The Marijuana Effect!

Some how, call it a universal anathema or a congenial curse, you happen to have the most squeamish, scathing, execrable and fractious person as a friend. Annoys you so much that literally excoriates the very fabric of your skin. Disturbs you in the middle of your work. Is too exacting for you to correspond. Forces you to rejudge your decision to befriend him/her in the first place. You are thinking of breaking up but for some silly reason, you need to stay put. Leaves no stones unturned in giving you hell. What do you do? How do you cope?

You know what they say, "Everything has a silver lining"

Well, I wouldn't do that. But ya, there actually is a little something you could do. A couple grey green tiny dried up globules is what you might be unknowingly looking for. Yes, if you guessed it, I am scribbling this blog on 'Marijuana'.

Flagrant though it is, 'marijuana' or 'cannabis' consumption is thriving by the second in today's world.
As of 2010, more than 70% Americans reported to have used Marijuana for trial, a staggering 60% of which were youngsters. It is usually taken in as a joint, with tobacco rolled up within the infamous 'white paper stick'. The immediate effect is an increase in heart rate, red eye, physical imbalance and dry mouth. But who cares about these symptoms if the much desired symptoms include a multicolored extravaganza, incessant giggling, an overpowering sense of well being and a slight paranoia. When you mix the crushed tiny green blocks with tobacco, roll them up a cigarette and take a couple of puffs, the blood seems heavier than you ever knew it would. As if you just conquered the world and an improbable yet magnanimous acclaim awaits you.

Now, coming back to the point. Your friend. Aaah! Damn it! The friend! The exasperating friend shows up at your doorstep with the same attitude you really despise. Just when you're about to think of killing yourself, think again. You might have something in store for him this time.
"So, what's the action", he asks you with the same condescension.
(I wanna kill you, that's what the action is), Now I know that's how you'd love to reply.

Don't!

Instead, ask him if he has some time which sure as he is born, he will.
Take him out to a spot quite desolate. By desolate, I mean really really alone. A spot not even the air could locate. Offer him a cigarette. He would promptly take it. Light it up for him. I know you hate it but you wanna work up the plan right? So be a good boy and show some courtesy.
He would take a puff and would ask you, "Dude, where the hell is your cigarette?", he says when he is about to offer you his cigarette.

Now if you're an occasional smoker, I know the smell would instigate your gut to crave but you need to hold your ground. You don't wanna inhale that cigarette that is also secretly contaminated with nasty chunks of marijuana to which your friend is sadly oblivious.
So before he offers you his joint, take out your pure cigarette and start smoking slowly. Really slooooowly! Now you don't want him offering you his joint. Do you?

In a few minutes, he would start to feel dizzy. Being absolutely oblivious to marijuana effects, he would start to panic. Just revel in his predicament. Tell him bad things. Tell him, he's gonna faint. Tell him he's behaving too awkwardly. Even if he is not, he would start to believe you under the effect of marijuana. Ask him to sit down and close his eyes. Comfort him. He might fall asleep.

Now that you have taken your pleasure, you can choose whether to abandon him there or take him back. If I were you, I know I would leave him there.

This is just a small way to fabricate your revenge. I know it's way out of bounds and might land you in trouble. But, if handled properly, it's fun if operated on a one time experimental basis. It won't kill you and the fun is totally surreal. Still, if you're too skeptic, try it at your own risk. And please! Don't ever get addicted to it!

Tragedy Thrills Us!!!!!!

Coz out there, someone really dies. Someone really cries!

How often do we find ourselves immobilized by a footage showing how brutally a man was run away by a truck. Or when they show a cover story of a mother who, out of poverty and misery, drowns her own baby. Or about the horrifying plight of Afgan Women who burn themselves to the point when the pink flesh reveals itself. What about when the evening news describes every savage part of a story that ended in death? Quoting the lines from one of my favorite songs, "It ain't fun till someone dies!"

Right from the first beam in the morning till the late night scuffle with the spouse, we struggle to thrive under cobwebs spun within the societal parameters. We face thick skinned colleagues at work. Threadbare jokes on the cellphones. The under qualified subordinates. Indolent children at home.That nagging wife who can't get enough out of it. That prehensile landlord who eats up more of our calories than a 4 hour workout at gym. Bills, over-dues, liabilities render us dangling at the the cusp of being broke. What fun do we have then? What thrill do we we have then?

That's right! Under so much pressure, tragedy seems to be the only element at rescue. Of course not the tragedy we face. What's thrilling to us is the tragedy others face. We, like junkies, sit back poked to our televisions and enjoy those tragedies vicariously. A wife kills her own husband. A husband rapes and stabs own wife, may be even daughter, depending upon the atrocious mind he has. A son shoots his own honest father. A farmer is found dead in a grave he himself dug.

Moving up a level, a 7.6 Richter scale shakes the very fabric of humanity rendering lakhs dead and millions homeless. The havoc of the rain Gods that flood us to the nostrils. When happening market places, with mothers bargaining with fruit sellers and children playing gleefully, are rocked by earsplitting explosions leaving several dead and thousands doomed for life.

What do we, the mango people, do when all this shit happens? Yes and I am sorry to say, we sit back locked to our idiot boxes and savor those crunchy chips with our evening tea. Sure, we feel sad watching all this displayed on the news under the captions, 'Breaking News'. Still, and painfully putting it, it helps chill out a bit after all our marathons for life. Thanks to the ever advancing internet and media, that's the only way we relax now. We need to watch things destroy themselves from a distance.

We express condolences at deaths. We send flowers to the plagued. We treat the disabled with care. That's good. But our basic instinct has been transformed from creating something into deriving pleasure from witnessing anarchy, commotion, disorder. Chaos, unless it's in our lives, is always a bite to catch. Sadly, that pizza become even more crispy and anodyne with a tragic incident shown on some news channel or during a gossip with friend. Why has our fabric transformed into a vicarious entity that enjoys badness from a distance?

