Alice in Wonderland

More than couple of decades ago, I had heard someone say, “Judge a man by his shoes” and that sentence was safely saved in the wisdom section of my repository. My brain kept adding more and more features to this sentence like personality, knowledge, diction etcetera. However, as i evolved and turned into the monster I am today, I end up judging people in the sea of millennials ad  mind you I don’t do that by the virtue of how that person talks or what are their vies on literature, politics and socio economic situation, but by how they look.

Going back to why I am called a millennial, that’s because I hit puberty somewhere in 21st century. And we millennial have a buzzing social life, long alcohol bills and we also have a certain lingo. We shop online, we dine online and we almost live online. We wear fancy clothes and we carry expensive phones on which we end up taking zillion selfies and zilch self esteem. 

I don't mean to denigrate the generation I am happily a part of but so to speak or in this case write, we are also extremely techno-savvy and highly informed about what’s going on around the world. Most of us are sapiosexuals ( don’t bother google with the word, it's in the urban dictionary) and modern hippies. Im not denying being an integral part of this paradigm at all. Look at me, Im currently looking up google to cross check whether the words I used match what I meant. 

So, lets not digress from what we were talking about, judging people by their shoes ( and many other things that person is wearing or not wearing). Im trying to avoid talking about how I judge people on the basis of the life experiences they had ( or could not have in some cases), Im only trying to focus on tangible stuff right now, because boy, we form perceptions in every possible way and by every possible aspect. Not blaming the other millennials who safely go to their offices and work their ass off, come home to their respective other halves and spend the evening thinking about their life after this year’s promotion cycle. They are cool, infact, they are the lucky ones who did not fall into the trap. 

We spend hours and hours browsing online, looking for cheap yet branded stuff, wait patiently for it to arrive and then try them on. Alas, only to be disappointed that it does no good to our insta feed ( if you know what I mean). And unless I wear some really expensive shit to the party, nobody is going to even look at me. We want to travel only to Europe and other western geographies ( Bangkok is obviously not to be discussed  outside coveted WhatsApp groups), we don’t watch Bollywood ( Korean Horror movies are better aphrodisiac) , we don’t know who Talvin Singh is or who our neighbor is and we definitely don’t buy coffee from local cafe anymore, because, hey we are millennials, we don’t care about anything which isn’t glittering ( not literally). 

We spend all our money on looking good, no amount of time on reading literature ( sapiosexuals can hold back their cuss). Are we hollow? There is hardly anytime to think, plus my insta feed looks far better to spend time on. We can travel as much as our credit cards allow, but only to take pictures. Oh! I wanted to save the travel insta stories for my next post. 

Till then try to think, Our crisis is not monetary anymore, it has now become existential. 

I Hate Feminism

Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and many other social networks have now become platform of sharing knowledge and articles, and this trend is growing with every passing day. Lot of articles I read online revolve around feminism. The band wagon of feminism is going super strong. It's a cool thing that women find that this empowers them, but does it really serve the purpose?

Ask yourself folks, how many men read your blogs or articles and not joke about them afterwards. Many of the women who hang around with these gentlemen do not feel bad while these fragile balls of masculinity pass lewd comments about feminist alphas. How do you do away with pseudo feminist cheerleaders?

Do we even need this extra noise about women rights and pink marches? And why would we associate pink with XX chromosome? Why this unnecessary attention to a cause which does not help anyone? Do we even understand what actually feminism is? Are we not providing more content to the sexist lot?

Feminism was never about making sure that men cook and women work, or women dressing in short skirts if they want to. We would want a world where after dinner the boys wash their dishes and girls help them clean the kitchen slab or help their guy in improving his work related presentation. We have to look at the idea of co-existing without letting either of the sexes suffer. We also have to look at educating our girls to embrace the idea of consensual sex after marriage. We have to let our boys adapt to the fact that its fine if their wives earn as much as they do and contribute equally to the household expenses.

We have to tell our girls to split the bill when they go for a date and take a cab back home after dinner. We have to become comfortable with male gynecologists. We have disengage pink from feminism. Its ok to seek advice and opinion but not mandatory to submit to them. We don't need feminist who writes blogs and then pull down other women at workplace, we need to do away with this.

