyond human intellect? And there are thousands of unexplained cases that makes us introduce us to our judicial limits. Take Talvar (2015) for instance. Although it's a brilliant film, you can't deny that it's biased towards the parents. Even those who followed up the double-murder case for almost a decade would agree that the case isn't straightforward. The same is true for Making A Murderer (2015). No matter how much you try to figure it out, you'll find roadblocks in Steven Avery's guilt as well as innocence. 

Which begs the question, do we need to understand humans to re-establish tenets of humanity? Or is it all circumstantial?