Slow-ism

Slowism is the frontrunner formula of the day. Slowism can take us to places. Slowism is all we need today.

Slowism means doing things slowly. The joy of work comes from Slowism. The fruit of hard work can be realized only through Slowism. The satisfaction, the happiness, the intense pleasure is nothing but Slowism. The success as it is called is only possible when we start slowly adopting Slowism.

Gone are the days when fast can do wonders.  People having religion as fastism will be jumping like monkeys without tails. Forecast says that Slow people will hunt down every fast one on the earth slowly and slowly.

So when you read this post, you should read every line slowly and slowly. See, again you jumped to the next line, You fasto-maniac! What this fast-fetishism is doing to young people is seriously worrying. Have you seen old people? Why do you think do they work slowly? You thought they are not fast enough, You ignorant fast-fool! They have got a life time of experiences which tells them which is the way for living a good life.

People talk about rat race. But come on, race is meant for rats. Race turns man into a rat. Sluggishness fits for the man. Just think about freedom to experience and enjoy your tardiness, feeling movement of your body parts, breathing and all the funny things going on inside you. Just think about when you catch hold of your dreams and imaginations while sitting idle. Just think about when you become so slow that signal from your brain is taking minutes to reach to your limbs and before it does, you can play with it. Just think about when you peddle your cycle so slow that it is about to fall but still manage to ride on. Think about joy in all that. Can you get it otherwise?

In today’s action movies, they show you scenes by playing them so slowly that you can see the reaction on skin of villain’s face when hero punches him, you can also see when pieces of glasses are going just above the hero’s bent body very slowly. In old hit movies, how beautifully heroine used to come to hero slowly and slowly and put her head onto his shoulder and sing the song slowly and peacefully. By doing it slowly, it was love. Otherwise, it is all sex and dhokha. If you are fast, you can not love. The word LOVE itself means slow love. There is no such thing called fast love.

Machine can work fast. But man is not a machine. That’s why man has slowly made the machine so that he can work slowly and machine can work fast. People blame those people who work slow. I do not understand. Are bhai, they are working in the most humanely possible way.

Please allow me to say that lazily brilliant people will take away the trophy. Slow and lazy will win the race.

Identity crisis for youth: collecting the debris

When we say that we have an identity, what does it mean? Is it the type of clothes we are wearing or food we are eating? Or is it a set of beliefs and thoughts in our mind? In a cosmopolitan culture, are there any identities? Or is it a global mass culture known for appeal of consumption and senses?

For all the babies born in the hospitals today, what is the idealistic future conceived for them in the eyes of their parents, when they first see their child? They all want their children to be speaking English, wearing modern fashionable branded foreign clothes, doing work or study in foreign institutions and become so busy that they get only as much time as to eat fast food so that over the phone, parents can show their concern and love by advising sons and daughters to have nutritious good food and to take care of their health but to simultaneously keep in mind sending the money home so that they can have bigger apartment and bigger car.

We, today’s youth, find it difficult to know what to do with the cultural baggage we are burdened with from time to time. More than 2000 years of civilization and its evolved culture persisted even in the times of industrial revolution and colonial rule. Now it runs a risk of perishing to the level that small efforts to save its glimpses like those of tigers will be rewarded by those few claiming to be saviors of our culture. When we are told that our tradition teaches us that we should always try to speak the truth, then we start to guess about what little can be achieved by speaking truth in modern world. When sometimes someone informs us that in Gita, it is written that we should not first think about result but instead should act first, we are in dilemma as to how can one even think of doing something without giving a single thought to what one would get in return. When our parents say that we should respect our elders, we do not understand what they mean by that.

