Some comments on traffic and associated vanity. - Part 2

        Also, traffic is a self imposed menace. Width and lengths are constants and by the state of affairs, nobody cares to build nice roads; even if they build nice roads, they can't be used after a time period because nobody bothers to maintain it. And those vain people who just want to show off (not all car owners who utilize their vehicles properly, but those who take it out and just drive them alone, wasting natural resources and available spaces on roads) their monetary status ans so on, take out the vehicle at prime hours in the morning and cause traffic jams in the narrow roads of our country. Driving an suv or a huge car on long distance roads is ok. But why bring them on the congested roads on which the blocks are often caused by similar people?

         And then when you have a block and are stuck, if somebody scratches your precious vehicle (if it was done deliberately it is unforgivable but if it happened in that block which brings claustrophobia to humans who experience it, it is the fault of the lone drivers who waste fuel and consume space) you have to stop in the middle of the road and argue with the poor fellow who did it (according to you he might have done it, but you might not have realized that it was your fault) in turn blocking the traffic further and wasting everybody's time.

          Vehicles are precious. And your life is even more precious. But then do you have to put your life at stake for no gain at all? Do you think that you will become more respectable if you dress up stylishly or have a blackberry or drive a car? What about common sense? Will anybody respect you if you behave irritatingly just because you are too proud to admit that you have made a mistake? Hello? Accepting one's own fault is not a bad thing. I mean if you are ready to remedy it.

        Which makes me comment that unless you have common sense and a little bit of wit, you cannot be a good driver. You have to be familiar with the traffic trend and should be able to predict if you can get out of it in some smart way. But then again I want to insist that, unless you have a full house/ emergency/very important errands to run, you must rely on the public transport system.

             One cannot simply resort to private means of transport just by telling that the public transport system is not good enough. Unless more and more people use it, how is it going to be upgraded to a better system? This is a country where commoners are more than rich people. So the public transport is something on which many people depend on. Just because you can afford a private mode, doesn't mean that you have to abstain from using the public transport as often as possible.

             I have observed several people driving just to reach a place to where they can go on foot. I have always wished to go and request them to use the public transport or walk. Well these were not in big cities. But then you can imagine the cases in big cities. I hope I won't fall seriously sick at some peak hour and have to be taken by an ambulance to a hospital. Because even an ambulance can't easily make way through the city traffic!!!

Some comments on traffic and associated vanity. - Part 1

This is a very short essay based on author's own observations about traffic in general. Vehicles are meant for the easy transportation of people. It is meant to save time, not waste time. But what do we see in general? We see tight traffic blocks which waste time instead of saving time.


           Why do traffic blocks occur? They occur because police deliberately 'control' traffic for reasons which no body knows, then because lots of our citizens have become "extremely rich" that they can't help buying huge vehicles and showing off even if they belong to a nuclear family with barely two people in it. I can understand the feeling of buying electronic goods or gold ornaments if you want to show off or keep silently. You can buy as much as possible too, because they don't cause reduction of space available for other individuals. But vehicles?

           No. You cannot deflate a metal. Right? And all motor companies come up with claims of providing more and more space to the customer who buys their vehicles. Well. When there is a group of 8 or 10 people going somewhere for a trip or a wedding, this space provided by the company is a good thing, because you can accommodate so many people in one vehicle. But why would you use on a common working day like a Monday morning, for a single person?

          If you are going alone for a drive on a lone stretch of a road with no traffic, it is understandable. But why do you have to drive (it is good that you know driving) a car (a huge vehicle infact) in which the only passenger is the driver, albeit you? Seeing people like this (single people who take their vehicle to a road on prime time even if they can catch a bus, unless more people travel by public transport, how will the public transport start more an more services?) I have  a feeling that :

        1) they have failed in maths in school, because they don't know anything about volume,

         2) they have failed in physics miserably , because they don't know anything about space (although mostly they are of the kind who says the monologue "I need my personal space" (and they are not ashamed to consume others'))

        3) they have no idea about the depleting petroleum resources or pollution they are causing

         4) looking at all the above points I have to say that they are so emotionally dumb and cruel ,that they don't mind consuming anything including time and space of others and have the wrong thought that since they have money they can do anything what they want.

Lost (child)hoods- Part 3

Making a child wear sexy dresses when it doesn't even know what sexy means is a serious offense. If children below 12 are not advised to watch certain films without parental control, parents should also take care not to dress them up suggestively. See you won't always be there to take care of your child when he/she is in school and so on. So instead of giving them wrong notions about life, you ought to give them ideas about good and bad things so that the can grow up as reasonably good persons.

