Silent World

I could see it all. The tall guy charging towards the poor man with all his fury. The impatient crowd of passerbys waiting in anticipation at the prospect of some free of cost vicarious pleasure. The shopkeeper stopping his calculations midway and getting out of the store for a better view. The motorist braking suddenly and then peering over the crowd. And then the poor man himself, his face showing a million colours of fear. I watched as the blow landed on his face, distorting it slightly. I stopped my photography brain from thinking about the high speed camera possiblities of this moment. I saw him opening his mouth and screaming wild. I didn't hear anything. Not the sound of the crowd, not the scream of the man, not the engines of the passing vehicles. It was like watching a mime. Yes, I am a member of the species called the 'ipod generation'. The turn of the millennium saw the birth of our generation. White wires coming out from the pockets, moving all the way up our body to our ears differentiate us from the previous generations. We've it plugged on everywhere, in the bus, at the restaurant, in office, in the closet, just about everywhere. Its just like a part of our body. And for us, the world is like what you saw in the above scene, silent.

As I woke up the next day, the music was still going on, as I usually keep a long playlist. And as usual, I didn't hear mom's calls to wake up and drink coffee. Yes, a cold coffee is one of the obvious happenings in our silent world. But I do argue with mom on the dust prevention capabilities of the earphone. 'A little dust wont make you deaf, but this plug can do that', she used to say. Taking a bath was not one of my favorite things, as it takes me out from the silent world. As I walked out in the shabby jeans, grandma had a puzzled look on her face. A relic from the past's disdain of youthful brashness or whatever it is. I didn't hear her coughing hard and asking me to buy some medicines. I saw her lips moving as I wheeled out my bike, but as I said earlier I hate to get out of the silent world. I gave 2 more kicks after the engine started. The kicker is used to that. The big doberman next door was wagging his tail and barking silently as I rode on.

Today am not in a mood to go to office. And what I do in those moments is head to the beach. Today was no different. The sun was hiding behind the clouds and so the sand was not smoking hot as was the usual case at this time. I sat there and looked around. Barring a man who was sitting far away on the rocks, the beach was deserted. What else do you expect to see on a working day in a not so famous beach, I asked myself. These questions which I ask myself are the only things I hear because these dont need the ears to hear. The waves were crashing against the rocks a little far away. Today, my silent world is having a lot of noise, all coming from inside me. The sea always stirs up my thoughts. Yesterday's scenes had shaken me a bit. Now I know how silent movies made an impact back in the 1920s. I sat there thinking about the general aloofness of our generation. How easily we turn our backs to other's sufferings. How easily we close our eyes to injustice. Less said about our perpetually closed ears, the better.

All the thinking was starting to drive me nuts. The sea was not providing me any solace today. I walked back to my bike and thats when I saw the man sitting on the rocks, the poor man who got beaten badly yesterday. There were bruises all over his face and it was evident that he didn't clean it or dress it up. I stared for sometime and then walked on with the same coldness that has come to symbolize our geneation. Kick. Start. Zoom. Again, on the endless highway. The mind was still disturbed. Thoughts collide into each other and create unwanted noise in my perfect world. A mind not used to thinking was finding this hard. I didn't see that big tanker lorry coming in the wrong side. The thoughts stopped colliding as the world around me stopped for an instant. The bike flew up in the air as I was flung head first on to the footpath. I saw blood. I saw red. I screamed. I didn't get any response from the silent world. My eye lashes almost met, for the final time. I saw someone walking by. A flicker of hope. I strained hard to look up to his face. He didn't turn. I could make out that familiar white wire. Yes, he belonged to the ipod generation. The owner of a mind, as cold as my now cold dead body...

pic courtesy-wired.com

your crusader Praveen

Age of stupidity

Face it. we are a bunch of stupid idiots. We are easily fooled. Anyone can sell anything to us, if he has even a slight knowledge of marketing. We swallow even those big lies floating around. Even an orangutan will think twice before believing such lies. But, we do it and manage to smile proudly. Government lies. Judiciary lies. Media lies. Your partner lies. Your employer lies. Your milkman lies. We grab and eat those lies and spit out more lies about these lies.