Of course there is nothing we can do about it. We can at least not let death and destruction become our evening snack partner. Bad things do happen. We lament only when we get chosen. Till that time comes, someone else's tragedy thrills us. Lets try not to let that happen. May be it's the only thing we can do. But it's one good thing we can do.

Coz out there, someone really dies. Someone really cries!

If they say you're crazy, you better set the trend

Its been the case right from the inception of life on planet earth. You always need someone to set the trend. Be it fashion, gaming, software, automobiles, infrastructure or communication; industrious individuals have always found the gumption to lay the footstall for a ground breaking thought to materialize. Whatever be the field, you name it and you have it. Media for sure, has a substantial role to play. Once the media sets alight the energy of stardom, we find ourselves craving for everything that makes us resemble our icons even to the slightest bite. A gamut of emotions rakes through when we see our suave chocolaty stars in the outfit we long for. Who doesn't want to seem as voluptuous as their role models? They set the trend and we become marionettes that are secretly planned to carry away the legacy.

Some one comes up with an uber-cool idea which doesn't quite get attention. Guess what? Times change and the idea seems to emerge logical and approachable. It manifests breaking all boundaries setting an unfathomable paradigm. You see, human minds are gullible. No matter how subtle one claims to be, a new idea tears apart the subtlety reprogramming the mind that is now irrevocably inclined towards the idea. We so passionately want to live the idea ourselves. For instance. An adult woman, almost inclined to the whims of fashion, yet maintaining her modesty, when watches her idol, say, Malaika Arora, walk the ramp with a shoulder short sizzling jumpsuit, a mix of envy and desire impacts the hell out of her soul. One moment, she sees it adoring the body of a model and the next thing she knows, she is lost in her own utopia, living that fantasy. And that's how you set the trend!

We notice today, a shift in focus from gender inclusive to gender neutral. Every year, the IT industry sees a magnanimous flux of women ready to work at par with men. Some women are just not satisfied. They are entrepreneurs who work like junkies taking their companies to unexpected heights. Yet they can't get enough. Constant travelling, facing predicaments even as strong as an immobilizing disability, family upbringing, qualifying as satisfying sexual partners at bed, loving mothers, caring wives are roles that may require a million women if we consider Karl Marx's theory of division of labour. Surprisingly, a single women does all that with little or no pain and definitely no nagging at all. And that is how you set the trend. How do such women do it? Well that's not the right question. Is it possible that such women exist? That, fellas, is the right question.

Single parenting has almost won the label of a trend. As much of a trend or a fad we like to call it, it is no candy. It can be a pretty nasty pain if you lack what it takes. But there are people setting benchmarks of devotion. Devotion to their kids who they parent singly. Devotion to their life, their job, social network, family and all. Sushmita Sen has set a formidable example in this prospect. Fighting all odds, winning all scuffles, surpassing all legal conflicts, she adopted a girl. She has become an inspiring prototype for a multitude of women out there. Though engrossed in a back breaking schedule, a race against herself, she manoeuvres to take best care of her daughter till date. She has adopted another girl. It has been a good lesson. Due to an inspired media coverage, there has been a cut down in the number of female fetuses found in drains or dug from dry wells or found floating in lakes. And that is how you set the trend! Why do such people do it?Well that's not the right question. Is it possible that such people exist? That, folks, is the right question.
So we get the idea. There is always, in every community, a selective bohemian group of people that sets up new trends beyond all barriers. Their desire to make something new happen is unabated and unfazed. They produce it, fight for it, stand up to it and live it. People call them crazy. Little do people realise that taunts hardly bother them. They know that the same people protesting against the idea will cheer up the innovator once the idea becomes a success. The trend becomes a success. Coz we know that it always takes someone to SET THE TREND.

CHEERS!!!!!

Music

God sure knew that the gorgeous world he was gonna create would one day succumb to emotions, conflicts and grotesque wars that man would rage against man. So after ages of critical thinking, he came up with the scintillating idea of music that would gush through man's veins calming him and forcing him to relinquish everything and be seduced by the eternity that lies within. Little did he know that he had created the most amazing gift he could ever give to humans.

Of course music has evolved into multi-dimensional prospects ever since its origination. But being a musician myself, though a rookie, i can say that the one dazzling flame flows through all musicians over the world despite an unfathomable disparity in the languages they speak, the food they eat, the intellect they have or the prosperity they reflect. It can't be verbally expressed. But we know that there is something flabbergasting about it. The enormous pleasure we get listening to our favorite tune far exceeds the one derived from sex.

A Chinese philosopher has said "if the world learnt to appreciate music, all disharmony would end at once". The satisfaction, peace, harmony and the sweet melody that flows through music, be it in any form, finds best resonance with human mind which is symbolic of the fact that we as humans are designed to live with all these elements deeply embedded into our souls. Such is the influence of music in our lives that any tension, a defeat, a setback, a cold fight with a lovely friend, a nag or a bicker with mom immediately calls for some sweet music. All we do is plug the headphones and turn that heart touching piece of euphony on. It works like a drug that once injected into the bloodstream makes you wanna fly within seconds it hits you. Of course music doesn't kill unlike the drug.

So why does evil keep showing up despite the widespread presence of music throughout the world? Why do we fail god over and over again? May be because we have yet to learn a lot that music has to offer. We have to release ourselves to the heavenly wings of music and let it take us far far away from the materialism we are stuck in. We have to renounce the feeling of pride, victory, jealousy, cynicism and repugnance. It is only then that we can rejoice the limitless power and solace that music encompasses.

Cheers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!