My poem

You want to be in a mall and I want to live in a heritage site.
The former phases out with time, the latter’s existence is to battle it.
Beyond the ego, bewilderment, pain; are questions.
The problem does not lie in physical act of separation, but it lies in its implications.
All our lives we look for indelible marks- ours on others and others on ours.
When dust gathers on it, we move on.
We hate the ayah who snatches us away from something warm and familiar to something cold, wet and oily; all three attack at once on senses.
How cruel we think she is and how we love being wrapped again in shawl and handed back to something warm and familiar, with something warmer and sweeter on our lips down the throat; which fills our centre from within!
Then the first day of school,
Something warm and familiar becomes something distant, alien and she-does-not-understand-me-what-a-nag-i-dont-want-milk-i-want-pocket-money-i-want-maggi-for-tiffin-all-my-friends-get-it....
Ah! The first act of separation....
We find better worlds and better wings.
Then we build malls to be in;
And something warm and familiar lives in heritage sites.
Like seasons, like cycles, like milk teeth, like menstruation,
We behave.
We move on to different worlds building malls and take time out to see heritage sites
Because some one like you builds malls
And some one like me lives in heritage sites.
There are excitements in different worlds to be engrossed in,
While your malls are built.
First pyjama party at Willie’s in standard three when dandee dropped me
Lies somewhere in the debris of heritage sites.
We love scavenging for Willies, the way we love searching for a comet in the sky.
Mall builders like you search for comets
And those living in heritage sites like me; save them in a butterfly trapping glass jar...
There are some people like you who build malls to live in'
And there are some people like me in heritage sites.

MNS and Shiv Sena- We LOVE to HATE them

Almost a month ago i saw a discussion on a News channel. It was about Raj Thackeray and his Right Wing ways. I think it was on the eve of the Legislative Assembly Elections. Raj Thackeray was being interviewed by many News Channels which also included Arnab Goswani's channel. He insisted on answering in Marathi. When he was asked why he does that, he said that if you go to any other state like Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Kerala; they would insist on conversing in State Language. For the time being all the interviewers shut their trap. They were like, "Ok, whatever, he has a point and all" but this Marathi Right Wing debate continued throughout the day regardless of his interview.
The only weapon Raj Thackeray has is his rhetoric skills/ arguing skills. He makes everyone shut up in verbal arguments.
However, everybody goes up and arms whenever Raj Thackeray takes up the Marathi Manoos agenda.

Fair enough.

But then, it is easy to Tweet, blog, report and have fiery discussions over coffee mugs on Raj Thackeray.
What is it really? His party and that of Shiv Sena has seen its worst defeat in twenty years
Nobody takes Raj Thackeray seriously because he insists on frivolosity. These two parties are always missing in action when there is a crisis. They only surface when things come back to normal.
However, this is a known fact that the members of these two parties work all year round. They help students in school/college admissions, they solve local municipality issues etc. They have some nice hard working people in their party.
Where they go wrong is the overall political agenda.
First of all, Raj and Bal Thackeray are very brash in speech.
Udhav is better
This is a community stereotype that Maharashtrians are meek people. Community wise they dont have any charm like Punjabis and Sindhis. They dont have any glamour like Gujaratis.
Maharashtrians are perceived as fighter cocks. These are community stereotypes, not necessarily based on fact since it is a generalisation.
So what happens when a person decided to take up a cause for one community?
It becomes a big flop
Because the issues that maharashtrians have, should be dealt with some what on a personal level
There is no reason to bring it into the political arena.
Aso if Raj and Bal dont change their aggressive, fiery ways, they will never be taken seriously
What they are doing is fighting a battle for say 2000 people on a stage where battles for 2000 crore people are fought
Ae you getting my point?

How i hate some advertisements! part four

Parle Exhale and Sprite are brands who have taken to shamelessness. I don’t even want to get started on stupid Axe deodorant campaigns. They constantly give out new ways of being “cool”.

Parle Exhale is a mint candy. In the ad, a guy eats a candy and exhales cool air, which makes Penguins and Polar Bears in the zoo cry; as they are reminded of their original cold habitat. How insensitive! The moment I see that ad, I change the channel because it really upsets me.

Sprite is about “Seedhi Baat, No Bakwaas”. I think their ads are Bakwaas. One of the Sprite ad is about two friends. Again, one is fat and ugly and the other is smart and thin. The fat guy wants to impress a young, pretty girl who is walking her dog. He thinks of impressing the dog. The smart, thin guy drinks Sprite, goes up to her and strikes a conversation. He manages to ask her out, while the fat friend gets stuck with the dog. Aiyo! What notions men have about women! There is another Sprite ad which is about a Casanova and his various girlfriends. He dates all of them on a trot and simply tells them that he has many girlfriends. How stupid! Those girls giggle at his confession as if he is joking. Oh come on! Women have more brains than that!