We are tempted to watch English movies, serials but when we are tired of those, we allow ourselves a dose of TV episodes of Ramayan or Mahabharata and start to pretend that we also know the flavor of Indian traditions. We are inclined towards learning Guitar or Drums and behaving like westerners mistakenly dropped on the eastern side. But we do not like when people do not know how to react on the music that comes out of those Guitar or Drums. We are attracted towards latest electronic gadgets, bikes, cars etc. Here Honda tells us that it is the beat of nation’s heart and we should go by riding on it. But when we learn that it does not tell where to go (or Does it? probably to reply to girl friend’s SMS), we do not know what to do with it. When someone says that according to our culture, extra-marital relations are sinful, that one should be loyal to one’s spouse, we do not understand what to do with the advertisement of a deodorant which tells us to zatak her or seduce a married woman by applying it.

We are introduced to modern ways of tele-communication and networking, internet, social connectivity but when it falls short of telling us whom should we connect to and with what purpose, we feel very restless. Modern trends of fast and energetic life, speed living causes us to believe in extremes of life, but when we do know where to channel our excessive energy, it appears self-destructive. Speaking of today’s women clothing sense, they are being told by their parents, grandparents to wear loose full clothes and wear duppata or sari so as to restrict people’s eyes to watch our body or breasts. But today they wear skin tight tops and short jeans splashing their breasts in public with proud. They argue against teachings of their old culture and want to adopt the modern western style of free and liberated women. But then they also tend to realize the importance of family system and fidelity and then remain confused as to how can they remain free and liberated when at the same time attached to old value system of family and fidelity.

The even bigger crisis lies in inability to decide what to do with nationalism and religion. First talking of nationalism, after hearing patriotic songs of Rehman, Lata and others on 15 august, 26 January, and after supporting India against Pakistan in terrorism, war and cricket, we feel elated as to have done justice to our obligation to nationalism. At the same time, we find attractive the idea of globalization and mixing of all nations and their cultures. Then we are left guessing as to how much of loyalty to show to nationalism and how much to globalization.

The biggest crisis, I think, is regarding religion and God. The idea of God does not seem to fit into our lifestyle. Someone said that God is man’s biggest creation. So when God is just a figment of someone’s imagination, then why bother? Man, from centuries, has toyed with the idea whether God exists or not but still no one can say for sure. Then why care for something of which existence itself is not sure? Who needs faith? But when some people say that religion is essential for living life, faith is more important than intellect, rituals and traditions are not superstitions but man’s belief in something above all controlling everything, then we feel indecisive. So what do we do now? We adopt middle path. We occasionally go to temples, mosques, church or other places of worship as the case may be to show solidarity to our grandparents, parents and children, celebrate holidays caused by religious festivals and condemn people who in the name of religion spread violence. We think that we should not take religion more seriously than that. But we do not want to know that religion based violence has gained its foothold not due to extreme religion-alism but due to de-religion-alism of masses. Why did Hindutva succeeded over Hinduism? It is because Hinduism has vanished from the minds of masses. How can only a small chunk of extremist people shake billion plus masses? This hate and violence between Hinduism and Islamism has been started only from a century back. But Hinduism and its culture has endured and accommodated many religions, their goodness, their extremism for thousands of years. Something must have changed now, for better or worse.

But what identity can one give to our youth who finds safe shelter in alcohol, marijuana and meat, who is burger gobbling, news freaks and flamboyant, whose virtue is wine, women and wealth. Identities change, modify, evolve with time and other external influences. But they also remain constant for some time or their spirit does not change for a while. But why there is no one identity? Why then is this dualism? Why do we find it difficult to mix our culture with western culture? Is it because we have lost the ability of distinguishing and preserving what is of value in our old culture and taking what is good in other cultures? Was it not the objective of a culture to give that ability, to distinguish between right and wrong, between good and bad?

M. K. Gandhi said that I would allow different winds in the name of different cultures to blow around my house but I would not allow my house i.e. my culture to be blown away by those winds. Is our house secure today? Or do we not even know where the debris is?

Man in the making: This Age of Turbulence

The different years in a life have unique vigour, energy, aspirations and learning. In childhood, we do not think too much. But later, when we are in the phase of transition from teenager to an adult, these years are what can be called years where man is in the making. After that, we would be stable and rigid enough to sustain our thinking, behaviour and acts.

