Thursday, May 27, 2010

Brave New World


   "O wonder!
    How many goodly creatures are there here!
    How beautious mankind is!
    O brave new world,
    That has such people in't!"

Aldous Huxley's masterpiece Brave New World opens up the idea of an utopian society complete with your wildest dreams come true but the question is at what cost?

Could I forgo the right to be depressed, my right to feel hurt and be feel completely dreadful for eternal happiness?

What is continual happiness after all? Its a state of complacency, a state where in everything I am is dormant.  Where every day is exactly the same as the next. Where there really is nothing to look forward to, where all your wishes are simply answered, no strings attached , no terrific fight with one's conscience or with the world. Imagine a world devoid of violent passions! Oh! death is better than to live like that? Would you have peace sacrificing science and art?

Humans are a blood thirsty race. We cannot be pigeon holed to a concept called peace. When things go very calm, it itches an un-itchable region! You cannot propagate harmony to the entire population, there will inadvertently be someone somewhere glorifying terror. How can there be innovation and those passionate art works if there are no dark shades.

The whole book is littered with some amazing punch lines that takes my breathe away. Like the moment Bernard has with Lenina alone hovering above the ocean floor under a pale moon and says that he felt they would belong to each other more truly here than in a crowd. Conversation between John the Savage and Mustafa Mond.

Not to mention the amazing world he has created. The idea of social conditioning. The idea of free love with no strings attached. To have an infant attitude socially and an external body observing your every move (scary!) , manifestation of God by absence (that really is a killer line!). Death conditioning. The division of society into Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta and Epsilon by decanting the fetus in a manner that each one is happy to be in the self-same state. Everything is thought so precisely and put into being, a great mind indeed.

I am yet to watch the movie version of this novel. Hopefully it is able to capture a part of the spirit of the book!

Overall I rate this book 10 on 10. A must read.

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

How late is too late?


Up starts with a innocent dreams and expectations of a little girl Ellie and a boy Carl, the dream to reach Paradise Fall following the footsteps of Muntz whose adventures they have been religiously following. The movie speeds through until Ellie's death but all along the way showing how happily they lived together and their unsuccessful attempt at saving money to go to South America. I wish they would have prolonged on their childhood. Simply loved the way Ellie talked and the way her hair flares up as she pulls out the cap and the way all those helium filled balloons suddenly erupt out of the chimney!

Frankly speaking I was a bit disappointed with the second half of the movie. And I did not really understand the idea of the movie. Only as I talked to a friend of mine did I realize something that I obviously missed.

As kids and as teenagers and then as adults without family responsibility we all cherish our dreams and ambitions and look at them with misty eyes "Stuff I'm going to do" As time goes by and you enter the family life, time moves swiftly by, you are enveloped by the so-called practical stuff, work, make money, spend and then work more to make more money and spend some more, an endless cycle of wants and desires and commitments that fails to satisfy you. Its like a drink that leaves you thirsty.

So, where are all those dreams that would dreamt about? As drawings on the wall, as entries in your journal. I stand now where the two worlds are to collide. I believe in taking chances, to leap that extra length that would mean a fatal fall or the beginning of a new adventure.

All I know is that we are prejudiced and narrowed down by what people say is right and wrong for us. Listen to your heart. What after all is the meaning of life? What are we here for. I'll be damned if I know. Instead of letting someone else decide for me I will make them spontaneously, the depression of a failure and the exuberance of a triumph will be mine. Why wait?

Friday, May 7, 2010

Wildlife Tourism

With the ongoing debate on Tourism people are voicing opinions for and against tourism in the Core Tiger zones. I wholeheartedly agree with the Wildlife enthusiasts that Tourism is not the solution to keep the tigers alive nor do they keep away poachers. And yet you give all the reasons why this must not be done somehow some rich guy will put enough pressure politically or financially and tilt the law to his side. I am not meaning to comment like this as a final act of giving up, No sir! If we can push things and get another few 100 years for the tigers we would keep doing that.

I was thinking just for the sake of finding some solution to this tourism racket for myself. How to keep off the folks who come purely for fun who have no respect for nature and wildlife? How to filter?

And then it struck me why not take away the luxury factor out of the tourism equation in the NPs, Sanctuaries, RF etc.,? After all if they want to experience luxury let them go to the cities and book those 5 stars for heaven's sake! Why do you need 3-4 varieties of food, cozy bed, television, fan, electricity in the jungles? If you have come to experience jungles do it the jungle way! what is the fun after all if you live here like you live it cities? Give them a bed on the ground, just a single toilet and bathroom, plain rice-dal, no electricity and voila! the resulting tourists are the ones that deeply care about the wildlife enough to for-go the modern day comforts to experience wildlife first hand.

Ya, I know Tourism is a booming business and they are the major stakeholders in Indian economy and that their tentacles have reached our core areas, but I hope with all my heart someday we will be able to bring down these resorts and man will be able to experience wild the right way, the forgotten way!