Today On Stage

Time's deluge  merging into the sea of past
Its depth you cannot fathom
Everything you write is just a small torch light
Into the abyss
however
Today on stage are a few chrysanthemums from my balcony
Smiling at the rainy evening
And each gesture is also a goodbye.
Saying never again will it be like this.

Bengali Intelligentsia (read aantel)

Too often maxims and talismans handed down to us by great men of past become a straightjacket-used by the complacent bureaucratic order  against freedom loving and thinking individuals.So that the very liberal and democratic(a deconstruction of the binary opposites implied is welcome) spirit of the maxim is reversed.


The same is the case with Bengal.Decades after decades of Tagore , Ray , Vivekananda worship have turned their teachings into cliches and deprived the people of any challenging spirit.Who said that you can't be a better poet than Tagore, or a better filmmaker than Ray?.And why treat the Naxalite movement as if it were the  illegitimate  love child of the whole of Bengal? Could it not have been communist  adventurism? The whole growth of Bengal  is stunted by such a decidedly demented mentality.

Scratching The Eternal Itch

"So why is critical  thinking discouraged?", one of my colleagues asked me.It is an inevitable turn any discussion on present day society takes after sometime.The immediate answer that I came up with -"it is the doing of the big mncs" seemed kind of lame.When confronted with such a straight forward question (which you will do if you discuss a lot with people outside of this art-blog-melancholia-unrequited love-literature sphere) and unable to end it with such ubiquitous quotes like "The only serious question in life is whether to kill yourself or not"  leave a very bad aftertaste .Things that are accepted no question asked by anybody versed in modern literature and 20th century intellectual history seem so out of place in talking with the conformists/normal cool guys that everything needs a reaccessment.Thats why it is important to do it-to give yourself a reality check sometime.Though it maybe ugly and compel you to come out of your coolness.

So why is critical thinking discouraged? One of the answers that people -so proud to tag themselves as honest and hardworking-give is that modern life is fast and people are under so much duress that they don't have time to think.But they somehow get the time to update their Facebook status 15 times a day and spend hours on Whatsapp. Anybody tagged as philosopher or thinker must have a nightmare nowadays.Its that uncool. But that is just a banner under which runs the deeper thought of whether you are a fake/pretentious.So are all the activists/philosophers trying to save the society actually fake? Nobody can answer that to be honest.Only things that one does naturally-take a shit, make love(have an orgasm), eat when hungry, fall asleep when tired etc are granted approval by everybody and are not fake/ pretentious.Everything that requires decision making  carries a risk of being pretentious.It is good to remember Existentialism here-that we give meaning to our lives by our decisions -there is nothing pretentious-only it becomes pretentious if you believe it to be.Such maxims are good sounding but hard to carry out in  life -I do understand but once you are concious of being free to decide can there be any other way?Camus was far more human-in saying that we all are judge -penitent ..that we all are Sisiphus.One day if hit sufficiently hard one will come to realize the lack of authenticity in their life.Oh that will be a gala day! but every disaster has a management package now a days-nobody goes as far as Sartre to come to terms with it.Its a matter of ambition maybe -you are free to choose (yeah I am Morpheus offering the pills!).


Self reference is a dangerous game.But if I have started playing it so one more thought.Some  argue that all that such ideas are actually manufactured by self important egotists. And a generalization may be done that only alienated people come up with such ideas to usurp the peace of the general people.So without further ado I will just repeat the age old dictum that if everybody thought the same nothing new would have been done.Aslo there is a new tendency that only branded subversive ideas are given importance-like whatever I am saying would be given much more importance if I already had a Penguin published book or I was a graduate of any Ivy league college.But such people are always surrounded by like minded people and have their own society.Its better  to stay in the uncomfortable boundaries.

But its best to stay objective and avoid such vicious circles altogether.

Another idea is that the people are reluctant to think because thinking is a boring process.So they stick to the conventional ideas -popular ideas-and dont want a radical reaccessment.Besides its a priviledge to belong to the majority -you dont have to defend yourself-because the whole of society is there to defend you.Lucky bastards.And yes its true partially.Such conformism and pride in belonging to the majority is one of the biggest ills of society.Historically its been the reason behind some of the most heinous crimes done against the minority.

The society also has a sense of the extravagant experiments of Nationalism and Communism and Religious Fanaticism so that even the parents discourage thinking afraid their kid turns out to be a Kobad Ghandy or a Golwalkar.The middle class is having their best  time ever it seems- the economy being globalised and and foreign investments invited -the people are literally invited to a unabashed shopping spree.That's the basis of such  modern day quotes  like "Nothing is impossible".The thing is such ideas( "its the doing of the mncs") have a very distinct desi flavour to them.The ideas that we get in  anti-globalisation anti-liberalization books fit so well to the heavily urbanised and alienated fragile man of the big city but scarcely does justice to the social-religious form of consumerism that's prevalent in Tier 2 and tier 3 cities in India.Its a tougher job here.There is no guilty conscience and fragility and loneliness(well not that much).Everything is absolved in the care of the family and society.

So it boils down to "its the doing of the mncs".Ok .So how does it serve the mncs if the people think less.For one thing it helps if the whole of middle class just does not  accept that there are millions starving,that the Tribals are  indeed being exploited,  that the middle class man is being led to believe that the saddest thing that happened was that  he could not send his son that convent school it helps if he does FB and mobile phone analysis  6 hours a day but does not get time to read a single sincere news article.It helps them to sell more and more under the banner of  the ever more illusive term "growth".I am not going to go on  citing such examples.Its already an overdone field.Some even fear that propagating such ideas will lead us  back to Nehruvian socialism.Well dont we all want a Ferrari showroom in Kolkata?

