Tuesday, March 22, 2011

A look at ourselves through the eyes of our leaders




It all began with your forefathers,
and while you foolish people fight among yourselves
We still give the orders.
And will continue to.

You may ask how?

The same way we have till now.


By feeding on your ignorance and petty arrogance.
While you people debate on whose point of view is more genuine.

By giving you ways to keep yourselves entertained, so that even though the truth is in front of your eyes,
You will not see it because with all this charade we have you hypnotized.

We always controlled your life, and we still do
We can kill you when we want and your loved ones too.

So don't come in our way by doing too much thinking.
Just buy all the nonsense we have been feeding.

Look at your friends and learn a thing or two,
Just remain willfully ignorant or we will come and kill you too.

Just enjoy this materialism we have invented for you and be satisfied,
Why do you waste your time fighting for these people who just care about being proven right?

We have ruled over you for generations, so listen to what we have to say
Nothing will change till your brothers understand the truth you want to convey.
But we are sure that your egos will keep you divided, and yet again we will have it our own way.

And yet again we will have it our own way.

Thursday, March 17, 2011

Bollywood and It's Role In Indian Society | Escapism






















Usually I am not a TV kind of a person, but these days I am in Uttar Pradesh and I am guilty of being in front of the television more than I would usually like for various reasons.

But yesterday while flipping through channels I came across this movie called Agaaz (starring Sunil Shetty as the lead), and decided to watch a few minutes of what was going on.

The scene was that the protagonist was being stabbed by political rowdies, while his baby sister was being raped by one of the gang members in broad day light while the whole society watched in silence.

And now I think I understand why there are so many repetitive bollywood movies being made and watched for decades.

Also I am not a big fan of Bollywood films because of the very same reason - I feel they are repetitive in the kind of emotions or scenarios they are trying to bring out. Because I personally like to explore as many different emotions as life has to offer.

Most of the bollywood films deal with the same scenarios of love between people of different social statuses, political rowdyism and so on.

But now I understand the reason behind this.

These scenarios are a part of people's daily lives, and while real life usually does not have happy endings. These movies certainly do.

Since people have lost hope of justice in society, they at least like to see truth win over evil in their fantasies by putting themselves in the shoes of the protagonist or any other character.

This is the reason why there are innumerable movies being made and watched over and over again about the same life scenarios.

This is a perfect example of cinema being used as a form of escapism.

And this is in a country who tag line is "Satyameva Jayate" - "Truth always wins"

If this doesn't open your eyes to how hypocritical society is, nothing will. And remember me and you and everyone is part of this society. So don't detach yourself from the term "society" while reading this.

Also these kind of films are still more popular among the rural population of the country as compared to their urban counterparts.

But by that I don't mean there is less injustice in cities. But the urban people don't get to see such injustice out in the open so often because they are much higher up the social/economic ladder.

But these kind of scenarios are still a part of daily lives of the rural folks.

Nobody wants to change the society. While the poor helpless people live their lives with no hope of justice, the rich and influential people who can make a difference don't want to do anything.

They just want to give them ways to escape their miserable existence for a few hours. And there is a reason why the rich and influential who can spend billions of dollars on such cinema don't want to do anything about these hopeless situations.

And the reason is - Because they are already rich and safe. These problems are not a part of their life, and so they sit and do nothing about such hopeless inhumane scenarios. All they do is make a spectacle out of these sad situations in the world so that they can make more money from these hopeless people and get richer and richer.

Such movies will continue to be made and watched till life doesn't become worth living for majority of the population.

Also escapism in cinema is seen as such a normal and obvious thing. To the thoughtless people of course. Think about this for a minute - What good is a life if you constantly need ways to escape it?

Now why don't things change? Because everybody is selfish. Anybody who is happy sitting comfortably in their homes and look at these problems of the world while only taking care of their own careers and lives is selfish and is part of the problem and not the solution.

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Music & Language






















First let us understand the importance of music, and the role it plays in our daily lives without us even realizing may be.

Till 1960s scientists felt that the primary function of Human DNA was protein synthesis. But now they know differently. Scientists now say that only 3% of DNA's function is protein synthesis, the rest 97% of DNA's function is to respond to sound frequencies, and vibrations.

This new revelation might explain the profound over-powering experience music often has on people.

Also many scientists and musicians have collaborated on projects to record the vibrational frequencies of the four base molecules of DNA and convert them into sound frequencies and make music out of these frequencies. So it turns out everybody is like a note of music really.

Now coming to language.

Before well defined spoken language came about,there were only sounds. Just like even today all species of animals have sounds that they use to interact ideas and emotions.

These sounds might not make any sense to us, but they very well get the idea across to the members of their own species.

Obviously enough today these sounds seem inefficient to us humans because we feel there are better ways to express ideas.

But language was born out of nothing but these primitive sounds. Out of our need to communicate more efficiently. But even though the languages used today might be a little superior way of interacting, it's hardly an improvement as far as true communication goes.

Words are dead and inert, and a meaning has been assigned to each one. But they are still sounds, more refined sounds may be. But still sounds that we use to express our ideas.

But how do we know that we actually communicate our ideas using language?

For example the word 'food' might have completely different meanings to different people. To a rich guy it might be symbolic of the food he ate in an expensive restaurant the previous night or all through out his life and might bring about a happy memory.

But the same word might have completely different meaning to a poor man who has only seen his family and himself struggle for food. For him it might be a word he attaches a lot of sadness to.

So we see that language is limited and sometimes true communication, in fact most of the times true communication might take place without any exchange of words.

Now let us examine the role of language in music.

We have seen that language is limited. Hence when you listen to a song with lyrics it produces limited familiar emotions that a language is capable of producing.

Where as, in music without lyrics where you are producing emotions just with music without words, your musical experiences are no more confined by language and its limitations. Hence the listener experiences more pure emotions and is open to unknown and different states of mind.

Also if you can produce emotions in a song without being bound by words, and language it somehow seems like much more pure form of music. It also seems that it takes a lot more out of a musician to bring emotions out without the use of language.

Even the experience for the listener is more pure and limitless.

I am not comparing the two kinds of music as good and bad and I am not discriminating against one kind of music and supporting another with a bias. I listen to any kind of good music. But I am aware of the limitations of different kinds of experiences.
And by putting you through experiences untouched by language and culture which is a product of the past, this kind of language free music might also help you open your mind up to possibilities that language can never bring about.