Society, you are a crazy breed.......or are you not??

Subscript: To the uninitiated, the title of this post plagiarises part of the refrain from one of my favorite songs; 'Society' by Eddie Vedder.

One night I did something that everyone who has 'eaten a brownie' (for want of a better metaphor, and in pursuit of  plausible deniability) promises himself, but never quite manages to: I managed somehow to pen down my random thoughts and for once won the battle against 'instant short term memory loss' which comes with eating one too many brownie.

So I'm reproducing it here in its erratic entirety, with the only changes being due to my inability to decipher some of my own scrawl, and leave it up to my long suffering and scant readers to judge whether it makes any sense.


                               Society, you are a crazy breed.......or are you not??

It is essential, when I think about it now. I have always been suspecting of society and Eddie Vedder's 'Society' has always resonated with me.
But today I realised it may be a 'necessary evil'.
For the generic person atleast: the sheep and not the shepherd. All people have the same insecurities I realised.
The psychological nature of man has not remained just the second nature of humans I feel, it has become one with his intrinsic nature.
So, the greatest leader, read Indira Gandhi, and the lowliest schoolgirl share the same insecurities, same paranoia, same confusions; in short the same propensity to take senseless, illogical decisions based on nothing but inner makings of an utterly, perpetually confused mind.
The mind is such a deadly cocktail of incurably infinitely many 'chains of thoughts', nay, 'schools of thought', even 'universes of thought', so to say.

If there were no social framework, no 'right answer', no precedents, no such 'fixed algorithms for moving forward', then would even a single human, forget the majority, be capable of taking a sensible, logical decision?
So, maybe my much hated nemesis, society, is the very reason for our survival. Its a scary thought that my most parochial opponents have been proven right!!
 Maybe society is the only 'binding factor' that takes humankind forward in a discernible direction, even if on a disastrous course, and not zig-zagging in random motion without any 'displacement'.



                                 
                        

The Cost

I'm back!!! But my return from this laziness induced sabbatical is not the result of some dramatic-life changing  epiphany, rather its just a byproduct of a mundane writing competition which I certainly hope to lose.
So here is my entry. Its a (seriously) short story wherein I refute the theory "'Dictatorship can be the only savior for corrupt India". And don't blame me if the topic sounds pompous, I had no say in the matter.......so here goes.........btw the word limit was 500 words, so my style was cramped, again nothing I could do about it.........(Ah, excuses, how I love thee).

THE COST

Ishant was very happy that day. The promotion had come as a happy surprise. He had worked hard and accomplished a lot that year, but still, to be made the youngest ever ‘Senior Executive Officer’ in the Department of Education was something he had not expected. So, when the gold embossed invitation from ‘The Schools Board’ arrived at his doorstep and regaled the words “Dear Sir, We would be much obliged if you accept our invitation to be the Chief Guest at our Independence Day function” he couldn’t help but feel overwhelmed with pride and anticipation. He could feel his lifelong dream of giving back to the young taking shape; this was the cake, the promotion was just the icing.

The date was 2^nd September 2024, Bharat was celebrating its 11^th Independence Day. It was a murky day: the gloomy weather seemed out of place, at odds with the air of jubilation spread all over the country. The people had every reason to celebrate; their motherland had risen to become the richest, most powerful country in the world. There was no disease, no famine, no crime.

The 30,000 strong audience from schools all across the capital sat in rapt attention as the compere wrapped up his eulogical introduction of Shri Ishant and he took the dias. “Eleven years, just eleven years it took us to throw off the shackles of backwardness and claim our rightful place in this world. So rise my young friends and join me in our national anthem to celebrate our victory over ‘democracy’, to thank our High Commander, Shri Vijendra, for redeeming our pledge in full measure, the tryst we made with destiny so long ago has been honoured at last. Today we truly wake up to life and freedom”. The applause that followed was thunderous, and the hall was filled with the music of patriotism, Ishant had meant every word of it and sang along with a child’s enthusiasm. Then, as the anthem ended and the crowd settled down again he went on to speak for a few more minutes, motivating the audience and leaving them with a sense of purpose.  As he descended the stage, he felt infused with a burst of energy himself, but there was one thing that bothered him; an old man, he seemed to be a janitor, standing in the corner, the way he looked at Ishant unnerved him. His eyes hinted at pity, but his jaw was clenched in hatred.

 Ishant could not shake the image of the old man’s face from his mind. The next day he came back to the now deserted auditorium and found him sweeping the floor. Ishant walked upto him. The old man growled without turning to face him:

 “You actually believe it don’t you, that this is paradise you live in and Vijendra is God”.

