Category: Overdose

Categories
Overdose

In God we trust

Do you know what Ganeshotsav really means? Or what the immersion ritual means? When were you going to find out?
Jatin Sharmaby Jatin Sharma

The day when Mumbai turns into a fanatic for its favourite God is here. Ganeshotsav kicks off today.

The 10-day Ganeshotsav is Mumbai’s biggest festival, or as I like to call it, Mumbai’s biggest event where the whole city is immersed in the celebrations. From pandals on every corner of the street to houses in different societies setting up Ganesha statues, Ganeshotsav is one big celebration that can’t be missed. To put it succinctly, Mumbai waits for this festival to come all year long, and turns into a very different creature during this festival.

But with each passing year, there is one question that crosses my mind: Are we still only about the festivals that we celebrate?

I am afraid to answer this question because I don’t find any celebrations nowadays that only pertain to God. I see commercialisation, politicisation and vandalisation associated with every festival. I see people who, rather than playing Ganesha songs and propagating His teachings, play songs about Sheilas and Munnis.

The younger generations have always asked their elders – Why do we celebrate so many festivals? The answer to that is, we were a farmer society and a society that believed in values, and that our festivals were the right way to instill those cultural values in us. But with every passing year, whether it is Ganeshotsav, Holi, Navratri or any other festival, it has become more about our convenience rather than our culture. We want to celebrate, but on our terms.

For example, during Ganeshotsav, it is believed that Ganesha visits Earth and stays with us for 10 days. In those 10 days, we are supposed to make him feel welcome. Do our Bollywood item songs make for good welcome songs? Again, the immersion is a symbolic send-off to the God, where it is believed that He takes our misfortunes with Him. How many of us even know about this? Instead of seeing Him off with respect and sombre devotion, we send Him on his way with songs blaring out of loudspeakers. And that’s not all, because we seeing off Ganeshadon’t know the prayers and the mantras we need to chant when we worship Him or see Him off, we play recorded CDs that do the job for us. Even when someone else chants the prayers for us, we still don’t bother to find out what the words mean or learn them.

I am not going all Right-wing here and demanding that you must believe in God. I just feel that you should do things only because you believe in doing them, not because you want to show off or prove a point to someone.

Not many know what the word ‘Ganapati’ means. ‘Gana’ means ‘community’ and ‘pati’ means ‘the head’. The legends of Ganesha always talk about being prosperous in the real sense of the word, and spreading happiness no matter what. But all these years, I have been seeing that the festival has just turned into an event where people get drunk and are least interested in maintaining the sanctity of the elephant God. They play loudspeakers that blast out music and hurt birds and animals, that ruin any chances that students may have of studying in a quiet environment. Then there are the pandals themselves, which take up half the road and harm people’s commutes. Why can’t a celebration be complete nowadays without disrupting normal life and societal norms?

Let’s celebrate the festival the way it is supposed to be celebrated – with love and respect for human beings and the environment, with the involvement of the community and while focussing on what’s most important, Lord Ganesha. Since He is also known as the God of Wisdom, my only prayer for him this year is that he showers us with wisdom, since we’ve all forgotten what His festival is all about.

Jatin Sharma is a media professional who does not want to grow up, because if he grows up, he will be like everybody else.

(Pictures courtesy full2faltu.wordpress.com, postnoon.com)

Categories
Overdose

Hope is a four-letter word

When did we totally abandon hope and resort to cynicism in our daily lives? And who caused this to happen?
Jatin Sharmaby Jatin Sharma

Hope. It’s a four-letter word that is missing right now in our lives. With countless scams and rapes and the daily humiliation of the Indian public; hope is becoming an endangered species. With the falling rupee and with our politicians just playing the blame game, hope is being bashed every day.

That hope that was filling India with pride every day that Indians are different, that we run the IT sector so well that nobody can touch us when it comes to computers, that NASA would always have the most numbers of Indians on its roster, that Indians would be the torch bearers of progress worldwide…where is that hope today? I thought I would never leave India…I confess I am not so confident of that today.

