Contradictions

 

We are a bundle of contradictions. We say one thing and mean exactly the opposite. We do things we ought not to and don’t do those which we ought to. We invariably find ourselves pre-judging persons. Call it prejudice, bias. Why do we do it? What drives us to form biased views? One reason could be the habit of making comparisons. Comparing one with another on lifestyle, income, social standing, career, profession and many such things crowd our mind so much that we fail to comprehend the reality. In Economics parlance it is called ‘demonstration effect’. Comparisons are very dangerous, more so in personal relationship. Our mind is constantly engaged in such ‘comparison mode’ and end up ‘satisfied\dissatisfied’ depending on our rating vis-a-vis the other person in ‘comparison scale’.

Self-righteousness is another major cause for contradictions. Some of us are obsessed with ‘I-am-ok-rest-are-not-ok’ principle. They feel that others are always wrong. Their mind is a minefield of dilemmas analysing and rationalizing the behavioural pattern of others. All the while, in their attempt at being self-righteous, they bring themselves under tremendous stress without being aware of it.

Why do we find it difficult to accept people for what they are? Why indulge in critical examination of whoever that comes across us? Do we have to do it – bringing every action, reaction, response under microscope? Is it too difficult a task to accept them at face value? Live and let live proves elusive. Maybe, they reckon it is too philosophical.

Treating others’ views regardless of its relevance or otherwise with utter disregard, contempt is yet another display of our myopic mindset. Can we attribute it to feeling of insecurity? Or irrational hatred?

While ego is a universally acknowledged enemy, self-respect is considered a virtue. So thin is the line between what we perceive as self-respect and ego, the probability of getting them mixed up is very high.  

Our behaviour in victory and defeat is perhaps the biggest test of character. Humility in victory and grace in defeat are a dream armoury to possess. To find the meaning of equanimity all that we need to do is to consult dictionary. By merely gathering its meaning from dictionary will not make us so. Are we really capable of consistently displaying equanimity in adverse situations?   

We tend to carry too many negative feelings. Despite being aware of adverse impact of negative feelings, we find it hard to get rid of them. Again a bundle of contradictions. Positive mental attitude is the buzzword. Yet the degree of eagerness to hug PMA is drowned by the force of negative feelings. Why is it that we attach so much importance to negative feelings?  A deeper analysis might even suggest that we are allowing ourselves to be ruled by them. Human brain is very tricky, so said a wise man. And we are proving him right by our actions. One part of our mind wants us to keep an open mind while the other does everything possible to shut it. The burden of contradictions keeps mounting and the possibility of collapsing under its weight is alarmingly high.

We find ourselves obsessed with ‘what-might-others-say’ syndrome. As a consequence of this syndrome, we find people behaving differently and unnaturally. We are not who we are. Duplicity?  Hypocrisy? It is widely believed that we need to change constantly, adapt to the circumstances, changing times. How often do we hear people saying ‘if only that was in place’, world would be a better place to live in. Such sweeping generalization only camouflages a weak mind. Aren’t we our own enemy? Unable to face the reality, we hide behind a mask. The first place for change to happen is our doorstep. But then we believe in exactly the opposite!

It is time for us to see the bigger picture, reflect and introspect, ignore the narrow narrative, live and let live. Life is fun. Have fun. If there’s none, find one!

 

Funny & Punny and their Timeless Tales

 

Funny and Punny were deep in discussion. Through their DID – no, not the reality show

– they were ‘toi’ng with the ideas. Suddenly from out of nowhere they heard an

announcement heralding the arrival of ‘Aakaarvani’. As F&P could not see anyone

around, they surmised it must be the voice of ‘asharirvani’. They chatted along.

Funny: Aakaarvani is the latest entry

Punny: ‘A flood of vanis’, aakashvani, asharirvani

F: Wonder though about its ‘aakar’ – Nirvikaar, Saakar or Nakar

P: Maybe just a ghost in jest

F: ‘Alec, your are smart, but ‘erratic’

P: Sounds like you are ‘politically correct’

F: Correction, ‘politically incorrect’

P: Point taken, but such ‘politically incorrect’ statements ‘shobha’ nahi ‘de’ta

F: Don’t teach Men Morals, Guru Charan sparsh se Das bano

P: Be your age, find a (half) friend

F: Yes of course, I’m an eternal ‘optimist’ despite my ‘age’

P: Ever heard of ‘Gupt’shastra – the theory of Right and Wrong

F: It is time for ‘Deep Focus’

P: It is so routine, no ‘out of turn’

F: Sadly, it is the ultimate ‘seize within’

