my anger is not due to my vested interest
but due to the murder of righteousness
i would not speak out...
because the battle, too subtle, is lost before it begun
but i am sad...
not for the person who has been wronged,
the person does not care, too small a thing it is.
and it is never people who are wronged,
it is ideals which are murdered, values which are trampled
but, i am sad...
for the loved one, who has wronged
unfortunately there is no escape from karma
the tightening noose of justice
as much as i do not want it...
i can feel the punishment,
in its most poetic form,
probably without even one's knowledge
tightening its grip
on the shared 'value of wrong'
who can fight the eternal law.
but we have a responsibility to hope
Sab ko sanmati de bhagwaan.
-Varun
07-Dec-2009
Of course you cannot understand what I mean, that is the very aim!
Monday, December 07, 2009
Thursday, November 26, 2009
Democracy
Democracy has a fundamental flaw... that the best salesman is neither the best strategist nor the best executor, they are very different and often uncorrelated skill-sets.
-Varun
Nov 26, 2009
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Meethi meethi Thand
Meethi-meethi thand
Meethi-meethi thand chchune lagi thi,
maa ne ghar pe sab ke garam kapde nikal diye the,
is meethi-sardi ko meetha kapdo ki garmi hi to banaati hai
meine apni uni kameez pehne,
mandir mein khade, radha-krishan ko dekha,
maa ne unhe bhi sundar aur saksham uni kapde pehnaaye the,
tabhi meine poocha, ya phir, prarthna kari
maan ne to apne pure parivaar ko uni kapdo mein surakshit kar diya,
tujhe bhi...
par hey jagat-pita, jagat-mata, kya tune apne purey parivar ko surakshit kar liya?
-varun
25-nov-2009
The chilling winters...
Meethi-meethi thand chchune lagi thi,
maa ne ghar pe sab ke garam kapde nikal diye the,
is meethi-sardi ko meetha kapdo ki garmi hi to banaati hai
meine apni uni kameez pehne,
mandir mein khade, radha-krishan ko dekha,
maa ne unhe bhi sundar aur saksham uni kapde pehnaaye the,
tabhi meine poocha, ya phir, prarthna kari
maan ne to apne pure parivaar ko uni kapdo mein surakshit kar diya,
tujhe bhi...
par hey jagat-pita, jagat-mata, kya tune apne purey parivar ko surakshit kar liya?
-varun
25-nov-2009
The chilling winters...
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Balika Vadhu
Why I would never stop opposing 'Balika Vadhu'
When my eye first caught 'Baalika Vadhu', a super-popular TV-soap with a child-couple, I was shocked. I asked a family member how they could show child marriage which was illegal. She said, "arey dekhiyo to sahi, they put socially relevant messages whenever something wrong happens!" I saw it for 15 minutes and was far from convinced. Child marriage had immediately reminded me of "Age of Consent Bill" (See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Age_of_consent). I, till date, remain a lone rebel against Baalika Vadhu and shall remain so...
My problem with Baalika Vadhu is that it does not and would not show the ills of child marriage in the right light. It would keep it wishy-washy and to the surface. The problems shown in the soap are not only very sub-dued but many of them are not the 'real' ills of child marriage. Consider, for instance, the opposition of the boy's parents to the girl's going to school. Well, this is not a solitary ill of child marriage, since girls face the same treatment at their parent's home. Or consider the constant restrictions the dadi-saas puts on the paut-bahi, again not very different from those which are put for a full-grown bahu by saas in many other soaps. Or those put by the dadi on the young girl in her own home. The problems depicted are those not primarily of child marriage, but that of gender inequality. Then what are the key problems of child marriage?
It is the sexual complexities of child marriage which are non-existent in the serial. Moreover, the director has no choice but to continue this depiction to preserve the mainstream character of the serial. The general age difference in child marriage which was (and probably is) very prevalent has been totally neglected (ok! shown half-heartedly in Gehna). The pressure of early age pregnancy does not feature. All I see in Baalika Vadhu is this cute couple of Jagiya and Anandi having a fun time. I strongly and sincerely believe that this gives acceptance to the tradition of child marriage and hides the complexities.
The sexual urges of a growing male adolescent which becomes a huge problem for the victim young girl is and will remained undepicted in the serial. The sweet hero Jagiya cannot and will not do this, or rather, cannot be shown to do so. The other challenge for the young bride is to deliver babies, that too males, at a young age. Can the director show Anandi going through this at the hands of her husband and family and die in the course of it? I guess not.
Baalika Vadhu is stuck with the nice sugar-coated image it has given to Child Marriage. I refuse to budge from my stand that it advocates child marriage, despite all the socially-relevant statements it flashes on TV. Its compulsion to remain mainstream and have a chocolaty young love story leads to its bitter failure to bring out the evils of child marriage. I wish the director can be bold enough to turn his sweet Jagiya into a real-world ill-educated adolescent who has a woman he can command over in mind and body as sanctioned by tradition. Only then the real issue with child marriage shall come out. And I will stop my opposition to it!
