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!

                
      

The only friend

The only friend you have;
 When happiness shower;
The  one who truly rejoices;
The one who won't be jealous;
When you need somebody;
In the shadows of sorrows;
The one who never leaves you;
Who always stands by you;
Who speaks in a small voice;
"I am with you"; is,
Nobody else; but you.

SOME QUESTIONS - Part 2

Now let me ask some questions about the "wedding show-off". When I was a child, I was bothered very much by the idea of dowry and had taken an oath that I'll never marry a guy who/whose family asks for dowry. (I still have a plan to say a loud "get out of my house" to any stupid fellow and his family who demands dowry to marry me.) But as I grew up, I realized that even those who speak badly about dowry becomes "a traditional citizen (it is shameful to call such persons citizens)", when it comes to their daughter's wedding. As the old tradition (blah , that tradition go to hell), they start viewing their daughter as a burden (Which you can't tolerate, then why did you make the X chromosome pair with the X itself when you were reproducing?) (not even burden as some garbage which has to be dumped anywhere as soon as possible). Well if you want to shove your daughter off somewhere, do it. Why do you have to associate it with your social status?

When I ask this question, I've to mention about the general mind set up of people.
And that mind set up is based on the fact mentioned above. Girls above a certain age are burden! somebody someday lamented this stupid thing and it became the ideology of the society! Wah! And as always the wrong ideas get popularity rather than good ideas like educating girls. Why? probably because education cannot be celebrated even if it actually increases your standards. (I'm not talking about the professional education mania. if you want to know about that mania, please read "Who wants us to be illiterate?")

And the ridiculous thing is that, parents don't want to educate girls for fear of not finding an appropriately educated guy. Plainly speaking nobody will marry a highly educated girl. So girls should be brought up as ignorant beings who will tolerate anything, because by arranging a high cost marriage you are "buying" a supposed body guard for your daughter, who actually will treat her only as his object of pleasure and a source of money and as a servant who will attend to you free of daily wages! And if your daughter opposes to agree to this stupid system and chooses to remain single until the age she prefers as an independent being, the girl is stamped by the "society" as a bad one. Even if her parents support her views and let her to live her life. And the "good society" comprising of parents who "believe" in "traditions" start making stories about the girl!

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The stories these "good parents" make against the girl and the family will be something like the following:

1) The girl is a "bad" girl. When they use bad, they want that girl to have indulged in a relationship with somebody and broke up(if their own son really does all these they won't have a problem. why? Because "he" is a "male"!). That's why this girl decided to stay single!

2) If they can't find any scandal to accuse against her, then they will accuse the girl to be a disobedient person! What they actually want to imply is this: girls have no right of choice. They should eat or gulp whatever crap they are provided with. Why? Because "we the good society" believe that girls are born to "serve men and men only". If some girl proclaims her freedom, the doomsday will be near. They should "take in" whatever comes to them and not oppose the things which they don't like. if so the girl's name should be tarnished.

3) "We the good parents" will do anything to mentally torture the parents of the independent girl and will make it look as if their social status is in question because their daughter has not got married even though she is past the "marriage age". See our daughter/daughters have been married to (Well at this point I've to make a remark about these good "parents". These are parents who will sell their properties and give big amounts as "gifts" to the guy and his financially backward family who had been waiting to find a foolish family so that they will get large amount as dowry so that they can pay the dowry to dump their daughter off somewhere.) "smart" (yes they are really smart [in reality good for nothing] to get a "pati post" without any effort at all, and earn lifelong in the name of dowry, because they were useless fellows who couldn't find a real job to provide livelihood. ) guy/guys who will "obey" us. They will act as bodyguards for our daughters wherever they go. See you have failed to "buy" a bodyguard for your daughter. So you are good for nothing! We have got all rights to abuse you in front of and behind everyone , and make stores about your daughter who doesn't stay inside the limits set by the "traditional, always good society comprising us".

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Now I've something  ask to you dear "good parents". Why do you think that the process of dumping your daughter to the mercy of some stupid person increases your social status? You've to "pay" lakhs to "buy" him off. You have to sell your properties (for example your farm land from where you used to get food crops and cash crops and a sustained income by selling them) to make  a big house/houses to "lure" the "suitors" (I mean bodyguards) for your daughter/daughters, divide the house vertically or horizontally (otherwise who knows when your daughters learn from you and start nagging about money and social status) along with the "gifts" in equal amounts (so that nobody including your daughters complains) and do the worst mistake of your life. 

You marry off your daughter spending lakhs of rupees. Lakhs for the ornaments the girl has to display on the wedding day, lakhs for the huge car (so that the "smart" fellow can travel alone and cause traffic blocks on Indian roads) to be "gifted" to your "daughter", lakhs for the wedding ceremony which lasts barely three hours! Unless you invite atleast thousand people and conduct your daughter's marriage in a BBBBBBBBBBIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIGGGGGGGGGGGG auditorium, nobody will respect you. Correct. You don't have anything else to become famous or top be known for. You didn't study well, so you don't have a decent job. You don't have special talents, so you can't participate in a reality show. You've inferiority complex when you compare yourself with others in your family. You have nothing else to do rather than sit at home and dial numbers and spread gossips all over and collect news (actually gossips) from all over, the world. So the only way you can become famous is by conducting a "fancy show" by yourself. And the actors are your daughter and her bride groom.

You'll definitely become famous in two ways. Stupid people who don't see anything other than glitter will come and "admire" the saree/costume and ornaments worn by your daughter. They won't even bother to look at the decoration of the stage. Admire here means to count. Those who attend weddings will be experts in "weighing" gold without a weighing machine (isn't it what you want?). they'll spread the word of how many kilograms of gold did your daughter wear on her wedding day. The way is that after all the wedding halla is over, you will be bankrupt and will become famous for that. does your social status increase with all these?

If you've money, can't you use it judiciously? Do you really have to spend it for something which has no guarantee? I mean is there an y guarantee that the couple whose wedding was conducted at the cost of being bankrupt will last for ever? Provide the "banglaa,gaadi,babe" motto of the "smart" guys, can you say that the marriage will not end in divorce? If it does then, wasn't it a bad decision to spend money extravagantly like you did? Why are you laughing at independent people?

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Having a married life and giving birth to a child or expanding your family doesn't increase your social status. [At this point I've to make a remark. If you respect a double mother, then you should respect single mothers in the society, because they are the ones who didn't kill their their children under hostile circumstances and decided to bring them up bravely.] If you have some delusions like that you can keep it inside your under developed useless brain. You are a middle class person. What is so shameful about that? When you lament about the things which you don't have, why don't you look at people who don't have food,water,clothes and shelter. Do you have to sleep on a dirty pavement on a rainy night? Then why are you bothered about silly things like how much gold to be spent to "secure" (infact dump off) your daughters life?


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