The God Fearing Lawless Indian

Recently I saw a sign which said 'do not throw garbage' and my eye balls popped out to see that there was actually not a single packet of garbage in the vicinity....I looked up to the sky and thanked the country for finally getting its civic sense right..i glanced back at the sign board once again and was struck with the actual reason behind this 'civic' act of the public..there was a picture of one our many gods right next to the board....that was the trick...and it worked so beautifully that I was quite in awe of the brain behind the board.

The single virtue that is bequethed to every Indian and which stays with him through life and death has got to be the 'god-fearingness'  - the one virtue that we are so proud to practise, preach and showcase to the world. We will spit and paint a ‘do not spit here’ board red but shall abide by the ‘do not take your footwear inside’ board in a temple…We shall hurl abuses at a traffic policeman and fly past a red signal but shall never be caught uttering a discourteous word to a priest in a church…..That is the power of the fear of the god….an ounce of which doesn’t transcend to the fear of the law..and that’s where half if not most of India’s problems lie…We love the ‘cliched’ chaotic lawlessness around us…we don’t feel embarrassed  bribing an official… we don’t think twice before damaging public property for unknown causes…we love flaunting rules and hate standing in lines…but the same Indian cannot ever imagine breaking the unwritten ‘laws’ of the god…he will religiously follow his rituals, his beliefs and even his superstitions … no need for laws to drive that behavior in an Indian, no policemen to fine you ..no judge to punish you and yet you will follow it ‘religiously’ till your grave and ensure that people around you do the same….

Perhaps our laws should be adorned with pictures of the gods, our cops dressed in the garb of mythological and religious characters, sign boards be manufactured with shades of religious colours for a law-abiding ‘civil’ India? The final step would be to perhaps replace the father of the nation in all the rupee notes…perhaps that may turn out to be the one step solution to the abuse and re-abuse of money in this country!!

We shall not act!

We shall be trampled upon….fired at….burnt alive and yet we shall not act…..we have again proved to the whole world the ‘lame duck’ leadership that ‘leads’ our country…we can almost claim to have a ‘history’ of terror attacks..not one but multiple strikes in the same spot and yet we shall not act..we have a convict of the earlier attack sitting snugly in the comfort of our legal system….in the lap of luxury of the so-called human activists…

I am almost amazed at our endurance capabilities…what more will it take for our powers to snap into some ‘action’?? Does our parliament need to go up in smoke with all its inmates for any step to be taken in this direction? Do the statistics of thousands of dead innocent Indians not count for any action? Its almost become a ‘way of life’..a bomb here…a  blast there…a few ‘numbers’ on the morning headlines…in a few years’ time I fear these attacks may not capture national headlines?

Enough of the candle light processions and ‘concerned’ politicians swarming to the ‘spot’ and definitely enough of the ‘condemnation’ and ‘condolence’ speeches…. I think we have seen this far too often and its almost become a ‘programmed’ charade after any such attack..and after a few weeks on ‘prime time’..a few debates , analysis…. the ‘news’ fades into the background..it becomes one more tick in the country’s box of attacks..the victims are left lurking with the bitterness of injustice..and for the rest of humanity …a fear that one day you too may become ‘that’ victim???  

What about M for meaningful Cinema?

I guess a string of movies spanning from the bad to the ugly and to the uttermost ridiculous got me thinking about the state of our so called 'hit' movies...comedy that 'hits' you in the face...movies that 'hit' your 'intelligence' and knock you down unconsciuos? I had the mighty good fortune of enduring one of a kind 'blockbuster' movie called Ready..but unlike its producers I was so NO ready for this experience...the story (if you can even remotely call it a story) was heading nowhere..it was a Mr SKHAN from the word go till we leave the hall in dismay and astonishment. He walks the walk, talks the talk..once in a while attempts to romance, 'action' and of course rips off his shirt (squeezing out the final rewards from this actor - again if you can remotely call him one) and the audience is supposed to eat their hearts out from this 'so-called' performance? And the supporting string of actors (you could very well call them props) lend no support to this miserabe experience. Guess my personal prejudice against the lead actor apart, even if you did a find & replace of SKHAN with Brad Pitt, I wonder if I could have sat through this 3 hour ordeal? For someone belonging to a generation who has grown up on 'classic witty' comedy of the likes of Lal, Srinivas (for the Mal in me) the comedy is unbelievably slapstick..dialogues almost seem like they were written as the Khan was putting on his makeup just before the word 'Action'. And lastly to touch upon my most 'emotional' topic - regarding the music of the movie..talk about the 'healing' sense of music...i was definitely dumbstruck at the meaningful lyrics of the song 'dingachika'...and the depth of the lyrics was equally matched (if not more) by the dancers that were splashed on the screen. All in all what I can say but to suggest to our censor board to probably introduce a category called 'PA' for all such movies that border and probably crossed the terrain called 'ridiculous'...Premature Adult category is the only sane category that I can fit this experience into.!