THE PUPPET SHOW

“The principle that human nature, in its psychological aspects, is nothing more than a product of history and given social relations removes all barriers to coercion and manipulation by the powerful.”

Noam Chomsky

You think you’re living your lives? Well, it is not false, but a bit complicated. When you were a child, your mom fed you while showing and calling the moon. When you started learning bicycle, you dad made you think that he was holding the cycle, while he was not! You were warned not to go outside at night or a monster would eat you. You were asked not to do bad things or else you would be making it to the Santa’s naughty kids’ list. You were asked to pray to god, so that you would be successful in what you seek. These were, and there were many more, sweet manipulations which made you what you are today. Your character is built on the foundations of manipulation, may be for good or for bad. So, in the first stage of your life, you were nothing more than a petty puppet in the hands of the society, people around you and most importantly, your best friends!

Then comes the second stage- white manipulation. Here you offer yourself as a bait to the manipulators. It is you who tie the strings to get ready to be a puppet. A 20 second advertisement decides which product is suitable for you. A fellow movie watcher (also called critic) changes the opinion you have, of a film. Your HOD decides which subject is good for your career and your relatives decide which branch is better for your future. Your broker decides which a better stock investment is and the news channel you watch guides you towards the politician you hate. So, even at the stage two, you are nothing but a mere puppet.

Then comes the ultimate thing- manipulation in the hands of the people closest to you, also called as “Betrayal”. You’ll face many situations in your life where you start celebrating your situation and end up realizing that the direction and screenplay might have been yours but the screenplay was written by someone else. That is a very tricky situation where you’ll end up at the edge of a cliff, not knowing whether to throw your relationship with them away, or to bring it back into the world of manipulation. Get back your life. Take it back from the clutches of the manipulators. Your life is yours to live. When you make a decision, try not to step back from it just because someone else had a different opinion. Take your stand, make sure that the others’ opinion is selfless, before you make sure that it’s valid. You may have heard that trust is humane, but also, trust is a path to betrayal. Don’t trust a person and then try to know him. Let trust be the final stage of any relationship. Be the writer of your own story. It’s your life, don’t make it a puppet show!

ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND

“Often the hearts of men and women are stirred, as likewise they are soothed in their sorrows more by example than by words. And therefore… am I now minded to write of the sufferings which have sprung out of my misfortunes…”

#This love story would have been equally admired as those of Romio- Juliet, Saleem- Anarkali etc., if the lovers killed themselves at the end! But I rate this as a better one, than the tragic suicidal love stories.#

QUICK RECAP: “Ecstasy Trek” is a first person story telling of the adventures of a person who had recently discovered the working of a Soul Extractor that he did found 2 years back. Some restrictions and many set of rules are no where a  trouble,when you consider the thrill of the adventures in front of you. After his first tragic journey into the death of a famous philosopher, he sets out in the pursue of a love story.
For previous episode, go to  https://euphoricwrites.wordpress.com/2014/01/24/ecstasytrek2/

Talk about love and people imagine the story going on in one place- Paris. But in real life, it is hard to have a perfect love experience- perfect backdrop, perfect soul-mate or at least a perfect story. Not everyone gets it and I am one hell of a lucky person to experience the completeness of it.   There goes my second journey- into the romantic land of Paris and violent times of the 12th century. 

Fair & Lovely

“I have no colour prejudices nor caste prejudices nor creed prejudices. All I care to know is that a man is a human being, and that is enough for me; he can’t be any worse.”
~ Mark Twain

 It is easy for a man to be called as a human being, but difficult to act like one. It is said that a slave wants to be like his master. This ideology has been embedded so deep into the systems of the Indians that we are obsessed with the fairness of the masters those who did rule us for 200 years. We feel proud of our generation for waging a “war” against the untouchability, inter caste marriages, sexism and many more social evils, and even winning some of those. But what about the devil rooted deep inside our hearts, racism? Problem with racism is that if humanity is a super hero, racism is its alter ego. We just wear the masks of humanity, kindness and honor; and act like the superhero called “Human Being” at most of the times. But when no one’s looking, deep down in our hearts, we are the ultimate devils. If racism was humanity’s arch-villain, it could’ve been terminated long time ago. But being its alter ego, it can’t be ended without ending the life of the super hero too. One solution is to keep wearing the mask.

     We admire Morgan Freeman a lot, but fail to show the same compassion towards a black person we encounter, in reality. He might be our friend, but we don’t fail to crack a joke or two at his back. We are preoccupied by the idea that “Fair is beautiful”. Every time the advertisement of a fairness product is aired, stereotyping women as the replicas of fairness and promoting idea that one is beautiful and respected only if one is fair, humanity degrades a bit more.  At first, they were promoting the idea of attracting the opposite sex by looking fair. But over the time, ideologies deteriorated more and more until those advertisements even started planting the ideas of  confidence being equal to the amount of fairness a person has! That is the rock bottom of the principles of advertising. Cosmetics were shifted from the category of “luxuries” to “accessories” and now to “basic needs”, and this does apply to the gentlemen out there too. It’s not that only looks are admired in our country. But it took Dhanush a world popular song and a two hour film to be admired by the people in the North, but just a video song of five minutes from Saawariya to admire Ranbir. It’s not just about the colour, it’s not about the assaults on the students of North Eastern states and it’s definitely not about the silly jokes cracked on South Indians and addressing them as “Madraasis”. It’s all about the mentality of an Indian, which is ugly, crippled and needs immediate mending.

Why are we so repelled to the dark skin? Is this what we have learnt from THE Great British rule, to discriminate people by color? When in mythology it is clearly stated that the Lord Krishna is a dark skinned person, why is he portrayed in Hindi TV series and movies as a fair colored guy? Is it true that viewers can’t stand the sight of a dark colored god? Are our minds so degraded that the inner beauty no longer matters to us? What kind of people are we, giving importance to the darkness of the skin and neglecting the darkness in the hearts?!

      On this wonderful day of 12^th of February, on which a person who changed the face of humanity had come to earth, let’s remember his principles and ideologies. Some of his opinions may be indifferent and hurting, but everyone has their share of negativity in them! His name may be erased from the history over the time, but if we change our mentality, his positive ideologies are going to live for ever.