college

A college is nice place . i mean not just the degree but the whole experience is worth taking....sumtimes you have nothing to do, at other times 24hrs arent enough. cafe is the greatest place in the whole wide world. you will always feel like a part of an intellectual hub in college. every sense of accomplishment is followed by a sense of incompetency and there is a desire to outdo oneself. there are friends and there are people: the known, the unknown and the oblivious. of course forget not the college...the building in red and white. m told i will walk ahed in life,luk back and wish for these days to come back...hmmm....(boy is re-living a bloodcurdling thought!) i like college..and the life it holds...in the building and in the students...

an ode to hegemony

It’s official. United States of America, the world’s finest hegemonic power is on its way out. By the looks of it, it’s going under and is not even trying to spare its allies from the mystery six feet under. Yes, there is time, maybe lots of it. But let us look at the country, we have left with us, when US bids a final good bye to the world.
Our Fundamental Rights-without which one can only imagine a crippled existence in a democratic polity like India-first, became popular in the American Bill of Rights. This is to imply that the link between India, globalisation and America is not only one of luxury but has always been one of political and social necessity. It’s not just that denims replaced khadi but that while I type, the computer has Thomas Jefferson in its memory and puts Motilal Nehru as a typo! Also, to sustain ourselves in the competitive man eater of a world outside, we had to shatter what we had within. Culture remains the gimmick of socialites and politics a pool of mud both hated and loathed.
They are all clichés. But like Mr Shashi Tharoor says, clichés are there because they are true! Every dream in the world is an American dream. No matter how many sociologists hail it as cultural synthesis, homogeneity is much of the reality. We need Richard Gere to tell us about AIDS, Oprah Winfrey to tell us about charity and George Bush to tell us how to chariot the world with the ace charioteer Democracy. Reminder mates! This is in a country where Ayur Veda blossomed, Asoka planted trees for the betterment of the people and Akbar ruled. What irony! India- where the world’s first communist government thrived under E.M.-is still said to be famous for its spices and yoga.
If you are boggled by those facts, all I am saying is that as a politically vibrant, independent nation, we have had limited exposure to the light of glory because of the hegemonic condition we have been growing in. but the predicted fall of the US, is just reluctant optimism saying “make way for a new king”. This leaves one question. Is US really diminishing? Not anytime soon. However the liberty of hegemony is not decorated with permanency. Of course there shall be a new super power, the world shall remain univocal perhaps garbed in the myth of multi polarity and this country then too shall fear the shine.

on inspiration

the toughest part of being young is getting inspired. this is more true for those of us who can not find inspiration within ourselves. (this is a little weird). there are so many achievers all around us and so many people fighting for existence. there are politicians, industrialists, parents, sports persons, activists and authors. but their shine diminishes when the fact that they belong to this ridiculous world dawns on me. Amartya sen is a great man. but he is a part of the world that looks down upon the poor and becomes a puppet for the rich.
so the thought, "what keeps me going?" what inspires this cynic to go on and beat life and suck-in the best of its tastes? as funny as it sounds..nothing has inspired me quite the way nature has. we live in her like a child refusing to leave his mother's womb. we are the other end of a thankless job-motherhood. while we are unceremoniously killing her, she patiently welcomes one creature after the other into this world. every 3 minutes a human, i do not know how many butterflies, plants birds and animals she welcomes with open arms.
this inspiration does not require personification. i can look up to her, without looking..because she is there all around, silently inhaling carbon monoxide and supplying oxygen. for someone who is less patient than a hungry child there is much to learn from nature. the beauty we never praise.

status quo

opinions or no opinions, freedom of expression or no freedom of expression, life or no life...every parent is freaky when it comes to their kids breaking status quo. Archana "you can not wear that shirt its not appropriate" archana "you cant eat without a table cloth" archana you can not go for a movie anywhere but PVR" ggggrrrrhhhhhhhh......(roars)
GIVE ME A BREAK!!
that is the pressure to stick to the status quo!
Status quo is a Latin term meaning the present existing state of affairs, or "the state in which". To maintain the status quo is to keep the things the way they currently are.
how you dress, how you eat, how you sleep, whom you marry, where you study, where you live, what number and kind of vehicles you drive, where you go for your vacations is all decided by status quo.
like in school, the cool guys went to the western music bands, and you were not allowed to think of the Indian choir as cool. this was because that is common perception "Indian music at school is not cool"
like at work, status quo dictates that you do not talk in an overly friendly manner to the office boy. that is not because you yourself feel weird about it, but because you have been taught from ever that you do not treat everybody unconditionally.
OH NO!! i am not going to change how the world has been running...but there is this tiny bird hiding under my nest of hair..and she says "what you like and what you believe in...is an expression of who you are. not who your forefathers were or chose to be" and i love that tiny bird...and maybe one day she will be forced to fly away from that nest to never come back but until then with all my naivete in place under my skull...i shall stick to my bird and not the bird of others.

ahem!

HI! i am trying to learn how to blog. it might not be rocket science..but still it surely requires..tact.....
usually young people under the age of 25 choose to isolate themselves from politics. governance dictates our existence in more ways than one, yet we choose to believe it is a puddle, if you throw stones at it..all you will get is a face splattered with dirt. but if you do not enter the water, you can not catch fish!! its okay to think that perhaps i can not make a whole lot of difference, but i think i am too young to either compromise with the situation by saying "it is okay..there is nothing i can do about it..might as well live with it" or to believe "it is a melodramatic twist of events that i do not want to look at"

and at the end of all this rambling...i get crowned a "kid"

SIGH! i really do not want to grow up...i am fine being.. ahem..ahem.... a kid

laodicean

laodicean... means half-hearted especially in politics and/or religion. it suggests neutrality or indifference. in the Book of Revelation Christ is to have instructed this message to the laodicean church(which is one of the seven churches mentioned from Asia Minor -Roman province)

" I know your works; you are neither cold nor hot. I wish that you were either cold or hot. So, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I am about to spit you out of my mouth. "

that should explain the term very well. the point is that today, it is the most common phenomenon and the least mouthed term. people are either diplomatic or indifferent. there is no hesitation that mounts the hesitation of taking a stand. so, who ever takes a stand is blindly followed.

that is why Gandhi was able to accomplish so much, and that is why today when someone decides to say " people of Maharashtra you have been wronged and inadequately represented and you need to smash the skull of the Biharis who have snatched your rights, we get the news bulletins that have decorated the newspapers these last couple of weeks.

is thinking for oneself the most difficult of chores? is it chore ? why is it so unnatural to know and have opinions? why is thought always dictated by another?