But I think that these years are the most difficult to live, especially when there is no intervention from family in our life and decisions. We are independent to make our choices and decide upon our destiny. Support and guidance from someone can be very helpful but can not go along all the way. Today’s age of turbulence in the culture of our country also makes it difficult for youth to understand what to do with their life. Today, there are so many diversions, disturbances, digressions that it is very difficult to stick to one phase of the mind. When there are lot of options in the name of opportunities, people are never satisfied in following one path. I think that in the previous years, when alternatives were limited but competition was also less, then it was much easier to concentrate and work hard. Now due to pressure of change and adjustment, we are left guessing what is it we should adhere to.

Our initial 18-20 years lay our foundation. Values, morals, ethics, perceptions, character get built into our system. But during the age of 18-25, everything in our nature and behaviour get refined with new ideas and atmosphere. Some qualities get destroyed and many new get cultivated. And finally they become part of our personality. Apart from that, there are the years where it is decided what we would become out of our life. Some of our co-age group people already would have made their career or are in the line. Some are struggling and some have left the hope.

But I think, there is one important point here. During this period, whatever we think, say or do with ourselves, relatives, friends or elders, we should analyze it very carefully. Relations get damaged, prejudices get forged, temperament gets unrestrained, behaviour gets contemptuous and we can become very self-centred, sarcastic, pessimistic individual. And if it happens, there is no going back. So it is very dangerous in that way and I think, family and elders intervention therefore becomes necessary.

There is no harm in taking our words back in this age period. There is no compromise of dignity in apologizing for our mistakes or wrongful actions in these turbulent years. There is no waste in giving time to retrospection and introspection. When we think that our beliefs and perceptions alter with every passing day, it is better we try to make sense out of them and reinforce what is constant. And due this reason only, I think that we should not squabble over petty arguments taking a firm stand as it cannot be that firm in these years.

Robbing me off my words

Words are only one form of expression of thoughts and feelings. It is said that non-verbal communication plays a major role in our lives. But to me, words seem to hold more importance as they often come after filtration through mind but face-expressions, voice, personality is more deceptive and constantly changing depending on our mood and emotions.

Now the words we use to describe any situation observation, feelings or emotions are also what we think about that situation. Sometimes it happens that we do not find words exactly according to our observation or what we actually feel to say. But when this problem persists, then our thinking, feeling and observations also in turn becomes limited to our capacity of using correct words. This means to say that richness in our language affects the richness in our power of observation and thought.

Now coming to our generation’s speaking and writing traits, we can safely call them pathetic. Due to our own negligence and culture of comfort, and due to growing prevalence of social networking, the power of words in giving any message have diminished and so have the quality of messages. In mobile and internet communication, not only our grammatical and vocabulary related mistakes are ignored but also our inability to code the message into compact and precise words are excused. In fact, it has become part of modern fashion to make as many mistakes as possible in a single message and still deliver the message!

If we see our day to day conversations, there is exclusive collection of words that everyone uses to describe everything. Bhayankar, Ultimate, Bhokal, Maal, Class, Phodu, Fundu, Phadu, Todu, Machau, Mast, Sahi, Classic: these are the adjectives that we utilize to pinpoint the situation or personalities at hand. Vagueness of these words clearly suggests vagueness of our minds. These words often named as College Lingo are being used indiscriminately across the college campuses and afterwards in our daily life. When watching cricket, we ascribe a good shot played to simply a classic shot, not knowing what classic shots means actually. Even in cricket commentaries, words have become fixed for every situation. When visiting a place, we say it is ultimate, sahi, mast, phadu but do not have a slight notion of what we actually feel and want to say. In movies, the words are so limited and overused that only one different word can be said as the theme of the entire movie. Lyrics of songs have also deteriorated in quality of language though some lyrics writers are still trying to maintain the standard of songs through innovatively mixing other languages such as Urdu and Arabic words. In newspaper too, the conditions are no better. The stress there is on color, images, and headlines rather than on words and texts.

