Posts Tagged ‘society’
Why are Baba’s and Guru’s relevant in society?
Couple of disclaimers first, I don’t go to any Baba and Guru and nor do my family. Secondly, I will restrict myself to Hindu Baba/Guru’s for the sake of this article. But same thing can be extended to all religions. It’s a societal issue and not religions issue.
When Asaram went to jail amidst sexual allegations, a lot of people I knew felt pained and were devastated. These people have put their faith in Asaram for years; revered him as their God. “Humare Bhagwan ke saath yeh kya ho raha hai?” one of them lamented. They were common people who were genuine in their regard and their pain. Asaram exploits brought a lot of disrepute to the religious Guru’s. The murky secrets were out in the open.
But the issue I want to touch upon goes deeper. Why do people need these Baba’s? What is it that these people are searching for in life? What is it that these people lack in them? It’s complicated. I feel it goes much further. It goes to “Why we are here?” People have been trying to find the answer to this question. What happens after death? Such things trouble us. Next is the race in life. Everyone wants to be more successful than the other soul. Some look for answers, some look for advice, some look for success. Whichever Baba/Guru provides whatever, people go to him.
I will be very blunt here with no disrespect to any one in particular, Modern high profile Guru’s are nothing but a sham. They do this just to make money. People cometh the last. VVIP Baba’s and their VVIP functions. If you have money, you will sit in first row in the Baba pandal.
For me a Guru must be above the money. If I see VVIP front row seats in a Baba’s pandal, I have no respect for them. But most of them are such. They try and keep up their humanitarian side by PR of helping the poor. This gives their rich followers some ammo to quench their morality.
Such Baba’s exploit the fears of people and become a pied piper to them. But I can’t blame them completely. If people are ready to be duped, what can anyone do? But the TV and VVIP Baba’s are not for me. I prefer meditating in silence instead.
The Do Gooders v/s Say Gooders
You would find two types of people, Do Gooders and Say Gooders. Then there are people who have bits of both and rarely none of them. Generally speaking most of people can be classified in these two categories.
Who are the Say Gooders (SG)? Well SG are those who are sweet to hear. They say all the right and “correct” things. They will talk about decency, humanity, values, global peace and what not. If you don’t know much, they would represent the best of humanity. The issue with SG is they get away even with murder due to the niceties. The class of prominent SG rule the world. They are the people who seem nice and How can one not like nice? The Prominent SG’s end up doing nothing for anyone but themselves. But they are always hailed. As when you do nothing, how can you be blamed for anything. Right?
Who are the Do Gooders (DG)? Well DG are those who do real work. If they see a problem, they will try and solve it. If they see misery, they will try and help. However when you do things, help people, you are forced to witness the evil in the society, tend to get frustrated at times. But these DG’s carry on even with the pent up frustration as they can’t help but help. The Prominent DG’s even sacrifice their own happiness if they believe in the Good they are doing. A lot of times this get them frustrated and they say a lot of true but mean things to people they help or otherwise. Once they utter these things, they become the Bad people. The very people whom they have helped and done Good for, start hating them. For you can always be blamed for anything you have done, as it bears your name.
Most of the readers should be able to associate people they know with one of the two categories. You would see more of SG than DG around. This is the reality. Also you would see SG’s being hailed (for they say nothing bad, do nothing bad, do nothing at all) and DG’s being denigrated (for they said some mean things, what-if they did good things).
The real apathy of a DG is, even after being bad mouthed and hated, he will still do Good things for other people. This is how God made him/her perhaps. And the real fun is, he will still say some true but mean things to the people he has helped. Not sure which category I lie in, but am sure feel a bit frustrated.
Sanjat Dutt: Celebrating the PoW?
Today I won’t take any names as everyone was on it. Ever since Mr. Dutt finished his sentence and out of jail, news channels and media has been celebrating his return. One such disgusting interview I happened to see was where anchor asked him what he liked the most, missed the most, disliked the most about his jail time. And more such brainless questions.
Similar was the case with other media houses, everyone wanted an exclusive with the man who returned. An uninitiated might have mistaken him for a Prisoner of War, who had just returned after years of misery in enemy captivity.
Enough! He was jailed for a crime. He has paid his debt to the society for the crime. That doesn’t make him a star. An effort on media’s part to make it sexy and like an X-factor made me throw up. And it couldn’t have been a bug; I was on fast that day.
He was a criminal who was jailed after 20 odd years of committing the crime. Some say he got away lightly, some say otherwise. I respect Court’s verdict. Even when he went to jail, cozy club of Nira Radia-Media, was all tears. Aww! And since he is out of jail, there is more of the celebration.
It makes me wonder, have we failed as a society? Where a convicted felon is celebrated as a Hero? He will get more movies. People will fling to the theatres. But he is not my Hero. And stop making him one.
