Monday, April 27, 2009

Sin City


Life comes in many shades. But if you want to see a rainbow, you come to Mumbai. The city reverberates with life in a million different hues.


The ‘business of life’ takes on a new meaning here. It becomes all encompassing for Mumbai residents who slog every week wearing themselves off in hope of that distant mirage of a weekend.

Eventually you become a part of the zombie population doing late nights, rushing to jobs, trying to make sense of wonderless lives.

The 'Minions of the time machine' run to their jobs as if being run by a giant universal alarm clock they are all tuned into. They wake up in the morning, rush to jobs, work overtime in jobs that they did not choose in the first place, and finally come back home to a family who has had it with their own share of daily battering.

Inspite of all this, it is a beautiful city, it is a land of opportunity for people from all over the country. It is like the wild, wild west where people go to make their fortunes. Most discover there is no pot of gold at the end of the rainbow and settle for mundane existences. But for those who’ve made it, luxury comes in all imaginable hues.

In some ways we IIM’ites are lucky. Coming from an esteemed institution gives you the freedom to live life on our own terms. Now whether or not we exercise it is a moot point.

People find this city enchanting for the variety of sensory and sensual pleasures it offers you. But excus'e moi, for I am happy being in a small town where I can choose to live life on my own terms. Where my dreams are tied neither to material pleasures nor to my neighbour's perception of me.

Saturday, April 25, 2009

Catch-22


Learnt something about Catch-22 today. Pretty Interesting stuff. It is the illusion of choice when you have none. A probabilistic  event which is the confluence of many mutually exclusive events. It is a strategy the society uses day in and day out to get you to comply with its norms.
            Here's a typical illustration:
When you are in school, you are told your life will be great once you get into college. Or at least that's what those worthless blokes in the movies portray. Once you clear that stage, you are told "Get into a top Management school  and the 'Dream life' shall be yours". Ad nauseam...ad infinitum....... 
                     In all this,you apparently have a choice. That of working hard and doing what people expect of you, the other option always scares us. The uncharted territory into which you will slip into if you don't listen to them. So you don't really have a choice, do you?
                                       Curious thing is, the only people the society respects is those who break its rules. All great thinkers were born not out of conformity but of rebellion.
                                           And the life of us mere mortals is born not so much of choices we make, but of choices we fail to make. Choices we consider society to be entitled to make for us. 


Worth pondering over. Isn't it...?