Adios 2011!!!

Bygone Year 2011!!! One whole year in this lovely place called Kerala, “God’s own Country” {Called partially because the prices of commodities and stuff makes you think of God and partially because of the snake men (and women) you find everywhere on the roads, especially after 5 PM , when the strength of the almighty blisses through them!}. Since I had not been in touch with my blog for long , have a lots to say about the past happenings around me: Foremost, finally, I got a wifey (and a dear one in that ;-)), completed 1 full years and some more in Trinfy (Trivandrum Infosys is called Trinfy), got the project I was working abandoned (Not my contribution in whole though!), met with two accidents just for fun (More on this later), changed my sleeping routine from 8 hours to 12 hours a day, visible pot belly appearing now-and-then (It’s a mystery on where it goes off sometimes ;-) ) so on and so forth…

So, anyways, how was the year 2011 for you guys?

2011, was an year of Trending. No no, I don’t mean the Fashioniesta trends or the Manish Malhotra trends. What I meant is that past year we saw some truly magnificent work of Media, blown out of proportions.

Take for instance, the Flash Mobs. Seriously speaking, I din’ t have any heck of an idea what the Flash Mob business is. I thought it was a mob, well, err, “flashing” on some common wall for their enjoyment. How primitive was my thought! And then it dawn to me that it was some surprisingly organized group of people trained to make the others who were present in the malls, stores, public places to “flash”. So wherever you go, Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkatta, Bangalore or Pune, you were in the railway station or in a AC vented mall, and suddenly from nowhere, a music starts and a girl or a boy starts dancing. By the time you were wondering what the heck was happening, few others follow suite!!! Some others again join the caravan, and people who were looking their own business watches all the monkey business going around… It started from Amchi Mumbai, then how could Capital Delhi leave behind? Although an attempt was busted by the famed (or de-famed?) Delhi Police on one attempt of flashing at New Delhi Railway Station, who stops in just there? Bangalore and all other Metros followed suite. And heck it was followed on in the Software companies too… Infosys, for instance, had it at all the DCs (Delivery Centers), although it looked more or less like an organized dance show than the original “flash” mobbing. So, what’s the point? Can someone please elaborate? If I need to show my dancing skills, I could have shown it to some audience who are really interested to see it…Not in a way where you stagger the whole progression of someone’s life for apparently no reasons.

Another trend floating around was of India’s Second Freedom Struggle. “India’s Second Freedom struggle”? Are you serious? You are in your 20s, and all you heard and know is India is corrupt and so is the whole clan of politicians and Bureaucrats. Probably, you have never been to any Government offices, but you might have heard from others how it all goes into a loop if you don’t pay them for their Chai-Paani. Your motto of a Free India struggle you think is what you see in ‘Rang de Basanti’. You stay away from all the Political debates since you consider every other politicians crooked. You are inclined towards the political unrest in the Egypt and wished that a “Tahrir-Square” propaganda should be replicated here in India and all the current politicians must be ousted. So when a messiah called for a so called ‘The second freedom struggle’, you put on your T-shirt with the messiah slogan, put in your Gandhi cap, paint your face with the Indian tri-color, put up groups in Facebook and “hang-out” with your friends in some Maidan or Common grounds.

So, again, what’s the point? If you think that Freedom struggle is all about shouting slogans, having a  one-day fast (Minnal mudakku, as is the word called in Malayalam… Probably all Keralites know what  it is), singing patriotic song and rock concerts in front of a large crowd with some Bollywood actor, then my dear friend (in Navjot Siddu’s accent) you are the most un-intelligible creature in this world of degenerating decencies (Now I know where to use this phrase in a proper sentence!). Further on a serious note, please refresh your history classes and you’ll see what the struggle for freedom is. It’s the lives of the freedom fighters pulled apart, their lives ending up in solitary confinement, without food, water or hygiene for days and years; the brunt of the torture both physically and mentally. Probably seeing it on ‘Rang de Basanti’ would itself had boiled down your blood and probably you would had thought of hitting the Englishman, but it was not as simple as you might have imagined.

 

I know, some of you might argue with me till dawn to dusk about it, but this is the reality and probably you would understand it soon. Good luck!!!

Now another Media glare blown out of proportion. What was sung as a Chennai tapori song (remember Kya kare kya na kare [Rangeela]) became a rage throughout India, and heck, within few days all through the world! Everyone who remotely is a bathroom singer came out with their own versions of the same song, with the lyrics pulled over from here and there… Yes; Ladies and Gentlemen, I am talking about the (in)famous “Kolaveri di” song. You can see every probable versions of the song everywhere in YouTube or in your mail forwards: the original one, the IT guys version (god!!!), Sonu Nigam’s kids version (What? C’mon he is just a kid, he can’t even speak properly), the R&B version (The Desi firangs take on Kolaveri, uhhh!!!), the female Kolaveri (A chammak challo’s version), then there’s lots of regional versions (Malayalam, Hindi, Bhojpuri, Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati…. !!!). So, which one is your take? Or you had already your own version of it? “Why this Kolaveri di?”

Then there is this La-Tomatina hullabullu all over… Some spoilt brats, sons of rich fathers, go out for a world tour, with their dads cash hung over their belly to “discover themselves” (They were actually lost in here, so they went to these super exotic places to discover themselves). And in perfect tandem to this event is the human tomato Katrina Kaif jumping over and throwing up Tomatoes to others. What else the real cash morons wanted? They follow suite, influenced by this and throwing tomatoes over each other and jumping all over it. So, I have cash, I throw it or crush it, what’s your problem, ehh?

Looking forward to see more of these trend setters in 2012, so that I can write a full page “review” here in my blog...

My wifey pestered me to show the draft version of this writing, before publishing. So stopping it here. Here it goes for the review…