The Saga of Struggle Continues...

Once upon a time during our evolution as human beings, someone somewhere discovered that one can be stronger and more powerful than the other.
Thus began the saga of oppression and the fight against it.

Across different eras, we as Humans have witnessed these sagas. The stories of continual strife have been depicted in History but as though it were a story written from a certain view-point.
So quite possible that History is distorted. But the below is just one way of looking at it.

During the princely era, there were kings who amassed all the wealth in the pretext of ruling the kingdom and supposedly taking care of their “Subjects”.
Ever wondered how we were willingly accepting to be called as mere “Subjects”.
It is from those times that we have surrendered to a certain school of behaviour.
Some will rule and the rest will be ruled.

However, there was a very clever division of labour in that era and each person with certain skill-sets was appointed for certain duties.
Education and scholars were respected.
However, education was restricted to only certain sects of people.

A few centuries later, some of the smart (or rather street-smart) farmers turned “zamindars” (with a secret desire to be the king) started to hold more land than they actually should, they started oppressing the not-so-smart farmers.
Mind you, these “zamindars” were also mere farmers.
Yet again, one got to amass and show-off all the wealth and the others were only left dreaming while also being taxed.
Education here had started to lose its prominence since the less fortunate farmers were more concerned about their daily bread, crops and produce. The proverb, “More the merrier” was probably either defined or re-defined in this era. The more hands (read children) these farmers had, they presumed they could cultivate more land in a shorter time-frame resulting in a bigger produce – thereby taking them closer to their dreams. But whether or not that helped them realize their dreams, it did one thing for sure.
It swelled our population and distanced that swollen population from education.

The more this population got distanced from education; little did they realize – that much harder they were making it for themselves to realize their potential and their dreams.

Meanwhile, some smart outlanders who called themselves traders decided to take advantage of our vast diversity and uneducated day-dreamers. Yet again, these outlanders amassed the wealth and we the people were left with our mouths gaping.

Little did mankind realize, that each time a few bragged their wealth – especially by oppressing the others, they were only pushing the oppressed against the wall.

As time went by, to maintain their sanity, some struggling day-dreamers sought the help of religion and began to presume that they were on a path towards redemption and nirvana. However, some of the day-dreamers saw an opportunity of power here and started their own game-plan.
Probably this is where the seeds of religious fanaticism were sown – all in the name of power.

Education at this stage was revived but was now segmented based on religion and cultures. Fortunately (if I may say so) it did exist in whatever battered way.

While we (read Indians) struggled and also contributed in a relatively miniscule way, science elsewhere evolved at a rapid pace influencing the education.

As we see the world today and dig a layer deeper, it would be clear that we still are “Subjects” and are being subjected to various atrocities in disguise, be it political or religious.

Think about it… Each time you sit in the backseat of your car, ordering your chauffeur to take you to your destination, he has this innate desire to sit in your place and at least once, would he have dreamt of you as his chauffeur (dreaming to change his destiny).
Each time you order your maid/servant, the same happens there too.
And you in turn act as if you were their king/queen taking care of your “subjects” subjecting them to oppression and making them realize how rich/fortunate you are and equally how miserable their lives are – all in the pretext of giving them employment.

Their secret desires sometimes overtake their sane minds and pushes them to steal or kill which we call as a “criminal act”. But what really instigated them to do such an act?
Was it their greed?
Or was it our bragging?
Was it our immodest display of wealth and power?
Was it our disrespect to their individuality and sensibility?

We all nourish this dream of power and also try to blatantly enact that dream wherever possible.

We human beings have now evolved into a confused lot.
Although we see sense in following a certain order and rules (made by the governing fellow human-beings for a better society), we choose to presume the role of a king and NOT follow them and make our own rules.
We tend to indirectly ask “Why should I listen to you? Why don’t you listen to me?”

Historically, we have been trained to “Be Ruled” while nurturing a secret desire “To Rule”.
So you see we really are neither proper rulers nor proper followers.

Bread, Thread and Roof-Spread

Bread, Thread and Roof-Spread a.k.a Roti Kapda aur Makaan

I’ve grown up hearing these as our basic necessities. Necessities, did I say?
Just peep into any social-networking site and browse through your friends’ list of
“5 things I can’t live without” section (including mine) and you’ll be introduced to a whole new dimension.