Where did all the hope go? Our current crop of politicians are not newly-corrupt, at least not more than those who ruled when the rupee was 48 against the dollar. This is also not the first time that onions have become as expensive as gold. Then why are we feeling more hopeless today?

One reason could be that because recently our media has just been reporting the bad parts of our lives. When you pick up your daily newspaper, it seems like the bad news of yesterday was printed again today, with a few details changed. About 40 per cent of political reportage is about scams and bribes, 30 per cent comprises things that are not right with the city, 17 per cent is about rape, murder and someone committing suicide, 10 per cent is about sports and the economy and the remaining 3 per cent is about one or two good things that are happening in the city.

bad news in the newspaperYes, people can argue that this is a way that revolution can be brought and we are questioning the wrong. But are we looking at the side-effects? How many times have you heard people reading a news story and saying, “Iss desh ka kuch nahin hoga“? The news is filled with so many negative stories and the positive stories receive such less space that there seems to be a determined effort to make cynics out of all of us.

There are so many positive things that happen in society, there are so many who do little things that speak of big change. People who refuse bribes. People who insist on their roads being repaired right away. Politicians who genuinely work for the people. Policemen and taxi drivers who are honest and help others. Why is it that the media only thinks of making a splash with news that are negative, while the positive stories appear in a little corner of the newspaper, or not at all?

Is it because hope is quite an expensive thing?

We all need hope. We all train our eyes on the US and comment on how well they have done for themselves. But we don’t see that they have a legacy of 234 years, while we are a 67-year-old country that doesn’t believe in bombing people for oil. We have done well enough for ourselves to rise and carve a niche. Yes, we are facing a lot of serious issues at the moment, but which country is not? The world is going through a bad phase (and some people hint at US credit card bills as the reason for economic hiccups all over the world). We are a country who made the British leave and flagged off the end of imperialism. We can take a little tumble in order to get back on our feet.

But all of this, if we only have hope. That hope will come from reading the right things, not just about scams and killings. It is time to pack a punch with hope and faith. We should all be able to say, “Iss desh ka sab kuch ho sakta hai, agar main chahoon toh.” And that can happen only if our media starts printing positive stories too so that the current generation starts believing that perhaps this country is not so bad. And we are not in a pit hole where no one can come to us and save us.

It’s just a four-letter word. But it can and will save us.

Jatin Sharma is a media professional who does not want to grow up, because if he grows up, he will be like everybody else.

Categories
Overdose

Why are you demanding justice?

Are you seriously afraid of breaking the law and going to jail? Then what makes you think criminals should be?
Jatin Sharmaby Jatin Sharma

Sonia Gandhi expressed her disappointment over the Mumbai gangrape two days after the incident. As if there was any other reaction that we were expecting.

Or as if she had any other reaction to show.

Every time an unfortunate incident takes place in India, every one is ‘disappointed’. We are not just disappointed, we are also ‘disturbed’. We can’t sleep at night and we keep wailing out our helplessness. We ponder existential questions such as, ‘What has become of society?’

Post-December 2012, we woke up to how heinous a crime rape is. We pledged our support, we came out in large numbers for a change. And then we got slapped by a gangrape in a city that is considered to be the safest for women. And that is only because we as a society have not set our priorities right.

We are not aware of our own realities. Half of us would be shocked if we realised that there were 207 rapes in the city of Mumbai in 2012. And that is what the point is. We as a society think only when our media wants us to think. Other rapes don’t shock us or release the pent up anger in us, because those rapes were just rapes and not gangrapes. We define the scale of a crime by its brutality. We don’t notice it when it mushrooms slowly. After a gangrape, we scream, “Cut off their penises and hang them in public!” We furiously demand the death penalty for all rapists, because we think that is what can stop rape. But can anyone tell me how successful the death penalty has been in order to curb murders in society?

