One of the thoughts that struck a chord…it was a totally forgettable movie with wasted performances from people like Susan Sarandon…Anyways, in the movie there is this wife who after twenty years of marriage feels disconnected from her husband and explains to some the reason for marrying:
"We need a witness to our lives. There are a billion people on the planet... I mean, what does any one life really mean? But in a marriage, you're promising to care about everything. The good things, the bad things, the terrible things, the mundane things... all of it, all of the time, every day. You're saying 'Your life will not go unnoticed because I will notice it. Your life will not go un-witnessed because I will be your witness'."
Friday, December 26, 2008
Me and writing...
Sitting at the airport, two hours early for my flight, I wanted to write…and just my luck that my laptop ran out of charge … so here I am writing the old fashioned way. The thing about writing on a PC for me (apart from the fact that I can actually read what I have written) is that it’s like telling a third person…blogs do that to you, it’s like writing a book except that you don’t have to be writer…anyways, without digressing…or maybe lemme digress…these past few weeks so many thoughts have crossed my mind…thoughts which I should have penned then, but now all that remains of those thoughts is a lingering feeling of realization…though I quite can’t say what I realized…another thing about me and pen & paper is that I write really slowly so my thoughts far outpace my writing speed…and my hand is always playing a catch up game…
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
My thoughts...
Its been almost a week now…and I have finally started reading the newspaper, viewing the news channel, reading people’s reactions on blogs and so on…so now I guess I can try writing something…the moment I heard about what was happening I basically blanked out…I know I should have been disgusted…horrified…angry…shocked…but I wasn’t…I just blanked out…the enormity of the whole scene unfolding in front of me…the realization that some action was inevitable was huge…
There are a couple of things I want to say –
The first is the impact of communication and media on our lives…how it has shaped us people…as a society…these days even before things actually happen or unfold…the news is everywhere…on the TV…people calling each other within seconds…instant SMS or email…you know it before you know it…this revolution has completely changed the way we view the world…earlier it took time for news to reach people and then too it was half baked…now we get to know of happenings in minutes and the side effect of this is that we forget happenings within days if not minutes…because some other issue is in front of you before you even realize it…I am not saying the remorse, the anger, the sadness we feel is false…it is just short lived…this “instant” syndrome has ripped us of our ability to internalize…and thus we need to decide for ourselves whether this “instant” news is actually useful or is it just making us more impervious to emotions…
Secondly the impact of consumerism on our lives and the way we live…one of my ex colleagues is helping the economy by buying clothes or is showing solidarity with the Taj employees by eating at the restaurant…ok she is an extreme case…but come to think of it how many of us watched the news glued to TV and ordered a Pizza from “Pizza Hut”…or how many of went about our lives and on a buying spree to stock our houses from floor to ceiling…so how at all are we going to do anything against this “Pak” sponsored “US” sponsored terrorism when our day to day lives is so dependent on what US feeds us…when we can’t take a day off because we work in the US companies or companies that work with US companies…that’s not how Non-Cooperation movement got results…
Before we start blaming the world…and in this case they are rightly blamed…the politicians, the policymakers, the ministers…but before we start blaming them I think it’s time for us to look at ourselves…to see if we can stop ourselves from being soft targets…to see if we can be more self-sustainable and not give in to the consumerism surrounding us…
There are a couple of things I want to say –
The first is the impact of communication and media on our lives…how it has shaped us people…as a society…these days even before things actually happen or unfold…the news is everywhere…on the TV…people calling each other within seconds…instant SMS or email…you know it before you know it…this revolution has completely changed the way we view the world…earlier it took time for news to reach people and then too it was half baked…now we get to know of happenings in minutes and the side effect of this is that we forget happenings within days if not minutes…because some other issue is in front of you before you even realize it…I am not saying the remorse, the anger, the sadness we feel is false…it is just short lived…this “instant” syndrome has ripped us of our ability to internalize…and thus we need to decide for ourselves whether this “instant” news is actually useful or is it just making us more impervious to emotions…
Secondly the impact of consumerism on our lives and the way we live…one of my ex colleagues is helping the economy by buying clothes or is showing solidarity with the Taj employees by eating at the restaurant…ok she is an extreme case…but come to think of it how many of us watched the news glued to TV and ordered a Pizza from “Pizza Hut”…or how many of went about our lives and on a buying spree to stock our houses from floor to ceiling…so how at all are we going to do anything against this “Pak” sponsored “US” sponsored terrorism when our day to day lives is so dependent on what US feeds us…when we can’t take a day off because we work in the US companies or companies that work with US companies…that’s not how Non-Cooperation movement got results…
Before we start blaming the world…and in this case they are rightly blamed…the politicians, the policymakers, the ministers…but before we start blaming them I think it’s time for us to look at ourselves…to see if we can stop ourselves from being soft targets…to see if we can be more self-sustainable and not give in to the consumerism surrounding us…
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