To Animals. They have some rights.


Song : Phir Se Ud Chala -- Rockstar




"Have it with salt Nani, you'll like it," he said.


"Salt, where is it? I don't see it. It's not here," she said while moving her hand across the white plate to feel any granular substance.


"It's here Grandma," he said pointing at the spot where the salt was.


She bent forward and looked carefully. She then touched the spot and was convinced that it was indeed salt. She took some of it and applied it on the covering of the orange fruit segments that she had just peeled. She then popped one into her mouth.


"Have it. Come on quick," she said to her grandson, almost hitting the plate to his chest. There was a sense of a hurry in her tone, even though in reality there was no hurry at all.


"I have had three of these," he said, adjusting himself such that the sunlight wouldn't hit his eyes directly.


Just then two cats meowed. They were right in front of them. While the humans relaxed in the veranda, the cats splurged themselves on the smooth grass in the mild winter heat. The younger of the cats, moved behind the elder one, slowly and carefully; perhaps scared of the other animals.


"Look at them, sitting over there," Nani pointed out.


He looked carefully at the beautiful creatures. They weren't the best of cats, he thought. They were wild, dirty and dull, not even comparable to magnificent Golden Cats of Egypt or the white snowballs of the movies. But something about them was fascinating. He admired their movement, their style, their presence and most importantly the fact that they had a life, that they were real and living, in a world of their own.


He had always wanted to pet a Cat, but was never able to. They were supposed to be unfaithful, unlucky and unworthy of petting. He remembered the many stories his mother had told him, when she had pet a wild cat. How she would steal milk and feed it to the cat. How the cat would come everyday at the same time. How she gave birth to babies. How she would come under the blanket during the winter and eventually tear the blanket. And of course like all cat stories, how she drank the milk from the kitchen, without asking. He thought that this disobedience and desirous attitude, is probably why he was never allowed to pet a cat.


He now recalled the most favourite part of the story. It was the story after the betrayal. Most Cats are banished after they commit the sin. They are denied food and are scared away. The arrogant animals that they are, they go away and look for some other human to fool. But this one cat, after months of exile returned. His mother would tell him, that when the Cat returned she was ill and thin and uglier than ever. And the mother filled with compassion, gave her lots and lots of milk. He couldn't remember what happened after this. Perhaps, his mother grew up.


Suddenly the Gradmother got up and started collecting the orange peels. And immediately then the cat jumped and crossed the wall. In a flash of second, the elder cat was gone. The younger one hid behind one of the garden pots, unable to jump that high.


"Look how she jumps. Ram ki Leela ko dekh," the grandmother said with a huge smile.


He looked and smiled.


His phone started ringing loudly, disturbing the peace of the moment.


"Where is this sound coming from?" his grandmother asked.


He looked at the phone and sighed. It read :


"Mock CAT 2:30pm"


Cat. Billi.

CAT. Common Aptitude Test.

Wish me luck?

Step-ember.

September is the only month in the whole year in which I don't blog. Even in 2009, the post was actually written in October. I have no reason or explanation for this. I think its the mid-year crisis (even though its the end of the third quarter). This coupled with my mid-blogger life crisis, explains the fewer and fewer words I use in my posts (Have a close look at the previous posts, they all have pictures and they all have lines written by someone else). Vasudha must be having a terrible time, because she reads these posts in her mail and no pictures are displayed out there. Sorry!


So coming back to September. A careful study of the last two years (which only I can do), shows that it has always been a crazy month. In 2009, I got intoxicated for the first time. In 2010, I attended a couple of parties (one of which I absolutely regret). In 2011, I had no alcohol (which is a good thing), and people stopped inviting me to their parties or after work chilling sessions or once a week lunch. I guess I had more to do with this, than them. So this year has been crazy too, just in a very very different way.


Another very interesting thing about September is that it has my birthday. When I was young, my birthday used to mean a lot to me and I would be thoroughly disappointed because no one else I knew was born during this time. Now, thanks to Facebook I know too many. So my young kid side of the brain, no longer feels special. Another reason to dislike this month, it failed my unreasonable paradoxical (Because I wanted other people to be born during this month and when too many were born I felt bad) expectation.


Yet another terrible thing is the weather. Its starts to change. And Homo Sapiens are inadequate to deal with this change. We have to rely on things like clothes. Had we not invented clothes, we would have developed a fur and then women won't have to get themselves waxed (in some cases, men too). 


September is also the ninth month of the year. Thats 3*3. I hate 3. Therefore, it's a numerological defect.


Since you've read so much, I will now write something of real meaning.


"Living is easy with eyes closed.." (Strawberry Fields Forever, The Beatles)


I am unsure if ignorance is bliss. To have not known something, would it have made us happier? Lets say Idea X gave me some amount of happiness and Idea Y gave me some more amount of happiness. Without the knowledge of Y, I was happy; but now that I know Y, I have to struggle to achieve it.  And is that unhappiness worth the additional happiness? The most beautiful thing about whatever I have said till now is that there is no Math in the whole wide world, that can help solve it. So you'll have to think of your own everyday examples.


There are two very important things that come out of the above. One is that I assumed that everyone is happy (with Idea X), the larger question being how do we decide if we are happy? And the second being what made people think Y would give more happiness? I don't think people generally have answers to either. I don't think its possible to weigh how much effort will yield how much happiness and how much happiness is worth with respect to effort invested. If I don't know which one will make me better off, why should I take the risk? The fact that Y will give you more happiness, will always be an experience of the other. 