The simple point that I want to make is that it is high time for us as a society to start using our brains more than we use our hearts. If we want to discuss bringing about a change, we hang the rapisthave to discuss solutions that are practical, not just an idea that looks great because it involves cutting and killing people and ending criminals, not their crime.

The first problem with India is that people are fearful of the Government, and not the other way round. The Government servants, the law and the politicians come out and threaten us and that’s why hooliganism prevails because there is no fear of law. Our systems are not with those being governed, but they work with those who govern others. In today’s day and age, are you fearful of not breaking a law? At least 90 per cent of people will say ‘no’ because they know that they have too many Gandhis in their pockets, that serves as a good aid to breaking the law. If people like us, who don’t wish to really break the law have no fear of the law, what makes you expect that people with a criminal bent of mind will fear it?

The second problem is: Do we ask ourselves a question before demanding answers? After the recent gangrape, millions of statuses were updated with posts saying, ‘I live in a democracy and I have the right to roam wherever I want to’. Before typing that, did you ask yourself what role you are playing in this democracy? Is your job over after spending five minutes at the polling booth every five years – and some of us don’t do even that. So where are you exactly in the whole scheme of governance? Tell yourself that you will have to take part in governance before you demand accountability from the Government. And yes, if you don’t have the time for all of this, just count the hours you spend on Facebook and attending parties. I am sure you can find half an hour a day in educating yourself and saving the country.

We crib about our helplessness and rape and murders and regionalism and recession and the falling rupee and inflation. I think it’s time that we start blaming ourselves for not instilling fear in our police authorities and our bureaucrats and politicians. Rape is a global crime, it happens everywhere. While it is definitely a value that we need to instill in our children and especially boys, where we must teach them to respect the womb that bears them for nine months, but at the same time it’s the duty of the citizens to instill fear in those who fail to educate themselves.

We can’t have animals running on the streets, animals who don’t fear hunters. We can’t kill them, for many others like them will only appear. It’s time we stand up for a cause and make everyone join in. We have to instill fear in those who don’t respect women.

Looks like a mammoth task? I will make it simpler. Just start with not laughing and giving high fives the next time you discuss the size of the breasts of your female colleagues.

Jatin Sharma is a media professional who does not want to grow up, because if he grows up, he will be like everybody else.

(Pictures courtesy newindianexpress.com, mtv.in.com) 

Categories
Overdose

Death is just a number

In a land where millions die of hunger and poverty, stray deaths here and there are statistics consigned to history.
Jatin Sharmaby Jatin Sharma

5 is the new number attracting us all at the moment. The moment I write ‘5’, those who are aware of happenings in our nation and who care enough to share their opinion on various social platforms, are straightaway going to point that number to our ‘friendly’ neighbour and say they killed ‘5’ of ours. And this ‘5’ is going to remind me of something that our PM has been maintaining for long – silence, for 5 years.

Every time someone in India dies, there is an outrage in the media and then in society, where everyone tries to pinpoint who exactly is to blame for the death. Every time a farmer commits suicide, a new number finds our mind space, and we wonder who is responsible for so many deaths. Every time a celebrity drives his car on to the pavement, a fresh number replaces the old number of pavement-dweller deaths, and we start discussing about how our law is inept. Every time a riot breaks out and one religious mob slaughters another, a blood-soaked number cries out for our attention and we start talking about how the CM of that State was unable to control the situation.

Currently, we’re talking of the dead sailors aboard the ill-fated submarine off Mumbai’s coast. Again, the numbers change as more bodies are retrieved.

The truth is, we have too many issues to grapple with in our country, and none of those in power have a clue how to solve them. None of our people, even those who keep shouting for change, know how to bring this change about. And since we are at the mercy of those who have the power to crush and change us at will, we the people look at all these deaths around us as just a number. The death of the boy who died when Delhi police fired at motorists during stunts is just another number. The deaths of those as a result of fake police encounters and even the ‘accidental’ deaths of activists are just statistics.

