A Molested Cultural Syndrome

So where did the ‘Great Guwahati Molestation’ theatricals eventually play out to? Stirred in the backdrop of some diabolical perversions, outrage, conspiracies and cultural predicament, did we all end up dancing to the same old farce of despondency?

Beyond the natural widespread indignation rallied around those shocking, disturbing visuals of a young girl being gang-molested in the middle of stark public eyes, there unveiled a much larger issue of Assamese socio-cultural doldrums that all of us have grown up into but seldom confronting on face. Before I could point fingers at others, let me start with my own case. I had learned about this despicable event taken place at the heart of my home town much before national media fireballed into the scene, courtesy a friend’s FB updates. I didn’t bother to explore much on it as the common ‘Assamese’ impression, on numerous such past stories of Live News ‘sensationalization’, has been of frivolous in nature. There were a dozen other incidents in the past of similar distaste where Live cameras captured and ballyhooed, but never really achieved anything other than ending up in satirical friend circle chatters like ours. Had it not been for my lingering wasted evening hours here in the US those days with NDTV website being a daily routine browse, I wouldn’t have been exposed and driven to the true magnitude of ignominy and outrage the incident carried. This explains the first thing about our socio-cultural mindset conflict: We ‘liberal’ Assamese (taking the liberty to generalize on my own behalf) just don’t take our local media and more importantly local issues seriously, unless, of course the issues are considered good enough to be hyped in the national front. And there are good reasons as to the pretext of such a mindset: Firstly, the never ending anecdote of killings, bloodshed and controversies we all have innately grown up with, has perhaps in a way made us an indifferent (to socio-political problems) lot at large. Secondly, the credibility of sensationalizing local news media has always been at stake, right since the days of ‘Pratidin’ to the more recent evolution of 24 by 7 live news channels. Hence, its not at all surprising not to see immediate public outcry in Assam over the whole issue (well they eventually had to budge, as an entire nation fumed).

So now since NDTV (and subsequently all other major satellite channels) decided to prime time the incident in Guwahati, it caught my attention and ushered in a warrant for deeper introspection vis-à-vis some disturbing facts. In the televised debates, everyone condemning the incident (which all humane souls naturally will) questioned the increasing defunct of social and moral values in the State. Stats suggest recent rate of crimes against women in the State stands doubled compared to that of rest of the country. Now this shocked and upset me to the core. Well, traditionally the impression in the mainstream India about North east and its culture has always been overwhelming as far as socio-cultural liberalization is concerned. The issues that cripple most of the country like dowry, communal violence etc never ever managed to leave a blemish on the faces of us 7 sisters. I, in fact, have always maintained to brag about this liberal and ‘westernized cool’ image of ours in front of my North and South Indian friends elsewhere. But if we were so liberal and forward thinking (where curses like dowry don’t even exist), how could women atrocities stand so high? All this while I kept believing its just Delhi and its surrounding UP desperados behind all the ignominies meted out to the women of the country (be it rape, molestation or even incest). But today whole of my misconstrued ideology seems to have gone for a toss. The disturbing facts, questions and the moral condemnations telecast in the shows, pushed me towards an introspective ride albeit an epiphany of some harsh realities.

Alright, I concede the existence and prevalence of pervert syndromes in the backyard of my own, hitherto so believed, ‘progressive’ society. And in the tone of million others, I echo the same (by now clichéd) decree of deterrent punishment and social embargo for the perpetrators. But isn’t the idea of social boycott a paradox in itself? Do we first of all have a socio-cultural value driven consensus on incidents like these in Assam?

