Are we having a blast?

After sporadic sputters in my past blog posts, here I am, waking up from a month long siesta. However, the times are turbulent enough to shake Kumbhakarna’s disposition to sleep. But, I have tried and almost succeeded in my attempt to ‘sleep’. Yes eyes tight shut, senses numb and heart oblivious of the events around. Dreams overpowering the real. An escape which writers often take refuge in, to shun the reality, to hide or disregard the truth that hurts.

It is almost like a kid, who shuts his eyes and assumes that he cannot be seen. The feeling he gets is out of sheer innocence and in my case it is ‘ignorance’. It is nothing but as always turning a blind eye to the real.

I am so tied up between ‘me’, ‘myself’ and the individual worries that things seem to collapse in the background. Everything and everyone around seem to die down in the background. Why should i be bothered about all this? My life is smooth, fine and good.

For me — I am no longer traveling alone; no longer have to hunt for funny news items from a nation that is dying every moment; no more petty issues regarding weak days or so; I am now aware of the happenings in my social circuit; Not intervening or interested in a celebrity’s personal life; not bothered about boyfriends; nor about any silly crush; not cribbing for a change.

Not even bothered about Ekta kapoor’s Mahabharata [I accept it as her version/perception/perspective of an epic. Period.] I do not think India TV is preposterous [Himesh Reshamiya’s songs can certainly connect to the aliens. As we at earth fail to understand its value. I hope they call him there soon.] Barkha Dutt’s melodramatic chat shows. Stock analysts’ discussing Mr. Smith and Mr. Sharma’s loss. I believe in every word the idiot box presents is loaded with truth and nothing else but truth.

Though, we are subjected to various versions of it and this also true that truth now comes handy with various versions.

The world did come to an end for —

The victims of blasts in various parts of the world

The innocents who died due to floods, earthquakes and other natural calamities

Atif, Sajjad, Mohan Chand Sharma and there families

Saumya Vishwanathan and her family

100s who died at the doorstep of divinity, due to stampedes

What was wrong with India TV’s predictions? In all this turmoil and brouhaha there is someone who is rejoicing — the Media — you and me. A lot is happening; News channels are more interesting than K serials.

They can blame it on security glitches, the government, the anti-social elements or even fate, for the blasts that rocked Bangalore or Islamabad. The truth remains and won’t change that numerous innocent lives were lost. The disjointed images of dilapidated bodies, blood stains, blank stunned faces and the grief stricken eyes haunt us. Then the blasts rocked our own city and that is when the whole catastrophe struck us. We all ‘personally’ went through the trauma and the loss seemed greater.

At the same time we thanked gods as we were not one of them. We tried ensuring that our loved ones were not part of it. I remember talking to my friends’ in various newspapers and TV channels — “this is crazy, i hate to put such ghastly pictures on the page”; “come to think of it by morning there might be someone’s daughter, someone’s son in this wreck”; “bad news is good business for us”.

News, now, became universal. A guy sitting behind me in Nirulas DU shouted “turn on the radio man! Who knows a bomb is ticking right here?” and a smile twisted on his face. I blanched. We are having a blast.

I remember how my grandfather always listens to the 7pm BBC news on radio. He would listen to every word of it religiously before dinner. There would be pin drop silence and not even the slightest movement of a bangle or a pen. This he has been following since his days in the police force. Even now, when he has an option to switch to the so called 24 hr. news channels he sticks to DD news and BBC news. This is the faith he has in their stories.

When I was in 11th standard my English teacher told me there never was written a ‘true story’. She said “if it is true then, it wont be a story. It will be truth and not fiction . A story has a narration which will never be free from a person’s bias and will be his version of ‘truth’, his personal truth. Truth is not universal. A story thus cannot be true.”

When I look back and think about this lecture from her i do not know whom to believe.

I don’t know how the truth of a police inspector’s death will affect his family. Was there son aware that his death was to be his own encounter? How can the family believe that their son did no die fighting terrorists? How can a politician promise 10 lac and then give 1 lac and in their attempt to support the right cause hurt the deceased’s family? A father whose son has died will not be interested in anything. pitiable money would be last thing on his mind.

A father whose son has been framed as terrorist is not aware of any emotions either. He can just wait for the court’s verdict and witness the trials he faces daily.

Nor is the father in a state to react about the conditions in which his daughter died. She was one of us. What is true for her or her family is just that they lost their daughter. They don’t want to know if their daughter was adventurous. They don’t want politicians to tel them that she was or wasn’t.

A father, who moved to US for his daughter’s dollar dreams. He now finds survival difficult. A father, whose son was ecstatic to be recruited to the best firms last month and now has no job at all.

A lot is happening. A lot has happened.

There are many, like me, who know or do not want to know where this all is leading to. Amitabh is happy in his den and is still rejoicing his Unforgettables. We get the time to watch Minisha Lamba being kidnapped or a super hero with a paunch being rescued by attractive body guard. Rahul Gandhi’s extra media friendly show of humanity.

Watch dogs or news hounds are on the prowl and are performing brilliantly well.