Rich and developed...

There is an advantage of being born into an aristocratic family - you can afford to not work and do whatever it is you want to do. But, being born into a not-so-rich family will preclude this option, and if you still choose this option, you will be called a useless hopeless loser.

While everyone realizes this, what they fail to realize is the following, which, in my opinion, is an immediate analogue to the above.

There is an advantage of being born in a developed country - you can afford to think about yourself throughout your life and still be considered a successful citizen, patriotic even. But, being born in a developing country will preclude this option, and if you still choose to not bother about your country, you will not necessarily be called a useless selfish loser, sadly...

Stated differently, being born in a developing country inherently puts you in a situation where the quality of your life, in terms of the way you conduct yourself, the way and the number of people you influence, is required to be exemplary. If I can call a developing country a worse place to be than a developed country, it is like the expectation is more from you if you are in the worse place. But then again, every place went through this period where a few generations had to stand up against their challenges and slog to push the country into the 'developed' bed so that the following generations could afford to doze comfortably.

So, I guess the point I am trying to make is that being born in a developing country, we cannot afford to put ourselves before the country, we cannot afford to be near-sighted, to not think about what we can do for the country, to just sit in our living rooms and rant about the government's flawed policies, to see the consequences of the divisive politics in play today and not do anything about it, to see the petrol prices rising and not try to brainstorm for workarounds, to see our cities being bombed and remain silent when we see the government do nothing about it, to see our institutes which were once the best schools to learn being ruined and keep quiet. We cannot afford the status quo... This is our time, we are the generation required to work hard to push our country ahead in the right direction, we are the ones required to take up this daunting task, we are the ones required to make the sacrifice, the ones required to revert to our principles, the ones who have the opportunity to do things that will make our future generations thank us, the ones who have the chance to change the way things work, the ones to push India into the 'developed' bed. We are the 'chosen ones'...

Why So Serious?

I believe "The Dark Knight" deserves the top spot it has earned on IMDb. This post is more a testimony to the characters Batman and Joker themselves than to Chris Nolan and Heath Ledger.

Though I don't like superheroes, Batman has grown to be my favourite. The reason is his strength - his anonymity. It is the purest form of service - to fight for justice and to expect nothing in return, not even recognition. To be able to satisfy oneself with the only fact that justice is being reinforced. To be called a wealthy industrialist with no big concern for the city when actually risking one's life for the betterment of the city. He is an embodiment of service in its purest form.

And that is exactly where the Joker scores. The kind of lunatic who could do outrageous acts for no reason, commit crime not for money or power, but for the establishment of anarchy, for reigning chaos. To fight against justice and expect nothing in return. To be able to satisfy oneself with the only fact that lawlessness is the only law. To be called a lunatic, a freak, when actually risking everything for what one believed in, and rightly so, for the Joker's doctrines are those of a lunatic, a freak. He is the true 'Professor Chaos'.

As the Joker himself says, the conflict is like when an irresistible force meets an immovable object. The concept kind of reminds me of the movie 'Seven' which also has a similar theme. But, unlike there, the Batman makes the Joker lose by losing himself, by sacrificing his options to prove his vigilante image wrong - another point that reinforces the Joker's claim that the Batman 'completes' him. The underlying theme is heavily inter weaved with ironies and seemingly paradoxical situations. The whole Batman-Joker battle has been elevated to an ideological stratagem, and that is what makes the movie brilliant. And Chris Nolan has proved his genius thus. But, it would be unfair not to mention Ledger's owning of the role of the Joker. The body language, the dialogue delivery are exemplary, perfect even. A must watch. Probably more than once!

Long time no see...

Usually, the reason I am out of the blogosphere is because I don't have much to talk about. But, this time, it has been because I have too many things to talk about. In fact, I cannot list the things I would like to talk about - starting from the education system in India, to the traditional Indian mindset, from the Nuclear deal to Dhoni sitting out of a Test series, from coalition politics to marriage and life. But, I have refrained from writing here as I have felt the need to organize my thoughts before I scribble them here - I am thinking I should have a personal blog where I could scrap my thoughts often, organize them and put them here. But, I guess that will be too much work, and knowing me, I would rather wait till I am more organized in my mind...