Puzzled pieces...

My mind went wandering back to this whole Big Picture thing... That we are entities within the whole system having our own purpose which is in line with the purpose of this "system". That we are little souls which are parts of that One great soul which is God. That we are that one litre of water in the ocean of Oneness... Lots of similar theories, each having basically the same outlook, content and message.

The aspect to which I got stuck today, was the viewpoint of these little pieces. "Our" viewpoint (as individual humans) is what I am referring to here. If I were to think of us as pieces of this huge jigsaw puzzle, it is true that when we all kind of gather together, we do solve this puzzle. The problem is -- do each of these jigsaw pieces know how this picture (which they have solved) looks like? The "outsider" view, so to say, is missing. No wonder that each puzzle piece is so fuckin' confused. Fat pieces, thin pieces, long pieces, short pieces, some jagged at the edges, some smoothened at their corners, some colorful, some shades of grey, all of them equally unclear about the collage that emerges when the Big Picture tries to assemble itself. Unclear about the result of their activities. A lot of higher-than-normal spiritual beings have often indicated that the purpose of our existence is to complete this picture...

Perhaps a glimpse of that picture would have been helpful...

The Great Indian dream...

...We are a strong nation. Strong in beliefs. So strong that we are always on the edge (and mostly on the other side) of obstinacy. And we are optimistic. Sometimes, hopelessly so. And a lot of this hope stems from our amazing forgetfulness. "The old gives away, making way for the new..." is a perpetual belief we hold. Sometimes that good for us. But sometimes, it can hurt.

Consider the fact that we have latched on to the India Shining dream for quite some time now. Till January 2008 we were actually thriving on dreams. Just like everyone else in the world. Every single analyst out there had touted that this dream run would continue. Pigs were flying, and we were all clapping, making money and making merry. Then reality punctured our inflated pigs, and we stood gaping at the skies. "It's a temporary phase, the market fundamentals are intact", and similar words were now the main content of every analyst speech and report. That we still had P/Es of 35-40 for almost every industry, was still not cause enough to be worried. The "decoupling" theories were falling apart. That we are very much a part of this economic world was now slowly becoming clear. Till the subprime shit hit the fan, and there was stink all over...

But we obviously have too many other things to keep us occupied. Our strange political system, for instance. The Indian Parliament has been converted into a zoo-cum-circus, where all animals are happily feeding upon the growing tax collections. We have jokers (this one is obvious), and "horses" being traded freely, and ring masters, and lions and sheep, and of course, in abundant quantities - wolves. But the market was happy. 800+ points happy. Here is one decoupling which is really obvious -- The market is only concerned with the end, and never with the means to that end.

And we too, perhaps out of our hope of the market turning bullish again, or perhaps out of forgetting the fading images of MPs waving big bundles of thousand rupee notes, will focus again on the rising share prices. I am not saying we should not. Inflation (along with the oil prices) needs to come down. Home loans certainly need to be back within human limits. But just a wish (and nothing more) that in some way we should build within our system a Morality Index (Mordex, if you please...) that does not allow our nation to even briefly forget the nonsense which our leaders are perpetrating. A big soul mirror, which does not allow the means to run a different course from the end that they lead to. A system which will force us to take note of (and remember, till the next voting date) the dangers of a fake democracy. I believe that a benchmark of this nature, would some day, hopefully, guide to us a more realistic, well-rounded, and equitable Indian Dream...

In God's own ears...

To those who are frequent visitors of the Siddhivinayak temple in Mumbai, the two silver mice located within the temple are not an unknown sight. And though this was not my first visit to the temple, yet for some reason I had perhaps not noticed them earlier, or (and this is actually more true) had not noticed the behavior of people towards the two silver statues. They were flocking towards the statues (nothing strange about that), and they were touching the feets of these mice (nothing strange with that either, since it is customary to pay your respects to every God-related idol in a temple). What was strange, however, was the fact that these devotees were bending down towards the ears of these mice and apparently saying something, as if speaking into a microphone. 

And this is when a fellow devotee explained that since the Mouse is the official ride of Lord Ganesha, it is believed that whatever is spoken into the ears of these mice will be communicated to the Good Lord Himself, thereby resulting in a higher probability of that wish being granted. It was also interesting to observe that while speaking into one ear, the devotees were closing the other ear, with the intention that nothing should perhaps "leak" out to the other side.

I stood in the line. Observing. People speaking with all their earnestness (and hope), rattling off their wishes, all their dreams converted to some words. To no one would they have told these wishes (perhaps no one would have listened). But here, these silver idols were listening to all they had to ask. Metal messengers were their messiahs. After all, God is like senior management (or so they believe), you need someone to get your "file" in...

What did I wish for? Of course I am not supposed to tell. My secret lies with one of those mice. All I can disclose is that my statement consisted of less than six words. A six-pack of sorts. It must have been the shortest message the mice would be delivering. Perhaps it has reached Ganesha by now. Maybe it's on it's way. But reach it will. At least that's what belief is all about.

But one thing I again learnt that day. The human desire to have a face to talk to. To speak out what's hidden inside. To have anyone to open up to. Even if you have to close the other ear yourself. Even when you are never sure. Even if you have been asking the same thing over and over again. Even if there are tonnes of wishes, waiting to be fulfilled. Even if one of the mice is a donation by Mr. Bachchan...