question everything

Question everything.

What makes democracy just so incredibly fucked up is that somehow, every single person seems to have gotten it in their heads that they have an innate right to tell you what exactly is good for you.

Lets break it down now. There I was watching a gorgeous absolutely gorgeous sunset off marine drive, watching the sun emblazon a dying trail of orange in the murky waters of the choked Arabian sea. When a cop stops by. And offers me an oh so friendly piece of advice that, I ought to stub my cigarette out. Not because its unhealthy, or because the smell was damaging the unborn foetus that would be the only way to explain his extremely large girth. But because I was too young to smoke and therefore did not appreciate how much effort it took to earn the 5 rupees that I spent on said fag.

Yes.

No I get it. Im a spoilt brat who indulges himself in the carnal pleasure of a pensive smoke with a vengeance. And therefore I ought to be taught the value of money. Im not questioning the cops motives. I even stubbed out my fag.

But It got me thinking that that’s where we all got buttfucked in the name of the glorious ideals of democracy. That somehow people have begun to subconsciously think that BECAUSE they have the right to free speech and a hefty amount of self appointed authority, they therefore reserve the right to pontificate.

Think about it. That’s where democracy in india made the faeces hit the fan. Not because people now had the freddom of thought and expression and of choosing the people they wanted to legislate their own morality. But because they appointed themselves to be the guardians of their own ideals.

Okay big brother.

Lets play it your way shall we.

Let me exercise my right as a free thinking superliberal and tell you where youre going wrong.

Everywhere.

Haha

See you’ve already developed a hearty, justifiable dislike for me. You already hate the fact that I smoke; I drink and that I lead a life that your mummy and daddy wouldn’t really like a lot.

The problem is that because youre entitled to your point of you, and because there are just so many of you who think youre right and that my point of view is too elitist and radical for you that youre allowed to tell me im wrong.

But the bigger problem is when you gather up the dumbest, most dimwitted of your lot, and rampage through the seams of my being. Forcing your irrationality into my very pores until my only options are to be a societal outcast, or submit forcibly to your point of view.
You disgust me, the lot of you. You disgust so many trodden others who aren’t in a position of power to tell you that what to force upon us isn’t right.

I write this for every couple that couldn’t sit in a garden and enjoy some time to yourself because some older women got jealous of your vitality and called the fat watchdogs of justice on your tails. I write this on behalf of every person who wanted to have a smoke in an outdoor café and couldn’t because the self righteous individual to your right couldn’t handle the simple task of moving indoors. I write this for every single shopkeeper who had his windows broken because his signboard was in the wrong language. For every person who stood there and watched as “swayamsevaks” made a mockery of justice, democracy and hope. For every individual who was forced to hide indoors when groups of mentally deficient individuals ran amok frothing at the mouth and baying for the blood of innocents to avenge a death that occurred on a different continent. For every individual who reads the morning paper and puts it down in sheer disbelief. For every person who wished SOMEONE would say something. I write this for the true minority. I write this for the free spirits, for the thinkers, for the rationals, for the atheists.

But I don’t intend to be one sided. Im a part of the minority, the very same who do things like heart warming campaigns telling people to switch off their lights for an hour and throwing pink underwear, and rallies for peace, brotherhood and social justice (don’t get me wrong, I loved those campaigns, I still do.), only to go home to their high paying jobs and go to sleep each night hoping SOMEONE would continue the work to be done. I write this with a steady hatred building in me. I froth at the mouth that im writing a synopsis of something that should have been said, or already has been said a million different times, in a million different contexts, I write this with the devout hope that what I say wont be confused for the arrogance of the ignorant youth. That my message isn’t blown off by me myself as an outburst of failed attempts to communicate with the other side.

The truth is im scared.

Im terrified. Testicle freezing terrified that I grow old and lose this one thing that seems to drive me, that like the billons of others before me, I give up on this one true war. This war against the people who would allow their children to be brainwashed, people who’d wrap themselves in their own blankets of yuppie warmth to an extent that they didn’t realize when it became their shroud. Im terrified as I see the number of supposedly brilliant, supposedly rational individuals who still refuse to think for themselves. We’ve let ourselves believe that our true victory often lies in the fact that we were left alone forsaking actual proactivity for the sake of good natured coexistence, regularly punctuated by interference from the arseholes when they think we’ve crossed a line, and then obediently toeing the line.

Im in a college that prides itself in beign a hotbed for intelligence, I study amidst individuals who might eventually grow to be captains of industry, and sadly therefore, of society itself, and yet I see people who would subscribe to the QES, the quickest, easiest solution for things.


Because obviously, that’s the root of all evil, the QES, Cant get laid because youre too ugly and stupid??? no worries, just ban any sexuality to permeate into any media around you. Cant get a job for yourself because someone else smarter and more hard working than you came in the way??? There there now, that’s an easy one, find a bunch of others just like you, form a state for yourselves, and throw the others right out of it. Don’t like the new music, that your son’s friends are playing, the new movies theyre watching??? Well, forbid your son from meeting those evil westernized good for nothings, and youll never have to listen to it again. Cannot decide, or rather would not waste valuable brainspace to think of a way of life that would suit you, or one that answers the eternal questions?? Use centuries old philosophies and pretend everything that was said then is and was true. Brought up to realize certain things are good and certain others are bad, no problem son, why take the effort of finding out for yourself, just stick to the one you’ve been taught and things will be fine and dandy.

Ive said and rued this a million times before, were shining india, were the country that might one day rule the world. But weve never had a summer of love, weve never really had a generation that wanted to stop doing blindly and start thinking. Weve never had our bill hicks, or our timothy leary’s, if you think that a generation of hippys would be counterproductive, go ahead, look at some of the most insightful corporates today, steve jobs comes to mind, an out and out hippy, who came to india, smoked more than his share of weed, dropped out of college and thought for himself.

Im tired now as a shrink back into a world weary state of existence, but I truly do live for moments like these, for moments when I lie back and think. For the few times when I didn’t have a deadline to submit to or an exam the next day.

I know that what ive written right now might positively be the single most clichéd thing ive ever managed to write. That even as I re read this I realize I sound like a paranoid hippy questioning government conspiracies. But for too long have we just sat by and procrastinated, and sought nothing more than to be left alone. And maybe this is just me, But that’s my point. Where on earth are the Indian hippies???