Farce and Wide..

‘So this was about Appreciative Intelligence.

Let’s look at only what’s right with this world, you know, everything positive…’

‘Nice thought.. but Sir, How do you ignore all that is negative and wrong with it ?’

‘Yeah, good question.. Let’s open it up for the audience..

 Or we could do it later maybe.. it’s winters and we are awaited at home, we should leave..’

The group winds up for the day, I know it was an important question and it had been lost for good...

It’s never a fair idea to stick like a leech to things which emanate rot and decay, but how much would you defeat your own balking mind and your meandering experience, which is both sweet and sour.

Wanted to delve in a little with what’s wrong with this world. Things that I come across and those that have a deep impact !

To begin with the occupational hazards, those accrue with my job, and quite literally so. 

Perception and impression management are the things that were conveniently missed out of the JD. And believe me, that’s more than 50% of the job I do ! And a more troubling fact is that it is unabashedly accepted as a norm. And close to a 100% job being done by many !.

I’m treated like a lady in its closest approximation (strict approximation, may I say !). Though it misses  my idea by miles, there are people who think they know better… And to my sheer distress, I’m learning the sorry art of abusing privileges.

Well, my context has proven to be better than me in a lot of other ways. I just wished it hadn’t been such a bloody adversary. I would’ve been happier with a little less.. 

And then, there are cliques getting formed, in a rather sartorial way of patronizing cultures and languages. I find my contemporaries embracing European languages and culture (to an extent)over anything more at home. I understand economics, but let’s chew on this, a little:

Across the globe, we are losing 2 languages every month. Most, succumbing to English – as it has become the language of the currency and hence of people. It’s my preferred language too, but more as a lack of choice. My friends, even those learning languages for sheer literary pleasure, like to learn French or Italian, instead of the many ‘Indian’ languages. And many who feel a sense of shame in practicing the cultural practices (in ceremonies  etc.), because they look so pedestrian ! (Of course, need not to mention the frailties that have crept in because of the nonchalance..)

This, when the world is still deliberating on whether, globalization is proving to be a boon or a bane. Europe’s economic turmoil, global meltdowns have been definite repercussions of a highly integrated world.  And Russia has been better off as a part of CIS than being a huge USSR. Europe – in a hindsight ,would definitely weigh the option to dismantle EU as Dollar spends sleepless nights to retain its primacy..

To add more on what’s wrong :

There’s almost a 50:50 ratio of male/female populations. Till 90’s, all womanhood had just 1% share in real estate across the globe. I’m not sure how improved the figures stand today. And come to think of it, if as a penalty, your daughter or your wife or you, are sexually assaulted or raped or burnt, or for an exchange of a kg of salt, you part with a few kgs of dry fruits or you face unimaginable exploitation for generations and term ‘the disease of hunger’ as the cause of death or you find begging as a preferred occupation – where could you be ? We could’ve done well to prevent a world war III, but civil wars look impending !

These are the times of contextual morality. And it’s really sad when you have a first hand experience of the same. There’s a lot that I can only sense that’s within me, which would perhaps, not find an expression through words. And a lot that I can sense about the people around me, the impressions - which fade or reinforce with time.

 I would park my reservations on the subject here, but one thing that accentuates is, that, none of us knows the ‘truth’ of anything… , speculations are abound and we convince ourselves of our ‘knowledge’… , fear of losing is steadfast, even when nothing’s at stake! 

By the By..

I come after a long hiatus here - believe there’s something to pour out !

The months gone by and the years of late have been life-changing, personally and professionally. Though I’ve been fortunate enough to be able to strike off a number of significance from my wish-list, there have been things which have kept on adding. And others, that have left a lingering void and thus, a wonder for life. It’s almost a solemn grace with which life is revealing itself with each passing day, as I sit and marvel its continued romance.

Some of my best possessions (or so I like to believe), in terms of people who dearly touched my life, have slowly moved on – with marriage, death and life in general. And I feel so indebted, that they helped me to be better than myself, even when I didn’t meet their idea of perfection. Professionally, so far, every change has been a fresh start for me !

In this passing-by, all that I always thought was dynamic, somewhere held the promise of a constancy and I wanted to believe. But the hypnotism just makes it more livable for the time-being. Transitions are sudden, or so I felt - never giving you enough time to be practiced.

Most of the life gets relegated to thoughts and memories. Memories which come rushing in like waves of a sea, filling you in with freshness and excitement, and the ones that recede into the same vastness, taking away the sand beneath your feet, as you struggle to find a firm foundation. And thoughts, what to say of them ? A constant companion and perhaps, the only constant companion..  

Till sometime back, I used to travel from my workplace to my home (a considerable distance), and would witness the transition from day to dusk to dark, as the world around me would lose all its color slowly – and transform into solid dark mass – kept alive and colorful, with all that is humanly possible.

Towards the end of this journey every day, I would pass by a cremation ground beset with a couple or more pyres still ablaze with prominent reflections in the river, alongside. A liberating scene, in the sense, that all the discords, hate, love and warmth would be laid to rest despite the wishes and wants -  and therefore, there’s some meaning in letting go..