Cartoons Against Corruption

A lot has been said about Aseem Trivedi.

I have checked most of Aseem Trivedi's work on his blog. If one has some basic understanding of political cartoons or cartoon strips or comics in general; at first glance, one can understand that the his work is amateurish and merely stating what we all know. A good political cartoon evokes thought.  It shouldn't necessarily state things 'the way they are' - for that we have prose left to lesser mortals like us .

(Branching out to make another point, even R. K. Laxman's 'Common Man' is observational or 'merely stating what we all know'. However his cartoons have a sixty year legacy hence nobody ever talks about it openly, albeit it is done very tastefully)

Trivedi's cartoons seems like a work of an angry school kid who is venting out his anger/frustration against his repressive school system.  

Whatever little bit I have read about him in papers and journals, cartoonists, artists and writers unanimously have said - Aseem Trivedi is high on anger and low on talent. (unfortunately I do not have any link to support this but you would have to believe me)

Have you noticed that his cartoons are just expressing what we all speak in crude Hindi? 

In a newspaper, a cartoonist who didn't wish to be named said, Aseem Trivedi shouldn't have been jailed for sedition charges, he should have been jailed for bad art. 

Another confession. At least he did something which got the people talking and the world interested about the corruption in India. For that he needs to be saluted.

If I may offer an analogy to express Aseem's standing.

Aseem Trivedi : (Political) Cartoons :: :: Poonam Pandey : Twitter

Independence Day?

On the eve of our Independence Day, I was pondering. It could either be the state of my mind, or the state of my State, that I penned these words...

*****

With a dream of Independence,
You laid your lives; my forefathers.

Scoundrels! You thought of the British,
You thought, they stole your Freedom?

How wrong you were my forefathers,
Lo! Worse than scoundrels your countrymen have become.

I'm glad you're dead, my forefathers,
For you would've died everyday a li'l.

On the eve of That day, you wished Utopia,
On This eve, we give you Dystopia.

*****

Happy Independence Day?

Are You Really Awake Or ... ?

You get up in the morning and you don’t know the reason why you got up.

You know what you need to do. You need to go to work, punch in the hours to keep the meter running. You finish work and you return home and stare the idiot box trying to find your life in that pretense. Or you might socialize with friends or family. Or if you consider yourself distantly enlightened you might spend some time with yourself. Or if you have are remotely connected to your true human side you might indulge in a hobby.

These are the WHATs of your lives which are lived in the WHENs and WHEREs and HOWs. Your lives are defined by the WHATs, WHENs, WHEREs and HOWs of this world.

Where were you born? What do your parents do? What education you have? What kind of a job you have? How did you do get into a relationship with that person? How could they do something like this? Etc. etc. etc. etc...These questions will only be answering the frivolous.

The real question you need to ask yourself to get a true answer is WHY.

It will answer the simplest to the toughest questions you have.

For example you want to buy the latest cellphone. Most of you will say it’s the best phone as it has the best OS or it’s an Apple/Nokia/etc. product or  it’s the ‘in thing right now’ or I have the money so I want to buy it. These answer s satisfy the WHATs and HOWs. If you want a true answer ask why you need the latest cellphone? Try it!

The humble yet insightful WHY is capable to answer a life altering question of something as important as the future of your relationship. If you’re with someone for   their looks, sex, money, fame, societal status, etc., you are fooling yourself and the other person. Ask yourself the question, WHY do you need to be with the other person? Ask this sacrosanct question in solitude and listen to the true answer. Try it!

If you take a moment and recap the questions that Life has posed at you, by now, in all likelihood, you would have realized that most of your dilemmas can be answered with the WHY.

The WHY will truthfully answer all your questions but you need courage to ACCEPT them and ACT upon it.

It’s not at all easy to act upon the answers. 

Deep inside you all know that the WHY will answer all the questions that your life has ever thrown at you. Perhaps you also know that the path you need to take. Then why won’t you tread ahead?

You do not act upon the answer because you are afraid to fail. You fail to act upon the answer because you are afraid that you won’t know what would happen if you succeed!

Humans need courage not only to rise up from failures, but also to embrace success.

The day you gather this COURAGE to act upon the answers to all your WHYs, will be the day that you will WAKE UP and not merely get up.

Focus.

It has been almost 3 months since my last blog post. A lot has happened in these past 3 months. About all that. later.

Sharing a passing thought in a different way. Hope you like it. :)