To start off, read this blog again from the beginning with an open mind and no preconceived notion.

Sunshine Soul

If you try to bury me, I become a seed

If you try to smoke me, I become a weed,

and you throw me into air, I become an eagle.

These lines sum up what I am trying to pen down in my post today. Every one has been through rough path, shitty nights, dreaded mornings, but I say what next man! We are wasting our time sulking, isn't it? The other day I was looking at Milind IRONMAN Soman, doesn't it hit our pessimist brain. Don't jump saying g that optimism and all that crap looks good in motivational books, this guy has done it right here in your face. Take a bow from me. 

We have all been in that space where nothing goes right and everything hits you hard. If you feel like crying, go ahead and shed a tear or two but then thats it. Don’t spoil another moment because you are adding to your own pain that way. You need to be a little strong to raise your head and get up to face the storm. Its normal to sit in bed and sulk, it takes guts to come out and walk on the street. 

We have all read the story of an ant who keeps falling off the wall but does not give up. We ain’t competing with the ant, we can push our limits further without a doubt. So many people around us fight cancer and tumor and come back to the screen to tell their stories and assured us that if they can do it, we also can bounce back at any time. Have you read about Narayan Murthy, who at one point of time used to bank on his girlfriend ( now his wife) for his leisure expenses is now one of the most influential and one of the greatest entrepreneur 

There are millions of stories around us where a slum dweller gets through IIT, daughter of an auto driver becomes a doctor, a physically abused housewife starts an Anti dowry cell and millions more. We need to stop reading and start learning from these incidents. We need not give up because we could not get through an exam or because your girlfriend cheated on you. Be your own sunshine, rise and bloom.

The generalized fan speaks

On a hot and dry Saturday evening, I am trying to think about the last three days full of consecutive events. These have been very busy, nervous and stressful 72 hours for Salman Khan and his fans. And mad three days for the media persons.

The story has a badass hero who is drunk and is illegitimately driving his vehicle and then mercilessly drives over 5 men, out of which one dies and four others are injured. Now this ruthless, directionless and bratty person should be punished.

After 13 years of endless waiting, the court decides that this anti human person needs to serve 5 years of jail. The most intelligent and sensible members of the society fill twitter and other social handles with the JUSTICE PREVAILS slogans. We hear people saying that at last the judiciary has proved that every criminal will be punished. Sadly, the actor’s bail is extended and he successfully gets to sleep in his own bed. Adding further to the madness, he gets a bail from a higher court.

Media is gets back in action and social media is full of INJUSTICE TO THE POOR slogans. Every news hour debate is critical of the laidback and outdated and biased Judiciary. Film fraternity is abused for standing by a very popular actor who also has approx. RS. 25 Million riding on him. Some very popular TV Hosts take charge of the entire situation and tries to ask the Defense side on their poor performance and tells them what they could have done. It’s because of their incompetence that the actor got away so easily. The court that naturally favors the influential rich people is a shame to the nation.

Apparently the battle turns into Stardom vs. Criticism. People are pouring in the media houses to express their resentment towards the star and his massive support system and labels like insensitive and inhuman. It seemed that people who prayed and cared for the star were criminals too. None of those fans or co-stars were sane enough to think even one for the deceased and the injured.

In fact, I am also a big fan of the star since I was child and simply thought of him highly as I kept reading a lot about his humanitarian work. He was a known celeb who was always in news for some controversy or the other. Sometimes he hit his girlfriends or some other times he hurled abuses at the paparazzi. Despite all of this, I only grew fonder of him. Is it a crime to be a fan or a supporter? Certainly what happened that night wasn’t an act of heroism or pride? It was a crime and a brutal one, but it was certainly not intentional.

Many of the critics are asking that would we still support him if one of our family members were injured in that accident. I will ask them would they not support the accused if he were their family member. They demand a longer jail term for him. I say that hasn’t he suffered for last 13 years? Did he not go through the trauma of that night during his sleep everyday? Now some of those critics will shower a lot of love on me for being a pro-criminal.

None of the people who support the actor are supporting what he did. We don’t support drunk driving or driving without a license for that matter, let alone killing someone. But love defies logic, it really does. We are just standing by him like a loving family because he has amassed all that love over years when he helped poor children for heart surgery or when he recently adopted a family in Kashmir.

