Right thinking

Is what we think as 'right' changing?

 

The status message of my 14 year old niece reads:

'(is) having the best holiday of her life. Drove the car for the first time! Woohoo!'

 

I must admit that as I typed out the sentence, I did pause for a couple of seconds to wonder if 14 is really such a small age - I mean, its just 4 years to 18, isn't it? You've come more than half way, you might as well. And then I thought otherwise.

 

So is the definition of 'right' and 'wrong' changing?

 

As someone who is obsessively rational about a lot of things in life, I do believe that there is nothing essentially 'right' or 'wrong'. Everything is grey. It is the circumstance and principles or values that we uphold, that differentiate right from wrong. Even so, there are some things that I hold as fundamentals and very close to my heart and mind. Those few things can never change. They are etched in my mind in bold print, in no specific colour. Shouldn't there be a fundamental base for all of us - or what are we heading towards?

 

A practice noticed only in advanced western countries and practically unheard of in India is the customer holding the right to return his purchases, if not satisfied, within the period specified. I am aware of some of my girl friends here in London who purchase an outfit/ensemble for a special night out and return it the very next day, quoting fitting and/or matching issues or just plain dissatisfaction with the product. The customer reserves the right to return and claim the money back. However, what about ethics? Civic sense? What if it happens to us? Can you dream of wearing something already lathered with someone's sweat or is this piece nauseating enough?

 

When we think of 'right' or 'wrong', do we give into an easy temporary harmless temptation? Such as letting our 14 year old try out the car? What are the characteristics of a 'right'?

Wed.

I was walking down the road leading to the tube station as my eye caught a van that drive past, which read ‘Wed-in-Style’.

I sighed.

And I am only twenty-three.

What is it about weddings and marriages that makes me want them and squirm at the same time?

I think I want it, cannot have I yet and so I squirm.

On closer examination of my behaviour, I observed that there is quite a wedding mela all around. If my mother was on Facebook (I think she is on, in fact, and I rememeber she even mentioned she wanted to “be my fraaaannd” – quite a eeyikes moment that was) she would have surely been concerned about the number of weddings doing the rounds and her dear daughter not even closing up on it.

Any chance that ‘Wed-in-Style’ refered to spending Wednesdays in style?!

Quite a possibility. It’s London, after all.

Overheard at work

-          My colleague, a female, on another, a male who turned up in a tight hot pink shirt: “Why is he dressed up like a highlighter?!” (If that wasn’t enough, she later held up a pink highlter from her desk and showed how it matched when she held it against him while he was at his desk, in the distance.

-          A senior colleague, on Delhi: “It is like being in the best and worst place of your life at the same time”

-          On a more-than-just-chubby colleague who found low fat junk to keep herself happy: Every cloud has a fat reducing lining.

 

Overheard at work

-          My colleague, a female, on another, a male who turned up in a tight hot pink shirt: “Why is he dressed up like a highlighter?!” (If that wasn’t enough, she later held up a pink highlter from her desk and showed how it matched when she held it against him while he was at his desk, in the distance.

-          A senior colleague, on Delhi: “It is like being in the best and worst place of your life at the same time”

-          On a more-than-just-chubby colleague who found low fat junk to keep herself happy: Every cloud has a fat reducing lining.

 

I was walking down the road leading to the tube station as my eye caught a van that drive past, which read ‘Wed-in-Style’.

I sighed.

And I am only twenty-three.

Communities

Social

Communal

Groups

Networks

Collective

Forums

(I must say that I was tempted to look at the Thesaurus at this point in my list-making…)

This list now takes me to another list

Initiative

Action

Start

Force

Together

Collective

Communities

Oops, there I am - right where I started. Square One.

As much as I would like to say that change is constant, as tempting as it is, I would like to note the use of ‘constant’ in that phrase. I would like to believe that change is inevitable but it is going through a cyclical motion and we always get back to where we started. Just like my list making activity that I began this passage with.

However, it is the attitude of change that worries me. Deeply concerns and moves me. Shakes me up, even, and I shudder to think of the impact of the attitude. I am not worried at this attitude for my great grandchildren, as I know that atthis stage their lives would be comfortable. It is the children and the grand children’s lives I am worried about in terms of the current attitude to change.

There must be some way that the attitude will help secure all future generations (which would include, ofcourse, my children’s grand children’s, great grand children’s and so on the so forth’s lives)?

I must be too idealistic.

This is not to say that I am hoping for an idealistic, all happiness encompassing society. Nay, I am all for negative engeries. It is the negative that brings us to positive. What would life be without conflict? Conflict really is the essence of life.

I must be really rambling here.

To get back to where I started – in reference to Anna Hazare’s fast against corruption, a friend’s friend of mine on Facebook (ah, what would life be if I did not receive news feed on Facebook, my allowed-by-law stalk assistant?) posted this as her status message:

Should fast change or should we change fast?

Now I do not know what the girl stands for (or I am unaware if there is anyone in my generation that would rightfully ‘stand for’ anything that did not include discount deals or happy hours) but I do believe in that statement.

What is the point of communities, collectives, forums, groups, networks, if they all do not take action together? Hazare’s ‘supporters’ were mere Facebook status masters (it is quite angering to notice that people support Anna Hazare by putting up ‘support Anna Hazare’ on their Facebook without actually doing anything about it) or those who put up banners in their schools and colleges. If Hazare wanted the support, the individuals could have gone on fast as he did and stayed put at the place he did. There was a very subtle mockery of Hazare’s genuine action. Action, which was his Initiative, against corruption. He also needed Networks, Collectives, Communities, who would have come together and together drafted a statement of objectives. A bill being passed is no objective. India has an enviable list of bills, I am told. It is the implementation and execution that is required. The collectives, communities, networks could have helped in this direction.  

 

Please Note: This is an unedited version of all that I ramble about. However, your comments are deeply solicited.