Sunday 26 October 2014

'PSEUDO' ASSUMPTIONS



When you start studying for Indian Civil service Exam you come to know much more about India, delving deeper into the History, Geography, Economy and Polity of India – you will find many topics to be greater than you have perceived them in your middle school days. India is much about its freedom from the colonization of British. Each of the pages of every Modern History book details classy account of the ravishing struggle of those pseudo (apparent) Independent Indians – who saw the independent India with their closed eyes and struggled till they had their last breathe to make those dream come true. They were Pseudo (apparent) Independent Indians.
But the general Life science says, any organism in the animal kingdom seeks free living, and it is perhaps the nature which has made its inhabitants like that. So, it is natural to seek independence. Various observations will further unravel this instinct, like that of the wild horse, who needs to be tamed before putting a saddle on its back; how a captive pigeon in the cage looks into the sky, often flatter its heavy wings and desire to fly free! And when an elephant falls in the trap laid by a poacher, and struggle to free itself from the captivity. Why do crime verdicts run away from jail? Why do you want to be Independent?

It is your instinctive RIGHT TO FREEDOM.

The dictionary meaning of 'Pseudo' says, ‘not actually but having the appearance of; pretended; false or spurious; sham; almost, approaching, or trying to be.’

A Pseudo is apparent, and the REALITY is something different. This is what Rahul’s father was trying to make him understand since he got into the IT industry. Rahul was earning ₹3.5 Lakhs with accommodation, the office vehicle provided pick up and drop facility. But was it a pseudo sense of independence? The fear of recession, the fear of losing job, or the fear of losing control over your child is harassing you Uncle? Rahul’s father would never have answered if I would have gone and asked this question, and instead I would have been scorned at, and have been given a fast dinner to convey ‘you are no more wanted, so go home’ or would have had to hear from Rahul, “Papa is not feeling well…” and I would have to hurry back home.

Of course no one will feel good if you hurt their EGO, it is a person's sense of self-esteem or self-importance. Psychoanalysts say Ego is the part of the mind that mediates between the conscious and the unconscious and is responsible for reality testing and a sense of personal identity. But does this parental ego is hurt if a child gets a well of salary? The long awaited Economic independence of a Child is much a treasured moment for parents, then why do the ego of the parents get hurt? Why do the Mushrooming B.Tech colleges end up giving unfathomable happiness through campus drives? Why several employed graduates find it difficult to be at home? Why there are meaningless squabbles and dissatisfaction mounting within conscious parents of the family?

Someone said it is the 'Pseudo Sense of Independence'.

Pseudo-Independence or False Pride is the exact term given by Wendy Freebourne in her book ‘The Joy of Growing Up: Growing Up for Grownups Who Haven't Grown Up Yet’. This term goes specially well with children in their adolescence, who go rebellious to their parents and try to figure out a reactionary over-assertion of independence through make believe pride of independence. But this specific term serves extreme for people in the age group of 24 to 25. They are not kids anymore, and they do deserve a minimum respect of being a part of the family. Even a dog seeks attention, seeks love, and care then they wag their tail. It is invariably another name of love and care which brings respect and esteem within us. In this case what goes well is Newton’s third law of Motion, for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. When opposing forces come into contact, the result is motion in a different direction.

Parents: who think their children to have developed the “Pseudo Sense of Independence” must ask to their own selves if they ever had had to put extreme force for some reason to their children which has created the tides to go low. Seeking peer support is not an offence, but seeking peer support in place of parental care is much harmful than letting the puppy loose in the highway. Economic dependency may not be assumed as mental dependence, and dependency should not be presumed as control.  ‘Dependency can be useful because it binds people together in relationships, which promotes stability, if not growth, and gives you, through its familiarity some kind of predictability…However, do not mistake familiarity for intimacy, which is often lacking in dependent relationships’. So before you stuff another fabricated vocabulary on your own child try to introspect. Read through the lines of each of your faults and then try to fabricate a much reasonable alibi for being the neglected ones or the disrespected ones of the universe.

Blossomed Youth: Independence gives you freedom. It also gives you an identity. But there is no true independence, because we being a part of a social world, we are incoherently dependent on one another. Our parents are the inseparable part of our world. While taming your ignorance and wildness of inexperience occasional debates, anger, or thrashing was much significant action to support the known proverb ‘spare the rod, and spoil the child’. They have considerably wanted Good for you. The incoherent dependency is much a positive approach to build a healthier world because it ‘indulges your natural inclinations towards comfort, safety and feel of security’. If you are earning a monthly twenty five grands share a part with the angry old man in your home, or gift the waspish lady a Vim washing bar with a Scrotchbite the next day she complains that you do not bother for the house at all. End of the day they are parents.

