Today people seem to have deserted the Bangalore roads and happily drove away to their natives. I love the empty roads. There is a sense of freedom which is simply awesome not to forget the lesser pollution and the decreased decibel levels. You can drive as fast or as slow as you wish. You don’t waste time in the traffic 
No blaring horns. I wish the roads were like this everyday. sigh… The only problem is when you have a flat tyre and you don’t have a spare one 
The-Road
For a long time now, I have been meaning to write a post on “Where are we heading to?”. But whenever I think of this topic I have so many thoughts I was never able to articulate my thoughts well enough to write a decent post. Today morning when I read Pritish Nandy’s column “Too much tosh on sale“, for most lines I found myself saying “My thoughts exactly”. Esp. when he says “Are we losing out something somewhere or is this a new culture we want to build where the past does not exist and the future can go to hell?” and “We have reduced all enterprise to the making of profit and bred a nation of carpetbaggers”
Where are we heading to?
We live in a very er… well interesting times. All the modern creations of man, the Internet, the space ships, the ubiquity of technology was dreamt of at one point or the other much before they actually came into existence. Though most of them seemed like fantasy then they are very much here in reality now. But as a side effect of these developments we have a social structure that none of us dreamt of. The irony is captured rightly in these words:
The paradox of our time in history is that
we have taller buildings, but shorter tempers;
wider freeways, but narrower viewpoints;
we spend more, but have less;
we buy more but enjoy it less.
We have bigger houses and smaller families;
more conveniences, but less time;
we have more degrees, but less sense;
more knowledge, but less judgement;
more experts, but more problems;
more medicine, but less wellness.
We drink too much, spend too recklessly, laugh too little, drive too fast, get too angry too quickly,
stay up too late, get up too tired, read too little, watch TV too much, and pray too seldom.
We talk too much, love too seldom, and hate too often.
We’ve learned how to make a living, but not a life; We’ve added years to life, not life to years.
We’ve been all the way to the moon and back, but have trouble crossing the street to meet the new neighbor.
We’ve conquered outer space, but not inner space; We’ve done larger things, but not better things.
We’ve cleaned up the air, but polluted the soul; we’ve split the atom, but not our prejudice.
We write more, but learn less; we plan more, but accomplish less.
We’ve learned to rush, but not to wait; we have higher incomes, but, lower morals.
We build more computers to hold more information to produce more copies than ever, but have less communication;
We’ve become long on quantity, but short on quality.
These are the days of two incomes, but more divorce; of fancier houses, but broken homes.
These are the days of quick trips, disposable diapers, throw away morality, one night stands, overweight bodies,
and pills that do everything from cheer, to quiet, to kill. Where are we heading ….?
what has led to these trends(At least from my perspective) -
What do we do to remediate these? Good Question….
Forget about going anywhere do we at least know where we are? Guess it’s time for a reality check.
Seeing India from an Australian’s eyes. ”Being truly, properly Indian is in your DNA” says expat Catherine Taylor and who would deny that. She describes her love-hate relationship with India here. Nice article. Do read.
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/features/mad-for-mumbai/story-e6frg8h6-1225934717682
Image via Wikipedia
Anjaani Anjaani is a story about two strangers Kiara and Akash who meet at a bridge while both are attempting suicide. But fail at the attempt only to meet later. They decide to do it together and make a pact to do it on 31st Dec. And in the meanwhile they could do all the “Things to do before you die” from their wish-list and like you would have guessed they later fall in love, decide to give life a chance and get married and stay happily ever after. Oops! have I given out the ending. Doesn’t matter you would have known it anyway. That exactly is the problem with the movie. i.e The Script. Great locations, great costumes, great cast but no soul… And the fact that music is unforgettable goes without saying. We were waiting for the movie to get over.
What’s up with Bollywood movies these days. With their kind of budget and cast they can work wonders. Esp. these days since the audience are so much more open to experimentation. Looks like my wait for a good Bollywood movie is not getting over soon. So here I am taking an oath on my blog to not watch any more Bollywood movies in Multiplex that too on weekends. Hard way to learn “paise ped pe nahi ugte” 
I thought my lappy would come to my rescue and digged into my collection of movies and there was this movie “Marley and Me”. Wasn’t very keen on watching it coz it was about a dog. I am not too fond of them (And that does not mean I hate them ). In fact I don’t understand why people hate it when you call their dog a dog when in fact it is a “DOG”!!! Thought I’d watch it anyway and delete. At least that would create some space on my disk. Little did I know the movie could make me cry…
It looks so natural you feel it is actually happening right there in front of your eyes. Watching it is takes you to a different world, the one in the movie. Owen Wilson(John Grogen) and Jennifer Aniston(Jennifer Grogen) are amazing. In an attempt to keep Jennifer occupied and to delay her plans for babies, John plans to bring home a puppy. They pick this “clearance puppy”(Marley) and there starts the story. And what an amazing story….My saving grace for the day was “Marley & Me”. Watch it to know more