Samajh nahi aaya na?


I was using a shit phone till Class 12. I never knew the joy of texting because it was really annoying to type on that phone. Yet, I had no desire to text or to get a better phone. Then I scored a 100 in Math and there had to be a gift. So I bought a Smartphone (Not knowing anything about its smart features). Now, when I have to buy another phone, it has to be smart. I cannot go back to where I was. The fact that a better phone would make me happy was not mine, for I never had a better phone. The fact that Democracy is awesome, can only be said by a democratic state. But will you eventually be happy? Maybe not. Because that idea will change who you are and not the other way around.


You would now say, that this is normal progress. One goes from the inferior to the superior. From worse to better. But what was worse about early man? And what is superior? An LV Bag? Or Food to those who are dying? Look at our lives right now and compare it to what it was when were naked hunters. I think our level of happiness is still the same. But our level of stress has increased. Change from one set of ideas to another set of ideas, can only be justified if it leads to an increase in happiness.  And if there has been no increase in happiness since naked early man time, then we are fucked up.


I have just one last thing to say.


Would it have been better had I not told you this? Had you not known this?


To September. Always a few days too less.


Song : Lag Jaa Gale --- Lata Mangeshkar

It's all about the Sex.

For most people, it is. They don't know it, they don't accept it and the worst is that they don't realize it. I am not accusing anyone. I am not saying sex is a bad thing. But it's not the only thing in life.

Lets look at the things that are sexed up in our lives. The most amusing jokes are about sex (F.R.I.E.N.D.S. mostly revolved around the sexual and romantic lives of the characters). The most effective abuses are about sex with your own mother/sister. The culmination of any relationship is the act of sex (From Child Abuse to the First Night--Suhaagraat). People have sex in airplanes, bathrooms, on the floor, standing, sitting etc. We have a huge industry that caters just to sex--Prostitution, Pornography, Sex Toys, Contraceptives, NGOs for Pro Life and Pro Choice etc. We have spared no one. We are having sex. Animals are having sex (with themselves and in some cases, with us). Even, children are having sex (again, sometimes with themselves and in some cases, with us grown ups). Young People are having sex, sometimes by choice and sometimes by force, and sometimes it just happens. Men are masturbating (some strong boys claiming to as much as 14 times a day). Women are masturbating. Everyone is Sexing.

So what about Sex makes it so fundamental to our lives, that not one day goes by that we don't think of Sex. Most people assume that Sex is a need. That the body needs this sort of pleasure and that it demands it. Fair Enough. The body produces hormones (My biology isn't the best, but I think hormones are responses to Stimulus. And the same stimulus can have different reactions from different people. Thus there is nothing that can be universally sexual.) Now if Sex were a need, like food, water and love, if one were denied it, one would die or lead a pathetically miserable life of disgust and no human dignity. Many people claim that they are celibate and it is not my business to spy their lives, which don't look so devoid of dignity, to see if they are truly celibate. So if there is no example of whether or not one would die if one did not have sex, I urge you to experiment it in your life. Start with a week, and see how dire a need it is. 

Lets look at it from another perspective. If our bodies were meant to enjoy sex or had sex has a need, it must then would have evolved into something that would facilitate the same. I am not saying "God willed it this way!", I am just saying what Darwin said (Again, Biology could be bad!) Nothing within/of the body allows us to have sex and not start the baby process. Condoms, contraception, surgeries etc are all external things that allow us to have "stress free" sex. Now the fallacy in this argument is that, we should stop taking all sorts of medicines because they are external, and if our bodies are meant to tackle a disease, only then will we truly "deserve" to live. Of course, this does not happen. Also, there is nothing to say that we won't evolve into "free sex creatures".

But what about other animals? Is Sex such an issue only with Humans, because of our ability to think or do animals see Sex as a pleasure too? Animals don't have contraception, so whenever they do it, they create babies. And animals have long "dry" periods, because their bodies have reproduction constraints. So they mate far lesser than humans do.

   

I think what I have been trying to say is that, sex is a "need" created by the mind, and not necessarily a bodily need. There could be an urge to procreate and have babies (that I think is also arguable), but not an urge to have sex. Look at all our problems. Obesity--Too Much Food. Addictions--Too much bad stuff. Shopping--Too Much Acquisition. Greed, profit, wastage. The list is endless. All of this, is a product of the mind--reckless mind.

Coming back, so what will happen if we de-sex our lives? Will we be happier? Will we channelize our energies towards better things? I think yes. The reason why most spiritual guides talk about the abstinence from sex, is because it is indeed the hardest. Through out this article, I have not been able to prove whether or not sex is a need, and that's how close it comes to becoming a need. Imagine being able to control that. Imagine having full control over a pseudo-need. If you can do that, you can control anything that is not a need. You are then not dependent on anything. Moksha.

But why do we sex it all up in the first place? Even the two great epics are full of sex and scandal--the public humiliation of Draupadi to the banishment of Sita. It's simple. It feels good. It is like any other sort of addiction.

But you would say--What about the Kamasutra-that's a guide to sex? Look carefully. It's Yoga. It's probably meant to deter you from having sex.

It's all about the sex.