Blowing Off Steam

I'm not in a very good mood. In fact, I'm in a terrible mood. Raging and pacing like an angry bull. Everything seems to be annoying me. I don't know what set it off. Oh wait! It was the electrician. Who, like always was late. Tardiness pisses me off to no end. Having always been the punctual one among my peers, I'm used to waiting around for them. I just don't have it in me to be late for something. It agitates me. When someone tells me I have to be somewhere at a certain time, I ensure I'm there at least 5 minutes in advance. I don't know if its some obsessive compulsive thing. Despite knowing that my friends are going to be late, I feel the need to be right on time. I have no idea if its a good habit or not.
I find it incredibly rude when someone is late, especially after a certain time is decided upon. You owe it to the person you promised to be present at the assigned time. Nobody likes waiting. I, for one, can't stand it. My mind just heats up and I say the most nasty things in my head. I'm filled with the need to throttle somebody. The longest I've waited for a friend to come is an hour. I don't know why I did it. I really wonder if I'm the fool in all this. If nobody is ever on time, why should I be? Why should I be the one standing around like some security guard staring at everyone who passes hoping its the person I'm waiting for? Why?
I really am a sucker. It's a habit I can't get rid of even if I desperately want to. It's so ingrained in me that I can't function without it.
God. This blog should be called 'The Ramblings of a Lunatic'

The Sanity In Madness

We were writing notes on Oscar Wilde's style of writing today and my teacher made a reference to Alice in Wonderland, where the Cheshire Cat says to Alice, "We're all mad here. I'm mad. You're mad"
What Lewis Carroll intends to say is that we're all eccentric and crazy, its just that some of us have the gift of recognising it better than others.
So, the question lies therein. Are the ones we consider 'mad' actually the brilliant ones? Have they discovered some strange truth that the world isn't privy to yet? Oscar Wilde was definitely eccentric, flamboyant, sarcastic, clever, witty; he could very easily have been one of Carroll's characters. He had the exquisite talent of camouflaging the fact that he looked at the Victorian society with contempt, but his writings made his opinion about them obvious. However, it was written so cleverly that even the smartest and touchiest of us would find ourselves laughing. He wasn't preaching through his plays; he was entertaining. And for me, that's the best way to learn one's shortcomings and faults. Nobody wants to be told that they're artificial and hypocritical. Yet, that is exactly what Wilde did and he was celebrated for it. He was celebrated for his 'madness'. He wasn't didactic. He was the entertaining playwright that everybody wanted to be friends with. Popular, handsome, insanely clever, the world was his oyster. Its tragic that he met such a terrible end. It was his very wit, his arrogance, his flamboyance that cost him dearly.
On that happy note, I think its okay to be mad. Its not just okay, its the way to be. For me, anyway. It's the way to be happy. It's honest, it's real and it's easy. You don't have to pretend. And if anyone tells you that you're mad, trust me, only the best of us are. And yes, I took that from Alice in Wonderland.

Fangirling Over Disney

One thing that never fails to make me cry is Mufasa's death scene in 'The Lion King' and Simba's reaction to it. I don't know what it is about that scene that floods my tear ducts.
Simba going, "Dad.. Dad, wake up!" and tugging at his ears and when he finally accepts his father isn't going to open his eyes, snuggles up to him with tears in his eyes, trying to find a way to say goodbye. It just tugs at my heartstrings like no other. I'm a gigantic Disney fan. I've watched all the movies, I've sung all the songs, I've pretended to be all the princesses - especially Mulan. Somehow, the idea of being able to fight like that, save one's country from peril and at the same time, find true love seems like a dream come true. I recall watching 'Sleeping Beauty', 'Cinderella', 'Snow White'; the Disney movies then showed girls as nothing more than pretty faces who sang along with birds and any other animal at their disposal and waited for their Prince Charming to come and sweep them off their feet.
Then it moved on to characters like Belle, who dreamt of a different life; Jasmine, who was feisty; Mulan, who was gutsy; Pocahontas, who listened to and with her heart; Tiana, who dreamt of attaining success on her own two feet; Rapunzel, who dared to take a chance despite fear of retribution; and finally Elsa and Anna whose love for each other was stronger and truer than any other romantic relationship. How much the ideal woman has changed, hasn't she? From just being a damsel in constant need of saving, she's transformed into an independent girl who has more to her than a sweet smile and a weird ability to make friends with the strangest of creatures.
But 'The Lion King' is my utmost favourite of all. I've watched it too many times to count, but each time I find myself singing along to 'Hakuna Matata', bawling at Mufasa's death, and revelling in the majesty of the wild. Disney is beautiful. Disney is fun. Disney is for everyone.

What Makes The Greats Great?

