Bite In your Ass

There are times when you look back in time, and realise oh... I said this and then this happened. Is it linked? I believe in destiny... but is that so strong??

A week after writing, 'Romancing Life' gave up television career and joined Times of India. And there are other instances which is not that important to mention here... it is actually very important, but I don't want to mention it. I am actually scared to write about anything honestly. Not as much scared as apprehensive. I don't really know what I am saying here. But sometimes as I have said earlier, it is just such a relief to write. To just vent it out and this will not even talk back..

See you...

Romancing Life....

This is not an intellectual moment. This is a very personal and awaited second of my life, which is why I am penning it down so that I can remember it for the rest of my life, and also publishing it as I just want to.

This is the golden period of my life. Or so I like to think. There are still issues which I need to sort out in my personal as well as professional life, but it still feels as if the best time of my life.

I have not got this appreciation and this surge of ideation that I am going through right now. If you had known me a year ago (a lot of people who do that will read this.. so they know.. they would have found me sitting with a tea and smokes and then again tea and smoke and ‘n’ number of teas and smokes in the canteen or a small ‘chai’ shop and found me cribbing and abusing the system or someone in the system. And later in solitude, I would be cursing myself and crying or just fight with my guy and then cry and then blame it all on him... that’s the best part. Right now, it is not so.

I am laughing, I am happy, I am thinking, positively thinking about everything. Few weeks ago, trust me this was not the condition, I was, as I said earlier, grumpy with a tea and smoke! But everything changed in the meeting the other day with my seniors when they handed me over with a show called ‘Goodlife Mantra’. It was supposed to be a half an hour show and a daily one that too. It was revamped. And I was supposed to be producing the entire thing by myself. The revamped version was supposed to be an outdoor shoot with a new topic everyday!

Where would I find a new topic daily? Where would the guests come from? What will be the content for every new show? And what will be the format? OK one by one… no format was the mantra for Goodlife mantra; I decided not to block the show in any format. There will be no format and that was the format! And thereafter, after finding solution to the one problem everything fell in place. And after a month and a half of that meeting I have produced more than 30 shows and it was the highest trp generating show for the channel.

But that was not it; I had lot of issues while and when I was on location, when I was not on location. My anchor, my camera people, my assistant… you know the initial teething problems; and I prevailed over everything. Every small issue that came by was not that colossal any more. There was nothing bigger than the show and there will be nothing bigger than the show. Anchor was bad, but it became better, Loki had an issue but I knew I could not do it without him and I did’t have to because I made him stay back and he is the star now… and so on and so forth.

It is like, on a rainy day you are crossing a road. You have mud and splash all over your self. And then through that tedious and dirty journey you end up reaching a beautiful meadow… with green grass and a tree, and clear sky with sun shining high in the sky but it still be raining. And there is no dirt, no puddle, no mud, and no splash. And you'll be at the end of the world just enjoying the rain and thanking god that he (or whoever it is) gave you the opportunity. That is like romancing with life.

Just like a first date. Where you expect nothing, where you just give and receive, unconditionally. And that first eye contact, and that first touch and then the first kiss… yes. I kissed life! And it was wonderfully weird. Just so amazing!

And just like the first dates get over really soon, I know even this wont stay for a very long time, that’s exactly why I am writing this piece so that when tomorrow I don’t go through such a time, I may have something to remind me that life is not always the same and it will surprise you at some point and that’s why it is the best affair you can ever have. An affair with life! And just like every first thing that you do doesn’t remain first, I want myself to remember that this show was the first and all the subsequent ones can never be the so… 

While I finish writing this, I am crossing my fingers and hoping not to jinx whatever good is happening to me doesn’t get over too soon… so don’t jinx it and don’t read it too many times..
Regards!

Apollo vs. Dionysus

On July 16, 1969, million people from all over the country in the USA, converged on CAPE KENNEDY, FLORIDA, to witness the launching of Apollo 11 that carried astronauts to the moon.

On august 15, a good no of people converged on BETHEL in NEW YORK, NEAR THE TOWN OF Woodstock, to witness a rock music festival.

Readers must be wondering, as to what connection does a rock show have with the launching of Apollo 11?? These two were the greatest news of that year not philosophical theories. These were facts of our actual existence the kind of facts which philosophy has to do nothing with. But if one cares to understand the meaning of these two events – to grasp their roots and their consequences – one will understand the power of philosophy and learn to recognize the specific forms in which philosophical abstractions appear in our actual existence. The issue discussed here is the alleged dichotomy between reason and emotion.

This distinction between reason and emotion has been presented in many variants in the history of philosophy but, there is a very colourful and discrepant view given by FREDRICH NIETZSCHE, in his book, “ THE BIRTH OF TRAGEDY FROM THE SPIRIT OF MUSIC”. He observed two opposite elements in Greek tragedy, which he saw as metaphysical principles inherent in the nature of reality. One was the Greek god of light; APOLLO, and the other was the Greek god of wine; DIONYSUS. According to Nietzsche’s metaphysics:

Apollo is the symbol of beauty, order, wisdom, efficacy- that’s the symbol of reason. DIONYSUS on the other hand, is the symbol of drunkenness, wild primeval feeling, orgiastic joy, the dark, the savage, and the unintelligible element in man – i.e. the symbol of emotion.

