"Ende Ayyapo!" (OMG!)

Sabarimala is on national news today. The age-old tradition of denying women below the age of fifty entry into the famous Ayappa temple atop Sabarimala has been broken. Two women have bravely gone where no woman(of their age group) has gone before. Protests have erupted across the state of Kerala, but they seem to be largely politically motivated. So then, which side does the average person take in this seemingly dicey debate? For starters, you might think - ‘Why did these women choose to target this long held religious custom? Why not address gender issues in other social and work related settings?’. Let me try and shed some light.

Imagine a little boy and his father going on a pilgrimage to Sabarimala. The boy notices that in all the masses of people around them, there aren’t any girls or women(except some old grandmas). So, he asks his father in all innocence, “Dad, why aren’t there any women here?”. Now, imagine you are that little boy’s father and you need to answer that question; what would your explanation be? 

Let me guess; any father would probably say, “It’s tradition. Only women above the age of fifty come to Sabarimala”. Surely though, curiosity isn’t a courteous guest. The boy would predictably go on to ask why that is. What would you say then? Would you come up with a lie to shut him up? Or would you just opt to break it to him that our tradition believes women are ‘impure’? There is no chance that you would explain the whole biology of menstruation to the young boy; but that’s besides the point here. Any which way, the boy will eventually learn the truth. He is going to grow up with the idea that women are intrinsically ‘sub-man’. That there is something mysteriously wrong with them that makes them less worthy. This notion along with all the patriarchy and discrimination on blatant display in his day-to-day life, would subconsciously cement a borderline misogynistic mentality. You don’t have to take my word for it; just look at the footage of all those crybabies throwing a real tantrum out on Kerala’s streets!

This is why the Sabarimala issue is important. This is why activists tried to break the long-held tradition (and eventually succeeded). Though so many Ayappa-bhakts would openly support feminism and gender equality in their social spheres, at the heart of their most personal beliefs lies the hypocrisy of the ‘impure gender’. It only truly hurts when it happens to you - I mean the rude awakening. While we point fingers at Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, condemning how they treat their women, we forget that we treat ours badly in several ways too. We turn a blind-eye even when women are discriminated against right in front of us. All we need is some twisted and senseless logic to pass off as a reason for doing so. 

To me this Sabarimala issue is a wakeup call. It showed me how it feels when our hypocrisies blow up right in our faces. It is time to be more aware of the injustices being casually dished out on the basis of unfounded justifications. Breaking the silence might make the person doing it seem uncivil and confrontational, but what else will actually change things? Should we just go with the usual - waiting for western cultural hegemony to take its sweet time and slowly ‘advance’ our social norms, habits and choices on its terms?   

Millen'aliens'

Over the ages, it has been common tradition for the older generation to dismiss the younger as ‘spoilt’, ‘irresponsible’ and ‘lost’. Even among the youth, some choose to assume the moral high ground and ridicule the less traditional for being ‘ungrateful’ and acting ‘entitled’. All of this is well and good within certain limits, and even contributes to healthy changes in their own way. However, our world has transformed in terms of technology and social connectedness, which, though has had largely positive effects on society, also amplifies not-so-well-thought-through theories, propagandas with ulterior motives and just plain stupidity #StopMakingStupidPeopleFamous. Divisions between groups in society based on religion, caste, cultures, etc., has always been the bane of India and we all thought technology and progress would break down barriers - and this has largely been true with modern work environments bringing people from myriad backgrounds together and treating them equal, etc., but a new divisive narrative is rearing its ugly head and it only seems to be getting stronger. The one that aims to alienate 'millennials'.

The word ‘millennials’ was coined by a couple of authors to jazz up their book titles, but it was the media and ad industry who took it and ran with it. They used it to categorise the younger demographic who would graduate after the year 2000 and they attributed characteristics to the group that they thought uniquely identifies it. As we all know, the ad world adds extra masala to everything, and this has resulted in an extreme and skewed representation of the average ‘millennial’. The beauty of the age of social media is the blatant appreciation of the exaggerated and, unsurprisingly, social media took this unrealistic image of the millennial and ran with that. Mind you, social media may be young and created by the young, but not all who benefit are young! There are a gamut of executives and experienced professionals behind the scenes of social media and just like any other media, most people are on there for monetary gain. I think you can begin to see the irony here. A platform targeted at the young, built with content generated by the young themselves, but not really ‘of the young’ - meaning, the lion's share of the profits generated (through ads) are pocketed by heavy-weight investors and big-wigs who are far from young. When it comes down to the numbers, only a small part of the entire profit churned out of social media goes to the ‘millennials’. Sure, young social media celebrities get paid a lot, but where do you think the money comes from? Carrots to keep the donkeys going! The next level of business-thinking has embraced and brilliantly adapted to technology faster than we can even wrap our head around it. 

