Look Back in Anger to HKA to Black Friday to RDB. Questioning the FEEL-for-CAUSE Part-2
This post is in continuation with my previous post
Before I can write more on this war-revolution-cause-feeling thing, I will write a poem a writer friend of mine Varun has written. He wrote this after watching Hazaron Khwaishein Aisi
To The Revolution..
Hey…did you kill me…
in the name of the revolution?
Did you tell me,
The name of the revolution..?
I was a boy, growing up easy,
It was a world, simple and rosy…
“Rosy?”, you said, “rosy my foot,”
“Nothing’s rosy anymore, life’s a brute”
Yeah, life’s a brute, ‘cos I was dead,
in the name of the revolution.
But….did you tell me,
The name of the revolution..?
And did you tell them,
I am a martyr…?
Did you tell them,
What’s a martyr?
Did you tell them,
How I am one?
Did you tell them,
Their own son….
…picked up the gun, and killed two,
In the name of the revolution..?
And did they ask,
The name of the revolution?
To heaven, I would go…
I heard it once,
Yeah, I could hear,
Amid the firing guns,
That heaven is for those,
Who have the gun,
(And a ‘resolution’)
Then why did I feel,
Five bullets inside my head,
‘To hell with the revolution?’
And please,
What’s the name of the revolution?
During the mock interview for my preperation of NDA entrance, my guide Commander chandra told me “When they ask you, why do you want to join the armed forces, never say that you are a patriot and you want to serve the country because the guy sitting there will tell you to
become a primary school teacher in a village. The most reasonable reason for joining the army is that its a job with good salary, perks, life style and yes it involves a lot of travelling which you enjoy”. I was taken aback, my whole notion of being a combat-man was turned upside down at the age of 17. It turned out to be a trivial means of earning bread. But the fact is thats what it is! They areproffessionals trained for a particular job which suits their aptitude. Pride and honor are the tricks which are used to help them get over their fear during times of crisis. The interviewing offcier told me “Every soldier is afraid of dying, but the fear of loosing his self esteem is bigger than fear of loosing his life, thats what keeps him going with bullets over the bunkers.” So, pride and honor keep us hooked to a system, they are the means through which system survives. If you look at a war, at the top most political level, the reason for the war at times is political mileage, gaining the trust and support of citizens by generating the patriotic sentiment. At the bottom most level of the soldier who holds the gun in his bunker, its pride of a nation which is at stake. He is fighting for glory while his bossess are making him fight for votes. Can this difference be bridged? Those young kids who went to Iraq for the “american attack on terrorism”, they must have felt that they are fighting for the US of fucking A while there were oil corporations and their directors, board memebrs in US defence council who were trying to cut a deal. The once who make you act have a different reason from that of yours. Can this difference be erased? I think cinema/theatre/literature can do this
for you, it can show you the bigger picture of life, it can help you know the WHYS and the manipulations that you are going through.
To think that a state fights a state is foolish, there are always personal stories behind the war.
Forget some thing big like a war or revolution, even in case of sati system. Women were burnt alive with their dead husbands supposedly for religios/spiritual/moral reasons while the real reason was that, no body wanted to spend money on the wasted peice of flesh. But to run this system the masters had to bring in all that pride-honor-glory thing, the deification of SATI-DEVI for the woman who got crucified happily for their selfish reasons, just like the soldiers become martyrs in wars for the real benefit of state runners. This is how the whole catch of pride-honor-glory works. And that is why the GOD-THING is needed, that where religion or religion-like-thing comes into picture. You need something which cannot be questioned, through which you can force, through which you can make them obey and thats how the system keeps running. Thats why it was neccessary for Zamindars to have that god like stature to survive,to become unquestionable entities. That scene in HKA where the villagers instead of killing the zamindar find a doc for him…WOW!!
