Art of Justification

To err is human…..and to be able to justify that error is even more human. No matter what we do, right or wrong, in the end we justify it to ourselves.

Today a friend and I were gleefully downloading music of a yet to be released movie from a free site when another friend commented…..pirates!!! I was startled….my pleasure in the music destroyed.

I sat brooding, lost in thought for a few minutes. I am someone who has very strong ideas of right and wrong. But somehow I had never really thought about this in the context of right or wrong. I mean this is India. We buys movie CD’s the day after a movie is released, books which are reprinted, pirated software for our computers and download music from a free website. Everyone does it.

As my mind was churning and floating, it started to come up with a story for justifying the free download. By downloading music as opposed to buying a CD (frankly speaking how many of us would actually buy as much music as we download) we listen to it all, talk about it to other people and help make the music popular. A buzz is created and more people end up going to watch the movie in the theatre when it is released. So ultimately the film profits from this free download.

By the time I came to the end of this particular justification I felt immensely better and started enjoying my free downloaded music again.

Bottom line…….any wrong can be made right by applying the “Art of Justification”!

Confession

Earth hour was on the 27th of March and I am happy to say that I switched off all my lights. But I must confess, the whole day I was vacillating between wanting to follow it and pretending to forget about it.

While this whole debate was going on in my mind I realized how totally selfish it was of me to want to forget about it. I didn’t want to sacrifice those 60 minutes of my life in order to be part of a cause. And it’s not like I would have been doing anything earth shattering in that one hour. I would have been either watching television or listening to music or surfing the net. Nothing that important!

Since I did follow the earth hour call….I am now, actually proud of myself for not having given in to temptation.

PS : I did spend that whole hour on the phone :)

Men And Their Libidos

Saw a news report about a 12 year old girl raped by 9 people for two years. Nothing new……happens all the time with even younger girls but it leaves me totally disgusted every time I hear about it.

What is the story with men/boys and their libidos……..that it goes so totally out of control and they end up behaving like animals. Now I’m not saying all men. But the statistics that we have show that there are plenty around. We read about them every single day……some man, somewhere……..

The question…….what is their problem? Is it mental or physical? Are they totally deprived of any kind of feeling? Is the greed for sex so great that they have to rape someone to feed it?

In our country there are enough women around who would sleep with a man for money. So why do they need to resort to rape? How do they live with themselves after they do?

Pretty sick I must say!

Yikessssssssssssss

Summer is here and it brings along a special gift………the lizard. Yikessssssssssssss.

I just sighted my first lizard of the season and frankly it filled me with horror. There is nothing I hate more in the world than a lizard...........ugly, slimy and the most repulsive creature ever.

Now I wonder if I can apply The Dalai Lama’s theory of compassion to it……I think it would be stretching it a bit too far. Even if it means incurring bad karma for being mean to a living creature…..the minute I see one……I want to kill it (not with my own hands……I can’t bear to look at it).

I don’t know where this dislike stems from………maybe my childhood. I had a lizard fall on me when I was a little girl and I still remember the cold clammy feel of it as it touched my skin. HORRIBLE!

I wish I lived in a country where this particular creature was extinct…..actually why can’t this become like the tiger……..whose numbers are dwindling…….so that we could soon have a lizard free India. God, are you listening?

Joy Of The Forbidden

The Navratras are on…….the time when Hindus who believe in Shakti/Devi go on a fast, pray and turn totally vegetarian. I’m a Hindu but alas, from the day they start, I get this strong craving to eat meat which is blasphemous.

I am not someone who eats a lot of meat. I generally eat home food, which is mostly vegetarian, though with a certain amount of cribbing. So it is strange that I get these cravings throughout the nine days when I am supposed to be vegetarian.

I live in a home where all non-vegetarian food is thrown out the night before the navratras start. My family grows the khetri and puja is done all nine days, two times a day. My Mom fasts for eight days. So you can imagine how it feels to be so out of sync with the family. Do I care…not really. Do I worry that Ma Durga will get upset….no....coz I know she’s not judging me on this.

I mostly end up eating meat at least once during this period, though not at home. And let me tell you.......when you get a strong craving for something which is forbidden and manage to get it......that is the time when you enjoy it the most.

Streetwalkers!

A lot of times if I go over the Defence Colony flyover at night, I see the street lined with women dressed to kill. They are the “Streetwalkers”, hanging around waiting to be picked up by men for some amount of money. A lot of traffic stops around there in the hope of striking a deal……some stop just for fun. There are times when I have to crawl along that stretch since the going gets really slow.

Being a woman, I always feel extremely sad when I see these women. They are just like me, women, human beings. The only difference is that they are probably caught in a circumstance which makes them do it. And a lot of times I wonder what they must go through standing there. They all seem happy and totally o.k. with what they do. But is that for real or just a façade, where they do what they have to do. Do they switch off their minds and just go with the flow. Or do they hate every second of it. Frankly my mind boggles.

I can’t even imagine living a life like that. A new man, or rather several new men every night. It gives me the creeps. And that is when I am so thankful to God for giving me the life that I have. Of having been born in the family that I was born into. It’s just pure luck……or you could call it karma. Whatever it is, for myself I’m extremely grateful but my heart really goes out to these women who, come rain or cold, are always there.

What is love?

What is love? It's a really big question. And a complicated one. But only if you have never experienced it.

So here's my take on it. Short and sweet. Love is when the one you love is more important to you than your own self. We as human beings have a "me first" attitude in life. We love ourselves the most. When that takes a backseat, for me that's love. When you think of that someone before yourself, you know it's the real thing. Until that happens......it is not.