There are a lot of things we consider great. The works of Da Vinci, Picasso, Monet, Renoir and so many other painters. The writings of Tolstoy, Steinbeck, Sartre, Shakespeare etc. The music of Beethoven, Mozart, Chopin. The voices of Billy Joel, Lata Mangeshkar,the Beatles. The speeches of Martin Luther King, Abraham Lincoln, Barack Obama and now, Narendra Modi.
So what is the criteria one must fulfil to be considered great? What made Mahatma Gandhi a great man? He did what no one else could. He gave his country freedom - without raising a single weapon other than his voice and his principles. What is it about O'Henry's short stories that they're read and thoroughly enjoyed even today? What is it about Pablo Picasso's paintings that compels you to stare at them trying to comprehend the thoughts behind it? How about the Mona Lisa? Why is that great? It's a tiny painting, of a not so beautiful woman, in a museum that's filled with several other infinitely more beautiful paintings. But tourists visit the Louvre solely to see the Mona Lisa. To figure out the mystery behind it. To know why Leonardo da Vinci said it was his masterpiece.
What is it that makes one great? Is it a lot of people saying its great? I think the X-factor that gives it the oomph quality is something that is different for everything and everybody. Gandhi was great because he had the courage to fight a war the way he wanted. Shakespeare's plays never fail to make one laugh, cry, make the hair at the back of one's neck stand up. To Kill a Mockingbird is a timeless classic because it's written in the simplest language possible and yet talks of something so deep and profound.
Being great is having the courage to be different. Even if you are risking ridicule from society. Most great men and women were not recognised for their wisdom and talent during their lifetime. Its one of the tragedies of being talented and intelligent- your audience consists of people who may never understand you.
So, I may not understand why something is so great. But I can't judge it unless I've seen it for myself. There's a reason why its great. Maybe we get it, maybe we don't. One of life's great mysteries - only for us to solve.

International Women's Day

As my friend was shocked that I hadn't written a post in lieu of International Women's Day and I have time to kill on the long ride back from the airport, I decided to give it a go. I'm all for equal rights for women. I don't believe that I deserve to be put on a pedestal just because I'm a woman. I'm human, aren't I? I bleed, I cry, I laugh and I feel. Just as everyone else.
We may say its not a good time to be a woman. We say a lot of things. Its not a good time to be a Muslim because of the news we watch and read every single day. Its not a good time to be an engineer because there are way too many. Its not a good time in general. What we need to accept is that its never a good time for anything, unless we take matters into our own hands. So what if I'm a woman? Should I cower and hide behind a wall because it isn't safe out there? No. I can't do that. For the sake of my own sanity. We can't spend our lives being afraid. We can't spend our lives waiting for an opportunity. We need to make our own opportunities. And hell, we could rule the world if we put our minds to it. So, this International Women's Day, let's learn to take matters into our own hands and kick some ass.
Sorry for the short post, mind doesn't function beyond 10 P.M. :P

India's Daughter

On the 16th of December, 2012, a young woman, on her way home after watching a movie with a friend, was brutally gang-raped and beaten and died after fighting a brave battle. In lieu of 8th of March, which is International Women's Day, a documentary was made talking about the incident. I watched it today. BBC released it on YouTube for the world to see as it isn't going to be aired in India.
Rape. Its such an ugly word, isn't it? It sends shivers down your spine; you close your eyes trying to un-see; you cover your ears hoping to un-hear. You want to block it all out. Because its such a taboo subject. Once you've been raped, you've met a fate far worse than death. That's what we've been made to believe. But when the Nirbhaya incident occurred, it sent the country into a rage. It was like we'd finally had enough. How much longer could we stand by and let rapes go unreported? How much longer can we be made to endure the chauvinistic, masochistic mindset of the majority of the country? In the documentary, one of the rapists was interviewed. He said that the girl had absolutely no right to be out that late. They also interviewed the lawyers of the rapists. Their words shocked me to the very core of my being.
Saying that women were not a part of Indian culture, that it was women who led men astray; that she deserved what she got. These are educated men. No different from most of us on paper. And this is what they believe? Isn't the thought absolutely frightening? It makes you wonder what your next door neighbour thinks of you.
The thing that saddened me most about the documentary is when they interviewed one of the rapists' wife. She was in complete denial. And while talking about their death sentence, she kept saying that, "I now have nobody to look after me. I can't look after myself. And my son? He's so little. He doesn't even know anything. Its better if I just strangle him to death." How? How can she even think that?
That's exactly what we need to change. The way we are trained to think. Women aren't weak. We aren't in constant need of protection. We aren't the damsels in distress. We CAN take care of ourselves and we SHOULD! Why should we have to rely on our boyfriends or our friends or our brothers to protect us from all that is evil? First, we need to learn to protect ourselves. Whether its through learning self defence or carrying a pepper spray. But the first thing we need to do is stop turning our eyes away when we hear obscene comments about our bodies, about our clothes, as we walk on the road, as we wait at a bus stop. We need to look them straight in the eyes and tell them exactly what we think. Create a scene. Call a cop. Let them endure the humiliation all of us have suffered through through no fault of our own.
We, as a country, need to stop blaming women. Its not because of our clothes, its not because of the way we look, its not because we're out alone, its not because we're out after dark, its because the bastards think they can get away with it. Its because they believe that its their right to teach women a lesson. Its because they're frustrated and want to assert their male dominance somehow. Well, I've had enough. Haven't you?