Everyday you open the newspaper and end up believing whatever is written on it. You believe they can speak only the truth because they are afterall the media. For example, this new year Times Of India's first page screamed out 'Aman Asha- an initiative for India Pakistan friendship'. And believe me, there were atleast 2 guys who told me this was a superb initiative, that too coming from a media house. If the sham of a peace talk between the governments aptly titled 'Sharm al sheikh' was not enough, we have here India's official yellow paper joining hands with a Pakistani media group with the one and only lofty intention of peace. And as part of the initiative, we have Indian and Pakistani artists performing together in India(and not in Pakistan..note the point). Its a known fact that all Paki artists prefer to perform in India because thats were the money is. And most of the suckers in Pak would die without their daily dose of bollywood cinema. Whats more, our own dear VIP terrorist Ajmal Kasab confessed that he came to Mumbai to watch a bollywood movie at the place of its birth. TOI says the common people at both sides love to have peace. True. But the world is not made up of common people alone. We have a big bunch of India hating, ultra orthodox morons in Pak. First make sure each of them has taken his last breath and then it would be a good excercise to talk about peace. And yeah, it doesn't help that some of those morons are part of the Pak government and army. And so, what is the real purpose of this initiative? circulation, readership, money... Its just a simple expansion plan for 2 media houses. And, we have teary eyed people here applauding the Times group for this effort in the 'right' direction. Yes, a whole country of billions being fed stupidity and people actually giving a standing ovation. But, thankfully there was backlash too though it remained largely confined among the online community.

In the same way, we are fed stupidity in its various forms. In Kerala, we are made to believe that the terrorist Madani is a changed man. Pinarayi Vijayan will tell you Madani should be worshipped like a saint. Madani's wife Sufiya, who has links with almost all of the terrorists caught in Kerala recently, is also said to be in line for sainthood. The marxist will tell you that her nokia mobile automatically stores the phone numbers of all terrorists in Kerala and even automatically dials and receives calls before and after an attack. They are actually planning to sue Nokia. And then there's the master of them all, Pinarayi telling us that all these cases against him and his friends are the handiwork of 'change man' Obama who has a specific agenda against the Kerala left. Coming to the 'change man' himself, after recieving the Nobel peace prize he was telling the world that the 'change' that he was talking about was stolen by a bus conductor in Koothaattukulam, where there's a shortage of change, especially the 1 rupee and 2 rupee coins. Meanwhile, all the world's media is focussed on what Tiger Woods is doing. Speculations are rife regarding the number of mistresses he had. I wonder why the media should care which 'golf club' is Tiger using at any moment. They should learn to switch off their cams the moment he takes the 'golf club' meant for the bedroom. Its his personal matter and the media has no business until he lays his hands on Rupert Murdoch's mistress. And not to be left behind, the national media got a scapegoat in N D Tiwari, the 'sexy at eighty' former Andhra governor. I would say mediamen are jealous. Many of the 60 something media heads seems to be jealous at this 86 year old man having a threesome at his official residence and decided to bring him down. And thus orgasms officially entered our 'breaking news'. And many had stupid erections of glee.

If all this were not enough, there are conspiracy theorists around coming up with any juicy story that comes to their mind, stories of the vein of 'the world is one big illusion', 'Mumbai attacks were India's own handiwork' etc. There are people who believe that too. Every movie that released is a blockbuster. Someone points at peanuts and calls it money and you jump up in joy. Judiciary says every biggie murder accused is innocent. Every biggie rape accused 'doesn't have the instruments for the act to be carried out'. Every scam accused politician is an ascetic. Not to forget the sham called austerity. And then there is the biggest sham of them all. A blogger writing this blog just because he hasn't written anything substantial in a long time, was out of topics and wanted to sound important. Yes, my contribution to the load of stupidity and now don't turn around to search for the idiot. Its you...

photo courtesy- babble.com

your crusader Praveen