Some of my friends, whenever they happen to find me listening to English music, would react as if I am doing something insane. They would say, “ye kya angrezi gaane sunta rehta hai. Kuch samajh mein toh aata nahin hai.” And there are others who would react the same way when they find me listening to Hindi songs or in their terms old Hindi songs. What I do not understand is this simple fact, what has the quality of music got to do with language and time. If it is good then it is good, whether it is English, Hindi, pop, rock, classical or hip-hop. How does that matter?

Everyone, it seems, have circumscribed themselves with some ideas which they consider fixed and rigid. They just do not want to experiment or be adventurous. What’s wrong in trying new things? Those who only listen to, say English music, are only depriving themselves of melodious voices of Mohd. Rafi, Kishore Kumar or more recent KK, Sonu Nigam, etc. They do not even realize what they are missing out, which life has to offer them, because of their pre-formed rigid minds.

Same is the case about movies, they would say, don’t watch English movies or don’t watch this movie or that movie or of that language or of that actor or some more restrictions. But I do not understand this, how does it matter if it is of any language or actor. A good movie is a good movie, as simple as that. Humans are humans only and everyone is capable of making good movies regardless of the language they speak.

It is not only about movies or music, what it really is about, is the prejudices and mental blocks that people form in their minds during the course of their life. Their egos, biases, and selfish interests would not let them try new things. They just do not want to.

Take this for example. One of my friends’ IE stopped working due to some unknown reasons and as a solution I suggested Firefox to him. But, he wouldn’t like it and cited many trivial reasons for that, such as it does not give me that feel, font is smaller, etc. Yes I accept that there are going to be some differences and fair enough if you do not like something as per your interest (which again is a debatable topic), but you should judge yourself properly because you may throw away a wonderful opportunity of finding and learning new things.

I consider myself a very shy person, but still there have been many instances when I have seen myself much more open and communicative with new people than those of my other friends who are otherwise usually very chatty. May be not so open, I am, when it is a matter of girls, but that is not the point, the point is that people do not want to try new things, new ideas, or listen to others.

And, yes one more thing I have seen. People just do not have the patience to listen to others thoughts. They just want to say and say while not allowing others to speak and thus unknowingly depriving themselves of the knowledge they might have gained.

I just consider myself lucky and give many thanks to the almighty for setting me on a path of being open-minded and liberal, for making me read different types of literature irrespective of religion, nationality, for making me listen to different types of music and for making me watch and admire different types of movies.

And, thank you for giving me the patience to listen to others so I may learn from them as well.

Thank you for giving me the patience to listen even to the adversaries and people having different opinions.

Thank you!

And, I pray to Him that May I one day really become liberal and open-minded.

P.S: Listen to everyone but you always have the option of choosing what you want to take. Do not deprive yourself.

A Sunday...

(This post was originally published on Sunday, 4th March, 2012 when I was at site.)

I

Sunday was supposed to be spent sleeping and doing nothing but I ended up working and if not exhausted, was certainly tired out at the end of the day. Nevertheless, I think it was a day well spent rather than doing something futile.

In the office, cautiously opened my mailbox with a fear that there might be a response to the mail that I had sent a day before. And lo! There was one. “Can we develop a sketch incorporating all the above?”, the reply mail said. And that’s how I was set to work. There are days when I do not feel like doing anything and then there are when I feel addicted to work, fortunately it turned out to be latter of those. So, to my relief, I enjoyed working.

Once upon a time or should I say that once of those many times, someone asked me my caste. And, as is my usual policy, I told that person also, "I do not know, but what do you think?". Now to say something like that can only be considered a blatant lie. And so he said that it is not possible and turned his face away with a countenance that suggested, “He is not telling me because he must be from a lower caste”. Was he right or should his right or wrong even matter? Because the point of discussion cannot be what caste but it is much more than that. It raises some fundamental questions, which needs to be considered before we decide if an answer is even applicable, such as what is caste, why and how it was conceived, what were the benefits because of which this system was preferred over others and is the present practice adheres to those rules, if it does then has those benefits being realized and if not then what has led to this degradation (may be some other day).

II

I do not know why people fail to understand a simple fact that everyone is just a human being composed of same flesh and bones, having same sort of desires and wants, and if these customs of caste, religion, nationalities are not artificial and prone to error as well as subjected to rectification, then what are they? Caste system, in its purest form had it existed of that of division of labor, I believe, and not division of laborers, would have certainly been fruitful but it has now become a dreadful system which serves no purpose but flagrantly promotes hate and even being an intelligent set of species, it is beyond the ambit of my understanding, why can’t we get rid of it. Where all the rationality, intelligence of men does fade away like wisps of smoke when they discriminate with their own kind on the basis of religion, caste, color, creed, etc instead of treating everyone equally.