Aham Brahmasmi

So as you might have already guessed, I have completed the second season of the much awaited Sacred Games on Netflix. Few months back, I had picked up the book as well and completed it hurriedly before the second season. Now I was pretty much aware of how the series would end but the makers did change and included quite a bit of new stuff. So all in all I enjoyed watching the season 2. But a few things got me to thinking about how it has become like really a habit and somewhat fashionable to make movies/series/books/articles where the central idea is Hindu bashing.

Now I am no sympathizer or a Bhakt (as the pro government people are popularly referred to as). I am a common observer who stays as far as possible from the very disturbing political debates. I zone myself out whenever I have to witness those so called debates on TV news channels. But the recent turn of events and my observations on them have forced me to speak up or in my case write up.

Everything said and done I do agree that a healthy criticism is good and very much needed for a good functioning democracy. Also no one really has to be a fan of a particular working government party. But how do you justify the disrespect? The disregard of people. Whatever you may say or do, the truth is that India is a Hindu majority country. I don't understand why this fact has to be all hush-hush affair. Do we not call Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, Yemen, Oman, Iran and so many other countries as Islamic nations? Why is there no hushing up there so as not to hurt the minority sentiments. While take care of minorities is obviously something that should be unsaid and natural, treating others like second class citizen is not cool.

It started with when I found couple on scenes in Sacred Games subtly pushed in to supposedly highlight the miseries inflicted on members of a particular community. The real issue is that these scenes had nothing to do or add into the story-line. These details were also missing from the book, but we all know how the book story is butchered for the big screen. If I made you curious, it was the lynching scene wherein Katekar's boy was seen enjoying all the violence. Not long back there was another Netflix series Leila - A dystopian drama eerily similar to Margret Atwood's The Handmaid's tale. Here the central theme was how India is all "Hindu Rashtra" and everyone's in misery (except Hindus of higher caste ofcourse). Taj Mahal is burned and many other blasphemous story lines form the central idea of this series.

And then we have the Goddess of Sedition - a certain Ms Roy who had my heart at one point of time but things have soured since then. While her speeches and articles are well known for being Anti-national, it is now reflecting in her books too. Her last one, The Ministry of Utmost Happiness has many references about Mr Modi - his chest size, the magnanimous winning in 2014, the Gujarat riots etc etc. Although she has denied the resemblance but hey, who are we kidding here. There is also a considerable compassion in the book for Kashmiri Muslims and their apparent fight for freedom. There is a very elaborate love angle between one of the man protagonist of the story and a Kashmiri student turned militant Musa Yeswi. Sometimes I wonder what would happen if the tables were turned, would people even dare to write and openly make jokes or comments about the minority. We all know what happened with Mr Rushdie and his Satanic verses.

Also what irks me is the fact that right after Article 370 was revoked, there were many hashtags like 'KashmirBurning', 'Redforkashmir', 'KashmirBurns' trending on social media. Mind boggingly many Instagram influencers were sharing these stories and status about how Kashmir (or Indian Occupied Kashmir, as they like to call it) was under siege and how the actions of Indian government were un-democratic. Well, why would someone blindly share something on social media without having any prior or proper knowledge is beyond me. Just because the topic is trending doesn't mean you have to jump into the bandwagon. Now don't ask me how I know about the knowledge gap - I just do. The decision of revoking article 370 was for the entire (erstwhile) state of Jammu and Kashmir, which comprises of Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh. But somehow Jammu and Ladakh are always removed from the radar - whether for news or any sort of development.

People suddenly complaining about undemocratic actions should check the 2019 voting statistics. Did the people of Kashmir not openly defy elections by refusing to vote? Some Democracy that is! Curfew was and has to be imposed for maintaining law and order. Army was deployed as a precautionary measure considering the history of Kashmir. Have people forgotten what happened on the streets of Kashmir when Burhan Wani was gunned down? And in the past the Separatist leaders have called for Bandhs with the drop of a hat, yet no one complained about education, medical emergencies and fresh vegetables. Jammu was continuously under curfew and agitation for 60 days back in 2008 and might I add due to a fire there was no electricity as well. In sweltering heat of August. Yet no one complained for felt bad, because its Jammu right, who cares? But the moment its Kashmir everyone is suddenly brought to attention right from Pakistan to UN to China to USA - everybody must somehow be involved.

I understand no internet in this age is crazy and difficult. Even my parents are facing the brunt of it but before criticizing the decision one needs to be well-versed with the history. Internet, text communication has been misused in the past in Kashmir for well orchestrated protests, stone pelting, distracting and helping in evacuating terrorists. I present the recent piece of news from Kashmir and let you decide whether stringent measures are needed or not. Also expect people to be more responsible about what they choose to share online (especially the ones with considerable social media standing!).