वो पगला
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सब कहते थे वो पगला है, सब कहते थे, आवारा है, सब कहते थे, वो फ़ोकट है, सब कहते थे, वो बे-दिल है, |
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| सब कहते थे, तू सुनती थी, बस सुनती थी, न हरती थी, सब कहते रहे, बस कहते गए, तू ख्वाब बुनती रही नए| |
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माना कि वो थोड़ा पगला है, सबको लगता वो आवारा है, राजे महाराजे क्या खुश थे, बे-दिल वो नहीं, दुनिया है, जब तक तू है साथ मेरे, |
मानेगा रब
शाम थी कुछ अनजान,
थम सा गया था समां,
दूर कहीं एक अहाट थी,
दस्तक देने को तयार|
बेरंग जिंदगी थी जो मेरी,
तेरी नजरों को चुभ सी गयी,
हुई तभी से तू इसमें,
रंग भरने को तत्पर|
तेरी मुस्कराहट में ऐसा खोया,
आज तलक न मिल पाया,
डूब डूब कर मैं जानूं,
सच है, कोई ख्वाब नहीं|
परछाई से भी डरता था,
अब हठ कर ऐसा ऐंठा है,
बिन तेरे सब कुछ सून सून,
संग में ही जीवन जीना है|
गोभी का वो फूल नहीं,
दिल था मेरा जो तुझे दिया,
तू रूठ रूठ के मान गयी,
मैं मना मना कर थका नहीं|
एक झल्ली सी पहली बार लगी,
तेरी लट में, मैं अटक गया,
तब कमर पे तेरे हाथ रखा जो,
आज तक वहीँ रखा है देख|
कुछ गम था ऐसी बात नहीं,
कुछ कम था पर जज्बात सही,
कुछ नम फिर तेरे लिए हुआ,
कुछ थम गया, समय था वो|
तेरी गर्दन पे स्नेह किया,
प्यार से तू करहा थी गयी,
मीनू, रिंकू औ पिंकी सब,
जाने कब मेरे अपने हुए|
लबों की तेरी लाली थी,
मेरे लबों पर चमकी देख,
तेरे मुहं का स्वाद भी अब,
मुझको रह रहकर आता है|
साँसों की तेरी गरम हवा,
मेरी साँसों से टकराई जब,
झुक गए सारे नैन तभी,
सीने से तुझको लगा लिया|
छुपा ले अपने आँचल में,
यह दुनिया सब बेगानी है,
संग तेरे जो जीना पड़े मुझे,
वो जीवन मुझे बेमानी है|
एक बार जो थामा हाथ तेरा,
एक बार जो तुझको स्नेह किया,
अनंत तक न छूटेगा अब,
चाहें न मानें सब, मानेगा पर रब||
Racism: Reverse and Progressive
A lot has kept us busy as a nation last couple of weeks. CWG, Mohali win and most recently some serious allegations of racism against a few officials from down under.
If I am right, Ministry of External Affairs, India summoned High Commissioners of respective countries and lodged protests. Last I heard the said individuals either resigned or were ousted and rightly so. Such behavior has no place in civilized societies.
Okay, tell me one thing. Has racism sprung up all of a sudden during recent times? The answer would be a no. Racism is a perception which a society or a race developes about contemporary society or race overtime. It’s just that with the advent of Globalization, these days we get to know of it real time. Earlier Lord Ganesha on Chappals was mere fashion for a society that doesn’t know anything about him, Today it is offensive.
Tell me frankly, how many of us think Bhajji did indeed utter “Maa Ki” and not the racist slur. Why then were we as a nation hell bent on seeing Bhajji free of the allegations? Now come ‘on, it had nothing to do with lack of evidence or anything thereof. If such had been the case then all our politicians were saints.
To be frank it’s about who is leveling the allegations. Had the opposite team been Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, West Indies or for that matter South Africa, we as a nation might not have backed our player to that extent. Why? Coz we have seen long periods of unabashed Aussie sledging as a reminder of the days of the Raj perhaps.
When a society which has perception of being shamelessly racist, throws up allegations of such sort, it seems rubbing salt in the wound. You gotta handle what you dish out. Right?
But what worries me more is a developing phenomenon, Reverse Racism. In our part of world racism is generally related to prejudice that developed white nations have against us about them being superior. The aspect of racism under which emerging societies like us berate, taunt or create a certain perception about developed nations is what I call Reverse Racism.
When white girls are considered nothing but free meat. Whole society is said to lack values. If it’s not racism, what is it? I was shocked to see in a recent episode of Bigg Boss, a dozen white models in skimpy dresses made to dance with the ousted contestant. Just as his inaam. When the whole crowd enjoys it, it’s not just racism, it’s sadness.
Equally frightening is Progressive Racism. Progressive racism is when slightly more developed race is prejudiced against slightly lesser developed race.
When an African student in Delhi University is called Kaalu. A person from the same region is called Habshi on national TV. When CWG teams from African countries are given step motherly treatment. On daily basis do we see jokes being made on color of skin on TV. “Abey door hat, tu rang chodta hai”. “Sab log fair and lovely lagate hain, yeh cherry blossom lagata hai”. “Abe langoor ke bhai”.
I am not trying to be apologetic here, I hate that frankly. But if such progressive and reverse racism continues in our society, we too would lose our moral right to complain. We would just be another hypocrite in the bunch. Do we really want that? It’s bit scary to answer, isn’t it?
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