Mans Greatest Invention......GoD

STATUATORY WARNING: If you are a strong believer of god then this post can seriously offend you. Feel free to ridicule it anytime.

I live in the city of gods, Varanasi. Here, you can find him in every corner giving hope to some, making someone rich, gifting baby boys to the expecting ones, or simply, giving meaning to the lives of the thousands of foreigners who come here every week.

Religion gives identity to this country. We are known to invent it and follow it regouresly. Our world famous culture and traditions originated from it. we are what we are because of our beliefs, belief in god, belief that whatever our ancestors believed in was right. The whole concept of god and religion was invented when we decided to give up on our search for answers, answers to our existence, purpose on this planet. We decided that if we cannot explain them, then let’s believe that there is someone who can and if we believed in him, strongly, may be one day he will let us into those secrets. The rational and logical explanation of everything gets too obvious and comfortable for us. We needed something to satisfy our thirst for the fairytale fantasies, with unexplained mysteries and magic, hence were born the Ramayanas, the Mahabharatas, the bibles and Korans. Whenever anything good happens in our lives we relate it to our right doings, to explain the calamities and catastrophes we take help from the devil. the usual feel good factor involved with helping someone just isn’t enough anymore, we need motivation, some concrete assurance that good done will be accounted for and reciprocated with good. So now guess who became the accountant.

It’s like a delusion which we created to bring the people together, make them give up alcohol and non-veg, strengthen the system of families and values, give hope and save them from depression and hopelessness. Throw in some heaven and hell and scare the society into order. Throw in some marriage and obtain better governed child upbringing and happy joint families. It provided employment to many, with all the enormous temples to build and thousands of lines of religious text to read.

However the best thing about religion is that most of it is based on logic. For example, solar eclipse is considered as a bad omen in many religions and hence the superstition says that, “do not go out of your house and never ever look at it or bad things will happen to you”. We obviously do not stare at it because of the harmful infrared rays during that time. But whatever be accepted, it has saved many from losing their eyesight.

This concept of religion works and India is the biggest proof of that. But for it to work properly we need to stay in that delusion long enough, believe in it to such an extent that it comes close to reality. Now science can ruin that, with all its logic and reasoning, it’s a tough fight. In India to do that is very difficult but in the US it has adversely affected their religion business and created messed up societies. So much so that many feel the need to come here and experiment with our thing. It is like that Matrix movie, where people were made to live and believe in a virtual world to manage and control them. A beautiful delusion. Then some felt the need to break out of it and face the reality….. Some couldn’t stand it and felt that it would have been better to live with the delusion. The truth is the reality does us no good. It may give a temporary feeling of superiority over the rest but eventually we will realize that the bubble life is actually better. science alone cannot satisfy, at least not like religion and god.

So now this has given rise to the present societies where the fanatics have been drastically reduced and replaced by sensible and god fearing people. Who follow religion, but are ready to accept that there is a world beyond this delusion. They have accepted the good (or rather gods)of both worlds. Obviously there are many side effects of GOD too. It’s like with toys, when children have different ones they will want to compare them and fight over it. But considering the many helpful advantages I can safely conclude that GOD has indeed been Mans greatest invention. Religion Rocks.

Intellectual Wannabes

like every thing else in this country our film Industry is diverse. And it is actually required when you have such a diverse audience, with different preferences. But the recent success of the critically ridiculed Kambakth Ishk has really made me think. Are we really comfortable to compromise our sensibilities, just for some cheap laughs. ofcourse there is also the paia wasool factor involved, you don't want to spend 200 rs for 2 hrs and not even get to laugh. This dangerous outlook of the audience has boosted the confidence of some creatively impaired film makers to make more moves. but the sad part is that even talented ones want to get a piece of it.

its a vicious cycle. stupid films make more money which is used to make even more stupid films, with bigger budget. its like the situation with Bihar and Lalu, one is the reason for another. It is not like we have any scarcity of talented film makers, so I don't understand the reason why our filmmakers are incapable of making sensible films is it just the risky tastes of the Indian audience or simply the lack of creativity. The one very useful thing I've learned while doing theater is that when it comes to exploiting human emotions, sadness is the easiest (as compared to fear or humor or thrill). the entire soup opera Industry is based on this formula. all Indian families like to curl up in the evening and shed tears for the poor stereotype tormented bahus and betis. the audience never gets tired of the them. some people thought that it wasn't enough so they showered us with reality shows having participants with leaky tear glands.

Then there are the "inspired" types, these are the ones that make me really angry, when they manipulate and mutilate the classic Hollywood stuff and and reduce it to their retarded perceptions. its a big insult to the "actual" film makers.
and when it comes to actors the one thing I've notice about Hollywood is that most of the acclaimed ones are generally not of the typical outrageously handsome types that we find here, take for example Tom Hanks, Russel Crowe, Matt Damon, kevin spacey. a proof that talent is preferred over looks. or rather talent is accepted to looks.
generally the opening day collections are governed by the type of publicity done and hype involved, this depends on the good will of the director or the actor involved. In Bollywood thats all that we depend upon. a movie hardly survives through the opening week unless it has Ghajni type publicity involved.

Although There are some film makers whose work I really wait for like Kabir Khan, Imtiaz ali, Madhur Bhandarkar, Raj kumar Hirani, V. Bhradwaj, its obvious that when it comes to films our taste buds are different to theirs. we like our movies with exaggerations and random coincidences, we like to leave reality to the real world and let fantasies take center stage. but the recent change in trend of these masala movie makers going for serious and sensitive topics can be dangerous. take for example the recent released "New York". it has gone too far with the whole American retaliation to 9/11 thing, showing an innocent Muslim turning to terrorism and almost blowing up the FBI headquarters. its true that it may not have made the same money had it lacked the senseless action. but it is disappointing to see that good film makers are ready to sacrifice their quality to satisfy the appetite of the curry loving junta.

No more compromiseS

the reality had finally settled in, some one changed the rules while we were sleeping, the religious fanatics feel their world has been polluted....
yes.. the gays are coming.. leaving their closets behind, and country is standing with their mouths wide open... in disbelief... No one can imagine such a thing in a land that gives meaning to the word 'conservative'. Some news even claimed that the judge who passed the order is himself a gay. of course its that stupid American way of life, letting some one be who he/she is, not compromising to social pressure, not fueling prejudices, how can we do something like that.

Obviously there are many who think the decision is wrong and that it should be debated upon because its "unnatural" , first of all who gave you the right to decide whats unnatural, just because it makes you feel uncomfortable, or because you can not explain it to your kids. Anything involving adults and consent should not involve law. the 150 year old section 377 of IPC has been amended to change the definition of "unnatural" and nothing else. The section was included to check child abuses (also animal abuses), which it still does so it isn't effecting the society in any way other than making it more liberal and humane, (how cruel huh!).

How much ever we may like to smug at the American culture (or the lack of it) the truth is our thing involves a lot of compromises and tolerances. If you think of it, its the very basis of our culture. From arranged marriages to intercaste marriages, from dowry to sati you'll find it every where.

May be the reason there are so many gays in America is not because of their crippled culture. rather than compromising and tolerating the societies natural ways they decide to live the way they are or want to be. Now if the same is happening in our country then the only feeling that we should be having is that of pride coz we've finally grown up. for all those who haven't, keep compromising.