P: Akbar makes you read akhbar baar baar

F: Brother Akbar is the ‘blood’line of ‘age’less times of India

P: Nothing else chokes your ‘vein’ as easily as the funny, punny, witty ‘jug’lery of words

 F: Times drowned in ‘oceanic’ temptation

P: No, sucked by suave ‘sagar’ika whirlpool

F: Sharp as razor. Swami N Om can’t resist the temptation of drilling your ‘ankle’

horizontally to unearth ‘shal’low gas even as you find readers gnashing their teeth and

muttering an occasional ‘aiy’ followed by ‘er’

P: Vehemently singular in supporting ‘plural’istic society·          

F: Never Economic in its Times with its profound ideas

P: Courts are known to take years to pass judgment, but then these are times for ‘snap

judgment’

F: It carries so many ‘mirrors’ for us to see and reflect

P: If your are thrown off its views, rest assured of a balanced ‘counterview’

F: I can’t shift from ‘I’ to small ‘I’ to keep pace with changing times. Subtle and

deliberate

P: Very symbolic – arrogance represented by ( I ) replaced by humility ( i)

F: If you are crestfallen, try ‘crest’

P: These are times when ‘trees speak’

The clock struck nine. Their chat was abruptly cut short by earsplitting sound. They

realized it is ‘times now’! And wound up.

Bric-by-Bric (D)Rama is building UP

                                                  

Funny: A very interesting dRama is coming UP – a multi starrer

Punny: You mean ‘all parties’ are playing the dRama! With all SPecial effects

F: You got to Be SPecific

P: Every ‘Bahu’ in Samaj is a party to the UPcoming dRama

F: You are under illusion. There is a bahu behind every statue

P: They are leaving no ‘bric’ unturned to ensure success of their dRama

F: People are amused really, musing over museums

P: Park your flow of thoughts, do they have any ‘theme’ at all in this dRama

F:Centuries back, we had a ‘Raman Effect’

P: Yes, it was neither dRamatic, nor thematic. It was purely scientific, acclaimed world over

F: Are we regressive in this progressive world?

P:You promised ‘good governance’

F: Yes, but we haven’t ‘modi’fied enough?

P: Neither ‘surgical’ enough

F: What we are seeing is ‘maximum dRama’, whatever has become of ‘maximum governance’? 

Having successfully played the dRama decades ago, they are playing it all over again. What they don’t realize is people are seeing through their dRama of one-UPmanship, highly cynical of their sinister designs. Time Now for all Indian citizens to adopt ‘Uniform Civic Code’ to check-mate their dRama move-by-move, bric-by-bric! (Cut the ‘SAARC’asm).

AK 56 strikes and how!

                                                 

Funny: While every common man is making a bee-line for bank and ATM, every ‘con-man’ is screaming ‘terror attack’, being beaten black and blue, err black and white!

Punny: Real(ly) (e)state is in a state of shock what after being hit by a ten-ton-brick

F: Jewellers are painfully reminded of old classic Hindi movie – ‘Jewel Thief’

PF: A cross section of society is so cross with the measure

F: And you have Didi-the Durgi denouncing it as draconian

P: People and press going ‘gaga’ over a certain ‘Raga’ going to ATM

F:Ever since the AK56 strike, banks are devastated by the ‘demon’etisation debris

P: You mean a flood of 500 and 1000 currencies

F: You see bankers parroting ‘as long as you have Aadhar, you don’t have to ‘darr’(worry)

P: You can drive around with your ‘licence’ for exchanging old notes

F: ‘Pan’ India you need to have a card

P: Please note to give your ‘vote’(r ID) to get your note (exchanged)

F: It is your ‘passport’ to long term gain

P: Remember, no-pain-no-gain theory

Even as the common man is grappling with the financial war unleashed by AK56 aimed at ‘con-man’, we are ‘Left’ with no alternative but to take it with a pinch-of-salt which is hurting your pocket no less! Brace yourself for more pain (gain)!!

 

AK-56 Versus AK-47

Funny: For once, all political parties backed the army action and displayed exemplary solidarity with their ‘nation above all’ stand

Punny: Hold it, opposition seems to have realized that popularity level of the ruling party might soar and are extremely ‘surgical’ in producing a narrative which runs counter to their earlier stand

F: Maybe they discovered a ‘modi’fied version of terror!

P: Precisely, otherwise how does one explain a certain leader from congress to digress from party line to seek ‘proof’ of surgical strikes!

F: And then you have the AAP leader demanding that video footage of the ‘surgical strike’ be released. Crazy

P: Can’t get crazier, Kejri

F: More threatened by  ‘AK-56’ than AK-47!