Children die after eating mid-day meals because the food served to them had expired, people die when the illegal building they live in collapses suddenly, people die because the environment they live in is astoundingly filthy. These things happen and we move on in minutes. The point is that death is just a number because we have now seen so many of our people dying, and nobody is interested in saving them. The country is becoming a monster that eats its own eggs without a qualm.

On the other hand, we don’t even know what works if we decide to raise a voice. We may raise our heads only to be shot at, prompting others to keep quiet. In the name of survival, we have sold our soul to bribes and we just don’t care any more. We’ve come to a point where we may push somebody out of the trains if they make us uncomfortable, we may get them thrown out of our building society if they are different from us, we may not say a word when they die mysteriously because for us, death is just a number.

We looked at our neighbour to the North when they attacked us on 26/11, and we said we will take action. Nothing happened. We did nothing. Even then, death was just a number. Numerous others added to that number subsequently, and we just segregated them as people killed by terrorists and those trying to be safe from terrorists.

We didn’t do anything when two of our soldiers were beheaded. We didnt do anything when people in Bihar were attacked. Five of our soldiers were killed, we still did nothing. The number rises, but it makes little difference.

Where there should be a raging fire over the death of those who protect us at the country’s borders, there is nothing. Nothing over our sovereignty being attacked. When will we demand an answer, when will we be confident in knowing that our soldiers are not dying in vain? Till that happens, these deaths are just additions to the statistics we already have, and we will feel content in calling our dead soldiers martyrs. In a country where millions die of hunger and ignorance every day, who really cares? Like I said, death is just a number.

Jatin Sharma is a media professional who does not want to grow up, because if he grows up, he will be like everybody else.

(Picture courtesy www.thenational.ae)

Categories
Overdose

As the new work week begins…

…ask yourself if the approval and validation you seek must come from others, such as your boss, or from yourself.
Jatin Sharmaby Jatin Sharma

As we start a new week of running in our respective corporate races, there is one thought that passes through my mind. Each and every one of us is, these days, pondering over just one question: “Am I doing good in my life? Am I being awesome?”

We seldom ask ourselves questions whose answers don’t lie with us. We always give the authority to other people about how good we are. We always look forward to acceptance from other people, and because of that, end up not living out our dreams. We fail to realise that the dreams we all want to live are our own exclusive dreams, that can be seen only through our lives. The corporate race that we want to win is our race, a race we want to run alone.

All of our actions and all of our work in the corporate scenario is aimed at pleasing the hierarchy. And that’s why most of us are reconciled to mediocrity, because in this whole game of pleasing others, we fail and forget to please ourselves. We fail to realise that it doesn’t really matter if they think we won, what matters is whether we think we won. The race is our race, where we are competing with ourselves.

Most of the times people look for others’ approval after completing a task, whereas the truth is that even we can answer that question post finishing a task. We know when something is not as we wished for. We know when something is outstanding, and we know when something is just about average. But sometimes, due to our laziness or the fear of coming out of our comfort zones, we let the mediocrity in us pass to another level, so that we can ‘finish’ our task and head home. Again, we wanted someone to approve it, and if the boss approves it, it automatically becomes ‘good’.

But did we ever fall in to the habit of raising our standards by not presenting something to our boss when we have not liked it ourselves? Have we ever fallen in to a habit where we don’tthe power of dreams give others the power to judge us, but empowered ourselves to judge? Have we ever fallen in to a thought process where we are not motivated by other people’s praises but let self satisfaction be the driving factor?

Excellence is not achieved in a day. Excellence is achieved by competing with ourselves daily. Excellence is achieved by practice, the practice of defeating ourselves every day. Excellence is something where we can humiliate ourselves and tell ourselves that this was not a good idea. Excellence is not giving power to others but finding it within ourselves.