We are not legal experts nor are we emotionally unsound. We are common people with regular sentiments of hero worship. We do not apply logic but we would never support a murder. As a fan this is what I think of a man whom I have worshipped as my hero since my innocent days.

Lets stay sane and continue our faith in the law. Nevertheless, the biggest and grandest court awaits all of us once we leave our bodies. And there justice will never be denied or delayed.

PS : This post has been written in blue font because its Salman's favorite color. 

The Forty-Fied Men

I have this unquenchable thirst of writing what I feel (mostly I speak the same way), which got me the fame of a witty yet a khadoos person. Even my blogs share the same fate and more often than not I keep getting emails brimming with advises from people who don't even know a thing about me or about writing and whose wasted effort I would never acknowledge.

Another thing about me is that I am a very opinionated person. Right from the Chinese food to the First Lady of the US, I have an opinion about everything.  When it comes to men, my views often dangerous and brow raising. Not that I am anti men or something, its just that people take a dig at women especially we Indians not only make fun of our ladies but also have no shame about it.

Whatever it may be my favorite targets are men in their early forties. I find them the most lethal of the entire fraternity. You can find them all around, juniors of your fathers, your seniors (teachers also) and in every colony as your neighbors.

Not that this age group is particularly sexually deprived, just that they are out of the league of any steamy romantic life at home or otherwise. Plus their age is the one where they must sound really intelligent and influential. They are a little overage to be called elder brothers and underage to be called uncles. I prefer none, as I don’t want to address this group because they make me feel a little cautious all the time. You can’t read what they exactly look forward to.  I know a few of them who are perfectly normal ones. They scan the girls with lusty eyes and never fail to appreciate the arousing nature of the fairer sex. They have a very fine taste for women in their mid twenties.

These kinds of men would offer to be your godfathers, friends and confidants. They would give you ideas and advises and make you feel that they always drink an elixir from the waterfall of wisdom. Sometimes they are successful in trapping the talkative and so called weaker sex. At other times when they are facing women like me who are stubborn and far too independent, they turn into divine critics. They would find everything about us to be utterly annoying. From high morals to big dreams which they know nothing about.

I m sure there would be many who would not be able to relate to what I am writing and my target audience might even label me as a disoriented feminist, nothing to worry; I had stopped bothering long back. All I would want to say that modern day women are neither foolish nor dependent. Go back to your homes and love the women who look after your home and your kids.

The Great Indian Family Circus

Recently I went to watch a movie. Not that there is something great about me watching the movie, but I was reluctant to go in the firsts place, as I had no interest, however my friends were interested to watch it. By the time movie ended I was in love with it. This happens with most of us. If not a movie then may be a place or person.

We are experts in being judgmental. We form and declare our opinions without even a backing of logic. We keep talking and gossiping about people without even interacting with the victim even once. That’s so convenient and gives our coffee a purpose. Otherwise it would be very difficult to go out for a coffee or for shopping if we have to first know a person and then gossip about them.

By the way Indian pickles are best in class and are famous around the world for the tangy and spicy flavors and so are our gossip factories. Go to any Indian family of four members (or three) especially when their relatives visit (Like the Tauji’s and the Buaji’s). Indian kids of my age have a record of hating their aunts to the core. I am sure nobody would want to know the reason, as it is the obvious one. A girl in the house who is 25 years old; single and working is a grave issue. A boy in the house aged 27 and above; working for an MNC and earning a heavy salary is worse than a widower.

Trust me I am not exaggerating, it can be proved if we go out to interview any person who is single and in mid twenties. The buck does not stop here. Oh, married for three years and no news of The Good News. Serious crime buddy. I mean when would you plan your family? After retirement? Did you see Sharma ji’s daughter, such short hair and the shorter skirt!

The best remedy to get this chain reaction under control is be honest with your family about your choices and preference and just love them. I mean nobody really matters when your family supports you. The relatives? Lets them keep the gossip machines churning.

One thing is for sure that the relatives, the neighbors are truly the catalyst (explosive ones) in the Great Indian Family Reaction.