The Ghost In The Mirror

The whole world seems busy these days... Kerala had a few Temple issues - wanted the treasury of one to stay closed quoting some coiling divine serpent that is there protecting it while some wanted the doors in another to open a little wider for women to enter; Tamil Nadu had its share of sex scandals - one where a singer 'me-too'ed' a lyricist and got crushed for doing that and later a Pollachi abuse issue that got politicized eventually. With the elections around the corner, parties are busy trying to solicit one another to form united alliances of utter confusion and as we go higher, we have people from the winged force flying unused rusty jets into politics-created war zones, getting shot to demonstrate the need to replace our fighting planes with a few new ones that are currently stuck underneath a s(c)(h)ammed deal and for the NEWS too, as we, the distracted, detracted nationalists, hail the pilot whose plane got gunned-down, returning without even a piece of that ejected seat. This to me, is so unfair. 

This last particular event especially, took me through a memory lane. A long time ago I rode my bicycle up a post and crashed it into another compound and my Dad I must say, was not particularly pleased with what I did to the cycle more than what had happened to me after the crash and I remember getting whipped as well for wrecking our neighbour's compound with my cycle. Today while reading about this guy who crashed a MIG purchased with my Dad's money (well, he pays his income tax you see, which must have gone into purchasing at least a sq.mm of the tail wing of the jet) into enemy territory and on the contrary, getting hailed for doing that it seems so unfair that the way we look at things have changed in the last couple of decades since I crashed my cycle into my neighbour's wall. At least I came back with all the scrap metal I managed to find when I crashed; and this guy just returned empty-handed (he did not even bring back his ejected seat!) with nothing more than a gun-sling moustache intact and I got busted while this guy gets hoisted... Duh! How fair is life?

Talking about 'fairness', we are all only as good as the world allows us to be I suppose. Little do I believe anymore that everyone has a destiny and if anything that happens, happens only for a reason. Everything that happens, opens only opportunities for other things to happen as I get to see these days. It is left to us to see those opportunities, use it or let it go. You cannot just shoot down a flying opportunity like you can shoot down a fighter jet using automatic guns and radars. 

In life, opportunities come, opportunities go... and it flies off if you don't seize it. 

The problem with opportunities is that we at times, mistake, misinterpret and misplace opportunities. During a recent episode, quite sadly I saw some people I 'ass'umed (yeah, made an 'ass' out of 'u' and 'me') were friends and my close circle, turn into opportunists who decided to break trust and good faith to keep themselves safe and secure. While most cut off and remained at dignified distance in absolute silence, some did harness the courage to come to me and declare that they were cowards left with no choice. Fool I must be to trust those words. Well they did have choice. Everyone has a choice... even the a-hole who does not make a choice, does have a choice to not make a choice at the end of the day. However life is such and such is life. Beaten yet not fallen, bruised yet not hurt, shot yet not hunted... just like the fellow whose jet got shot who is a national treasure now.   

Yet trust me, every choice has its consequence, even if it seems like only a shadow that you can ignore with a shrug today, it will hover someday like a dark nightmare that will wake you up screaming. Everything we do will make us think - if not today, someday and I will wait in the darkness for that day to come, to flash a mirror right at the faces of people who don't get to see themselves today and let them see clearly who they really are or capable to be. Today I cannot speak anything about this and if I do, it will be like an idiot trying to sell mirrors to the blind on a moonless night. Values I try to speak of, have already been exchanged for promised treasures and instant pleasures. Let me not disturb those who find these short-term reliefs comforting. Let me not disturb any of those. Trying to make people see through these, at this time, will be like standing in the middle of a whore-house in full swing and preaching about sin. Today, the noise around is too loud and their eyes are fixed at a mirage of permanency and they will never see nor hear whether I yell or shout. Everything for a while and life echoes... ces't la vie. 

Every passing day does not take us into the future; rather it takes us to the past where we leave an unpicked piece that must be gathered to solve a puzzle we are stuck with in the present. A day will come when many will return to search for the missing piece and when that day dawns I will be right here waiting; with a mirror in my hand, to roll my gun-sling moustache and to laugh as they try to recognize their worthless faces.  

