Gold Gold everywhere! Not a glitter anywhere!

Disclaimer : This is the plight of the real middle class that is mentioned here. If you think you dont suffer so much then be glad to know that you are above the middle class!

Thanks to the internet my friendship circle has become bigger and the globe smaller. I just happened to observe the rumoured lureness of India “across the sea!”

My friends exclaim – India? Beautiful place! Would love to visit it sometime. Im blank! I search the atlas – is there another country named likewise?

Here the middle class family has more important things to do than to analyse the beauty and spirit of his nation.

One doesnt have the time to open their eyes to nature or places that are blissfully beautiful. You go in search of jobs to places far from home. Toil round the clock, 6 days a week and with the 23 leaves you are allotted a year all you get to do is reach home to ur dear ones.

One doesnt have the money to treat their taste buds. A majority of the middle-class people I have seen consider eating as a routine.  Tasting for 300rs when you can gobble up a full meal in half the price? Never! Its all for the sake of ‘filling’ the stomache without ’emptying’ the pockets.

One doesnt tend to realize the meaning of melodious pampering. Musical concerts going on? So what they kill you with their ticket charge. Most probably he will sing the same songs you have heard in the radio.  You may get 3 cds at one persons ticket charge!

One doesnt understand the sweet touch of paper back books! The sheer enjoyment of holding it and turning pages! 575 rs for a book. Every month you need different books (err they thought i need to hold on to one as my bible?) you dont realize its a dead investment. (True probably the prices for paper dont rise with time like that of Gold!)

Phew! so in life im not bound to enjoy the extreme pleasures which are abundantly available for my senses. (please! dont put in ur twisted thoughts here!)

Sight – enjoy the places in the movies that you see..preferably take the pirated ones that dont have the pic quality – theatres charge a lot. Hearing – download songs, listen to the cds of the same old songs..pleasures of musical concert and all is rubbish all there is a large crowd with larger purses (knowledge courtesy to imagination as not have visited even one!) Nose – My passion for perfumes need to be stopped with the ‘testers’ available as 5000 for a bottle of perfume is ‘hilariously ridiculous’ and total waste of money! Tastebuds – Chocolates from switzerland? Insanity at its peak! I’ll go get your favourite diarymilk.(favouritism assumed = ass u me ‘d!) Touch –  Books for 1000 a month? Can’t you download some of them? (take care of the download limit – reliance is cheap at the first look and way too expensive if we are careless)

So with all members of the family earning, toiling ourselves at work 9 hrs and another 3 hrs in traveling to and fro from office, six days a week, what are we supposed to do? Show enough expenditure so that we wont be taxed and then? hoard it! For what? arre buy gold, its an asset..at the time of the marriage of your daughter (wow someone could predict the gender of an unconceived child?) Or buy a house for your son (now its the incapability of the unborn that’s been predicted!)

That one day of union. For that one day parents spend their lifetime. Emotions have no place, joyousness have no place..but pompousness sure does have place. Entire life your aim is for that one day and in turn you pass on this concept of ‘non-enjoyment’ and ‘hardwork for child’s marriage’ to your children too.

The fun in the drama comes while shifting your gaze from the middle class to a higher class there optionally you find the same rules existing with perhaps one exception “your grand children’s marriage”.

There are a few who do seem to celebrate. How? Diwali – crackers i was spell bound when i heard the boy’s pg next door must have spent approximately (10,000 Rs for crackers! if not more) Dassehra – clothes with prices and stuffs in it that indicate – gold has been sewed to it. some of them flashy enough to look like multi-colored diamonds. treat for the eyes and ears they seem to be! Taste buds – Oh boxes in kilos of the same sweet or taste alike sweets made in pure ghee! Trust me – I hog on sweets and if you ask the difference between one sweet from another i need to give my brains some work-  most of them have the base of milk, sugar and ghee in abundance.

