Ship of Theseus - 3 Trailers

Mediocrity - a midnight rant after being woken up by mosquitoes.

Look at the ugly buildings springing up everywhere in the city (including the recent excessively expensive one - a friend suggested that the enigmatic W like column on the facade is actually an inverted M seen from a higher floor). An entire generation poisoned by the ugliness and regressiveness of contemporary Indian television and cinema might still someday grow up and grow out. The subverting of an entire nation's intelligence at the hands of heavyheaded producers with their heavy-handed obscenities might still be reverted someday (to what, though?). Goondahs looking down upon you from illegally put up political hoardings, daring you to evoke your rights as a free citizen, will someday be replaced. "We, the children of the 80s and 90s survived all of it, didn't we?" (or did we? Let's ask that as we bask in the glorious nostalgia of our ridiculous kitsch.) But these ugly unfriendly deformities of glass and steel are here to stay, at least a couple of decades. And there are those of us all willing to embrace it, even celebrate it in the name of colour and spontaneity. Most of us simply needed the western validation of the stench as a unique flavour. Sorry, I don't intend to attack anybody. This is, afterall, just a rant. My apologies to the city. It doesn't change our dynamics, ok? I mean my family lives here and I have no intention to go into an exile at this point (that should explain the cowardly tone in this rant - it's like the expletives you offer a reasonably amused truckdriver with your car window closed.) Every time there's an internal struggle between integrity and discretion, courage gives in, discretion takes over and I bow out from the battle of wits with the unarmed. The most liberal mind looks at the overwhelming data and wonders for a fleeting moment if mediocrity is a racial or an economical factor, and concludes that it's only a cultural predisposition. Note to myself: if you are not happy with the way it stands, change it or shut the fuck up. Alternatively, contribute to it and have a good time while you are around. Surely, there must be more solutions, but too late in the night for thoughts on saving Gotham city.

Yeh sheher...

This city has made me so learned

That I can't make those deep dramatic statements anymore

Everything is so equally true

That picking out a holistic abstract truth

Feels like an act of naive fascism

I once read about a physicist who bought her lover roses

And chocolates

On the valentine's day

She was a learned woman who knew that the day is a manufactured holiday

Lobbied by a greeting card company to sell romantic kitsch

She knew that the deep red of her roses

Is a wavelength of 680 nm corresponding to a code in the human brain

She knew that what she was feeling

Was caused by serotonin and oxytocin in her brain

The chemical equivalent of eating a lot of chocolate

Or having an obsessive compulsive disorder

It's so much fun to keep the big picture aside

Indulge in the details

And let love, friendship and life be

This city has thrown up many essays on caves and streams

With a footnote reminder that there is nothing to break away from

Not even attachment, emotion or desire

My grandma often complains

That my grandpa had gambled all his money away when he was young

She brings it up everytime they fight

That's a pretty long held grudge I reckon

If there was only a way to know

How much gambling is just right enough for youth

This city is the world, and the village torpor simultaneously

Enlightenment is googlable if the right search keywords are entered

It's amazing how only a few thousand words can be constantly used to create new meanings

Words like elephant, colour, inside, cheeks, and vagina are very common

And yet have they ever been used in this permutation:

"Her cheeks turned the colour of the inside of an elephant's vagina"

So I guess enlightenment should be googlable

As long as the right key words are entered in the right order, inside quotes.

This city has a lot to learn from me yet,

That's why it led up to me, after all.

और आज लिखा कुछ मानव की कविताओं जैसा...

और एक सच, शब्द या शक़्स पड़ा रहा…

कबाड़ में पड़ें सारे ऐर्यलों जैसा, जिन्होंने बहोत दुनिया खुदसे गुज़रते देखि है, पर जिनका अपना कोई एहसास नहीं, अभिमत नहीं, अभिप्राय नहीं.

उस अभिमत जैसा, जिसके बनते ही उसकी समापन तिथि निश्चित कर देना उसके बनानेवाले का फ़र्ज़ है.

उस देय तिथि जैसा, जिसके भूल से छूट जाने पर रिलायंस का गूंडा आपके दरवाज़े दस्तक देकर आपको ज़लील करने की कोशिश करता है.

उस ज़लीलियत जैसा, जिस पर एक बार आपकी माँ तक कह दे, “पर बेटा, ग़लती तो तुम्हारी ही थी”… जो अगर आप अटके रहो तो नासूर बन जाए, और आप बहते रहो तो चुटकुला.

उस चुटकुले की तरह जो कटाक्ष है, व्यंगमय है, बहोत ही हास्यास्पद है, और जो आप बीता होने के बावजूद उसे खुल्लेआम सबको सुनाना कानूनन झुर्म है.

उस झुर्म की तरह जो आप न चाहते हुए भी कर देते हो, हांफ जाते हो कोर्ट के चक्करों में, और फिर अपने मनपसंद पुस्तकालय के मेक्डोनाल्डीकरण और अपने बच्चों की तालीम के दिज़्नियावर्तन से समझौता कर लेते हो.

उस समझौते की तरह जो पहले न चाहते हुए ही सही, पर बाद में आदत और आखिर आनंद बन जाता है.

उस आदत की तरह जो विन्डोज़ के नए version को पहले कुछ महीनो तक ठुकराने के बाद उसे अपना लेने पर हो जाती है... मायक्रोसोफ्ट वर्ड की बिना पूछे ही शब्द ठीक कर डालने की बुरी आदत की तरह, जिसकी आलोचना नहीं की जा सकती क्योंकि उस आदत को बदलने का विकल्प आपके पास है, छिपा ही सही.

उस विकल्प भ्रम की तरह जो आपको टीवी पर, शौपिंग मॉल में, या किसी Café में उपलब्ध होता है... और पूछने पर कि फलानी और धिकनी काफ़ी में क्या फ़र्क है, एक नवसिखिया भोला सा बेरा आपको बता देता है "कोई नहीं".

उस फ़र्क की तरह जो काले गोरों में, हुतू तुत्सी में, अरब इज़्राएलि में, अंग्रेज़ी संविधानिक एकाधिपत्य और भारतीय लोकतंत्र में है और नहीं.

उस होने और न होने जैसा जो प्रश्न में क्रांति का है, विचार में निर्माण का, और अनुभव में मृत्यु का.

उस मृत्यु जैसा जिसका भय मानव कल्पना में भगवान् को जन्म देता है.

उस जन्म जैसा जिसके आदि में प्यार भरा संभोग नहीं पर बलात्कार की आशंका है, और अंत में वातावरण में मिल जाना नहीं, प्रलय की चेतावनी है.

बहोत हो गया इसके जैसा उसके जैसा! कविता को इतना seriously कौन बेवकुफ़ लेता है!