And there is another issue of using our mother tongue or second learned language. For most of us, Hindi remains the mother tongue while English is the second language. In this case, getting and retaining proficiency and richness in both the languages becomes a challenging task. In fact, it is a very rare chance that one can speak or write both the languages unerringly without mixing their words. We are also used to first think in our mother tongue then convert it into second language. After years of practice only, one can think in both the languages and then convert that thinking into words with equal precision.

Due to the growing stress on English, mother tongue such as Hindi are left ignored. People feel themselves inferior if they cannot at least use some English words in between Hindi. When people can christen all English words in their talking, it is a matter of vanity. But research have also shown that a child gets accustomed to his/her mother tongue in initial years of cognitive ability development and afterwards in school time, when he/she is rigorously taught in English only then the deterioration of both languages is definite. By learning and adhering to Hindi only, I think, one can learn quality English. Otherwise most of the time, we would be using words whose meaning is not distinctively clear to us in either of the languages.

At the cost of the possibility of being blamed for exaggeration, I would say that words are our identities. We eat, consume, work, sleep, talk, watch, listen, read, write but the thing that remains is only words. If you rob me off my words, you take away everything.

Buying experiences

We in today’s world are buying everything including experiences. Buying of experiences means asking people about their past experiences in some event and using that experience and its outcome to decide upon our action plan for some future event in our life. This is apparently called a smart approach. Smart it is surely if we know what the word smart means these days.

I look at it as a strategy to avoid our life’s problems. But it would not be bad were it restricted to that only. But in this way, we also happen to avoid life’s fun. It is said that a man is the sum of his experiences. By buying or borrowing experiences from others, I think it is similar to living other’s lives. Just imagine how many lives we are living by asking people about their choices, their mistakes, their perceptions, their suggestions etc. If a man travels down a path, that path is not his choice but his identity. If we look at it from the point of view of an opportunist or a professional, we can only take out his choices and outcomes but not what he was as a man and why he was like that.

There is nothing fundamentally wrong about taking guidance from experienced people. In fact, it is very right. But when we try to exploit each and every opportunity to extrapolate the present and the past to try to reach out to the future; when we take decision not on the basis of believed principles but on the cost-benefit analysis; when we are interested in knowing only about choices and results of other people but not in what they are made of; then there is some problem.

Taking a particular case about career choices, we take decisions about our choices based on the analysis of different people’s efforts and outcomes. When we meet some person who is successful by our standards, we quickly ask him success mantra. This is I think, disrespect towards that person’s efforts and talents. When we meet some person who is failure or mediocre by our standards, we quickly ask him what not to do. This is I think, disrespect towards that person’s struggles and capabilities.

In today’s times of networking, connectivity, keeping in touch, seeing you later, catching you later, what is going on, what is your plan, I am fine, I am nice, I am good, we ignore what we are and what others are. What we find in most of our conversations is this: AC is not working here, accommodation is best there, connectivity is not good from there, there is not any city life here, this career will give power but not money, that job will give free time but not growth, salary is good here but comfort is better there, this girl is beautiful but not very tall and thin, his analytical skills is good but communication skill is poor, his jeans is branded but shaving cream is local, her hair style is modern but clothing is out of fashion and so on. This indicates our evaluative criterions of the people as well as the ideas which govern our thinking and decision making.

We ask people about experiences but are we just the sum of what to do and what not to do? Are our life is an optimization equation based on constraints and objective function? Can our life be only the union of successes but not any elements of failures? Can we at the dusk of our life be satisfied in observing ourselves as nothing but just the random collection of other lives’ data points?

I say that before asking anyone, before taking guidance or advice, before buying others’ experiences, we should form our principles, encounter our experiences, learn from our mistakes and move on. Learning from other’s mistakes is smart but mistake of not trying to make any mistake, I think, is not smart.