”Yes”.

 “Did you ever know your father?”.

 “No, he died when I was one.”

“Do you know why”.

“No.”

 “I am your uncle, you fool, they killed your father because he would not let go of his last name, his language, his religion, his identity, his individuality. Have you never wondered what your paradise cost??” 

Can equality and chivalry coexist?

Well, with the very first of my blog entries I break some of the promises screaming out from 'about the author'  on the home page, which by the way should have been 'about the author and the blog'....well that'l have to wait.
My implied promise of humor and tomfoolery will be ignored today, but the promise of staying away from engineering will not be, will never be (couldn't do it even if I wanted to, even free unsolicited ramblings must have SOME standard, or at least your proud author thinks so!!).

SO, 'equality' and 'chivalry'; words from two different eras, two different philosophies, two different planets one might feel. But our hearts don't care much about philosophies and theories and principles and convictions; so a modern 'lady' might talk all she wants about equality but a 'gentleman' offering her his coat still makes her heart flutter and 'ladies first' is still a winning life principle for guys. See, don't get me wrong, i'm not faulting you women for this, I've always been all for 'girl power'......I'm just saying how complicated things are today, especially so in our great (read crazy) country.

Recently two things got me thinking about this; first was a statement made by Anubhav Sinha, the directer of movies like Ra.One, during his talk at TEDx, IIT BHU (sigh, here goes my credibility, but don't be fooled by the quality(or lack of it) of movies he makes, he is a good thinker and speaker). He said something to the effect of  'I don't like the term 'women empowerment', it implies that men can and should empower women and defies the very foundations of gender equality'
The second thing was a column written by the novelist Kishwar Desai in 'The Week' : 'Looking for Lancelots'. wherein she talks about her (doomed) quest for chivalry in Indian men.(please check out this link, it will improve your perspective on what I'm talking about)

So this brings us to the question 'can equality and chivalry coexist?'. This seemingly rhetoric and somewhat trivial question actually reflects the all important, ever changing issues of gender roles and gender equality. Not just an out and out Feminist, even the 'moderate modern' is forced to pause and think about this. Also, this, in a way, represents the quintessential paradox: 'equality vs special privileges or treatment'. If we find an answer to it we can move on and answer something like 'can equality and reservations coexist?' etc etc.
But here comes the tricky part, I can't answer this question (hence the 'slightly incompetent' part in my biography, that promise is not to be broken you see). And on a more serious note I don't think anyone can answer that. The most I can tell is that the answer is different for each person, so lets consider a few types: (That I don't know much about engineering does not mean I can't borrow the 'break into specific special cases and develop different theories for each of them' approach from it)

• The Chauvinistic Male: No, absolutely not. Actually the question itself is redundant in this case as they don't believe in equality at all, but anyways, the very demand for equality and the present day climate supporting it has made them, well, cranky, for want of a better word. So out goes the chivalry and in comes the bitterness and meanness, and no equality or respect as the trade off too.
• The Normal Male: Here it can go both ways, some are disillusioned, some simply don't care (if they can get the girl that is). But ya, otherwise there is some discontent brewing.
• The Feminist: No, in principle at least. There is no scope for chivalry in feminism, equality precludes any special privileges. 
• The Normal Female: The problem with this is that its too general a grouping, because the 'average guy' is a much more realistic concept compared to the 'average girl', as a generalization about women is a not to be made lightly. But anyways, for the sake of simplification let us assume it to be a group. (another idea imported from engineering). Here again it can go both ways, but in general women no longer expect men to be chivalrous; put out their shirts to cover puddles etc etc. And they don't look for it as the defining quality too, rather respect and being considered as equals is more important. But acts of chivalry still win points with the heart. You will be hard pressed to find a women actually spurning chivalry in the name of equality.

So what does this tell us; well the most important thing it shows us is that psychology is not a truly objective science. 'Equality' used in a sociological context is different from its use in mathematics, here it does not imply that the 'magnitude and sign' of two things are the same. What I mean to say is equality and sameness are different. When we say Man and Woman are equal we do not mean they are the same, we just say that they are to be treated with equality: equal respect, equal opportunities etc etc. Hence it does not imply in any way that being pampered and cared for in anyway contradicts a woman's right and desire for equality, which is being denied (especially in India), chivalry or not. But that is a story for another day.

Hopefully more weighty and more irreverent and more naughty and more crazy posts will follow.