        The dress issue makes me ask this question. Fine, we oppose child labor and stand for the rights of children and I wrote that in real life children shouldn't be dressed up as sexy when they even know what it means. Let me ask you one question : I am sure many if you may not like this. But I have to ask, because putting skills apart, this is a question on human rights. Why do we have 13,14,15,16 etc year old girls playing heroines (not in a children's movie) in movies for adults where she has to wear a sari and act as a wife in most cases. And all these, at an age when she has to play. Well child marriage is prohibited in this country, then why is not children's acting as wives not prohibited? If they act in some teenage romcom or teenage rom-drama , which suits theur age, we can understand, but think about this and this is not even an imagination. It is real.


          A girl used to act as a child artist in many famous movies in one language. Even one of the songs in which a lot of children appeared along with her was a superhit. Then suddenly one day, she goes off screen and reappears as a heroine (!!!!!) in another language. It is as if the directors in this country are hungrily waiting for girls to become tall and put up some wait so that they can make them wear sari and cast them as heroins! And you know what? That girl is making a come back to her mother tongue as heroine and this time as a wife!!!! I feel so weird about this because I have seen  her as a kid and know how old she is. I really felt pity after reading her interview in a magazine!!! She is till a kid, why are you burdening her with romantic roles?

         Come to think of it, almost all heroins in our films started acting when they were teenagers. And, after extracting the maximum juice out of these talented actresses, they are mercilessly thrown out of the industry in search of (again) underage actresses because the films you make are mostly commercial oriented!!! Then how can children dance to the tunes meant for them only???Isn't there any rule by which exploitation of girl children in the field of films can be stopped? Something like the wedding age should be 18 and 21?

       Children you are losing your childhood joys to a predefined class of behavior which is even not real. We vote at 18 and not at 11,12 or anything till 16. Then why can't you live like children atleast till14 and resist all efforts to rob your childhood days which you can cherish all throughout the rest of your lives???

Lost (child)hoods - Part 2

Please don't come up with the answer "animation". Let us forget Disney and Pixar for a while. If you take them into account, you can argue that there are plenty of films for children. But I am sorry to say that those plenty are all animated movies, which have an incredible number of characters which can do any incredible thing, which of course is not possible in real life. This comment doesn't imply that I am not a fan of animation (some people despise animation on the belief that it is not worth watching because there is no "live"
forms in it, but I would like to object politely, animation is not a stupid business; it requires great skill, both artistic and technical). Most of the animation movies are highly motivating (unlike the action/romantic masalas made for "adults" (which ofcouorse children end up watching)) and contains a moral for life. 


         Fine. But let me ask one question? On one hand you (under)estimate children thinking that they should only watch animated things and not anything which contains a real child. Then you force them to dance on adult tunes. What is this? Aren't children humans? Were you all born straight as adults that you demand all to be like adults?!!! Why is there no real film which is meant for children? I remember seeing a film called "Halo".(Does nay of my age remember this?) Halo was the story of a puppy a small girl had, and her attachment to that puppy and how she loses it and finds it  in the end in the hands of a mentally sick person and how she gave her dear puppy. Another was the story of a mathematical genius who was taken to a city to show off and how he manages to escape. And these were not even foreign films. These were Indian films which I saw on DD almost 12 years ago.


           Can any child today even imagine about such films?  Has any child born after 2000 ever seen good movies unless their parents are enthusiastic about it? Why should our children be watching movies meant for adults, most of which discuss nothing other than romance and sex and violence and get wrong notions about life?

          Here I want to digress to another point. So far with films for children. I don't even know what children today read! I hope somebody can comment on this issue. Another major issue is the following : How parents make their children lose their childhoods. I have observed that the children above a certain age, in cities are most likely to behave like adults. Children in towns retain childishness a bit longer and so on. Seeing the children in cities I have wondered, who is younger, they or I?!!! It is as if these children are waiting to reach the threshold of some age that they start trying out all kinds of stylish (stylish is an underestimate) dresses and make up and all that.

          There is another  observation I have made. And this is particularly one which I dislike very much because it is too suggestive, not by the child'sfault but by its parents'. It is understandable that you want your child to look like a princess and very charming. But why should you make a 3 year old wear a ghagra choli, which reveals the child's stomach altogether and which has a short blouse? If a grown up girl wears this dress, it is understandable. But why make a small child an object of staring? And what with noodle strapped dresses which reveal the poor child's back and low cut necks and all that? It is a child after all! You have no right to dress your daughter up in this bad manner, even though you are her parent.


         

Lost (child)hoods - Part 1

For many days this issue has been bothering me. So, instead of writing the second part to my previous post, I will write about the topic which has been bothering me for quite some time.