Without going into the conspiracy theories, one thing stands clear that the whole molestation saga had more than incontrollable testosterone levels inscribed in its storyline. A righteous mob disposition, questionnaires like ‘Are you a student?’ ‘ You have taken alcohol huh?’ and unethical disclosures of the girl’s identity (the whole footage for that matter) - all led to the larger apathy of a hypocrite & confused society caught in the cross fire of liberalization and cultural values. This is to explain the genesis behind the ‘righteous’ mob crusade as well as an equally detrimental rationale behind a silent civil society. Assam, especially Guwahati, for years has been strangled in the constant dilemma of modernization vs cultural value perseverance. Time and again, from eminent scholars to indigenous groups like AASU, have created more and more confusions on the ideological blueprint of our day to day socio-cultural norms. Yes with globalization pervading an air of change in the rest of the country for decades (viz. through cities like Bangalore and Hyderabad) we too received some flakes of it in the name of pubs, dance floors, CCDs and the KFCs, but sans the true empowerment in terms of exposure and liberalization per se. While Guwahati simply dwelled on the commercial corollaries of globalization when the actual essence stayed with rest of India, the city was inadvertently left in the barracks of a much aggravated socio-cultural predicament. Where on one end an outgoing new generation attempted to relish the changing ‘globalization’ induced values and norms, on the other end the cultural ‘messiahs’ (ironically comprising youth) stayed stubborn on these rather ‘hollow’ western culture shocks. Now just take out the whole molestation episode from the video and envision only the interview part of the girl – A student from class 11, coming out of a bar at 9:30 PM (in provoking enough outfit too). Throw it off at the face of the society and count the no. of endorsements certifying the girl’s demeanor. The ‘lunatic’ mob, along with the majority of a ‘tolerant’ society sadly share a common ground here as far as morality on certain social values goes. The thin line of hypocrisy separating the two lies miserably on this crude distinction - Whilst one degrades further on its own distorted moral creed (turning vigilante, molesters etc), the other remains firm silently on values of equal perversion. Yes probably she’s too young to be visiting bars as yet (mind you the legal drinking age is 18 in Assam), yes she is indeed foul mouthed (which you think is a taboo whereas boys since class 5-6 master the words) and yes she perhaps binged till the brink. The moral judgmental bandwagon of both sides simply fails to roll beyond these cultural ‘misconducts’. Ask a parent. Ask a commoner. Or in fact ask the same News channel editors (read Zarir Hussain and Atanu Bhuyan). Had molestation angle not ensued that night, the whole coverage (and the subsequent moral crucifixion) would’ve focused on the plight of the cultureless ‘drunk’, ‘foul mouthed’ assamese youth (worse girls)!

Even hypothetically believing the girl was under aged for legal drinks, the undertow of morality tends to simply stress on the philosophy of expose` and vilification of juvenile perpetrators, without pointing a finger at the fundamental depraved facilitators of our highly flawed system (which unlawfully serves liquors to minors at the first place).

Now finally lets turn on to the much proclaimed social justice the news channel said to bring forth (with or without a staged propaganda). Besides repeatedly reciting the ‘Don’t shoot the messenger’ maxim and accentuating miserably on how the rolling footages indeed helped create public outrage and eventual police action, they kept crying hoarse about one more disturbing aspect - that of a dormant on-looking civil society (which paradoxically included their own crew). Well, the fact that no passing cars really bothered to pause/roll down the window panes (even momentarily) to assess the happenings in the middle of a relatively busy night city street, doesn’t really surprise me. Plagued by a rampant conflict ridden legacy of militancy, army atrocities and bomb blasts for decades, there lies a conscious explanation/justification in our value system of such ‘evading’ ideology, inherited across generations. The scene of a running ‘drunk’ woman in front of a city bar, with some thugs behind, doesn’t naturally help, in the eyes of a status-wary civil society. Well, so what if the ‘responsible’ news channel removed sound clips of the hoodlums (allegedly) shouting the girl to be prostitute across streets, the ‘cowardly’ onlookers had to bear the brunt in the wake of a ‘valiant’ rolling news camera crew and its ultra ‘responsible’ editorial house!

In a nutshell, a nation – outraged and shocked – postured in indignation. Demanded action, retribution and a precursor of deterrence. A ‘sting’-savvy media house grand-standing on a shocking yet ‘valiant’ footage, degraded horrendously in the course of ethical confrontations and in house conspiracy accusations. Morals, ethics and woman atrocities grappled all debate themes. Glimpses of an insensitive, sexist society flickered in paramount visibility. And eventually the devils of the scene, though at large initially, subjected to ‘indisposed’ police apprehension. A ‘red’ wired swaggering ‘Amar Jyoti Kalita’ became the symbol of a mass (successful) ‘social network’ hunt. Unedited leaked images of gruesome perversion made headways in cyber ‘tubes’. And the misfortune of a binge gone horribly wrong, posed to haunt a girl forever with the price of her juvenile ‘misadventure’ carried in the backdrop of inebriety, Live cameras, perversion and cultural bigotry..