If the children are consumed in the ‘pseudo sense of independence’ in their mid-twenties with a job in hand, then I must agree the parents are drowning in the deluge of ‘pseudo insecurity of old-age homes’.


LIVE, LAUGH, LOVE, and Let others LIVE…
This is a community of LIFE, not the grave of PSEUDO-DEADS. 

Thursday 23 October 2014

GROWING UP



I have held my dad's finger to grow up,
I have talked in sound trait,
I have Messed Up his Ironed Shirt,
I have soiled his dry clothes wet.

I felt his warmth during the winter,
I felt his cold in his absence,
I felt his slaps in my mistakes,
I felt his happy tears in my success.

Today, I am Equally Tall,
Today, I am Grown UP Man, 
Today, I am Tuff & STRONG,
Today, I am swift, I RAN...

My dad has grown OLD now,
He Grows Worried sometime,
He Scolds me, but cannot slap my cheeks,
He silently cries, every night time ...

Did I ever Heard his SOBS?
Did I ever Felt His Heart?
Did I ever know how lonely he felt?
Did I ever ask how he was, when I was APART? 

***



sketch & poem ©Sulagna Dutta, 2014


DIWALI: A Time to Bring the Fire Alive



Diwali is the most widely celebrated festival of India. People celebrate Diwali as a festival for celebration and togetherness – they light candles, fire crackers, explode fireworks and light the whole house, locality, alleys, roads, streets as if there was no word called darkness ever known to the dictionary. Parents buy crackers for children, relatives and friends congregate, dress up in news clothes. Ladies prepare Indian delicacies like Jalebi, gulab jamun; they eat together and make fun, and live a life harmoniously. Life is that which makes you feel great… Diwali is the festivity to spark the fire in life, feel life, its warmth and goodness.


The picture today is little different from the make believe scenario of the concept of diwali. Sonia finds 72 people online among 422 facebook friends. There was a flood of updates and wishes for the festival, and innumerable photos of rangoli, lamps, tuni bulbs lined together decorating the balconies, pataka apps were getting forwarded from friends.  She has received about 70 messages in Watsapp wishing prosperity to her and her family. In reality she was alone in her 2 BHK flat, stuffed her head in her study table fighting with the former indulgence, memories, and occasionally surfing the channels in TV. She realized increased sensitivity towards past brings unmanageable excitement and realistic present creates unnatural sadness, which gets diffused among people with whomever you interact. This wasn’t the solo situation of Sonia alone, but also several like her.

The glowing tuni lights in her balcony has immensely lighted the ambiance to create awe in the midst of the growing evening and she was the loner who was trying to figure out some known rhetoric, a phone call came midway and changed the air.

-        -  “Hello, how are you dear?” said a husky male voice from the other end of the line.
-         -“Who is this?” Sonia tried to recollect the number. It was an ISD number.
-         -“I was remembering our childhood Diwali, so felt like calling you…”

On brief inquiry she came to know he was her elder cousin brother. To her amazement she got mixed feeling. She was happy to hear from him, but was aggrieved to know that he took 7 years to remember that once they have celebrated moments of precious innocent childhood. But she understands battling for ways of life demands time and unreasonable trust from loved ones, and her brother was here to acknowledge the fact.

A huge section of youth is sad. What is making them sad is unanswered. Unanswered questions keep cropping up in brain usually whenever we are idle. Pondering solitude is a harmful factor though we seem to be surrounded with gadgets, and the same questions keep pulsating within. Though there are apps, there is social media for finding friends. We can talk to stranger, make friends, new friends, newer friends, and reason strongly that we all are people of the same cosmos. But our own family is going apart from us. On Diwali, we watsapp our best friend stating strong reasons for our lazy alibis. With single increase in alibi, we grow dark from within…and live like a villain amidst the pompous luxuries of abundance. Later on in life we will be blaming someone else for not giving us time, or opportunity.

But this Diwali must bring light. This light must enlighten us in the road of prosperity, a real prosperity.


So, this Diwali do not ponder on who has not called you for 4 years, who has not turned up after your hearty invitation, and who is not there with you. If you are there then light yourself, enlighten yourself. What is not there that won’t come if you keep reiterating your thoughts on the same subject, and on the same time you are forgetting the things which are available around you. Quoting A.P.J Abdul Kalam,  “Whenever human beings find themselves alone, as a natural reaction, they start looking for company. Whenever they reach an impasse, they look to someone to show them the way out. Every recurrent anguish, longing and desire finds its own special helper”. So who are sad, find your helper, or help yourself. Light candles, fire crackers, and boom away all that is bad and sad…


Light, Light, Light….

“we all are born with divine fire in us; our efforts should be to give wings to this fire and fill the world with the glow of its goodness”.


Happy Diwali.

©Sulagna Dutta, 2014