Why?

Why is it that:

• we litter freely on our streets, our houses, our offices etc. but take extra care to ensure that pick up every piece of our litter in a foreign country?
• we stand patiently in long queues, in a Wal-Mart or a Target, but push our way through to the billing counter that looks most empty, disregarding the people who have been waiting in a queue or even laughing at them for not having had the gall to push through, at Food World or Big Bazaar?
• we apologise profusely every time we brush across someone accidentally in New York or Paris but glare at the other individual and part with a few choicest words, even if we are at fault, in Bangalore or Bombay?
• we smile pleasantly at absolute strangers and wish them a 'Good Morning' , 'Good Night' in Chicago or LA but think twice before smiling at an acquaintance in India?
• we hold doors open for strangers walking behind us or even in front of us abroad but push doors and walk on, not bothering about holding it open for a friend walking right behind us?
• we smile and make polite conversation with strangers in the lift overseas but forget to smile at a colleague or an acquaintance on entering a lift, promptly turn our backs at the people in the lift and stared focussedly at the lift panel, till our destinations in India?

Are we being hypocrites elsewhere and revealing our true selves in our country or do we take our country and fellow countrymen for granted and therefore display our worst behaviour here, reserving the best for our trips abroad?

Empathy - a rare trait?

Today evening, while on my way back home, I saw an all too familiar sight these days - an ambulance in the midst of peak hour traffic, its siren wailing, pleading for people to give way.
I peeped into the ambulance to see an old, distraught lady sitting at the back - presumably someone close to her was being rushed to the hospital.
I watched the traffic inch its way through; I watched some vehicle riders/drivers trying their best to give way by moving in whichever direction they could, to create some space for the ambulance to go through. I smiled to myself and said - 'We have come a long way from those days when the vehicles would not bother moving to the sounds of a wailing ambulance'.
And then as I watched, there were 2 arrogant car drivers, who, on seeing some empty space created, shot forward, squeezed into the gap and blocked the ambulance's path again. It did not appear to me that they had a greater emergency than the ambulance to reach some place.
Just wondering even as I type - 'Why is it that some people have lost the sense of empathy? Could they not see what I did - the old lady, close to tears? What can be more important than a matter of life and death? Or is it that some people react only when tragedy comes knocking at their doorstep? Are we slowly heading towards a 'feelingless' world, where deadlines are more important than lives, where getting to some place is more important than a life or death moment in another individual's life?'
Still thinking...

The Gori Story!

So, we rose up as a nation, in protest of Shilpa Shetty being racially discriminated upon.
Each one of us felt it was us that Jade Goody was targeting, by virtue of each one of us being Indians. Great sense of unity!
But…how hypocritical are we? Do we not, even today, discriminate based on caste or religion? Do we not have schools ‘preferring’ children of one religion or caste over the other? The discrimination may not be in black and white print. But there is a hidden undercurrent of discrimination everywhere.
Oh and did I forget discrimination based on skin colour? White is beautiful, we are taught. There are young girls who aspire to become the next beauty queen by slathering layers of ‘Fair & Lovely’ on their faces, because the ads show a dusky (read ‘ugly duckling’, based on her skin colour) girl transform into a gorgeous swan after 6 weeks of using the cream. A digression from the topic of discrimination but I couldn’t resist putting this wild thought down anyway. Is the ‘Fairness Creams’ market trying to educate us that applying these creams on our face will suffice to turn the skin colour of the entire body to fair and therefore beautiful? Has anyone ever thought how funny someone would look with a white face (assuming that the creams really give the user ‘chamakti safedi’) and a dark neck, torso, arms and legs?
Ok getting back to discrimination, do we still not see matrimonial ads proudly proclaiming that the girl is fair and therefore beautiful? Do we not see wannabe grooms advertising for a fair and beautiful girl?
Bollywood too seems to go by the notion, ‘White is beautiful’. How many dusky women (with the exception of Bipasha and a few others, because they had some other saleable attributes) have you ever seen grace the silver screen?
The same bunch of people who show a ‘preference’ to fair skin will preach on talk shows and every opportunity available in print media, that beauty is skin deep and that you cannot judge a book by its cover.
If fair was beautiful, why is tanning so popular in the West? Why do people pay hundreds of dollars to go to tanning salons to get a nice, tanned complexion that we Indians have been blessed with from birth?
Agreed that discrimination of any kind is a social crime and should be protested against. But should we not clean up our home turf first by not discriminating against anyone on the basis of caste, religion or skin colour, before accusing others of discrimination?
Just my thoughts…

Janam Din Mubarak!