The Ghost of Richard Cory

My three long lost friends
Darkness, silence and loneliness
I know I’ve parted ways with you..

The nights and the rhymes, all left dry
Our moments of together, hard to come by
And I know how I long to be with you..

I wish to shun the light glowing constantly
Embark on a hiatus in your shadows momentarily
And look to rediscover through the rusted renditions
The traces of all our lost conversations

Lost and ParadoxED

Hey what's happened to you? You said you'd be through with the paradox.. Broken free? Or indeed back to square one? Do you still abhor my sarcastic smile? Did you get yourself back that time or lost me briefly? Well alas, you can't shut down on me for good.. Well, sooner or later, the truth will be known.. I am, and will forever be, the you.. Till time eternal..

Paradoxical Shenanigans

In his usual vanity he asked me, "Is this you I've counseled all this while?"

I said, “I've seen a new found essence in the paradox”..!

He smiled and let me tread on..

An old forgotten feeling - long forbidden - has been let loose.. A resurgence of the ‘snow-white’ escapism, hovering all over again.. The pathetic abandoned ‘I’ of the inconsequential times has had a renewed shot at inanity!

In my brief pursuit of the paradox I often stared at him - in dim, restrained eyes.. Has he already gone muted – the stark counselor bereft of his quintessential preachings?

The 'break free' & 'fuck-the-rationales' sentiment's been a bit too overwhelming and the rigorously nurtured 'systematic wisdom' of the years, now stands to lose ground.. I say I am up for it. I say I am for the change..

“Yeah, rather back to square one..”

He won’t intervene no more. But the sarcastic streak remains - as he turns around with the usual condescending smirk, muttering something scathing. I couldn’t miss it. I heard him enunciate “Faker”! And I had to take offence at once, shouting back hard on him.. perhaps in the eluded ‘paradoxical’ defense, per se..

“Can I not dub you the same from the other side?”

Surreal Realism (the prose)

The quintessence of abstraction: "A research paper underlying the facets of Realism, evading any form of detailing on Surrealism”

Well it had been quite sometime where a recent release could leave off such a daunting impact in the movie experience front.. Fair enough there have been some great releases in recent past, deserving to be acclaimed, perhaps, as best of the times too (Avataar, 3 idiots bracketed); but the haunting metaphorical effect I have been subjected to in movies like "the tenant", “8 and 1/2", “the Seventh Seal”, "Fight Club" or "Cries and Whispers" had surely eluded the movie spectrum for a while now (Well at least for me).

Then along came a flick - dubbed now as a phenomenon of sorts - from an eccentric and maverick film-maker called 'Christopher Nolan'. If "Memento" had redefined the physics of story telling, "The Dark Knight" created new-found waves all along the commercial movie circle. Next on the pipeline was Nolan's dream project titled "Inception" - a script evolving through 10 long years (perhaps his next idea right after Memento, 2000) - an extravaganza, touted to be a sci-fi in the lines of movies like "Matrix". Well however it was not to be just that (a mere sci-fi bandwagon), not realized until I embarked on one of the most shattering epiphanies of my life (a record 3rd so far).

‘Inception’ is a maze, a labyrinth – way too personal on all accounts of our very existence and the understanding of life. Those who’ve captured this basic essence of the movie would agree Inception isn’t a science fiction after all. This is about venturing on to the closets of our minds we all are oblivious to laying a peek on. The conscious and the subconscious realms of the human mindset have been attempted to be blended with a very mystique yet engaging story line. Because of its complex levels and fast paced action package there have been numerous interpretations and explanations of the movie doing the rounds in the internet, trying to decipher the actual answer to the story. Well to me, the movie doesn’t provide one – it has been designed and made in that respect – to put every viewer in a spectrum where there isn’t a ‘black is black’ and ‘white is white’ answer. That seemed to leave everyone perplexed, vying for answers in an uncanny analogy to that of mankind’s eternal quest for the truth of life, death and space. The movie imprints a basic idea and leaves for everyone to ponder over it - “Is reality a relative concept?” It doesn’t make an assertion; well it can not. Like all of us possessed with some men-fed incomplete knowledge house of tenets of truth and reality, the protagonist (diCaprio) of the film undergoes a similar concoction – in the pretext of one of our most basic undertakings – our dreams and the state of the surreal realism within …!

