Digging for Meaning

Said A word , said, is like the air that carries it... there, but ever changing. You know it is there, but 'which' air? May be it was made of something else the moment it was said. But now the memory has mutated the word with memories and assumption. It dissolves into maybes and blank spaces. What were you saying? Sorry the word didn't reach my cognition. Maybe it crashed against my ear and fell down. Let me look for it, while you go on with utterly temporary utterances that die right after they are born. Without a keen ear, a spoken word is a still born child. Keen ears and intelligence are the oxygen for meaning making with words. Unless one writes them down.  A spoken word is seldom alone. It carries with it movements, loudness, intonation. They are made of worldviews and emotions... exceptionally unique worldviews and emotions. exceptionally untranslatable unique worldviews and emotions. The rational word is but a small actor in the grand theater of emotions an...

Law intends to govern behavior of a people. Yet, the people seldom know the laws that they are going to be judged by. How could they? If Tesla had sex with lady Madam Curie. and their children were Einstein and Hawkins and so on.. Even then, only the 10th generation of this magnificent gene pool would probably have brain large enough to comprehend the constitution in its entirety and to be able to keep in in mind at all times to actually be able to behave in accordance with the laws and by laws and in laws and exceptions. One assumes, that the laws are based on universally understood moral principles. They probably started with simple understandings such as 'killing is bad', 'don't steal'. But the principles have mutated into a gargantuan puzzle which requires professional parselmouths (lawyers) to decode and game the puzzle. Essentially, what two lawyers and a judge engage is in a queer game in triad of meaning making. Each employs specialised words and chose...

Earth is annoyed with its children. She wants to take a break. Go travel to some other solar system for a change. Perhaps check out that Andromeda Galaxy. She has heard great things about it for ages. She never gets to travel anywhere. What with all the suckling fumbling good-for-nothing children of hers. Arrogant and up-to-no good. She sighs. She shudders. She melts. She thunders. No matter how hard she tries, nothing seems to get across to her children. She thinks, its a phase. The children will grow out of their teenage angst. The shut doors of perception will open some day. hopefully. For now, it is getting too much to handle for her. She is taking a break. Mars agrees to babysit. People wake up to find they can't breath on mars. the end.

The only reality is power. and the powerful will always have more leverage with tools. No matter with what intention those tools were made - internet (democratising force), judicial system (equalizing force), democracy (equal voice)... all these tools ends up serving the rich and powerful.  Take for instance the brutal massacres that Ranveer sena assholes kept on perpetrating killing hundreds of marginalised people - Dalits, Muslims, low-caste persons. A decade on, the perpetrators have been declared innocent by high court citing such intelligent reasoning - "When the killers came with intention to kill everybody, how the witnesses survived?"   The high caste judge reasoned that presence of witness is proof of the innocence! and if the killers had been efficient? then in absence of witnesses, killers would have been deemed innocent. Heads I win, Tales you loose. And the unstated rule of land will always remain 'Heads I win, tale you loose' with the r...

The only truly successful meme of 21st century is that of 'Money'. Successful because no other idea has been accepted with such unanimity as the idea of money. A paper with little value becomes fantastically valuable with a photo of Mahatma Gandhi. (or a fish or watch tower if you are from Norway .) And this transformation happens because humanity has collectively agreed to bestow imaginary value upon real substance.  No other idea comes close to the level of acceptance that the idea of Money enjoys. More and more people identify themselves as atheists (so there goes religion). Not everyone believes in equality (the idea of caste refuses to die, The idea of class remains a reality. People are forever trying to find imaginary cues to set themselves favourably apart from the masses). The rise of ISIS and resurgence of Nazi sympathies tells us that idea of democracy and human rights are not as strong as we think they are. Money is the one ring to rule them all.  Idea...

ABCD 2 is dance movie with mediocre dance. And that tells you a lot about the film makers and what they think of their audience. Made by celebrated choreographers with cult following, it is really disheartening to see them do a half-ass job at what they preach.The dances are not path-breaking or  original or even evocative. Most of the dancers do not give their 100% to the performance. You can see the lack of practice and energy in dances. The editor and cameraman do as much, if not more, movements as the dancers. Many Indian dance shows have better choreographed dances than this movie has. This is interesting because, the makers of this film are judges in at-least a few of those shows. Why suck? "Because everybody deserves a second chance." ad infinitum..  But this is the second movie in the franchisee. One expects that they would learn story telling by now at least? or does 100cr business is a reason enough for bad film making and lazy dance choreography? (for a movie ...

I feel that the system is rewarding me well with my career.  Primarily because my career is in advertising industry and as it turn out, advertising is one of the most important soldiers in service of globalisation . So, while seemingly inconsequential, my role is an integral (though small) cog among the many million small cogs that keep this system running. The system needs people who are capable of doing what is required of them. And I am capable enough . Enough - The system only requires a very narrow skill set of mine. That is a small part of the arsenal of skill sets that a typical human requires to progress and thrive in life. I suck at breathing for example. I have terrible hand-eye co-ordination. I have hundred other deficiencies that I would much rather not share with my possible future employer. It astounds me that for all my short comings and a few strengths, I earn way too much in comparison to people who are better humans that me. I am lucky to have just the right...