P: What with ‘UP’coming elections, no wonder they felt the need to ‘modi’fy their strategy with ‘surgical’ precision!

F: Understandably so. The opposition found themselves in a catch-22 situation. i.e., ‘to praise or not to praise’

P: But then you can’t praise too much lest it affect politically. Neither can you be economical in ‘praising’

F: Opposition parties found themselves with ‘hobson’s choice’

P: Outcome of their choice would fetch results contrary to their expectations

Whether the debate will ever abate, only ‘time(now)’ will tell! Nation above all. Period.

Insensitive Premier League

Life is full of ironies and we are a bundle of contradictions. Consider these: school children pooled in resources to the extent of Rs 15 lakhs for the drought hit villages. And we have franchisees, iconic players, politicians hell bent on ‘show-must-go-on’ policy. So it is IPL all the way. Can there be a greater irony?

Equally ironical is the fact that it takes a disaster to occur to wake us up to reality. Till second successive monsoon failure, we were not even willing to admit there was drought. The question then is, should we have waited this long? Does it not bite our conscience that we turned a nelson eye to such grave situation of farmers?

Just picture the drought-hit areas and the IPL extravaganza. If this is not an irony of immeasurable proportion, one wonders what else is!

Wrinkled skin, creased forehead, eyes staring fixedly at ‘nothing’ – sight and the plight of such a human body have now become so common in those drought-hit places. And we have a gang of intellectuals, big businessmen, politicians playing the blame game even as the hapless people wait for a drop of water! What an outlandish irony?

No longer do we see tears in the eyes of the drought-hit farmers for they have ‘dried’ up. The sight of people walking miles to fetch a pail of water is gut wrenching. Yet we hear the war cry: why pick IPL alone? Get to the root of the problem. Will shifting a few matches solve their problem? Ask the government and the civic administration. What about golf courses being watered? Questions plenty. But no easy answers.

There is no doubt that we should address the root cause of the problem. But then if it takes eternity to get to the root cause, find solutions, implement and hope that they produce the desired results, the short term measure of shifting a few matches is definitely a better option. ‘In the long run, we would all be dead’, so said J M Keynes!

IPL - a hugely popular commercial extravaganza – is an irreversible phenomenon. Ever since its launch in 2008, it has grabbed the headlines, caught the imagination of the young and old alike, and has become an instant success with ever increasing fan-following and media coverage. It has proved to be a god-send for the fringe cricketers who otherwise would never have made it to the top in the traditional set up.

Mired in controversies, backed by business magnates and celebrities, IPL is a bundle of ironies with its ‘in-your-face’ show of money power.

While media makes a spectacle of tears running down the faces of players and the spectators every time a match is won or lost, the tears of drought-hit farmers go unnoticed. The contrast is hard to miss even to the most Insensitive Privileged Lot!

Beefcase & Briefcase

“Stop passing the buck. Rise above petty politics. See the bigger picture. Just do it”

Funny and Punny chatted along. Funny sought a ‘brief’ from Punny on a ‘case’.

Punny: The security needs to be ‘beefed’ up (having  hearing problem P mistook ‘brief’ for ‘beef’)

Funny: I asked for a ‘brief’ on the case. If it doesn’t ‘suit’ you, i’ll ‘boot’ you, mind it

P: Healthcare badly needs a ‘beef’ up

F: if you are not giving me the ‘brief’, you will come to grief

P:It’s so ‘Irani’cal – our education system. It needs to be ‘beefed’ up

F: You are barking up the wrong ‘beef’

P: Control your line, ‘beef’ up the border

F: Ok, let’s have a ‘brief’ on the ‘colored’ money

P:It’s the money, honey. When it comes to money, black or white – we are color-neutral!

F: you are finally coming to your senses

P: You are singing the same old ‘RaGa’ tune, ‘modi’fy it with bit of dy’NaMo’

F: So you are not coming out with any ‘brief’ on any of the cases

P: Let me put a lid on the ‘beef’ and bring in the ‘brief’case you seem to be obsessed with

F&P then summed up:’for every suitcase, there is a briefcase’. And now an add-on:a ‘beef’case

Even as the debate – noisy and nasty – continues to rage consuming the ‘prime time’ of the Funnys and Punnys and that of the aam admis leaving them ever so confused, the netas are busy as ever taking the nation for a ride. From ‘suitcase to briefcase to beefcase’, the netas turn ‘cow’ard and continue to ‘slaughter’ the people’s legitimate aspirations, making mince’meat’ of their – by now fast fading – hopes for ‘ache din’!

“Stop passing the buck. Rise above petty politics. See the bigger picture. Just do it”