I think I have more more to say, maybe in another post.
Till then lets use social media responsibly.






Love:
Sepo

DISC Analysis

I have been meaning to write this post since ages now but it always gave way to something more interesting. Of late I have been on some sort of a writer’s block, so I decided to take it out from the archives of my brain. This dates back to the time of 2014, the time me and many of my co-workers would be on a constant lookout for relevant trainings for our domain - preferably in locations far away from our office This would give us kind of a holiday from work, a chance to explore another branch of our officer, the new canteen food, ahem the new crowd and of course since the trainings would get over way early than usual office timings a chance to explore the nearby joints and markets.

One fine day I managed to get nominated to training in Powai, which is like the very hep part of Mumbai and the duration of the training was WAIT-FOR-IT 1 week! And Mumbai monsoons had just made their presence felt – the time where everything is just so dreamy, romantic and beautiful. When you love prancing about in newly bought rainy footwear and eating plates full of kanja bhajiya with adrakh wali chai. So the timing of this 1 week long training just couldn’t have been better.

I woke up bright and early for my 40 minute bus ride. I learnt the importance of exact-estimate timings in Mumbai. When you reach office at 9:04, you say Nine O Four and not Nine O clock. If the duration is 40 minutes, it means 40 you cannot say it takes about an hour. Nope. Not acceptable. Next train at 6:46 means exactly that. Don’t wait at the platform from 6:30. Enjoy a wada-pav and then be ready to board before the train stops. In my part of the world life is lead at a leisurely pace and our timings are calculated in a similar way - depending on our mood. For example, in the event of an electricity cut that happened 5 minutes ago – everyone will swear “Ek ghante se gye hue hai ji”. And once it’s restored since 1 hour – “Bas abhi aye koi 5 minute pehle”. It was very hard to unlearn this lovely way of communicating by exaggeration.

Now coming back to the bus commute. For the 5 working days I traveled in this bus, I managed to lose a watch, a pair of earphones and funnily a packet of biscuits I had kept in my bag back. These minor mishaps coupled with the struggle of getting auto after the bus ride did dampen the spirits a bit, but the show must go on. And the show (read: training) was spectacular. Very interactive with a bunch of people from different backgrounds of technical work. Each day was filled with numerous activities and interactions that literally kept us on toes. We were divided into groups for all activities and the groups kept changing to facilitate maximum interaction. We are supposed to share our aspirations, fears, disappointments with each other. And while it may seem strange to open up to a complete stranger surprisingly it was rather easy and oddly calming.

But the biggest take away from the 5 days was what has inspired the post and its title – the DISC analysis. Now as a manager or a senior member in the team – your responsibilities go beyond just getting the task done. A good mentor not only understands the requirement but also has to judge the aptitude and skill of the person doing it. More than getting the work done, understanding who best to do it is what makes a difference. And in order to make that judgement who should know the judgement criteria. Which category of personality do you fall in? What type of person is best-fit to do the work and what decisions to make in case of conflicts and hassles? That’s here the DISC comes into picture. The one week training mostly focused on prepping us up as young managers.

So basically DISC is a personality evaluation technique. On basis of a few questions (which you have to answer honestly) it fits you in one of the 4 personality types – Dominant, Influencer, Complaint and Steady. Now there are many other names for this test and numerous interpretations but the abstract remains the same. It is closely associates with the Type A, Type B, Type C and Type D personality test. For me rather than understand people around me, this analysis helped me to understand myself. It also gave me a chance to work on my weaknesses and improve things that are not so great. It is accurately true provided you answer the questions truthfully. 

Having strong Type B straits makes me very resistant to change. But since I have found that about me, I have tried to overcome this. Like when I had to make a move in my career from a very comfortable zone to something unknown I actually took inspiration from my little niece. She had just moved from a very familiar pre-school to a bigger school with no old friends and was doing so good. On the other hand I used to brawl for months when I changed school in 5th standard. Another trait that I wish/work on changing is avoiding confrontation. This is not just related to office but in day to day life. When I think back, I remember all minute details of instances when I kept quiet when a middle aged man touched me inappropriately in a bus or flashed himself in broad daylight. It can be as simple as not ordering what you want in a restaurant to not disagreeing to an approach a Type A (Dominant) person is putting across. 

These are just small examples, but the usage of this analysis is vast! This theory can be applied in partnerships too. And what better partnership than marriages! DISC can help you identify the best match, so much better than asking useless questions like "favorite movie", "Do you drink" etc. It would be best to avoid two dominants, moreover two compliant or steady's would again have nothing to teach or motivate their better half's about. Just like fashion, it would be best to mix and match and get that perfect look!

Now just go take the test already!

Let me know your thoughts in comments.

