What have I been upto? Well I've been spending most of my time at the office. I was on second shift (that's 1.30pm to 9.30pm) the last two months, and it didn't leave me much time for myself. Don't tell me I had all of the mornings free ok? Its hard to get out of bed while the early bird's still catching its daily dose of the early worm when you find it impossible to sleep until 2 or 3am. I think I need to get a regular set of proper sleep patterns, mine are completely haywire. Anyway, this post isn't about my insomnia, I'll leave that topic to be grist for another post.
I'm sure you, dear reader, are wondering what momentous thing has happened in this sad sod's life that it actually made him put aside his laziness for a moment and actually post! Well, here it is. I'm flying to Kuwait today!
Its been around two years since I last went, and before college, I used to get to go once every year. Kuwait is where I've spent all my summer vacations when I was in school.
You're probably thinking I must be some rich spoilt jet setting kid..what? you aren't? Do I hear you say 'he probably is spoilt, but no way he's the jetsetting type!'? Well, you probably are right. The reason Kuwait is like a second home to me is because my dad works there. While I don't have too many nice things to say about the people there, I still think its a beautiful country.
I'm rambling, so I'll cut to the chase. I'm at the Chennai International Airport right now, waiting for the Security Check to begin, and I was struck by the following thought.
" I've actually seen better looking public toilets than this stupid piece of architecture they call an airport!!"
Yes, ladies and germs, its official. The Chennai International Terminal is the worst piece of architecture I've seen in a long, long time. There's this Stalin-esque feel to this place. Bare walls, dirty floors, harsh lighting, and enough nooks, crannies and "Do Not Enter" sections to hide a whole herd of KGB. And Chennai, they say, is a metro.
And there's this one other rather profound thought that struck me after I ruminated over how horrible the airport is. And that thought was about how little respect we Indians have as a culture, for the rights of an individual. Amazing, think about it. Individual Right to Free Expression? You think we have that? Think again, and remember M F Hussein, and the ill fated movie Water, and so much more. So Right to Free Expression comes with a rider, 'As long as you don't offend the majority'. But by the same argument, I could say the government is elected by the majority, so I cannot say anything against the government. You think that's acceptable? Then you're one of the reasons I think we're doing it wrong. Where do we draw the line?
And that was just about Free Expression. Then there's the right to see, hear, read what I want. Which basically means 'No Censorship'. Do we pass that test? Heck no! We fail brilliantly! We have a government that once tried to block Blogspot!
There are so many more issues I have with the way we, as a culture, operate. The way bribery is winked at, the way stupid government officials can casually walk out of their office, go have a coffee and pass time, while there are a hundred people waiting outside his office in the sweltering sun to meet him, the way we hate to see anyone rise up, the way we'd try to pull him/her down rather than raise ourselves up, the rampant hypocrisy, how easily our society fractures along sectarian lines, the socialist mentality, so so much more. Its depressing, so I think I should just stop.
Thinking.
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Sent from Amit's Motorola A1200, one helluva phone!
