Tag Democracy
You Must Know Physics to Watch Oppenheimer
I finally managed to watch Oppenheimer on the IMAX screen. It was a delight, indeed. Like many of you, I had heard that one must know physics to make sense of Oppenheimer. But then, I thought, this film is neither called The Atomic Bomb or The Manhattan Project or even The Los Alamos Lab—it’s called Oppenheimer, which means, this must be about the man, not his creation or the project.
Your Privacy Does Not Matter
I have been away for a long time now. As with my growth journey, I have been experimenting with ways to work with my screen addiction. This took some effort. Using the screen less also meant that I limited my online communication. One of the motivating factors was how this would positively affect my privacy. But before we move forward, here is a look at my screen. See how even the cursor does not blink with fancy, phase animation?
How Should Politics Work
Often, we find ourselves criticising one or the other government institution or organisation. In a country with such a population as ours, we have millions complaining every day. But after complaining and screaming and getting frustrated about the futility of talking about it all, we place the issue on the backburner for a couple of days, and unless we receive fresh stimulus, the issue fades away in the coming weeks.
The Problem With Government Jobs
Happy 2022! May this year keep us all in a much better shape than the last two; in better health—physical, emotional and financial—better relationships, better work–life balance, better everything. (Holding your breath for the Budget, anybody?) Of course, not all is rosy in the country at the moment. We are looking at elections in three states, with politicians going around being all nice, making promises, and trying hard to apply chalk to the blemishes on their images, and of course, defecting.
Are We an Independent State
Political fads come and go. More so when the elections are around. National level fads peak at the time of the Lok Sabha elections. Having said that, they are not confined to those times. Before we begin, let me state that this is not a political post, even though it starts with the word “political”. This post is about a political phenomenon. Also, this post does not state the obvious for most people, because history from a couple of centuries ago has taken a back seat in our heads (as is evident by some of the responses that I saw on social media).
Religious Law as the New Way of Life
The past weeks have been eventful in the international space. The state of Afghanistan—our neighbour (we share a small bit of our international border with Afghanistan at the north end of Kashmir)—worries us Indians. The Taliban does sound like a formidable force, and we constantly wait for our government to put out statements that say, ‘We are doing fine.’ And then we hope that the government is being truthful. Taliban members in an area controlled by the group last year in Laghman, Afghanistan.
Farmer Protests
I have been following the farmer protest for weeks now, but did not pen down anything because I am not one to form opinions on such complex issues without first understanding the different facets of them—I am not that loudest Bollywood actor after all. I have a day job, and my weekends are busy with chores, virtual socialising (which includes reading WhatsApp messages), hobby coding, and experiments in the kitchen. I take my time to understand issues and form lasting opinions about them.
Arnab Goswami
A couple of days ago, my aunts and uncles had come over. They are all hardcore supporters of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP); they feel that the party is “the true saviour of Hinduism”, a religion that the “secular” parties of our country have disregarded—or worse, degraded. Whether Hinduism as a religion needs anybody’s protection or not is your personal opinion and mine as much as theirs. These discussions suffer the one-thing-led-to-another syndrome, and in general, these discussions have a pattern.
Transparency on ventilator
I am wary of all politicians, no matter what party they belong to, what ideology they promote, or any other quality of a political party you can think of. Even if my dear grandmother were a politician, I would be wary of her; more so if she held power. Let us keep politics aside, because politics is politics—a game of whataboutery and other fallacies. Let us talk human life for once.
Democracies fail
I am not in a Utopian world. If you are reading this post, you live in my world as well. Let us talk, citizen to citizen, you and I. And by that I do not mean Indian citizen to Indian citizen. You and I are in a world where democracies are failing. And we have no one other than ourselves to blame for it. I am an Indian, and I boast about belonging to the largest democracy in the world.