They (my friends) say India – is loud – ofcourse I often have to close my ears be it the crackers, the horns (they blare off as if saying hello to all the fellow vehicles on the roads – constant greetings i should say!) or even if its one man communicating to the other standing a little across the road! Some even think their voice travel the same way over mobiles..the farther the distance the louder you shout!

They (say India) is the land of spices – Yeah we export the best of them and gratigy ourselves with the trash that remains. After all eating is about filling your tummy! (Gee am i glad that atleast we have the trash of the spices we hold back!)

They (say India) is a land of colors – Yeah I saw all sorts of colors in the sky the diwali night! And the mere hearsay information of how much they would have amounted upto brought colors to my cheeks! and yeah one color to the sky after they were done – grey (that’s a color too!)

I realize this country of mine is rich with the natural blessings, abundant with the treats for all senses but binds its people with chains that never let them enjoy the treasures it has in store. Or should I blame the blindness of the current generation. People who have this great door to education, to outer world and yet close themselves behind the age old traditions of hoarding. Ah! speak of adhering to tradition we have them in abundance too but one is chosy enough to pick the worse ones! The good ones have faded off long before.

I dont say you ought not think of your son/daughter. But I wish more than the rush of accumulating wealth for their 20’s..and in the due process live by our lives and neglect their..if only we enjoyed life enough to give them a piece of the world outside,,to treat them with tastes from world over..guide them with the right books from authors across the globe and help them grow a better human being!.

Err..lemme wind up..I guess we have a baptism to attend and we as the close relatives need to gift the child ‘gold bangles’ lemme go withdraw my half month’s salary for  that!

God for Sale

It was a new start for me and I found myself in the middle of an extremely chaotic phase! I need a break! And my sense of break was to have a conversation(rationalization/realization) in an extremely serene atmosphere! With no one to stare, no one to question. A blissful silent conversation to whichever superior force that in ways control the earth, to understand why I am running about in life! To reason out if there is any sense at all in the hustle I seem to make!

Im an ardent devotee of Krishna – solemnly baptized & christened “Mary” with considerable knowledge of the muslim practices (as a large chunk of my college & hostel life was in a muslim institute).  Mr. PI Patel’s religious consciousness is not foreign to me!

Seeking a day out for emotional balance & to remain connected with the supremacy I set off early morning with just a coffee to a famous krishna temple ( name withheld for fear of religious attrocities against me!). It was 3 hours journey from home! I went there, appalled with the hugeness i walked fast to reach my abode of peace & tranquility as soon as possible! But lo the moment i reached there I saw so many people crowded in one corner of that huge temple! Did the good lord step out of his shrine and walk till that small gate? he had larger ones the other end dint he??

They handed me a card in which a slogan was written and they were directing us in – one at a time! there were marble slabs placed till u reach the shrine at specified distance and u had to recite the slogan – “once in every step u take”!! Excuse me – I thought i came here to talk with him – to find peace! The pandit in charge was shouting aloud – chant loudly. NO – revolted my mind. I came here to talk with HIM to find that small smile behind that flute which i can find only with utmost concentration and the coolness that the water with Tulsi leaves gives me! Im not going to chant, im going to talk – hare krishna hare krishna – came the voices left, right, front and back! And by the look on their faces, they had no clue of what they were chanting or why they were! It was the only feasible way to reach the top they must’ve figured, quite like me.

I reached the jeweled statue, couldnt search for the smile as I was busy revolting agains the chanting/talking stuff still! I climbed still higher the shrine..wow a whole museum of idols, books, cinema halls, handicrafts, and eatables. I adored the sculptures, browsed through the book titles ( gasped at the prices of both), wondered since when “sponge cakes” were offered as prasadas! mused at the childrens T-shirt caption that stated “I lost my heart to (somethng related to heaven)! i mused only at the “lost my heart” words of it! wondering where I have heard it before.. my mind wandering to all the movies that had used those words!  and craved for food as my eyes landed on the huge supply of sweets, burgers, samosas that were there!

