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!!!!!