The goal of system and its individuals is different, the ones who manipulate the system best they are ones who make the goals of the system coincide with their own goals. Rest all are given notions to cling to so that they dont become rebels. Morality is the mechanism used by the powerful to control the weak. This is where the birds-eye view can help us, this is where an art which can percolate deep to the people show them the misuse of morality, beliefs and dogmas which are sold to them. End of the day the middle class man is left with nothing else but moral values. I often wondered when I saw my dad almost every day during dinner, talk about how honestly and how dedicatedly he worked in his bank and how his manager -sahab was happy with him. I couldnt see any thing great in it while my dad was so proud of his petty job with a petty income in which he somehow managed to bring us up. Later on I realised, that there is nothing else for him except for his false-pride. It hurts to put it this way, but now I have come to believe it, all those feelings of elation on getting his back patted by his manager-sahab was all that he was left with at the end of the month. The same was true for the maid who worked in or house, the fact that she could sit in the drawing room and watch TV with us, made her feel honored, the very fact that once on a sunday she could sit next to us and have breakfast made her feel proud, and that worked according to my mother. Here again your pride keeps you going, it stops you from being a criminal, from being a thief. The pride of back-patting by the bossess kept my dad away from bothering about the amount in his bank account where he worked. If I think of it now, the villagers of HKA who save the zamindar are victims of the same psyche of which my dad and my maid is, the only difference is in the set up which is controlling them.
Thats the world we live in, where few get paid by cash and the rest are paid by feelings!! At times it disturbs you when you think that may be your feelings, and morals are nothing but the manifestation of your economic set up, in a manner so that they help the set up survive.
So what does the soldier, the dead man’s wife, my dad do about their belief. They got to have some belief to cling to. And thats what is most disturbing to me. This continuous need of a belief, of a purpose. If at all we could live a life without a purpose, without a belief I guess the world would be a better place to live in, but on the contrary purpose is the most valued virtues in this world, and I guess thats also the trick of the design, THEY whoever they are who designed it, have made this need for a purpose/belief compulsory for the human species. But if you get down to thinking too much about it then you feel like banishing yourself to jungle in solitude, detached with the design and the feelings it generates. At times you attempt it as well, by locking yourself down in your room, with cell phone switched, making an attempt to avoid any human contact, atleast avoiding the intimate ones, trying to live on bare minimums, without the vodka without the chicken, with books all around in the room.And then there arrives this problem, Even if you can survive on the food,air and shelter provided by the jungle, even if you have conquered all your desires and you have no need of dreams, still how do you survive without sex? Thats the catch…. So be here, if nothing else then for the sake of sex because its an instinct you are bound to respond to. And then when you live here to fuck around, you have to understand its not so easy to fuck around in a world driven by so many social-political-economic forces, the only way to fuck around is to become a believer inspite and despite of having discovered so much about so much. Now someone who has gone the complete circle and discovered the inevitability of being a part of the design, the option of being a believer in what is offered to him is the only thing left to him. You believe it at least superfically because you know you cant act on your disbeliefs. The only consolation is to not to be a liar,not to pretend, not to fake. Fuck around, because that is what THE DESIGNER wants, he wants the specie to multiply, that is how your genetic code has been written, that is how the the social structure has eventually evolved, but try not to fuck around in what you say,write or show. But then, the thought comes, will it matter too much if you do fuck around there as well…???
I guess Badal Sircar knows the anwere to this question, the man who wrote Evam Indrajeet and asked so many uncomfortable questions.
Here again I am writing a song which Varun wrote for the play Evam Indrajeet which I did in college..
Mukhda
Kankad daana, baasi khaana, tooti chappal…
Udta panchhi, bikhre rishtey, jhoothi chappal…
Dialogue
1: Jhoothi chappal..? What’s that…?
2: Well…I don’t know. Why do you want to know?
1: Well…I don’t know.
Song restarts
Kankad daana, baasi khaana, tooti chappal…
Udta panchhi, bikhre rishtey, jhoothi chappal…
Gehre moti, baatein chhoti, jalti roti…
Chalta pankha, rukta pankha, udti choti…
Ginte-ginte, thak jaayega, haarega, karkash hoga sangeet…
Indrajit…O Indrajit…
Antara 1
Kitna kuchh hota hai, Hota kuchh bhi nahin…
Milte sab hans ke yahaan, Hansta koi nahin…
Raste saari dishaayein, rasta koi nahin…
Basti mein bheed bahut, basta koi nahin…
Dialogue
1: Excuse me, can you repeat that?
2: Why..?
1: Well…I think I have heard it before.
2: Then don’t worry, you’ll hear it again.
