An ode to the dried up Lense

Dried up lense,look at you rot
you'd be with me forever, so id thought
I poured solution on u day after day
But in your final moments, no goodbye i could even say
Dried up lense all shrivelled up and grey
You were supposed to adorn me today

The Mighty Common Indian Man

The transition presented in the Indian media from one sensational issue to another is phenomenal in itself. Is it the medias’ mercurial nature, like a child with Attention Deficit Disorder or is it that our country is producing scintillating news every day I am not sure I can answer that with conviction. From the level of preparedness for the Common Wealth Games ( or lack of it thereof) to the Ayodhya verdict, the masses in our country have found a common cause for unity be it the criticism of the Organizing Committee at the Commonwealth Games being hosted in Delhi in the next few days or the myriad reasoning for the possession of the disputed land in Ayodhya.

Freedom of the press is a basic human right and you would all agree with me on that. For censorship would most certainly breed evil, malice and other synonyms associated with all things wrong. So we whole heartedly embrace freedom, adorn out opinions with critique which seems to be the mainstream and then have heated discussions of all that is wrong in our country. Ah, such joy is accompanied with this liberating experience of being able to psychoanalyse all the ills of our society. So the media has managed to unite the masses after all- by making us critics, the elite of the society who sit in coffee shops and munch on cookies and discuss contemporary political issues with panache. But what happens once these conversations are over? Is there any purpose to this critique apart from a meagre ego boost resulting from our splendid abilities to synthesise arguments of what is wrong and how it needs to be rectified? Unfortunately, I think this is where the story ends. The process of sensationalism-igniting passion-criticism ends there. But it does leave some vestiges of positivity- the power of unity, the power of united passion. If we can come together to vehemently discuss all that is wrong, perhaps all is not lost just yet. Perhaps there is a way to make mends. We don’t need a change of the government, or any institutional change. We must remember the nature of the democracy; we must understand the power that lies with the common man. The you and the me of the society.

The media might be doing what it does best, but the incidental bi-products of this radical sensationalism is the generation of passion among the masse. Only when we- not as a nation, not as a state or a city or a school or a university, but as you and me, just individual units, decide to channelize this passion into a tangible action, can the country as a whole accelerate on its path to evolve into a nation that is developed in the true sense.

Abstract, as it may be, the concept of change is actually very fundamental. We can start now, by not littering our cities, by not jumping the stop light, and by generally being more happy. It’s time to take ownership, for India is a democracy. We have created it and we have the power to change it.

We are all misfits
no one is cast in a mold,
with dreams unique
and secrets untold.
None of us know,
but each is told,
the webs grow,
dreams go cold.
We are all misfits,
stacked up in a row,
we need disarray,
ah atleast now we know.