From a simpler point of view, Apollo is a necessary but an unreliable element thus an inferior guide to existence that gives man a superficial view of reality – the illusion of an orderly universe. Dionysus is the free, unfettered spirit that offers man, by means of a mysterious intuition induced by wine and drugs a more profound vision of a different kind of reality and is thus the superior of the two. Apollo represents the principal of individuality and Dionysus, leads man into complete self forgetfulness and into merging with the oneness of nature. Reason, is the faculty of an individual, to be exercised individually and it is only dark irrational emotions, expunging one’s mind that can enable a man to melt, merge, and dissolve into a mob or a tribe.

So the question which comes up is does it hurt then being an emotional person? The reply to this question isn’t possible in word. The person inclined towards Apollo would simply refute or shun the idea of being emotional, but, at one point all of us feel. An emotional person has a high level of feeling, but it is a good thing. It is not an issue how many times you get hurt, the issue is that you don’t loose the power to feel. When you loose the power to feel, you loose the power to get hurt, which maybe a bright side to most people. But basically it is the power to be happy. You can never fell with your mind; you have to feel with your heart. You got to get that heart broken once so that you can put it together and treasure it.

I think I got deviated from the main stream, what I wanted to deduce is not this, but something drastically different. I want to make it crystal clear to folks out there that, it is not true that reason and emotion are irreconcilable antagonists or that emotions are wild unknowable and ineffable element in human beings. But this is what emotions become for those who don’t know how they feel and who attempt to subordinate reason to their emotions. I want to bring a harmonic relationship between reason and emotions. That they both go hand in hand. And that, a person can neither be completely reasonable nor purely emotional.

During the recent floods in Mumbai, the city was in a condition of disarray. Complete chaos and confusion was the case. But those people weren't a stampeding herd or a manipulated mob. The people didn’t devastate the existing lifestyle, they didn’t throw themselves apart, and they didn’t create any victims. They came as responsible individuals able to project the reality of two or three days ahead and to provide for their own needs. There were people of every age, creed, colour, educational level and economic status. They lived and slept in tents and their cars, some of them in great discomfort yet continued to do so for many days. They projected a general feeling o good will. During those hard times, people sharing a same tent, were strangers, yet they intently heard each other out, tried to ease each other of their pains. It is wonderful to feel, for once, that people aren't vicious, that one doesn’t have to suspect them, and that we've something good in common. They spoke of everything except, the question that is they rational or emotional? Because that didn’t really matter.

So here's my conclusion; this is the genuine feeling of human brotherhood: the brotherhood of values. This is the only authentic form of unity among men – and only values can achieve it. Terms like reason and emotion; rational and irrational; Apollo and Dionysus, disunite us, fragment us and are thus of least importance. What is important is the compassion which one human feels for another when he sees the latter in distress.

THE END.

EXPERIENCE DOES COUNT...

I don't have any idea what to write in this post. But it gives me a strong feeling, that I can type pages with the thoughts which are racing through my head.

I have recently got a new responsibility. A rather fancy one. I am a recruiter for my channel. Me, a less than 2 years of experience person judges and decides whether people with more and much more experience than mine in television journalism, are suitable for my channel, NEWS9!

I am no doubt learning a lot in the process. To be a liar, to be a complete jackass but to imply in front of others, "Oh... no what the fuck do you know... I know it all.." But since I am very pathetically an optimistic person, I take it in a way good for me. I met this girl called Debanjana Choudhary today. Sexy resume that chic has... 5 years of television experience, and in channels like TimesNow, Headlines Today and before that she has worked for PTI and Deccan Chronicle... I was judging this person... anyway.... we ll be positive, we promised! So I was sitting there and was looking her. Talking to me and the channel's director.. with utmost precision and dexterity. She was brilliant. I was thinking, while she went on and on about Politics and the upcoming elections and its pros and cons and the third front and what will happen if the alliances break and stuff... that there is always a silver lining. The information that she was vomiting in front of us was in no way naturally acquired, she either read a lot of newspapers and websites before the interview, or she was genuinely faffing... So even I could do it. You in the process of recruiting, learn a lot from the people who come and talk in front of you. You learn what not to say, you learn what to say and how. You also learn the fact that this industry is full of chu.... sorry.. no foul language, full of fools!

In my current situation, I have gained lot of confidence too. Lying without flinching (i was always good at that... some fifty people will give their word for it) and also that I am really good at it. Which means that I am really good at lying... well, here I am only dragging the point. The whole idea is I am happy with my current job! Cheers all of you... Tomorrow I am going to judge a bunch of freshers from my master's college... C'mon, I can do that.... I have more experience than them guys.... EXPERIENCE does count...

Take care all of you... :)

Moral Policing in Bangalore

This is what happens in the IT capital and the Silicon valley of India.

This is a first hand experience and a well written piece... the victim is the author...

please read...

http://vishshanker.sulekha.com/blog/post/2009/02/this-happened-in-bangalore-bengaluru-shocking.htm