-- Varun
When my eye first caught 'Baalika Vadhu', a super-popular TV-soap with a child-couple, I was shocked. I asked a family member how they could show child marriage which was illegal. She said, "arey dekhiyo to sahi, they put socially relevant messages whenever something wrong happens!" I saw it for 15 minutes and was far from convinced. Child marriage had immediately reminded me of "Age of Consent Bill" (See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Age_of_consent). I, till date, remain a lone rebel against Baalika Vadhu and shall remain so...
My problem with Baalika Vadhu is that it does not and would not show the ills of child marriage in the right light. It would keep it wishy-washy and to the surface. The problems shown in the soap are not only very sub-dued but many of them are not the 'real' ills of child marriage. Consider, for instance, the opposition of the boy's parents to the girl's going to school. Well, this is not a solitary ill of child marriage, since girls face the same treatment at their parent's home. Or consider the constant restrictions the dadi-saas puts on the paut-bahi, again not very different from those which are put for a full-grown bahu by saas in many other soaps. Or those put by the dadi on the young girl in her own home. The problems depicted are those not primarily of child marriage, but that of gender inequality. Then what are the key problems of child marriage?
It is the sexual complexities of child marriage which are non-existent in the serial. Moreover, the director has no choice but to continue this depiction to preserve the mainstream character of the serial. The general age difference in child marriage which was (and probably is) very prevalent has been totally neglected (ok! shown half-heartedly in Gehna). The pressure of early age pregnancy does not feature. All I see in Baalika Vadhu is this cute couple of Jagiya and Anandi having a fun time. I strongly and sincerely believe that this gives acceptance to the tradition of child marriage and hides the complexities.
The sexual urges of a growing male adolescent which becomes a huge problem for the victim young girl is and will remained undepicted in the serial. The sweet hero Jagiya cannot and will not do this, or rather, cannot be shown to do so. The other challenge for the young bride is to deliver babies, that too males, at a young age. Can the director show Anandi going through this at the hands of her husband and family and die in the course of it? I guess not.
Baalika Vadhu is stuck with the nice sugar-coated image it has given to Child Marriage. I refuse to budge from my stand that it advocates child marriage, despite all the socially-relevant statements it flashes on TV. Its compulsion to remain mainstream and have a chocolaty young love story leads to its bitter failure to bring out the evils of child marriage. I wish the director can be bold enough to turn his sweet Jagiya into a real-world ill-educated adolescent who has a woman he can command over in mind and body as sanctioned by tradition. Only then the real issue with child marriage shall come out. And I will stop my opposition to it!
-- Varun
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Values...
HUMAN VALUES have always been and continues to play a slave to Adam Smith's ubiquitous MARKETS.
What helplessness!
-Varun
13 May 2009
PS: It is amazing how the rule of demand and supply control most stuff around us rather than values, principles or fairness....
Saturday, December 20, 2008
Jaago...
Jaago Bansiwale lalna... Jaago mere pyaare
It is been long since I have been hearing this melodious song which Yashoda sings to wake up the flute-player Kanha every morning, in the literal sense. The picture painted by this song takes me into the blissful land of Krishna instantaneously.
For ages, the same song has depicted the metaphoric meaning where we cry to God to wake up and care of the world which, at any snapshot, is filled up with misery. It is to also remind Krishna of the promise he made in the Gita... in the theological sense. It is also a complain, rather a taunt ;)!
The other day when I heard this song, maybe for the hundredth time, a new meaning emerged. It was now a cry to the Krishna within to wake up...
O' the Krishna inside me, wake up...
O' the Krishna inside everyone wake up...
And once it happens, the world will be the blissful abode of Krishna
PS: The second and the third interpretation are the same from a Vedantic perspective, the third one being more fundamental.
-Varun
Dec 19, 2008
It is been long since I have been hearing this melodious song which Yashoda sings to wake up the flute-player Kanha every morning, in the literal sense. The picture painted by this song takes me into the blissful land of Krishna instantaneously.
For ages, the same song has depicted the metaphoric meaning where we cry to God to wake up and care of the world which, at any snapshot, is filled up with misery. It is to also remind Krishna of the promise he made in the Gita... in the theological sense. It is also a complain, rather a taunt ;)!
The other day when I heard this song, maybe for the hundredth time, a new meaning emerged. It was now a cry to the Krishna within to wake up...
O' the Krishna inside me, wake up...
O' the Krishna inside everyone wake up...
And once it happens, the world will be the blissful abode of Krishna
From Brute to Man, from Man to God... (The Great Vivekananda)
PS: The second and the third interpretation are the same from a Vedantic perspective, the third one being more fundamental.
-Varun
Dec 19, 2008
Thursday, October 09, 2008
Atheism
Vedanta does not recognize Atheism whose basis is Compassion for the world, for the poor, the exploited, for the one with unequal opportunity.Such an individual is just ignorant of the fact that he/she is a believer, a believer of a much larger intensity than all the so-called believers in the world. This is so because his ignorance stems out of compassion and honesty. Whereas others' ignorance stems out of selfishness.
Most ignorant are those who consider these people as non-believers and criticise them for the same. The status of such people as a believer is under question!
Compassion & Honesty is God!
PS: Bhagat, I hope you are listening.
-Varun
Oct 09, 2008
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