If we all have this excellence instilled in our thoughts, no one can beat us. Every day would be an awesome day where we would be reporting only to ourselves. Where our salary would not be playing on our minds, but the urge to do more would torment us to do better. Where going to the office every day would mean being a part of an exciting adventure that leads us to explore and challenge ourselves and liberate our souls.

Have a happy Monday.

Jatin Sharma is a media professional who does not want to grow up, because if he grows up, he will be like everybody else.

(Pictures courtesy successfulworkplace.com)

Categories
Overdose

Baj gaye baara

Was the ‘Rs 12 meals’ episode merely a stupid statement or a slap in the face of India’s hungry millions?
Jatin Sharmaby Jatin Sharma

I love this country! Our countrymen endure so much in the daily race to stay alive, but we just laugh off our troubles. Why look outside, we brave numerous insults meted out to us by our fellow countrymen, but we still smile.

Has this constant grin on our faces led everyone to believe that they may mock us with impunity and walk away?

The country that dreamed to be a superpower by 2020, the country that wanted to have world class infrastructure and the country that was shining in an ad campaign is nowhere near accomplishing those dreams. Right now it is like an old woman who used to be beautiful in her youth, but who now refuses to see the telling wrinkles and age spots on her skin. Today, 66 per cent of the population of India is below 35 years old and 95 per cent of those people are fed up of the idiotic statements that are vomited by our politicians.

A recent statement that received a lot of flak comes from Raj babbar (see pic below right), actor-turned-politician who said that it is possible toRaj Babbar get a satiating meal at Rs 12 in Mumbai. It sent all Mumbaikars into a mad scramble to look for this fabled joint that sold a full meal at Rs 12. Meanwhile, another politician claimed that he can enjoy his meal at Rs. 5 in a city like Delhi. My question to both these self-proclaimed samaritans is: Where did you get these figures from? Did you pull them out of the air or out of your arse? Earlier, some bright sparks in the Planning Committee announced that Rs. 33 was enough to survive for a day. May be these people are all picking out their favourite numbers, but in the name of all that is sane, please STOP!

Even a person with the IQ of a mossy stone will find something wrong with these numbers. A statement like that is akin to a dog chasing a speeding vehicle – the dog knows he won’t catch up, but he still gives chase. In this context, a politician makes an absurd statement like this and then everyone sets out to prove the truth or lies behind it, giving unnecessary credence to an idiotic man’s views. The idiotic man, meanwhile, cannot explain what he meant to say in the first place, so he takes the easy way out and apologises.

I have another question for these politicians: if you feel that Rs. 12 is enough to fill your plate, why did you increase your salaries last year? How much more money do you want, apart from the full coffers you already enjoy? Who gives you a meal at Rs 12 when tomatoes are selling at over Rs. 33 a kilo? When you involve yourselves with scams to the tune of thousands of crores of rupees, do you think about subsisting on a Rs 12 meal? Have you no conscience?

Or are you so far removed from reality that you have forgotten, or probably never experienced, what it is to be genuinely hungry?

So we, in the pursuit of the elusive ‘superpower’ tag, must let our leaders run amok talking nonsense and gobbling up land and money where they can. You and I must make do with Rs 12 meals, and we must not throw away the leftovers in our plates. Or we must fight inflation further and all move to Delhi, where you supposedly get meals at Rs 5.

hungry in IndiaWhen are we ever going to look forward and become proactive, where we as a society are so powerful that nobody may have the guts to say Rs 12 is a sufficient amount of money for food? No politician or leader should so blase that he or she pulls out a magic number that is not even a fourth of the foreign exchange rate of the country we want to overtake as an economy.

Raise your standards, Mr Politician. The next time you say something, make sure you don’t have to keep an apology ready. And also, put me out of my misery and tell me: where in Mumbai did you eat at Rs 12?

Jatin Sharma is a media professional who doesn’t want to grow up, because if he grows up, he will be like everybody else.

 (Pictures courtesy www.india-forums.com, www.outlookindia.com, www.flickr.com)

Exit mobile version