Far from a self-spoilt generation that was born hating reality, millennials seem to be the scapegoats to new heights of exploitation. The world before them is littered with unending sources of distraction and new, exciting ways of making some dough on the side, or even making a (questionable) 'career' out of. They are, arguably, being lured by this ad-money driven colossus and herded into a state of crippling addiction, anxiety and discontentment. Meetings inside shiny, glass-wrapped headquarters of ad-giants (Google+Youtube, Facebook+Instagram, etc.) have decided on their target - 'get more people in front of more screens for more time'. The easily enticed millennials are getting cheated out of hours and hours of their lives spent in front of colourful, super-HD screens. What comes to mind is the name of that social media startup the protagonists create in the popular TV series ‘Silicon Valley’ - ‘Pied Piper’; which I’m sure was hardly named randomly. The Pied Piper of Hamelin, as we all know, played his magical pipe to lure the town’s children away - how uncannily analogous to what these social-media platforms are doing to our young people! Who can resist when the most interesting and most funny content is right there at your finger tips? Reality is boring! 

There are very few ways to stop such a juggernaut of ‘entertainment’. There are those who argue whether it should even be stopped. On top of all this, there’s climate change, gigantic population challenges, depletion of key resources etc., that are being pitilessly bequeathed to the millennials to solve. There is no telling what the future holds and there seems to be very little, in our power, that can be done to alter it. We can choose to work along the direction the world is headed in or just crib about everything that's happening. Whichever the choice, alienating the next generation is clearly a folly. It is in our interest to actively set an example and be human to each other, whichever generation we might belong to. A bit of discipline, respect and wisdom can a long way too!

Quick update on Tamil Nadu’s Political situation

The song ‘Raman andalum’ from the celebrated movie ‘Mullum Malarum’ (The thorn and the flower) captures the usual state of mind of the people of Tamil Nadu when it comes to politics. The lyrics basically say that the protagonist doesn’t care who “rules” - hero or villain. However, recent events have made even the rest of India sit up and take notice of what’s happening in the political arena down south. The demise of the sitting Chief Minister and General Secretary of the AIADMK party, J.Jayalalithaa, on Dec.5th was when it all started (The events surrounding her hospitalisation and eventual death are still suspicious to many even after doctors released detailed statements two days ago). The party treasurer O.Paneer Selvam (OPS), who had been entrusted with the role of acting CM by Jayalalithaa herself during the time of her hospitalisation, immediately took oath as Interim CM. After that came the ascension of the hidden puppet-master, VK Sasikala, to the made-up post of Interim General Secretary of the AIADMK party (on Dec.29th). Then, on Jan.8th, protests erupted against the ban on ‘Jalikattu’(traditional bull-taming sport) imposed by the Supreme Court in 2014, which were arguably started by rival parties to exploit the current fragility of the AIADMK. However, it fanned public angst and we saw unprecedented numbers on the streets. OPS brought an ordinance (on Jan.21st) to conduct the event inspite of the ban and appease the protesters, but the protests ended (on the 23rd) on a bitter note with police having to use some force to disperse the crowds who rooted for a complete lift of the ban instead. Then came the oil spill (Jan.28th), which incidentally happened right off Marina (Chennai’s famous beach), where both Jayalalithaa’s funeral and the Jalikattu protests took place. Several Olive riddleys and fish schools were killed, and marine life disrupted when two cargo ships collided (how it happened is beyond me!) off the coast. And while the clean-up operations are still going on, the Interim CM resigned three days ago. If this by itself wasn’t enough, yesterday, all hell broke loose when OPS, the ex-interim-CM, suddenly came out saying his resignation was forced and that his party had sidelined him to support Sasikala instead. What will ensue is a political in-fight between OPS, who seems to have wider people’s support but, apparently, very little party support, and Sasikala, who has heavy influence over party ministers but doesn’t really have any positive public image as such. Not to mention devious schemes the opposition party (DMK, which has an alliance with the national opposition party, Congress) and national ruling party (BJP) willl hatch to try and disintegrate the AIADMK. Phew! It’s like the point in a western where the protagonist and his/her enemy face each other for the first time and vultures are flying low in anticipation. I have a front row seat and am all excited to watch the rest of this unfold! Trump can wait.

