Finding Meaning.

Havent written in quite a while...Life can be self-consuming if not productive :D

This is a frank observation by me of the 'cattle class' education system we follow.

CATTLE CLASS: The word infamously used by ex-Union Minister Shashi Tharoor before the IPLgate scandal/hype/bullshit, it has a meaning that really fits the state of our nation.

We are all cattle being herded into doing things. Do we choose our 'careers'? Beta engineer ban jaa, beta doctor ban ja, beta MBA kar le... even if parents dont enforce it, we have nothing else in mind. We never think of anything else. We take false refuge in this security we get of the cattle being together in a herd. We are chained and enslaved everyday in this nominal 'free nation.'

Ever heard of a villager who has access to a library? Who reads Pu La Deshpande and John Milton in th same breath?

Ever heard of these people have any other option than move to a city? Ever seen them have any other option than to do menial labour, that too for measly payments? Ever heard of a man committing armed robbery NOT being one of these people?

This is our majority. This is the "Darkness" as Aravind Adiga puts it in The White Tiger.

So that leaves us, cosmopolitan, hip & ubercool, with access to the greatest library in the world called the Internet, big-brand mall-shopped clothes, a false sense of acquired superiority with our vastly (or rather ghastly) differing lifestyles, educated, well fed, well versed with our foreign liquors and foods and vocabulary.

Does that make us any more free than the Darkness? In my opinion, no.

Freedom is the quest of life. One may be free in several ways, yet chained in so many others.

A choice between so-called lucrative careers and non-lucrative careers is not really a choice, its like offering wine and poison. And we have no choice but to choose wine. And we choose wine again and again till we are disgusted by the stench of the vile fluid that burns through our chest every single moment of life that follows. We meander drunk for the rest of life.

LACK OF CHOICE IS NOTHING BUT SLAVERY.

Imagine this: a father who stays at home to take care of his kids, the mother runs a phone-for-surprise-party service that organizes surprise celebrations for all occasions. Weird job, you think.
Father does something from home known as indie film-making. A film being made on meagre budget, with absolutely none of the pomp we associate with cinema making in India. Purely chasing artistic vision.

How many people can live this way? How many of us would dare to go and do something like comic book writing, playing sport for the nation, starting an independent business, being a professional dancer?

Almost none. Those that do get little or no support from society for what they do. Some get sucked into the void of 'lucrative' work that break your back and ruin your peace of mind for that extra money. Some even contribute to making it harder for people to break free from the herd, whom I call the herdsmen, ripping off the herd while making sure more join it.

I don't know, I might sound hypocritical. I can be such a wise-cracking big-talking loudmouthed dickhead. But I intend to make sure that whatever I'm doing, if it seems like conforming, may twist itself radically to do something people may label 'waste of time' and 'no future.'

The purpose of this post isn't preachy or even suggestive. Its just a point of view. The mindset remains the same. People either choose to change, or ignore the change to conform and stay secure lifelong. It's just a reflection of how far choice goes to influence one's life.

Hmmm as far as the no future comment goes, we're making one everyday. There's no such thing as no future! So go, be a professional dog-groomer while writing graphic novels about being one as you run a chain of salons nationwide while being an ardent lover of Polish literature.

DARE TO BE DIFFERENT!!