If you have read all the parts of “How I hate some advertisements!”, you must be thinking that I am some pseudo feminist who cribs about “injustice” on women and falls into any man’s arms who promises her a “Happily-Ever-After”.

Well for that, I would like to quote Jane Austen here. She once said that there is nothing important in the society and human life than ordinary affairs of eating and making love (courting not intercourse). She was notorious for writing about “frivolous love affairs” when England was engaged in The French Revolution. She defended the accusation by saying that nobody really cares for the worldly affairs. All they care for is themselves and their small lives.

Therefore, before you come to any conclusion about my blogs, please know that everyone- women and men alike, are obsessed with gender eccentricities, sex, love, money and shopping. The advertisements portray the same and my reaction is a very normal one.

How i hate some advertisements! part three

Virgin Mobile ads have very niche Target Audience and it shows from their ads. I think it is Male- Urban- Age 14-18. The ads and maybe the product is for adoloscents who are in F.Y.J.C or in 10th standard. Almost all the ads are about pathological liars (boys) and pranksters (boys), the target to whom are girls/women.

There is one Virgin Mobile ad, which is about two friends (boys) in a hospital, lying with a fractured leg is neighbouring rooms. One of the boy calls for a “hot” looking nurse. He wants her help to take his ringing phone out of his pocket. The nurse takes it out and the expression of that boy is that of satisfaction of having “come”. This is not my opinion or fantasy, his expression is technically like that. The other one takes cue and does the same. Unfortunately for him, a gay nurse comes to fetch the phone from his pocket. Hmm… attack on working women and Gays?

There is another ad which is about three youngsters. Two of them are boys and one girl. The girl is dating the better looking guy who is thin and smart looking; unlike his fat, loyal friend. The boyfriend has lied to the girlfriend that his fat friend’s grandmom is critical in the hospital. The girlfriend who initially has a weary, i-know-you-are-going-to-lie expression on her face; immediately becomes sympathetic to the boyfriend. The ad ends with the boyfriend making plans with his fat friend to go to The Pub.

Excellent! The moral of the story is that women should not be sympathetic and emotional. Also this ad is 'educational' because it implies that educated girls are dumb and you can easily take them for a ride. How nice! Isn't it?

How i hate some advertisements! part two

Rupa Frontline advertisement is extremely silly. For those who don't remember this highly forgettable ad, it has Dr Armaan (Shraddha Nigam's husband) in it. Some Karan Grover or something.

In the ad, Rajpal Yadav is the watchman of a multiplex and is scolding Karan Grover for jumping the line to buy movie tickets. K G is in a gawdy red vest and his girlfriend looks like Esha Deol from the song, "Mohabbat Hai Mirchi Sanam...". It’s that bad. To the watchman's yelling, K G calmly says that since he is wearing a Frontline vest, he should stand right ahead in the line. Some other guy in the line follows suit; and K G walks away with movie tickets. Are you sleeping yet?

This ad is silly, boring and socially incorrect. Under the garb of having sense of humour, these ads break social decency; even if it looks negligible and least offensive.

How i hate some advertisements! part one

Amul Macho, Rupa Frontline vests, Virgin Mobile and Parle Exhale are brands to name a few; which have highly insensitive advertisements. Oh! How can i forget Cadbury's Bourneville print advertisements (OOH)?

I think Amul Macho has received flak for, "Yeh Toh Bada Toing Hai" campaigns. It is vulgar and women are portrayed as nymphos. The chimpanzee was a lame joke. It may be an old ad, but it stills runs quite often on television. I think it is Amul Macho (and not Macroman) which has started a new ad campaign. This ad taunts women and re-establishes the position of a man, as the superior one in society.

The eve teasing of women, Sexual Molestation by their boyfriends is made fun of. The ad ends with a depressed man in a temple who says," Mein Baap, Beta, Bhai Ban Kar Kadam Kadam Pe Kurbaani Deta Aaya hoon..." Listening to which, God grants him the Amul Macho Vest. He wears it, steps out of the temple and shows women their place; which is next to him, submissive and acting like an arm candy. Need I say how condescending it is?

another thought on modernism

let me clarify that modernism said, "man is asocial and ahistorical". when i say socio- economic, circumstantial and political context of situations, i mean it differently. when we analyse modern era, we put it in the contexts mentioned above. it has nothing to do with the theory of modernism.
i read something very intresting in wikipedia( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industrial_Revolution) which put some things in perspective. it said that the belief system in Europe focused on indiviuals and that of China focused on inter personal relationships between people. the belief system in Europe were largely products of Judaeo- Christianity. lets go a step further and say that the fundamentals of Islam and Christianity are similar. Islam is people oriented religion, which tells you how to be in a society, however, the core of Islam lies in an indiviual's equation with god. therefore, Christianity is also introspective and self- reflexive.
lets generalize here. the Europe is the Occident and China- the Orient. what holds true of Europe, holds true of other continents in northern hemisphere. what holds true of China, holds true of the entire Orient, (it certainly does for India). maybe this is the reason why, modernism took shape the way it did back then. it focused solely on an indiviual's fight with the nature.