Until then, let them shame Sodom and Gomorrah with their ways and make their fathers proud. Go forth and multiply as you please.  

Elephant Hunters

Recently I was going through an old hunting video from the jungles of Africa... it showed some white folks going on elephant hunting (more of an elephant trapping) - African elephants - with the help of the native Africans. As usual all I could see was how people can be bought in their own land and made to betray their own - humans, flora and fauna included - ever since a very long time.
How are man and woman made to turn against each other just for the petty playful relief of someone who sees them as nothing more than puppets to play their games with? Why does man submit to such authority? Does no one have an iota of self-respect at the end of the day?
Needless to say, these are in line with some thoughts that occur to me these days with a few issues I am facing and some people I get to see around - those that try to throw their pseudo-authority around (in vain) and those whose spineless backs I get to see as they run far, far away to save their butts. Sad humans I must say - both.
Should I lift a mirror and show them their faces or let it remain as contourless as they please? Should I be amazed at their complacence or admire their tactics for survival? Perhaps they too are like these Elephant Hunters capable of betraying their own for the tiny bits of morsels thrown at them by their masters - all that matters at the end of the day for them.
Isn't life a little bit more than that? As the old African quote goes, "In the Jungles of Africa, until the lion tells his side of the story, the tale of the hunt will always glorify the hunter...". Until then sleep Africa, sleep, sleep all you can if you really can sleep... 

A letter from a humble(d) Indian

Dear Rest of the World,

Its been a while I have been wanting to write to you. Been a while since I have been noticing how as one huge community in general, we belittle what we feel doesn't belong to us so much so that we take it for granted, like the ecology for instance and preserve and invest on what we think we owe like the economy for instance. Well, I intended to write not about the too-much-spoken already universal obvious yet a specific issue that bothers me from within the territorial borders of restrictions.

As a country, I have always witnessed that we export the the best of what we have; the best food we produce-grains, fruits, vegetables, butter and cream and what not?! Even the best fish we catch along our coasts we have always given you. Even at times when we gape with hapless awe at the size and quality of what is being caught, packed and boxed to be sent fresh, clean and as quick as possible to you, as we gather the left behind stray from rotting warehouses that we are expected to happy with or perhaps what our merchants consider us worthy of, we are happy for you. We take extra care in stitching the clothes, refining the sugar, tanning the leather, polishing those metals, stones you consider precious, sculptures and everything that you need or care with extra shine before we pack and send it across for you to hold and stare. Look around... even people we send from here are some of the best we had; the doctor, the nurse, the engineer, the teacher, the techie, the dancer, the musician, the singer, the clown, the scientist, the economist, the accountant, the writer, the people and every other professional now working for you. We have always been the slaves you wanted us to be; and you, we are made to consider our masters. Even the money made by hook and crook in our land, we have given it up to be stored in your land. We have even sat close and watched numbing pain, our people starve and even die as we loaded containers to fill your barracks; we smile even then and give you only the best... may be it is natural for us to do that cos our elders taught us so-to give the best we have to others even if it means to take the least of what is left for ourselves.

Well, when there is so much we do to take care of you like a pre-conditioned obligation of reminiscent master-worship by a slave, why in return do you always, every time you get a chance to sign a deal with us, extend a lousy hand?! Discarded cars rotting in your garage, poultry stinking in your cold storage, genetically modified seeds and fertilizers that kill our land, nuclear plants, poisonous gas, unreliable weapons for defense and unnecessary offence, even those pretentious food, drinks and people you send we near with dire suspicion. You send the illness and then too late the cure-both at equal costs we bear, you even chose to export your nuclear waste you consider too dangerous for you to be dumped in our coastal land... Why, oh why do you do this to us?! Godless people are you and heartless too; is it that your founding father's didn't teach you well?!

Get well soon I sincerely pray...

 A humble(d) Indian.