In short in my religious trip for a reunion with the self or the atma or the paramatma, I had a complete chat with the wordly trifles! I thought of food, i thought of dress, bags, sense of fashion, sculptures, artistic tastes, captions, wayward thoughts! everything but God!

Having the option of other lords to save me i thought i’ll set on the next trip
(the same day)! Many of you would be thinking Y need to travel to a holy place, why not ur home, a park – as God is there everywhere! As i said I just wanted a silent, peaceful talk with him, calm down my racing mind and a cool, serene atmosphere! I couldn’t do it at home, coz home was just too congested! No parks coz they apparently dint like the idea of a lady sitting alone in a park and i was confronted with a questioning face with such authority that i meekly succumbed to their unvoiced orders and headed home every time i visited a park alone with the intention of just sitting & meditating!

All said and done i set off my trip to the dome of peace & silent enduring – church! I carried some bread along ( a traditional offering in one of the churches here)(name withheld for fear of religious atrocities against me!) I traveled 2 hrs again the same day to find my tranquilizer and lo it was closed. In a sense I was happy, the place would be deserted and I can blabber what i want and find Mr. Peace & ask for some of his peace portion.

The guard looked curiously at the large pack of bread i was carrying! He has his reasons to stare as I do look a Hindu and the papers were full of stone hurls and violence of Hindu people against Christians! Well he directed me towards the Priest – well he is an appointed member, a mediator – but i thought i traveled in the hope of a direct conversation. I need to rush back. Its 7 and I may have a good 2 hrs journey back! I went to the Priest nevertheless, gave him the bag as my mind raced to the lonely corridor dimly lit to relieve my mental burden. But i was not to hasten, my mediator wanted my complete information, perhaps hes going to submit my file to the almighty! But we were following open door policy till now, right? even with the Almighty?

What is your name? Where are you from? You traveled all the way till here? How did you get to know of God? (err? no one else knew? i get some reward/incentives?) Are you of this church, How often do you come..thus flowed his unending quiz..long enough for me to be aware that I have to schedule my appointment with Mr. Peace for another day! As i rushed out his door he called me back to inform that I should surely meet him the next time i visit the church! His tone remided me of a beautiful lady (Guys now dnt ask me if she’s single – No she’s not!) from Poland whom i met n a bus & who started talking to me about religion. She was telling me why do I believe in a God who is into violence and adultery and why nt convert into christianity (i dnt let out my PI situation to her ;P). I smiled a very pleasing one thinking that no matter how muchever people tease me for my foolishness I’m certainly better than a damsel from Poland who expects people to hop into religions at her words like it was a running train!!! God save her from the “real people who are actually into violence!!”

Yesterday I dint for once pray for health, peace or wealth for myself or my family..but i prayed nevertheless for the supreme power which is believed by all to control earth, planets heaven and what not! I prayed that let him/her/it not be “sold” like this!! I thought the religion in me was to discipline me! I remember my mother taking me to the pooja room to check if i lied! I till date don’t have the guts in me to lie to my boss of taking a leave due to “food poison” without turning away from the God’s pic in the living room! But with t-shirts,caps,bags,walls,papers, everything having his name I have no choice but ignore! I might covet something that was sold to me, but i never would revere it.

Religion is sold, its a commodity today as dangerous as drug setting people violent on the roads. Are we foolish to believe the louder the screams the more the Lord hears it? Are we stupified to believe we are waging a tug war with the supreme power and the more the number of people in our side the more the chances of pulling him to us? Are we blind enough to actually believe that killing a creation would reinforce our tie with whom we believe as the creator! Or plain – are we ready to be the monkeys of those political wizards who take advantage of the situation in a strikingly coincidental manner – blast after blast!

Or is it coz its the age of commercialization! Today God out there is all about marketing techniques, promoting, increasing customer base, ensuring customer loyalty and the worst – competition and trust me competition that is the worst of its kind!!! Rush..grab this fantastic offer – God for Sale at 100% discount. *conditions apply. (u benefit only from promoting it further, even if it costs lives! peace! watever!)