The sixty seventh independence day - as no one else is counting

Just got this off my fb page: This happens to be the 67^th Independence day of India. Disclaimer: this was an Economic Times update on my fb – so buyer beware.

Truly we are running out of numbers. Last I remembered, people were going crazy about the half century figure but India is batting faster than Sachin after he completes his fifty. Wait, what’s my age now? Never mind.

So I was thinking why so much fuss about Independence day and its celebration. It’s quite funny to see people upload flags to their profiles to convince themselves that they still are patriotic. I could point it out to them, but then I’ll have no one to laugh at. When I think that the concept of nation is about its geography and borders as I read in the inaccurate geography text books in my high school, the illogical social text books in my high school correct me to say that the concept of a nation is its people and culmination of all the cultures it has accumulated when it was in slavery of the kings or whites, or bureaucrats later (I made that up, the text book doesn’t have the wisdom to say it).

Well, if it’s only about borders and spaces, there is no point in feeling sentimental about it. If it is about people, culture and all the crap that it comes with, the bottom line is the same. It’s more hypocritical than foolish and either ways, no need to feel attached and sentimental about it. I, for one, am starting to get allergic to  people and their stupid notions specifically because they restrict MY independence for the sake of something they are not sure they believe in.

The only good thing is that it is a public holiday. But even that’s got an angle. It’s a dry day (again, this info is not from an accurate source and I am too uninterested to google)

You want us to celebrate by holding it dry? I repeat: hypocrites.

Drunk

Here’s to hoping my parents would never find out, never cared about any others who would be interested to find out.

Exactly in the middle of two full bottles of mansion house, I decide to write about how it feels when completely drunk. Before that, I must confess that I am not totally out, so this may not be a truly accurate portrait.

 You suddenly are not afraid of consequences, you want to change wrongs and replace them with rights. You stop thinking about losing your job and think about what ifs. You don’t care what your bosses would say about the faults only they can find. You feel that you are better than them. You don’t care about the years of ambition or the lifetime of frustrations. Your mind spins, or stops spinning, and you feel the calm you haven’t felt the whole week of doing productive work. A bit of comfort, as the wait is over, the wait for the week to be over with and the break to begin. You forget about what you never remembered, but never got to push out of the borders of your mind either – the irrelevant. The Saturday and Sunday of life with your best friends and a raw peg.

The song playing on speakers ‘And nothing else matters’

Service Before Self

On my way back home, I was passing by a school, the name of which I withhold for decency (or not, it is Delhi Public School, Bowenpally) on the big board on the main gate, under the name of the school, was written the tag line “Service Before Self”. It is everything that is wrong with the world.

If you think about it, these people and majority of schools are asking these kids to spend time thinking about some strangers who have needs, rather than spend time on developing their own minds and skills? These strangers are either too lazy to earn what they need or are molded into expecting help without their efforts or they do not have the mind to control their lives and lost. Kids need to learn to earn value and measure it. Kids as well as their parents and teachers. Value of one’s ingenious effort cannot be appreciated when it is asked to be given away, and as a rule efforts cannot be generated without incentives for the person putting in the effort. Value can be earned by paying the price of one’s efforts. Not when it is received because of pity or deceit or force. And value can be measured only when it is exchanged for value, not when you give it away without meaning.

The vicious cycle is this: If a guy is asked to give money or respect without getting anything in return, he may think its force. But when everyone is doing the same thing, he will think that it’s his duty. In turn, another guy thinks it’s his right that it should be given to him without any effort asked. It’s a normal phenomenon in the hypocritical society. It’s also normal that the first guy turns out to be the second when it is his turn.