post modernism and cultural baggage

i am revising what i know, so that i can put my thoughts in context. if you already know the following, skip it.

before the first world war in 1914, things made sense in the world- religion, the equation between powerful and powerless as it manifested in humans through the equation of god and mortals. post world war II, people questioned everything around them- religion and the raison d'etre of human existence. the reasons are as follows:

• industrial revolution in the 20th century and hence the urbanization
• the Charles Darwin theory (Origin Of Species)
• Freud and Jung's psychoanalysis (the conscious, the subconscious and the unconscious, like wise- the ego, the superego and the id. man's unconscious is supervised by an unknown force)
• Scientific progression (men could fly and carriages were without horses)
• the most important- mass massacre, dirty politics and the paraphernalia of the world wars. from that stemmed modernism.

the word 'modernism' coined by Bernard Bergonzi in 1971 and Ezra Pound said 'Make It New'. because of world wars, the countries all over the world became closer and aware of each other. nothing was absolute- like god and the belief systems attached with it, everything was questionable and relative (like truth- there is no absolute truth but one and that is death- everything else is influenced by a person's circumstantial, socio-economic and political context).

the quest of finding 'who are we?' gave birth to study of anthropology. before that it never existed because God had created humans. the study of anthropology dug out the concept of myths. the modern literature makes ample use of local and global myths in their works- 'The Potrait Of Artist As A Young Man'. all these elements triggered the irrationality of human beings and their behaviour. people were grappling with the knowledge flood. after 1930's came post modernism- existentialism and nihilism.

Friedrick Nietsczhe's philosophy comes first in minds of those who think existentialism. 'Man is Superman'. he rejected the christian morality and the doctrine of the power of god. if religion taught us that god created man then Nietzche taught us that man created god because society has to have ethics.

therefore, in modern age roughly beginning in USA and Europe in 1900 culminated in post modernism till roughly around 1950's. Science, Anthropology, Philosophy and Psychology developed.

well, if you are wondering the India has not featured in any of this intellectual movements then, you will also notice that she got her independence in 1947. which means when the world was struggling with "who are we?", we were making "Us". we had problems in making our country and finding our indiviuality which we lost in those 150 years of colonization. this cultural baggage of enslavement is harming us still where we become the passive consumers of many things in society. it is harmful because injustice becomes rampant and we are immobilised. we carry enormous fear of authority and are afraid of questioning.

thank you- Mrs Snober Satarawala- my M.A teacher (Wadia College- Pune), from whose notes i religiously wrote the blog

learning problems

our elders endlessly tell us that we dont live the life they led in their youth. how bored and cliched that sounded. i grew up listening to that and much more. now the whole pattern ranging from, 'go out- play, climb trees, read newspapers, listen to elders, eat right etc', is fitting itself together in my life at 23. these were all parables, which back then we did not understand, 'why do they (the elders) repeat the same endlessly?' now i realize that the repetition was to tell me something i would realize much later in my life. many educated youth are exposed to passivity from childhood. we get everything in cut and dried manner. love, education, friends, media, jobs... the list goes on... before it becomes boring, i want to clarify that we have become passive consumers of everything around us. this passivity is the result of post modernism and our cultural baggage of being colonized. these explainations will follow in the next blog

back after 2 months

Money, career, satisfaction, choices, relationships, direction, winning, losing, right, wrong, good, bad, healthy, harmful, thought, action, intention, open, shut, back, forth, day, night, light, dark, men, women, India, America, do, don’t, here, there, I, you, me, we, they, us, have, don’t have, will, can, should, ought, because, if, reflect, retrospect, make, break, now, then, later, further, backward, past, present, future, gain, loss, alone, crowd, change, stagnant, repetitive, original, old, new, average, brilliant, horrible, never, always, be, don’t be, cold, hot, warm, cool, in, out, mom, dad, he, she.

MESSIAH.

I am a messiah.
I wake up at noon,
Eat, watch TV, hangout.
I discuss novels, ideas, theories, idealism.
I think I am a messiah.
I have a boyfriend, he pampers me.
I hate my family.
I study at my pace, talk about educational loans, expensive studies and in the same breath of global warming, poverty, third world countries.
I think I am their messiah.
It’s all ‘I’, I sound like Indian poets whose poems I like because I understand.
Weary, tired, bored, disturbed but with a missionary zeal, I go on.
Nothing makes sense and still everything does,
We bang into the invisible doors of life.
this is the poem i wrote in june last year. in the light of terror attacks, the after math, new year, recession, its important for me to reflect on many things. its been 2 months since i last wrote any blog. 60 days... and so much since. this is called living in speed, i think. i would like to start from my learning in literature and move on contemporary media issues... it will follow in the next blog