      

Cartoon: Denumerization

Is God real? - A rational approach.

Various faiths describe God in various ways while some claim God is undefinable. A stretch of the imagination can fill the world with a myriad Gods. However, to determine the presence or existence of a higher power, we need to have certain clear markers. One such marker is intelligence. Unarguably, God must most definitely be more intelligent than us. Another is that God’s proverbial ‘hand’ must direct our lives in ways beyond our influence. It is my humble opinion that such a God exists and I shall explain why. 

Let me break it down as follows:

Intelligence does not need a brain. 

All you need to consider to understand this is the incredible ingenuity of evolution. Just think of the various ways different plants and trees spread their seeds. For example, some plants give brilliant attachments to their seeds before they drop them off from their branches so that the wind may carry them afar. Why not just drop the seeds straight to the ground beneath? How could they possibly come up with such a mechanism? As far as science tells us, they don’t have physical brains, do they? And we haven’t established if they can even register the presence of wind, for God’s sakes! (pardon the pun) Clearly, there is a greater intelligence at work here and I believe it is evolution. Though it’s still a mystery why we are the only branch of species that has gained so much intelligence through evolution while other branches are still so far down the ladder, I believe there is a purpose for this intelligence of which I will discuss later in this post. However, the sole aim of evolution seems to be finding new ways to spread life, in the context of both land area and diversification.

Humans have evolved.

In the broader context, evolution is just one characteristic of life itself. There will come a time when science will answer the true reason the living world is so starkly different from the non-living, but till then we can only marvel at the phenomenon of life. If, in the context of this passage, we consider all of life as nature, then the direction it is headed becomes clearer. We know that nature never stops evolving, but where have we seen any of it over recorded history? Maybe it’s just too short of a time in the scale at which such changes take place, but I am convinced enough to contend that there has been a visible evolution in us humans, at least. We have slowly but steadily grouped ourselves into giant collectives. We have our workers, soldiers, chiefs, etc. and we all work within the parameters of one and the same system thanks to governments and economies. A clear hierarchy of power and allotment of duties makes our modern societies analogous to ant colonies. Too reductionist, you might think, but all I look to achieve by it is to demonstrate that a regulated way of functioning as a group is not a new invention by man but a result of evolution. Ants are able to achieve such an effective model because of years of evolution; and so are we. Furthermore, in some ways the stock market and economy seem strangely like living, breathing organisms in their own right.

We are only as intelligent as nature wants us to be.

Let me exemplify. Though we have discovered and invented so much, the things that really ‘matter’ to an individual is his/her family. The happiest moments of a person are still those spent with his/her significant other or his/her kids. However wonderfully personal and unique different forms of love seem, it is clearly evolution’s way of ensuring that we fulfil our primary purpose, i.e., procreation and child-raising. Our brains and ‘hearts’ are wired in a way that guarantees that we take life forward while blissfully immersed in the illusion of free will. By extrapolation, I would even claim that human evolution has taken us to a level where we have collectively built incredibly complex systems that will one day spread earth-life to other planets. This, to me, is analogous to the plant that sends its seeds afar. And though an average human being, much like the plant, may not posses the intellect to understand why and how to send humans to other habitable planets and constantly lives with the guilt of choosing technological development over the conservation of nature, it is actually nature or evolution’s hand at work behind the scenes. We are mere pawns in the game of life and its spread beyond what it has already conquered. 

Nature/Evolution/Life is an unapologetic God.

At this stage you might argue that I just took a direct leap from some simple evolutionary phenomenon in plants to interplanetary travel, but a careful perusal of what’s happening around the world can justify this. You can see nature’s laws and methodologies everywhere from among multi-national corporations to small communities. It is paramount to understand that ethics and morals are artificial concepts and are seldom seen in the larger scheme of things. What we see for the most part are nature’s laws like ‘natural selection’, ‘survival of the fittest’, etc.; for example capitalism is a clear case of ‘survival of the fittest’ while misfortunes and unequal privileges are outcomes of nature’s preference to effectiveness over efficiency. Much like how a large percentage of seeds end up getting wasted, a large population of people end up living not-so-fulfilling lives. Not all of us will get to become world leaders, celebrated CEOs or popular movie stars and this is the brutal truth. However, much like the worker ants in an ant colony, the majority of human kind is hard at work to enable successful functioning of a system that will finally put a man on Mars, which, in my opinion, is what life wants. So, whether there is a higher power than it or not, all I can say for now is that nature meets most of the definitions of a God.

I apologise if this turned out to be supremely anticlimactic, but hope you enjoyed reading it!