A complete life comprises several incomplete lives

Well it's just a thought, which came to my mind during the lazy weekend. I was just thinking that all of us are blessed with just one life but we all live many incomplete lives in that one life.

For instance, lets say Abhi, Abhi is a cute kid and always wanted to have his own rock band, he always dreamt of becoming a rock star in his life but somewhere in his life he realized the struggle involved and the importance of basic necessities to survive and he started studying medicine to be a doctor, since he realized that making money is more important in life then making your dreams come true. Now Abhi is a successful doctor and he has a successful life but somewhere in the middle he had an incomplete life, the one of an incomplete rock star.

Then there is Reena, she wanted to be a fashion stylist always and she finished her studies in the same. But somehow when she was working in a fashion house things were a little different, the work culture and the people were not as simple as she was…she couldn't take the challenge anymore and quit now she handles merchandising in a reputed textile manufacturing firm. She thinks it's a safe and secure job for her. She is content with her present job and life. But she too had an incomplete life that of a fashion stylist.

Then there is Pari; she always wanted to go abroad for her higher studies. Things dindt work out so she tried for something else and finally finished her masters. She is a successful student now but there in an incomplete dream, the incomplete life of a student, studying abroad. Then during her masters she wanted to join the glamour world of advertising-she thought the creativity and the ideas are magical but after she worked there for few days…. she realized the hard facts and she switched to another job which has better opportunity, better package and more respect. She is successful here but then there is an incomplete life that of an ad person. Remember she has a successful life or she is very hopeful, still hopeful. Seems she is in a habit of building hope against hopes.

Now look at Shruthi, she was an extremely bright kid throughout her academics and a very loving daughter but the trust was always low from the parents side which started the making of a rebel inside her and she started doing all those things which she knew her parents wont appreciate but then she had no other choice. She is happy with her life and so are her parents but there is an incomplete life, the one that lost honesty and trust. Now everything is on face, only on the face. Eventually there is one more story; she fell in love with Sarath who was also in love with her but then he ditched her in between as he wasn't able to convince his parents, Shruthi tried by all means but she lost the love. She was grief stricken but life gave her one more chance to build her career. Suddenly her parents agreed and gave her a new chance. She moved to another city and is now a very successful modern lass. But the success got so much on her head that now it seems she don't want to remind her of what and where she is from? She left an incomplete life behind her. But that's ok because she thinks this is the real life. She can ignore the scattered dreams.

Well then there is Sarathi, he had a pleasant life with, of course there are always some difficulties and struggle. But we can say that his life had come a full circle with a fun-filled youth, a settled business and a lovely family. Things were pretty much fine as they were together even to solve the complicacies of life. But then he met with an accident, a real bad one and though he lost the physical strength and the capability to work as he used to the major thing he lost his hope. He is not quite hopeful and keeps on gaining and loosing the same. This has shortened his vision and he doesn't hope to be exactly fine as he was and thus has stopped dreaming. He always had a dream to grow from a small entrepreneur to an industrialist. He tries to forget those now days and laughs that away if his children try and remind him about his long-cherished dream. Now what is left is the life of an an incomplete industrialist behind him.

Not all these but there are many like above, the ones who always loved someone and never confessed in the fear of rejection. Then those who were loved like anything but they always had a dynamic career. They are all very successful in life but each one of them have one or may be more incomplete lives…. the one which they left aside, ignored after a while and then those which they still try to forget because deep inside all of them are still alive. They all have great life, the successful, the complete and the quality life but that's made of so many incomplete forgotten lives.

Misery of TV

Once upon a time watching TV used to be a mission when it was a strict no-no by parents, until I had completed the home work (so I mostly failed this mission). I had to wait for Sundays to enjoy some of my favorite shows freely. Then it became an easy target as home work or monitoring of home work reduced in college. Then soon it became an addiction with some programs made their way into my routine and it even lead to some hard fought battles between me and my siblings, thanks to my brother who is a cricket freak like me and always stood by me in those battles, whenever they involved a cricket match.

That was then, some 7 years ago, and since then I have seen a constant dip in the quality of content the TV has to offer, or in fact the quantity of the quality content. The situation seems to such that if you do not have pre-fixed favorites, sometimes it is impossible to stand the TV, forget about using it as a ‘time-passing’ device.

The reason for this is that there is just a bit too much to whatever is shown on TV nowadays and rather than we wanting to watch a program, the channel wants us to watch the program be it a K-series soap, or a sensational newscast, a movie premiering on TV or even World Cup cricket.

The entertainment channels have found family serials revolving around dirty conspiracies and poor drama as their mode of entertaining families. There is absolutely nothing inspiring or moralistic. Then they have reality shows copied from West, with added masala to derive controversy and hence popularity somehow.

The news channels only believe in casting sensational news, or sensationalizing news rather than reporting. They make a superhero out of a child who fell in a pit, and laugh it out when President Kalam raised a question over the role of Indian Media in National Integration and Development. The quality of these channels has gone down so much that some of the reporters themselves don’t know what they are talking, and you are left exercising your brains trying to comprehend them.

Watching your favorite movie on TV, when tele-casted by a leading movie channels can be the worst torture for you as the movie by default last for 4 to 5 hours, thanks to the streaks of advertisers which will keep you busy. I am not the one who believes that Indian team is not worth a watch just because of the World cup performance, but I surely think that whatever the monetary equations are the telecast of an even such as the world cup should be given to professional sports channels like ESPN, Star, or even Ten. The quality of Cricket that is being tele-casted on Star Cricket at present is much better than what was on display during the world cup.

Cribs and Whines apart, I still have some of my favorites on TV that I always catch up with whenever I have time. Some Channels have stuck to the quality standards, they had set when I started to like them, but due loads of useless stuff that has made its way on TV, the overview of TV has taken a hit.

Digital Emotions

Title seems a bit unusual, but I think it fits in. Friendship day has just passed, whole day SMSes kept ringing. Everyone was wishing everyone “Happy Friendship Day” even to those who are hardly in touch or cannot be considered friends. Same happens on Valentine Day. It appears more of a fashionable activity than emotions.

Did you ever noticed, life has been reduced to a keyboard, be it computer, laptop, mobile or television. Keys and keys alone hold the key. So busy we are that we remember friends/relatives only on friendship day or birthday and when we do, an SMS or a forwarded mail does the job. When we have time we are hooked to these keys: games, photos. What the heck! In the middle of a hectic schedule I remember an old friend and scores of things I wanted to say. But it takes courage to make a call, work is first and last thing in mind so it’s easy to type an SMS and push “OK”.

I wonder if there are really emotions left, I doubt myself. But I must admit, life has become comparatively easier and less burdensome without emotions. Chatting is outdated, Orkut is new passion, I make friends as many as I can (so that I can boast them), scrap the people whom I don’t know and they don’t care for me, and I think I have friends. No emotions needed, if I don’t like the person I can just ignore him. If I don’t feel OK, just log off, no more interested, delete mails, don’t reply. No emotional burden. Its easy, no arguments, no heart breaks, no pains.

Life has become smooth as there’s no sense of loss and nothing to claim. Gone those days when fear of loosing loved ones kept relationship alive. Logoff from one site and you can find two more on some other; it’s quite easy to make new/true friends! (Actually I wanted to say “it’s quite easy to flirt”). The dangerous thing is that we are not feeling the vacuum. Everything’s becoming electronic! Technology has made life painless. I remember a viva during graduation; examiner asked me the difference between machines and human beings. Obvious answer was machines don’t have emotions. Now I wonder if humans have!