Myopic Lives

When I was small, my mom taught me something for which I will never stop being grateful to her for.

My mother has been a teacher for most of her life, but I have never stopped learning from her. She taught me to keep learning, stay inquisitive & curious. No knowledge is enough. There is always something to learn. Always read the fine print. She always does.

This has defined me. I am forever questioning things, always over thinking things. Sometimes consciously, mostly the process is subconscious now. I admit to being quite annoying as I am forever interrupting and asking questions. And no question is stupid.

However, I have noticed that people get the idea that knowing something in-depth is getting into finer details. Do you really need to know so much? Who really reads the T&C? Why dig deeper?

However, when you step back and analyze you see that it cannot have been further from the truth. When you read the finer print, your canvas is expanding. Like the Universe, it is self expanding to the extent of infinity.

My work as a social media learner steadily involves me being subject matter expert in several different topics, all at the same time. The paucity of time always has us Googling and Wikiing for knowledge base and seeking answers. After all, how much is one person supposed to know, understand, analyze and retain!? Maybe not much. Surprisingly, I happen to know plenty of people who actually do!

While I can go on endlessly about the virtues of the said people who I happily get into pleasant long wounded discussions with about a wide variety of topics and how while I sometimes get annoyed at myself for not knowing enough, it will never stop me from probing how much more of this big wide world I am still to learn about; as much as I would love to, this post is not about that.

So, recently, I came across a couple of individuals who have garnered respect through years of hard work coupled with sheer awesomeness - Mani Ratnam & Ilaiyaraaja. (Just FYI - their birthdays coincide!). While I contemplated aloud, the reaction I garnered makes for the nucleus of this blog. I was shocked and surprised to be asked who they are (If you asked the same, please Wiki it and stop reading this right now!).

Quite frankly, I like being entertained and that is how close I get to cinema & music. Music, I have learnt, is independent of language, it only needs to touch your soul. Apart from that I can't tell much.

Thus, while claiming to be no expert, I believe that if you have spent 20-plus years on this planet, you surely know something about the most popular things around. You would have some hint of what goes on this multilingual, multidimensional, cultural potpourri of a country. Wouldn't you?
That is when it hit me.

Most of us spend our lives skimming through things. Getting things done. Just like newspapers. You read a couple of headlines on each page and if something really catches your attention, maybe you read it or skip it anyways. If you need it, you can Google it!

In short, we live myopic lives. We only care about what we really think might matter to us. If it doesn't, its irrelevant. Where is the time anyways?

There is more to life than just living it. If we have Internet today, if we can commute to work, get our paychecks and food on the table, everything is alright with the world. We don't care about how traders in our very own city were on strike for over a month - not till we couldn't get what we wanted. If we got what we needed, we shrugged our shoulders and moved on. We didn't raise voices with them or stand by them. We didn't ask questions about how the media that can repeatedly show pictures of alien cows could find no time to show how alienated the city's streets got. We didn't ask questions to our over-inquisitive, finger- pointing journalists why they didn't have any questions to ask this time. We didn't do anything.

As long as our myopic lens saw self fulfillment, the world can go to hell.

Somewhere along the line, I have come to respect countries like Tunisia, Egypt and now Istanbul - simply for their people. Even as I write this, people are collecting at the center of the country to demand what they believe is their right. While I can't tell you if is good and who out of the government and people are correct, I can tell that the people care and have not gone totally myopic. If they feel their children need a garden to play in, they walk towards it and fight for it. Maybe they are right, maybe they are not.

Social media has been the winner with Jasmine Revolution and Arab Spring. The idea is to be able to connect with the world outside.See the bigger picture. Bring power back to where it belongs - in the hands of the people.

However, while our technology keeps getting smarter, we seem to know lesser everyday. While we upgrade to 3G, in reality we connect lesser. Our TV screen is larger and sounds clearer but, thanks to our mental myopia, our hearts are smaller. We love less. Mainly, we only love ourselves.

Which brings me back to - why are we myopic after all? Do we really believe that we don't need to know? Or is it window through which we say, it will never happen to us? The bigger question is why do we not choose to see? What is so wrong with seeing the bigger and real picture?

What can be done to break this self-made barrier that stops you from being everything you can be? Why the mental myopia?

Music & some more...

Last 2-3 days have been a lot about good music. I feel a lot more calmer than I have for some time now. Maybe not completely, but its a good start. I might just find my mojo again!

Part of the reason has something to do with enjoying some of the best in the Indian music scenario. I heard Raghu Dixit, Indian Ocean and A R Rahman: As awesome as it gets!

Frankly, I had never heard of Raghu Dixit before Fest-O-Comm this year. And then I did. And I fell in love with some amazing music! The way I didn't imagine it to be. Honestly, I am not very experimental when it comes to music. But then I experienced a new so amazing it never left me. I have been hooked on to The Raghu Dixit Project since that fateful night at SIMC. I am glad or what!?

Needless to say, it has been played over on endless loops since then. Still does. Their on-stage performance is exhilarating. Raghu Dixit is the man! They have so much electricity, you can't help but get affected. The music is soothing and exciting at the same time. The lyrics make sense to me, reach out and touch me somewhere deep down inside. I can be in the worst of moods and it can take me up to high to heavens in no time at all!