Song
Kitne meal chalega,
Kitne kuwein bharega,
Kitni jaanein dega,
Kitne chaand jalega…
Ginte-ginte bhoolega, dobara ginega, chir-anant ki reet…
Indrajit…O Indrajit…
Antara 2
Tu prashn-chinh hai…
Botal ka jinn hai…
Dhakkan khula agar…
Tu chhinn-bhinn hai..
Tu maut ki khabar,
Tu satya ki kabar,
Tu aas ka juloos,
Niraas ki dagar…
Dialogue
1: Hey wait…you are going too fast.
2: I gotta train to catch.
1: Then you are going too slow.
2: Well…I want to miss my train…
Shabdon, ankon, hunkaaron mein, kissa koi bana nahin…
Chaand ke paar bhi jaa kar usne, apne pag ko gina nahin…
Gina tha shaayad, bhool gaya ya, baat gayi baaton mein beet…
Indrajit…O Indrajit….
Mukhda
Kankad daana, baasi khaana, tooti chappal…
Udta panchhi, bikhre rishtey, jhoothi chappal…
Gehre moti, baatein chhoti, jalti roti…
Chalta pankha, rukta pankha, udti choti…
Ginte-ginte, thak jaayega, haarega, karkash hoga sangeet…
Indrajit…O Indrajit…
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
“Now someone who has gone the complete circle and discovered the inevitability of being a part of the design, the option of being a believer in what is offered to him is the only thing left to him. You believe it at least superfically because you know you cant act on your disbeliefs. The only consolation is to not to be a liar,not to pretend, not to fake. Fuck around, because that is what THE DESIGNER wants, he wants the specie to multiply,”
Thats me you are talking about Sumit.
I remember reading OSHO in high school. After reading a few books i freaked out. I agreed with him so much at so many points, but it scared me that if i were to act on the truth I will have to leave this system & walk to the jungle. I decided to fuck around for some time. The excuse i gave myself was the responsibility to my loved ones & ambition(haha).
Deep inside I am a cynic like you & don’t have much hope for this world/system/design. I’m just trying to survive/have a good time/help others while TIME passes by.
great post again.
cheers
gr8 post….but sir ji this is the only nation i think where If u want to make a film on injustice or corruption,the producer
Sumit
You gotta read this book i’m reading in the toilet these days – THE HEDONISM HANDBOOK by Michael Hocker.
I will produce an excerpt from a chapter called OVER RATED VIRTUES
MARTYRDOM – JUST DIE ALREADY!
“Standing directly to the right of the Pollyanna in the family snapshot of human stereotypes is the martyr. We are not speaking here of the religious zealot who is willing to die for his beliefs, but rather the great & constant sufferer who carries the weight of the world on his/her shoulders- and loves nothing more than whining about it. This is the person who believes that if they don’t do it, no one will. They are the only person who cares& who understands the gravity of the situation & must therefore carry the burden.
Such a person must be tormented and ridiculed whenever possible. Martyrdom ranks very high on the list of passive-aggressive behaviours, and it is the duty of any self respecting hedonist to deflate the balloon of any such silliness wherever it may be found. ”
“Never let your sense of morals keep you from doing what is right”- Isaac Asimov
cHEERS
Sumit,a fascinating reading this :though again too cynical and colored imo..your outlook flies in the face of so many things..Gita’s philosophy where a Kshatriya is told to do his job of fighting the injustice regardless of the result..His redemption is in fighting and not chickening out or meekly surrendering..And then there is whole varna-ashram of our society which if you really dig deeper is very scientific where you attain a status and position in society not according to your birth and family but by your deeds..Your questioning of moral values is too one-sided without providing the choices..What to do..And if you think that people running the system or spearheading the revolution or movement have different agenda then the people recurited by them(the herds)then what would you say of personalities like Mahatma Gandhi, Subhash Chandra Bose, Jai Prakash Narain..And all those people who took to their clarion call..If everything is economic and dictated by bazaar(though its forces are dominant in present times)then every armyman is a mercenary and every family man is a hustler..Man is not only money(though it seems to be so in these liberal environs)..He has other intangible and higher needs too..Going by Maslows hierarchy of needs Man goes from self-preservation to self-acutalisation..How would you account for this self-acualisation where money is just an upshot of doing what you love to do or doing with love what you are given to do and at the same time being in the ‘flow’..If these beliefs were not there you would just be rudderless..Issue is not that one should not have beliefs but one should not have limiting beliefs or limited by beliefs..Anyone ought to reinvent himself on constant basis..Issue is not that one should not have moral values but one should not moralise and just live and let live..In major surveys done by MNC’s the world over and especially in as you put it US Of
Fucking A have revealed that in any job or profession remuneration or money is not the topmost motivating force..It is way down at number four or five..The topmost is the need to be recognised for your work..To feel appreciated..Maybe what your Dad got out of Manager’s pat on the back far outweighed his pay-check..Maybe your household maid felt reaffirmed and alive with your mother’s praise and equal treatment..It is not your Dad or maid that is a victim..The loser in ultimate analysis will be that Manager or your mother if they manipulated or had ulterior motives in their acts..