The next question is easy -how do the lobbyists do it? By the media of course.The media is under their control.By the millions spent on 'manufacturing consent"



(This is neither a comprehensive essay on the subject nor was meant to be. I will try adding to it)

The Rise of the Benchods

And talk more in haryanvi slang - the benchods the madarchods the abe saales so that you are man enough in the eye of the boys and naughty enough for the girls-the indian girls - the radhas waiting for their naughty krishna kanaiyas.

Nauseating.

Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses?

The loss of reality -
She has an practical idea of being romantic

You have a romantic idea of practicality.

Nouka Puja Barak Valley

In childhood I had heard from my Grandmother of an exotic and pompous worship of  Goddess Manasha called Nouka Puja. Lately I have searched a lot for some material on it in internet without any success. Then I came across a book called "Folklore and history-A study of the Hindu Folk cults of the Barak Valley" by Dr Sujit Choudhury, Indian Institute of Advanced Study , Shimla. The following are photographs of the chapter on Nouka Puja in the book and a photograph of the puja, printed on the cover of the book.I could not find any other photographs of the puja in internet or anywhere else.In the book it is noted that it would cost around Rs 2000 to conduct the Puja in 1931.So now it would cost way more than Rs 100000  to conduct it  inflation adjusted.No wonder that it is not conducted anymore.

Well, copyright infringement? I think I am obscure enough

The Status of the finished product

A hundred essays written by geniuses cannot equal a single book published by Chetan Bhagat. And you know why? A finished product always carries a greater weightage in the eyes of the reader than the drafts written by his friend.

Seems like a gray area .....

Gates of Tomorrow

Thornless Rose

http://www.hortidaily.com/article/2613/India-Scientists-at-IHBT-develop-thornless-rose

And all those poems are wrong. Poor Poets ...and shairs....
What more?
Genetically Engineered Designer babies?
Immoritality?

Van Gogh's Letter to Theo

Stories

Who will find the story
that he wrote and then burned down?
To sacrifice everything in the name of purity
and then to erase the story
Don't you see how far the ego goes?
What consolation for the for the one
Who never let know
Purity is not some white cool cotton sheets
But a dense mass of dead cells and pus
Purity is a black hole
Now washed down the dirty drains of cities
But still impenetrable
Still useless tasteless colorless odorless

Affluent India

Affluence is a phenomena  in which everybody wants to become a photographer by capturing sunsets and flowers and buying entry level slrs.
Affluence is the middle class dicovering single malt whiskey and endless talks about nike vs adidas ...turtle vs blackberrys.Affluence is the phenonmenon of spending "quality time" with your girlfriend at the posh restaurant with religious devotion and then a bottle of redwine to discuss the meaning of life.Affluence is the attitude in which the remedy for proverty is putting benchod and madarchod in the mouth of the poor.
Afflence is defining the meaning of life for yourself and fuck all that  altruism and philosophy  when your " baby is not safe from harm".

Being Young

Being young means a dive into the turbulent history of the world and coming out with nothing
Being young means crash courses in the arts and chemicals and not defending  one
Being young means discovering love..and then forgetting it all cause it was just masti
Being young means experiments and then giving them up for that lucrative MBA
Being young means your young  ideas that you cant defend.
Being young means betraying yourself and never knowing it.

Its a shame to be young in India.

The Delhi Rape Case

The Delhi Rape case is just one of the accidents that happened to come to limelight.But this is a reflection of much deeper social and cultural malaise .And I don't think its going to stop.Its just the thing that you go to Thailand and spend a night with a "randi "  while your daughter at home is the personification of innocence ( or if not that's what you will try to convince the society).Everything is justified in the fight for survival. We stay in our groups and share its prejudices because we fear  the big world outside...too fucking big..too fucking diverse to absorb in one man's mind.We create the others.And it seems the others are also gathering in groups.The Poor clinging to their Hanuman Chalisa ...the rich dancing with  Osho Rajneesh.

And then what ? Kill each other to extinction?.Its a shame.

What are we becoming? We are unable to communicate, unable to speak, living life  like a fashion show teenager in an endless mall with fake or hedonist smiles preparing and crushing little mutinies in our minds.

Why don't we talk to each other? Why cant we talk?What is preventing us?Why cant we cry in public?
Why cant we listen to the muffled voice? Our own muffled voice. Why they teach us that all the beggars are faking disability?Why should we be afraid of strangers?Why should the girls be veiled ?

What has happened to the child who could ask the king "O king where are your clothes?"

Or even the poets to praised the child?

Where is the child? Where is the dream?Now even the children have stopped asking questions.

We need to  talk about this. We must talk about this.

(the poem refers to  Nirendranath Chakraborty's  Ulongo Raja)

Take up

So take up the vibe
Drive into the night
One more time

3

It sometimes takes a lifetime to understand that "3*60ml=180ml"  is the golden rule.

Flow/Innocence

I dint do it. It was done to me.

I dint choose this life.This life chose me.

I just cant control myself.
I just cant control myself

See my kitten smile

I am innocent

iPhone ad

Cheeeeeeeeeeeeese...take a breath...eeeeeeeeeeeeeese


Bring the standards low..so everyone is invited

Lets celebrate humanity.

Sainath On Inequality

You

Do I understand you?

Maybe...aren't you the one mad about Norah Jones and Unaccustomed Earth By Jhumpa Lahiri....

There is this evanescent , hidden sweetness in the air.I cannot put a finger on it..cannot show it to you.But that's what intrigues me perhaps.Perhaps it is  all memory. my memory ....the wide open paddy fields and the contended suppleness in the air at evening.


Yes winter is coming and so are the pujas and shefali flowers