          The reason for writing this is a facebook post by somebody, which discusses how an (ex)actress who is now the judge of a dance show for children showers encouragement on children after they perform some item numbers. It also discusses how an actress who is acting now a days, compared a small girl to some famous item dancer in a movie. It also discusses how another actress who is  the judge of another dance show somewhere told children to choose songs which suite their age, instead of dancing like item dancers.

            This reminded me of some of my own observations about children I have seen in the past two years. Even as a 25 year old person I feel that children now a days don't behave like children at all, but they prefer to behave like adults. And trust me, I can tell that they have got the wrong notion of adulthood. Consequence: At their ages , they are neither children because of their attitudes nor adults because of their age. I feel pity to the children trapped in this form.

             Compared to other animals, humans have longer childhoods. It is true that during childhood, one craves to grow up, but after growing up one wishes to return to childhood days, simply for the pleasure of it. I doubt whether most of the children today have any childhood to cherish.

            I don't know what has caused this kind of a drastic change. Is it media (see media pops up again!)? Or is it food habits, or is it the trendy life most people crave for, now a days? Is it because children are forced to run races in everything they have to lay hands upon, just like the adults do struggle to excel in business? Is love, sex and dhoka the only remaining things you'll have out of your childhood? Will you ever come to know how a normal "child" ought to grow up?

            Constitution says  that all individuals below 14 years are children. Right upto your age 10 you may behave like a child. And after 10, by some imposed standards do you start considering yourself as a teenager who ought to try out fashion and stuff. Ok fine teenage is a complicated period. You are naive, but you are rebellious. You basically don't know what to do. But atleast you ought to release yourself from the tangles of the only options of love,fashion and glamor provided to you and use this age of yours creatively to find out what kind of life you need and what your goals in life should be.

  Now let me come back to the first thing I wrote. About children dancing to the tunes of item numbers and the comment about children have to dance to the tunes which suits them. She was right. But there is one problem. Have you lately seen any film, let alone a movie, have you ever, in the near future seen any song which is meant for a child? No matter how hard you think, you won't be able to find the answer.


          
          

          

Infotainment or info-staninment?- Part 1

           All of you know that INFOTAINMENT is a combination word which was a product of the modern media flooded world. INFORMATION + ENTERTAINMENT = INFOTAINMENT

            As a child, the only news I used to hear were on DD and AIR. And truthfully, they were quite decent. And the only news I used to read were from std newspapers. But even with those news papers, when I had a feeling that I was reading the wrong newspaper, (which my grandma preferred) I went and told the paper distributor myself to put the one which I liked and thankfully, it is still the one we read. I won't digress from the topic. Let me put it straight. Isn't/hasn't  this infotainment business becoming/become a platform for live and widespread gossiping? Live because there are always live discussions and widespread beacuse satellites take them everywhere.

             During our childhood we were all taught that gossiping is bad. In my personal opinion media were a bit more decent a decade ago. Actually I can write a funny story about the origin of INFOTAINMENT. This is as follows :

             "Not so long ago, but long enough ago, there were mega and giga serials in all the channels and they used to make all the women population all over this country cry form 19.00 hrs to 23.00 hrs from Monday to Friday.But somehow that wave subsided, I don't know if it was because, the idea of a suffering woman became unacceptable or because all the mother in laws decided to become amicable towards their daughter in laws or something, the serials just lost their strong hold over the hearts of the female population. Both women and the channels had obtained a bad name by that time. Women, for being addicted to sop serials, and channels, for making the women lazy. I suspect that a gang of hungry husbands, who were deprived of food and sports channels, might have conspired against these mega serials and would have written some blackmail notes to the channel heads to change the scenario and reverse the status of their wives as mere food cooking machines.
 
           Anyway, the tide of sop serials was over and the channels had to telecast something. Come on, they have to earn a living. Don't they have to? All stories had gone, because serials with similar stories were on almost all channels. They had to show something new. And where do you get something new everyday? In between came the era of reality shows. I don't know what reality do they show? Be it a dance show or music show, in which you can vote (do I have to go into all that business right now? I guess all of you know about this, because all of us, including me has voted at least once for our favorite contestant in any of those programs.) most of the times it does the purpose of a sop serial. Needless to say, there are many many reality music programs which have led to many things, both in entertainment world and real world. But still, these programs have a limit. They should be in a particular format and you can telecast it only for a fixed period. Where can you get the material for  infinite entertainment?

         Somebody had a brain wave after intense thinking (see they had to think very intensely because of the intellectual dumbness caused by watching and telecasting giga/tera serials under the name of mega serials). Somebody said, "Let news channels be." And thus started the era; of INFOTAINMENT!