The Idiot box and its Magical Power

Nothing new here, right? We all have been party to the Idiot box and its mesmerizing hold that it has on people, their families and in many cases, full control over lives. There was a time when the Idiot Box or the Telly or the TV (to its real name), was a rarity in Indian houses.. Even in cities like Bombay, Delhi, Calcutta, if you had a television in your house, you were well off.. If you had a colour TV, when the entire society was on B&W, you definitely had relations abroad.

Of course the content at the time too was very simple and mediocre. One Channel. Regional language programmes in the morning, Delhi controlled News at night, with an All India viewership. Hindi or regional film on Sunday, the highlight of the week.. Sunday plans were based on Sunday movies!!

How things change. A box in every house, if you don't have one, you are considered person non value.. But that is not the point of this thought.. It is the power that has crept in from outside into our homes and how it is ending up controlling our daily lives.

We lived in a world of Ads between the dead beat programmes, but now it is the Ads that people don't want to see.. It is the continuation of the serial and what happens to the Mother In Law or the bad woman, or how people get screwed just when their life is about to be made..

It is why is the good woman always gets screwed, why are mother in laws so dominating, why does the clean guy the one who suffers the most, how come the bad guy continues to survive, despite all the planning, how could the grand kids be so cruel as to murder their old grand parents for a few thousand rupees..

Why do we flaunt so much wealth in front of others to allow them to take advantage of us, why do we see so much lax in relations, women getting raped, and other women allowing them, how can parents be dumb to leave their children alone.. God, I can go on and on and on and on...

I have tried to steer away from it, however as one lives in a joint family, where you have your parents, relatives watching some serial or the other, escaping from them is very difficult. Of course, one can just walk out, but then that is also considered rude. It is a democracy after all, and every one in the house does have a right to see what they wish.

Where it does amaze and upset is when all of the above is taken for real and non TV people start living their life thinking all about the characters. Why, when, how, why not.. the list is endless. Very soon we are dragged into their "personal TV lives" and we start losing our reality and start moving into a dream realm that we know does not exist and is fictional, yet we start living there. We are the Ram, the Bhoomi, the Jadgish, the Shyam, the Kishan, the Ayesha and who have you not. We start thinking on the serial and how we would want to turn it around and make sure the bad guys are screwed up and the good people start living their lives. Try calling some one during a key serial time. Half the people will not pick up the phone!

But then, that would be a drop in the TRP's... Who the hell wants to watch a show where there are only good people. It is truly said, that Indian Television is probably the biggest generator of sadness, hatred and revenge related worlds through their soap operas. Sure you have a lot of the Western and the Arabic world soap operas where they have their own stuff, but we are masters in churning out depression and sadness on a daily basis. We would rather have people lost in some imaginary world and forget their real "pathetic lives" rather than to show them reality or for that matter, provide them with some relief of a lighter side of life?

Shows do state that the characters are fictional and hold no resemblances. Indeed most of them outside of the show, are normal people, some old mothers are no more than actors in their 30's just doing a serial. However, how many take that as fact! The more our sad stories run, just proves that we truly are a depressed nation. 

There may or may not be an ideal solution to this. Of course, one cannot live without the Idiot Box in totality, but neither should one also live with it in entirety. We do have good informative shows that are truly eye openers with a message, but how many really apply that message in the true sense, where it should be and where it should not. A fine line between reality and information is a must. As the world gets smaller through technology, it is imperative that we maintain our emotional balances.

As I recently overheard: If a Guy during at an IPL Match time, calls his girlfriend ,don't leave him girl. He is one in a Million!!

Getting rid of.... Our Mess

Image from JM Simon Post

While reading an article the other day, could not resist thinking on two things..

1... Good Bold Decision... 2.. Have we screwed up the system so bad?

What was it? Just a Dubai Govt campaign to slash 500M plastic bags! 500M bags in a year, as our consumption in a small country like Dubai was nearly 2.9 Billion bags annually. The thoughts that came to mind were the normal, no possible way, we cant be that bad, 2.9 is over exaggerated, etc etc..

Of course, also thinking more could not but resist thinking about a similar post of mine "The Green Thing", where is, we have another case of how we have managed to mess ourselves up with technology, our wants and our needs, and the generations that come, manages to blame the preceding generation, as each generation manages to mess up the environment...

However, back to Plastic Bags.. A great campaign, where in a decision is done to get rid of nearly half a billion plastic bags in six months. Chances are that they will achieve it and probably even more. Simply because of the will of the Govt and the people providing support to make the country a better place. So what is the issue? Just a few:

Why can we not do this without being asked to. We all know that half the things we use are bad for the environment, yet we use them extensively.

Why have we never learnt the concept of reuse unless we have to pay for it.

Why does every thing free have to be abused to an extent, that it has to be taken away for our very own benefit?

Why do we only follow these when the Govt's take it upon them to clear up the mess..

Why does the Govt allow the mess in the first place only for it to later on spend millions to clean up an environment that they are equally to blame.

Why do we never ask ourselves the question: Why, or Why no?

One looks in the streets, outside of Super Markets.. People have stacks of Plastic bags in their hand. It comes for every thing. One chocolate, and you want a bag, a can of Coke and you want to carry it in a plastic bag. Forget it that the minute one steps out of the shop, one takes out the item and throws the bag on the spot. And this is repeated every five / ten minutes.

The amount of non recyclable waste that we generate is mind boggling to say the least. The World population going up to nearly 7 Billion, and with population increasing leaps and bounds, it is simply a mathematical projection as to when, how soon, how fast can we head to a disaster in the making. And what is worse, that in many underdeveloped countries, the Govt does not care a damn about this, as the top few are busy making money even at the cost of the average man getting his life screwed (which he does on his own).