On the same note, I realized the value of a performance recently. The setting at SIMC was simply perfect. However, the band recently performed at another another huge gig and let's just say there were a lot of "disturbances" which almost marred their performance. I liked it. Nevertheless. I still love him and his music.

That is what got me thinking and I learnt something new out of it.

I fell in love with Raghu Dixit and his contemporary folk music at a live performance. Realized I am in love over endless listening loops. If it were just a performance thing, I might have been turned off/ away by the performance that didn't exactly "rock my world". But I learnt, when you really truly love something, then a few tiny electronic mishaps were not going to steal that away. The momentum stays.

Similarly in life. There will always be performances or your acts in the larger play of life. You got to do what is right. There is no guarantee it will turn out perfect. Where is the fun in that even? But you definitely got to put your all in it and make it worth. It may work or it may not. You got to stick with what makes you feel the best. If it feels right, it's got to be right. It may not always be perfect, but it will always be right. There might be mishaps along the way, but then life would be so boring otherwise. The true things, the good things will always last out. And when they do, they will have earned the respect they deserve.

Enuff said!

Women in India

Just another day in the busy saga called India.

In a country of a few billion, what are a few negative incidents - no different than the pickles lying next to our dal-rice. After all, its a country where most of the population is still struggling at the base of Maslow's hierarchy.

The government, apart from minting and swindling money, is busy trying to provide food, clothing and shelter to everyone first. The corporates are busy squeezing employee hours and minting money. Every now and then they wake from their slumber, conduct some CSR and go their way. The middle class is busy pretending to try to grow, while most of them tend to stay where they were. The rich are busy finding / discovering / inventing new ways to stay busy.

More or less, everyone is doing what they can do. No one has the time, money, energy or inclination to do more than what they need to.

Who needs to care about a few deaths and a few mistreatment and in-human behaviour?


This is precisely the time when the first thing most of us come up with is, "It's the government's responsibility".  I don't think so. I believe, a country is who its citizens want it to be. The precise state of our country is just a mirror image of who we are, what we have become and more importantly, where we are headed!

So, when incidents like the one in Guwahati happens. We create a furor around it, blabber away for a couple of days and then go back to our coffees and conversations. In fact, in quite a sadistic manner we start looking for the next big scoop of news - old is boring. We need more. Something / someone else to talk about.

And why not?

Guwahati is in a far away, almost forgettable corner of the country. When there are bigger issues like death by Maoists, terrorist, internal conflicts, hunger and nature, hooligans do not seem to feature too high on the list.

I have a bigger concern. It's not a problem at Guwahati alone.

A few days back, I was passing Andheri station (one of the busiest work hour local train junctions in Mumbai). To the uninitiated, the place is maddening. There are people everywhere and constantly moving. Those getting off are rushing towards bridges and exits. Those entering the platforms are rushing to catch their train and grab a seat. Simply put, everyone is just rushing about, especially at peak hours.

And among the crowds that day, while waiting for my own train to make an appearance, I happened to notice something that made me question the perception of safety in Maximum City. As I was watching a woman dressed in traditional Indian wear, office bag on her shoulder, was making her way through the crowds and moving towards one of the bridges. There being too much rush, she chose to walk nearer to the edge of the platform. As my train rolled, I watched as the woman tried to get further away from the train.

She moved a bit too late. Even as she tried blending in the crowd, a hand purposely stretched out and whacked her. I will never forget the look on her face. I would describe it as stunned. A few of those walking around screamed obscenities at the person, which made the woman more conscious. The woman clearly figured the damage was done and as the train rolled over and new crowds mixed in, she simply lowered her head, walked a bit faster and did her best to blend into the crowds unnoticed. The moment when the woman got hit on, infuriated me. I feel ashamed to say I did nothing myself. The rushy life of Mumbai soon sucked up my thoughts and it was a lost incident like many other that catch my attention, till the Guwahati outrage, brought it back.

I have questioned myself. Should I not have rushed to the woman's side? Did that eve teaser not deserve to be publicly dragged and taught a lesson that he or others like him dare not repeat? Why did I not bother? More importantly, why did the woman herself not bother? More thoughts brought out more questions. What could she have really done? It was not the woman's fault - unless you want to call her walking on this platform an error on her part! She was clearly not dressed provocatively. She was out in broad day light. Earning a living, like every human deserves too. Yet she went through what she went through.

I have since then stopped often, stared at the mirror and questioned myself. That girl could have been me. I rush about, do what I got to do, live a life where I can always hold my head up in public. Why would I deserve to hide my face or hang my face in shame because someone else is so blatantly shameless?

Is it really a woman's fault that she is popularly considered as weaker sex? We are way stronger than men in so many more ways. We work longer, harder and still are caring and take care of families. Is it only an Indian-men-mentality? I know I am generalizing right now and I am glad I know loads of good men too. The kind who respect women and would step up to help them, if the need arises, not molest them when they are down on the ground.

This lead to another area of probing. Maybe, its the way we treat those whom we consider below us. I have yet to see someone who misses a chance at oneupmanship over those in a tight situation, even if so momentarily. Those who do (thankfully I do know a few!) are a dying breed.

Are we really such a frustrated lot?