Lots of Love:

Sepo

Turning Thirty!

So apparently turning 30 somehow mandates you to turn temporarily crazy. As you reach this milestone it is just expected that you go nuts and do something that you will soon regret. Ever since we reach maturity, say at around 18 years of age – we start to formulate a list of accomplishments that we would want to achieve by the time we reach a scary age. This scary age is somewhere far in future and for most of the young adults, more often than not it is 30. So when you actually reach this scary age, apart from the realization that you are now errr old, the fact that many of the accomplishment remain unfulfilled triggers off a series of unpleasant actions.

2019 was the year I kicked the bucket of the so called dirty 30s. Thankfully the realization of being 30 was a smooth one (Well, I did get bangs but I am just going to pretend that it doesn’t count). Good company, good food and drinks, lots of dancing and way too much cake. I think the need to not to anything overtly crazy must have sprung from the fact that I am already a wee bit crazy to begin with. Icing on the cake is the fact that I somehow manage to find just the right kind of crazy people in my tribe. And my desperate need to be the coolest aunt to my little nieces and nephews mandates that I spend a lot of time with young guns which gets me to speed on whatever the kids are indulging in nowadays. So in short I did not feel even a slight bit older. It was just another year of “Hey, Happy Birthday To You’s”.

It’s not like I did not have a list-of-things-to-before-I-turn-30, some were accomplished, others were swiftly move to the other two lists – Things-to-do-before-i-turn-40 and the other very convenient things-to-do-before-I-die! Like they say age is just a state of mind. That’s what I thought on my birthday, because nothing seemed much different from when I was well, 29. Of course I feel older, more responsible but I want to keep my carefree side as-is. I can see crow’s feet near my eyes but that just means I have laughed a lot. My metabolism has most definitely slowed down over the years, but then how else was I going to invest in athleisure wear for the gym. I refuse to behave a certain way just because I have hit that benchmark. Nopes. Not gonna happen. I still want to make boomerangs when I am 60 (If I make it that far). I aspire to be the granny who wears the brightest shade of red with a nice string of pearls.

But when you do hit 30s, it is a good idea to sit down with your 29 years of wisdom and do a little introspection. How to you want to grow as a person, in your career, what’s happening with terms to the family. I did this heart to heart couple of weeks into my turning 30 when one of friend pointed out how the introduction page of my blog needs updating. A little background – I had created the introduction when I was at the ripe old age of 23 – naïve and quite incapable of understanding just how lazy I am. Because I had crazy aspirations back then. Apparently I wanted to be a fashion blogger, like yea that’s ever going to happen. I literally have to bribe my husband with Roganjosh and Spaghetti Aglio Olio for a couple of pictures. And I can feel the heat of deadly stares my friends give me when I utter the words “meri photo lena please”. Plus I hardly have any makeup skills or know any hairstyles. The only beauty experience I have is giving my sister a nice brown-black spot on the nose when I tried cleaning up her blackheads. Moreover I hardly have the enthusiasm or energy for ideas on how to style a crop top in 5 different ways. And while we are on the topic of crop tops, well who are we kidding no filter is gonna hide that cute little tummy tire. So there goes the fashionista career down the drain.

Next in the wish list was writing a book, and I quote directly written by 23 year old me “My things-to-do-in-future list includes writing a book (sometime when I am 30).” Awwwww. So much innocence in one sentence. I may not have known it then but I do now. Writing a book is no mean feat. It takes me almost 15 days at an average to write a blog post. Inception of an idea in my mind, some thoughts to make it grow, then the penning of a paragraph or two, dead-end, the wait, then continue with a fresh mind. It is a lot of hard work. And it is nothing compared to what is involved in book writing. Salman Rushdie had mentioned in this autobiography that he spends the first few hours his day completely dedicated to writing, whatever it maybe, makes sense or not but he writes. I however possess no such discipline. On some mornings I delay to pee so that it doesn’t break my sleep. Plus I still need some experience, travel, meet different people to have the relevant skill needed to indulge in something as big as book writing. I now know I still may not be ready when I am 40 and that’s perfectly okay with me.

So all in all my contemplation was a good one. Nailed down few need-immediate-attention items. Pushed some far away, few far far away, a lot of stuff was taken down (read pink/purple hair). But mostly we are just taking each day as it comes. Being less judgmental. Practicing live and let live. Letting people just be. Less gossip. And absolutely no slandering. Light dinners. Occasion Pizzas. More green tea. A workout here and there. More statement pieces. Less pictures. More experiences. A lot more travel. Lesser nagging. Minimal junk. More fruits. And lots of love.

And on that note, since you have been a patient reader, here are some pictures from the mad mad 30th birthday.

Stay Sexy People!

Love:
Sepo