You have every right to your perception but imo no army in the world can survive if it is being eaten from within with these notions of having good life king size..No, the system does not work that way..It works on certain basic priniciples like the Cosmos..You take away those–the harmony, the sharing, the co-operation and the integrity–you have pressed a self-destruct button..If all those revolutions have failed they have not because ideals were faulty but the intentions and the implementation was fraught with greed and selfishness..So the solution is not in shrugging away the fact or just saying what’s the use or just flowing with the times..solutions have to be constantly sought and recreated and adapted to the present times..The problem is not that there is no hope..the problem is that we are underlings! And solutions are not to be found in existential dilemmas but to make oneself more conscious and aware and make efforts on constant basis to raise the level of awareness of so-called believers..And that is what our art can definitely do with relevant stories and protagonists..World may seem to be running on industrial-military-oil funda,infact it is running on trust–giving and gaining aspect of it.
@Krysh
Thanx for getting back..
First I thought I will comment back to you here, but then I guess that wud make a very longish comment.give me some time, I will put up another post.
sumit,
are you my doppleganger? I had the exact same argument with a very close friend of mine recently. It was a 4 hour long argument which turned very ugly and i made the same argument as you did in your two posts. Needless to say we are not friends anymore but such is the way of life. Sometimes it’s best to shut up and let the fools keep believing. btw, I have never completely agreed word for word with anyone, but these last 2 posts of yours, I’m with you till the final letter. Your friend Varun’s got mad skills.
Mainak, and interestingly, the day after my big ARGUMENT, I picked up the Hedonism handbook.
The revolution will be filmed. Viva hedonistic nihilism.
@dabba
thanx, but I feel i am still very immature to speak too much. And thats why mostly I keep shut on PFC
Actually thanx to Bhavani, afte reading her posts and the arguments you guys had I felt like organisin my thoughts. She writes prose like poetry, somehow that give me a kick to write something..wish she could read it…
Sumit, thanks for the links you sent me, would’ve missed reading two really remarkable posts. Though you’ve fallen a few notches in Mainak and Dabba’s eyes in saying you like my writing. Contrary to others, I don’t really think your writing is cynical. There’s far too much anger and too much involvement to qualify for the detachment that cynicism requires.
I don’t condone self-sacrifice, I can’t understand giving oneself up for a greater good, but I don’t think ‘martyrs’ as you call them deserve this degree of contempt. I believe that we act/ behave in the only way we know and are wired to. Our actions/ speech are dictated by the screenplay/ dialogues playing in our heads most times given to us just nanoseconds before we act/ utter them. So we rebel because that’s the only thing that comes instinctively, we sit back passively because we can’t do otherwise, we lay ourselves down for others because that’s a driving need. Regarding the cause and its absence, perhaps its the very ambiguity that makes it magical. Isn’t ignorance often bliss?
We all need a crutch, and this need to have a belief system is unnerving, like you say. The ism that we need to attach ourselves to defines us. Hedonist, nihilist, anarchist, iconoclast or what-have-you. Try as we might, we can’t live and love in absentia. So we live with what we have, sometimes cribbing about it, some rare times trying to better the cards dealt. But I consider the maid, the banker, the soldier who see the good in what they have as far bigger heroes compared to the sadists that
believe the only way they can get on top is pulling others down or the masochists that cry ‘unfair’ and claw themselves lower.
Keep ‘em coming.