Moora..

Frustiyaao nahin moora,
Narbhasaao nahin moora,

Anytime moodwa ko,
Anytime moodwa ko,

Upsettaao nahin moora...

Anytime moodwa ko,
Anytime moodwa ko,

Upsettaao nahin moora...

Jo bhi wrongwa hai usey,
Set right-wa karo ji,
Naahin loojiye ji hope,
Thoda fightwa karo ji...

Some months back we were rather going through a difficult phase in our lives and there was a rather tense situation my family was pitted against, it was a Sunday afternoon, so when my Father suddenly switched off the tele, I realized either I was in trouble^* or he had something unusually important to say, thankfully it was the latter.

He turned to me and said “ Dhruv, life is going to throw many challenges at you, some you can get past with ease, some would be unyielding, when the whole world gives you an accusing glare, you might even doubt yourself”, while I was fidgeting with my phone, came the most important bit, He said “ However, you need to have that one person who stands by you against all odds, who gives you the strength to keep moving when all chips are down, that one person who’s faith in you is undying and eternal”.

Now, what do the first few lines ( in blue!) have to do with what follows subsequently? “ Moora”, is a song from  the film- Gangs of Wasseypur, everything about the song queerly resonates with what my Dad said to me that afternoon. It almost personifies that sentiment. Maybe that’s what music does; concocts thoughts, emotions and memories in unexpected ways.

Take a moment, ask yourself, who’s that person who inspires you to take one more shot at life every single day...and listen to Moora; hopefully, it’ll strike similar chords...

(*) I did eventually manage to get into trouble, but that’s for another time ;)

Being left out..

Its intrigues me often as to what leads to these sudden spurts of mini, short lived revolutions our country has experienced quite frequently in recent times.

Take for example the terrifying gang rape incident in Delhi recently, Obviously those people deserve to pay for their crimes, however the kind of reactions which I observed in the social media world were for the lack of a better word, quite amusing.

Now consider this, In this beautiful country of ours there are around 20, 000* rape cases registered per year, the actual number is naturally higher. This translates to 2 women being subjected to this crime per HOUR.

So my question is this why out of 20, 000 cases, this particular incident received such huge attention from everybody? Are other rape cases less cruel? Or do those accused deserve a lesser punishment?

Another such incident was the Anna Hazare movement, corruption has been deep rooted in the Indian political system since a long long time. Why suddenly should people decide to come on the streets and fight against corruption?.

Take the period during 99'-01' ( Harshad Mehta scam and the tech bubble ) or the period of 07'-08 ( housing bubble ) during each of these periods the stock markets rallied to insanely high levels, stock markets during both these periods caught such a frenzy that I recollect an Auto-rickshaw driver giving me a stock tip. ( No kidding !!!! )

In all of the above instances there's one thing which is a common denominator - Masses, huge number of motivated people participated in each of these instances.

What sparks these short spurts of abnormality?

Why short? 
Well, Annaji's movement has toned down quite considerably, the rape incident has been replaced by the regular and more routine facebook updates and we all know what happened to the stock markets post 00' and 08'.

We humans have this instinct, it acts almost sub-consciously it prevents us from being left out. I think that's the key phrase. "Being left out". We as species are very competitive, we don't like being out of action, its second nature to us, so when others around us are doing something collectively, our brain refuses to behave logically, it sort of  gets wild. We have this irresistible urge to behave like the crowd is, we refuse to think independently, form our own opinion, think how we normally would - Rationally.

But the brain eventually comes to its own and tones down quite a notch resulting in everything going back to like it always was. Which explains the short lived nature of such extreme behaviour.

In the Rape case incident, such behaviour yielded a positive outcome and set an awareness for crimes against women.
However, in the stock markets it has led to disastrous outcomes for most people caught in these bouts of irrationality.

So next time, we should probably think, if being on the streets, posting abusive comments on the internet, making fine gossip against an issue, following a group of people blindly or buying into that hot stock tip is the logical thing to do?
If not then we better start thinking, What is?

* This is just an approximate figure.