‘Inception’ is a personal experience because of the fact we all encounter the dream space while asleep. Seldom do we care giving a more serious re-think on those ‘surreal’ mirages visiting us every single night. At times grotesque, bizarre and haunted sequences would often wake us up in a considerable amount of shock, only to be forgotten as a bad nightmare moments later. Could those sequences have deeper implications, coming out of our subdued subconscious? The intellectuals would say things portrayed in the dream domain are nothing but reflections of our own subconscious thoughts in response to every day’s undertaking, liking, desire, emotion and pain. Well studying the ‘half-remembered’ dreams would conform to the fact our dreams mostly tend to hover around the feelings of our ‘awakened’ subsistence. But can’t this very statement be held in an entire opposite perspective? What is after all an awakened state? The state where we believe we have been for years since our birth..? And hence believe we remember everything (mind it only since the birth point) unlike in the dream domain? The state where we believe we know the rules of the nature and possess capability of questioning the essence of our existence? But then we’ve all believed to be true what we know. Aren’t we making the rules ourselves and defining the perimeters of truth? Aren’t the laws, formulas and assertions of science and nature mere observations of our finite ‘conscious’ mind power? Isn’t after all ‘Reality’ a man made terminology in an ‘assumed’ logical anointment to the incomplete human rule book?

Coming back to dreams being reflections of the subconscious, where they say - “your dreams have a direct resonance thru the subconscious, of the deepest thoughts encountered in the conscious”. Fair enough, as most would agree with this version. Like right after my brother’s death my dream domain predominantly staged cryptic and obscure sequences involving him in the center part. It was obvious as the grandeur impact of shock and disbelief engrossing the mind then (both conscious and subconscious) had deeper repercussions thru the dream sphere and which in a way explained the general reasoning covering dreams. However do all dreams follow this basic ‘hypothetical’ principle of dreams being the mind’s subconscious reactions to the conscious impulses? From where do the grotesque, bizarre and haunted mirages emanate, which often end up as ‘forgotten’ nightmares? When you dream something totally paradoxical to what your prudent ‘moral’ ideology sermonizes, I say it, in a way, overturns few un-heeded darker traits of the real self within. Might sound controversial but without going into detailing of such dreams, I guess most of us do undergo an ideological conflict at some point or the other (thru some dream or the other). And then there are those prevalent dreams of ‘snakes’, ‘self-death’ and ‘half-dreamed limbos’ – plain metaphors beyond the usual conscious stimuli and thus much deeper implications outside the overall human comprehension…!

Whatever be the ‘Inception’s’ storyline and its conclusion, for me the kicking aspect of it, all thru 3 viewings, been the hapless bid on Cobb’s (diCaprio) part to convince himself into reality. In the course of it he would have skepticism surrounding the true state of realism (surrealism?) and have inclination towards repeated POAs (proof of actions) in the form of his totem. That is so much of a directive to our inadvertent course of the life journey wherein each one of us trying to convince ourselves into a custom made framework of universal ‘truth’ and ‘reality’. At the end of the day Cobb’s totem would behave, in its veracity of ‘presumed’ behavior (ie. to rotate endlessly in dreams and vice versa), only the way he has believed it to be. The reality behind realism, dreams and life perhaps transcends the finiteness of human intelligence and I’d leave for any attempted hypothesis on it to the dedicated intellectuals, researchers and oneirologists (dream scientists). The intriguing fascination for me (made even more ardent post ‘Inception’) has been the abstractness of my endless dreams and the interspersed cryptic connotations within… And then there’s that haunting ‘idea’ of relativity of realism! After all an idea of ‘Realism’ has had all of us obsessed with the crux of ‘Reality’ itself.. the idea long planted.. since our births…