Today in an urban life with decent salaries, the newly defined necessities are a far cry:
1) Fancy cell phone / smart phone
For most times, we don’t even know all the features available in our model. Yet, we constantly keep comparing it to the other models. The most we really do apart from answering or making calls are take silly meaningless pictures or listen to music during travel time. And we add to the colossal chaos of irritating loud ring-tones / caller tunes. Imagine you are mad at some sales agent who duped you. You call him and his caller tune goes “Nothing’s gonna change my love for you”
Trring Trring anyone?

2) A vehicle (Four-wheeler or a two-wheeler)
Riding the bus / train or any public transport is below dignity. Global warming can go to hell but we wouldn’t want to get caught in the crowd and burn in hell. We’d love to talk about the EMI’s on the vehicles and the rising fuel costs… But hey Honk Honk!!!

3) iPods and the likes
We may never listen to all the songs that are stored in our so called music players – but we still need extreme storage capacity devices. The GENNEXT has indeed moved from “Gimme More” to “GB More”

4) Branded Apparel and accessories
You walk across or walk on filth in any city in India. Yet, we need designer shoes.
So we can go Walk Walk – Yuck Yuck!
After all, we may use it to blow our noses in, but we still need branded handkerchiefs. I can understand presentable clothing but what’s the obsession with staying “in vogue” and wearing expensive tattered and torn denim literally going thread bare.
Is this what “Thread” meant?

5) The latest technology in DTH viewing
We never know what to watch. We end up flipping the channels up and down a couple times before we get frustrated and give up. However, we need the channel count to go up. We need the interactive features although we have other humans in the house to interact with. That probably explains “Ghar Ghar mein Tan Tana Tan”

6) A sleek HDTV
The most we end up watching is a regular soap or a millionth re-run of a movie.
Some may claim to watch the discoveries and natgeo’s – but how much?
And the low quality news channels definitely do not deserve the hi-definition. Don’t forget to send in your Hi-Def vote through SMS.

7) Hanging out at the malls / coffee shops and partying at fine dining restaurants, lounges and/or bars
Excessive Coffee, fast-food, smoking and alcohol may all be harmful. But that is not directly proportional to excessive bragging about them. Please bear with me while I get my Aspirin and Coffee.

The list is endless…
And I’m equally guilty of all of the above in varied degrees.

Now, let’s do some reality check.
How many hours do we have in a day?
The answer is 24

How many hours do we sleep in a day?
The answer should be 8 BUT it really varies between 4 and 7 on an average.

How many hours do we spend traveling (to and fro) in a day?
The answer should be within an hour BUT in reality, varies between 1 and 4 hours.

How many hours do we spend at work?
The answer should be 8 BUT it stretches anywhere between 10 and 14 hours.

Considering all the modest figures from the above, how many hours are we left with?
24hours a day (-) 7hours of sleep (-) 2.5hours of traveling (-) 10 hours of work.
We’re left with 4.5 hours in the day.

How much quality time would WE want to spend with our family?
The answer should be whatever possible BUT is restricted to just one meal a day OR a few spread out broken conversations here and there – most of it which is spent arguing over frivolous things. Let’s just put a number to this and let’s assume we spend a good one hour with the family.
Now we’re left with 3.5 hours in the day.

I would take away 60 minutes for the regular maintenance activities in a day, mandatory for regular human function. You know the brushing / bathing and the works.
We are now left with only 2.5 hours in our hand.

This is just an illustration.
Let’s do our own math and then revisit the newly defined necessities of the urban lifestyle. Do we really need them? Are they really necessities?

Whatever happened to going out with family/friends on weekends? I’m referring to seeing a new place or visiting friends or relatives. Not going to a mall or a cinema.
Whatever happened to reading books and enriching ourselves?

I’ve seen the generation who needed time to rest after a hard day’s work. Today we need time to exercise after parking our rears in different styles of cushion.

Today we blindly want more of everything.
What we don’t realize is that to afford those very things, we are sacrificing more of our time and energy. And what do we get?
We just possess things, whether or not we are able to use/consume them in the intended manner.

We seem to have certainly evolved.
From Bread, Thread and Roof-Spread
To Convertibles, Versace and Cheese Spread.