Not asking any one to put up a revolution of some sorts, but simply that we should to the extent possible, try to make the world a better place.. Of course one person in a million is not going to make a difference, but if this catches up, some day (hopefully by then we have not killed the world), we will have a nicer place to live in. A start with Super Markets without plastic bags maybe?

Social Media and its importance..

Had been at a loss for some time, as to what to write about? So many topics, so many discussions, and then a overdose of social networking.. FB, Tweets, Tumblr, WhatsApp... you name it, and I tried to get into all...

Made me think, as I got dragged into one social media after another. Started spending my working hours trying to find time to do some social media, coming back home, have dinner and then restart on my social media.. My FB's, my tweets, getting in touch with friends and relatives via Whats App, all to be in touch. Late into the night, just wanting to be in touch.

I come home by the Metro, I see the same. 3 Out of of 5 are on some sort of chain. BBM's, SMS's, FB, Tweets, the works.. You dont find any one who is any one not being on some kind of Social Media. And this is not limited to being on the train, bus, or any form of commuting, but even expanding to being at family get together, weddings and at every possible opportune moment. One sees a world that finds being on the media more critical and important than being together with people and relatives.

As this grows and one sees the discussions, what is also surprising is that there is, most of the time, nothing important being discussed on the Media. It is not world wide impacting discussions, but more that one has a bad stomach, one had a bad meal, or a headache in the morning after a drinking night...

Where are we headed to? Yes, Socially, being visible is a big factor, however to what extent. Are we headed into a phase where being socially visible is the key to one's very existence. Is it to such an extent that personal relation ships are no longer important or required, but being present on some sort of a net based application is? Is one who is not available on FB, BBM, Twitter, not relevant?

Is it like the age old joke of a person who applied at Microsoft but when informed the HR, was told: Sir, if you don't have E_Mail, you don't exist.... But then also, if he had E_Mail, he would have been an office boy at Microsoft.

Adieu 2012... A perspective

Another year coming to an end.. 2012 relegated to the history books and we would be looking to the future, to what we have in store in 2013. I too among the millions around the world am no exception and as all of us do, await eagerly for a brand new beginning.

As time passes by, I cannot but help think and recollect what I did achieve in the year, that I would like to have  a better year going forward.. After all, there are hundreds if not thousands of "Happy New Year", "All the best", "Have a wonderful one...." that all of us get from our friends, relatives, and at times absolute strangers. We all look to it, expect that the coming new year will be a better one, a much improved one than the last, however at times I do wonder, is it the same as the last one?

Personally, 2012 has been interesting. A couple of job changes, more interesting work, learnt new things, met new people, travelled quite a bit, completed two major projects, wrote a lot more than 2011, learnt tweeting; the latter part of the year seeing myself a bit more relaxed; time to myself and the family, and most important, meeting old friends and relatives that had not seen in a long time. The icing for me was to travel back to the place where I grew up (Bahrain) after leaving for good more than three years ago bringing back sweet memories.

The downsides: not achieving goals and targets that I set personally, losing friends who moved on, relatives who decided to follow a journey to the other side; read and write more than what I planned for, and not be able to devote more time at home. A mixed bag as one would say.

But what about the world? Indian Cricket went through its worst year; Ponting, Tendulkar, Dravid, legends of the game of the willow, all calling it a day; the World Economy still in the doldrums; Giant corporations losing battles against increasing competition and change; industries struggling but surviving, the Mayan prediction of the end of the world scaring every one and coming a dud.

2012 also saw the awakening of the common man all across. The "Springs" of freedom that encompassed many countries across the world and going the democratic way, some losing the plot midway; BO coming back for another four years. Social Media (FB, Twitter), proving their power to influence and bring change, with the regular media the news channels slowly losing theirs. Technology going viral, with mobile phones losing their charm and the world moving onto Smart Phones, the Androids, and the IOS..

The year also saw crime, corruption, violence, increasing multi fold, and probably more rampant today than what it was 20 years ago, the shootouts in schools, rapes against women on the rise and the political nexus striving every bit to keep the tempo down. Competition still at its fiercest, making the adage Survival of the fittest absolutely apt and valid. Once again, a mixed bag.

No doubt every year has the worst of it and the best. Every country will have their own and their version of the world's top and bottom events and often, the worst overshadowing the good. Yet we all look forward to the next year. A year filled with hope, with opportunity, a belief that things will be better. We enjoy the going away of the previous year as we aim to bury all that was not right, some confined to text books, some forgotten.

The one thought that often comes to mind is: do we ever spare a thought as to what we would like to do different in the coming year? What is in our power to change and do we change that? We all have our resolutions, the things that we would like to stop, to implement, to improve, to better, and yet we all get embroiled in our daily lives so much that it remains confined to another year of not done. Not to say that nothing changes.. But if all of us manage to even achieve half of what we aim to better, the impact no doubt would be phenomenal.

My goal / dream.. To become a better person, and to be able to contribute to society a change where all are equally accepted and to have a world that we can leave behind for generations to come. No doubt there are always shades of black and white and having an ideal world is but a Utopian dream, but the change has to come from us. Generation Next for all is round the corner, for some it is yet to start, for some in progress, and for some, round the corner. We probably managed to survive our round, but at the rate at which we are heading to, the next round may simply not exist.

It is no doubt a new beginning, but every dark cloud has to have a silver lining. It is this lining that I believe that we need to work towards and have our contribution to. Drops from a tap fill a bucket, good deeds done today will come back around tomorrow.. It is for us to take the call to ensure that the change is not just another night that has gone and another regular day that has started..

Adeiu 2012.....Swagatam 2013..