Here's a toast

• To the one who recorded all the gibberish I spoke when I was 2 because he was proud of me
• To the one who religiously took me on those daily scooter rides, come what may, when I was 5
• To the one who painstakingly labeled all the awards I ever won, so that he could look at them proudly every time and relive the moments when I won those awards
• To the one who has carefully filed away all the sketches I ever drew, all the letters I ever wrote to family and all my report cards, so that he can look at them and go back in time
• To the one who patiently taught me complex math that I refused to comprehend till a very long time
• To the one who pampered me to the core but ensured that I was never spoilt
• To the one who broke down while dropping me off at a hostel and missed me every day of his life, during my college days
• To the one who believes that the picture of my convocation makes a living room wall piece, rather than being tucked away in an obscure album somewhere
• To the one who insists on coming to the airport/station to pick me up every single time I visit home, even though I am grown up now, just to make me feel real special
• To the one who has always been proud of my achievements, however miniscule they might appear to others
• To the best man I have ever known from the day I was born, till date
  
  Happy Birthday, Dad! Here’s wishing that life gives you the best always because you surely deserve all the happiness in the world!

Where buildings are made of chocolate and the mountains of ice cream!

My roommate and I watched Parzania today. A gripping tale that had me walking out of the cinema hall in tears. As I walked out of PVR, I saw that almost every girl who watched the movie had moist eyes.
It seemed to me that the cast was carefully chosen, to enact beautifully, the story of the Modi family during the post-Godhra riots in Ahmedabad.
I could put myself in Cyrus and Shernaz’s shoes – I could feel their pain on losing their son, Parzan to a fanatical mob.
But the supposed keeper of peace in Gujarat, the Bajrang Dal, has banned this movie in Gujarat, the place where the chances of finding Azhar (called Parzan in the movie) are the greatest. And why? It was supposedly “anti-Gujarat” and would create communal disturbance! Is the story of a 10 year old boy missing since the time of the riots, ‘anti-Gujarat’? Are they referring to communal disturbance that could be promoted by themselves?
Thank you the keepers of the law, for promoting piracy – so what if you ban the movies in Gujarat theatres. Do you know that people have been buying the pirated version of Parzania and watching it?
There is something called ‘Freedom of Expression’ according to our fundamental rights, Dear members of the Dal - The Director of the movie can therefore express what he feels about an issue and the people of the country have the freedom to watch the movie if it interests them. There is also a body called the Censor board that decides whether a movie is appropriate for being screened in the country or not. Why do we need the Censor board or even the I & B Ministry any longer, when we have the Dal filled with people capable enough to decide what should be watched and what should not?

A Film filled Weekend

This weekend was when I planned to make up for not watching movies in a long time. I decided to begin my movie watching spree with Guru yesterday (finally!). A good story line with some riveting performances. I was impressed by the acting prowess of Abhishek, Mithun, Vidya and Madhavan.
What saddened me was the portrayal of how an apparent lack of ethics can still build and sustain a seemingly unshakeable empire, come what may.
I wondered about the disclaimer in the beginning of the movie though - ‘All characters are fictitious. Any resemblance to any person living or dead is purely coincidental’. Agreed the name ‘Gurukant Desai’ may have been the script writer’s creation. But I am sure that everyone who has watched the movie found a striking similarity to Mr. Dhirubhai Ambani’s life. Why the disclaimer then? Could the movie not have been an open tribute to him? Or did the creators of the movie not want to associate some of the ‘unethical’ practices that Gurubhai followed to get to where he was with Dhirubhai?
Still thinking….