A History of Violence

I've never faced a riot in my life. Considering the fact, that I happen to live in a country which is considered the fourth most unsafe country to live in (yup, that's true as per a recent survey), I count myself lucky.

Living in a developing nation which is prone to terror attacks, rapes, daylight murders and mugging, I often used to think that may be things are better when it comes to other much developed nations of the world. Turns out, it is not.

London has been burning for the fifth day in row now. In fact, the entire Great Britain has been burning. I fail to understand what is so great about Great Britain? It's a nation which predominantly seemed to have the most powerful currency after dollar. The fate of most European trading union could be vastly affected by this single nation till the time its president decided to scoot off to Italy to make the most out of his summer vacation while the entire world waited. Waited for their government to come back in form and announce if they were taking any steps to salvage their reputation.

Agreed that it was a melting pot for various cultures and the "minorities" residing here exceeded the white Britons by leaps and bounds. Agreed that their police forces were considered the most tolerant and their royal family was as regal as regal could be.

Turns out, the various ethnic minorities living here were nursing a grudge, a deep-seated grudge of being treated unfairly by their government, their police forces were not as aggressive in the need of the hour and the decadent royal family.....the lesser said about them, the better.

Hooligans have been torching cars, killing people, looting showrooms and mugging people. Most of these "hooligans" are no older than 20-somethings, wearing hooded clothes to hide their identity and belong to one or the other minority group. What started as a peaceful protest against the illegitimate killing of a civilian has now taken the form of a national epidemic.
At first, the world thought that maybe they are reacting to the unequal treatment meted out to the minority groups. Then it was believed that the masses were revolting against the oppressive government rule and major cuts in public funding that the British government announced to mitigate its debt. It was only after millions of dollars (pounds?) of resources were destroyed in these riots, that the British govt. finally acknowledged it as insurgency.

Just because they had social media at their disposal, opportunity to plunder and feed their insatiable desire for consumerism, these people took advantage of the weak policing and wreaked havoc citing reasons as lame as rebellion against spending cuts.

I just have one question in my mind. What are these people rebelling against? That their nation is faced with the similar recession problem that the rest of the world is battling with?What were they thinking when torching showrooms and mugging people? What sort of rebellion is this?

Maybe, this sums its up - Note that from all reports we know, these rioters come from very different races–including native English people–varying age-groups, different jobs, and includes men as well as women. Among those found looting shops were people in their 30s as well as kids as young as 11. Many of them were seen laughing and having a grand ol’ time as they ransacked liquor shops and stashed up on cigarettes and whiskey and beer bottles.
 These rioters are rudderless, mindless, collectivist drones.
And therein lies the clue to their behavior. Ask yourself, how does one become a rudderless, mindless, collectivist drone? One answer is when you are never confronted with the necessity to use your own independent mind.
The United Kingdom of Great Britain–one of the largest welfare states in the world–has been nurturing and breeding a mind-numbed cadre of youngsters who are living on dole-outs, whose life, survival, and sustenance are someone else’s responsibility.
These are people who are not demanded to think and confront the fragility of their own survival. These are Britons who are not demanded to be productive. These are citizens who are shielded from the bitter sting of starvation; from the panic of creeping death and the urgency of survival, much hundreds of other less fortunate nations in the world.
What we see now is the logical consequence of a mighty, paternalistic welfare state breeding a class of moochers who simply find no urgency in using their own mind to think–to reason–and therefore, believes that they simply cannot find their own way out of marginalization.
Indeed, this underclass of citizens has been so dis-empowered–not by any remnants of a capitalist structure in English society–but by the very bloated welfare government that was allegedly meant to “empower” them that they no longer believe it possible to them to get out of their miserable conditions.


It's a sad situation and maybe, just maybe, once Britain is done dealing with this terrible episode, world media will hail it again for its fierce and quick response or hail the indomitable spirit of Britons who have been bravely facing riots in its hisotry. (Mumbai terror attacks, anyone).


Instead of a quote, I'm gonna leave you with a link shared by my friend, Rachit which reveals the true picture of this macabre event.

Sounds Famil(y)iar?

"Family is just accident.... They don't mean to get on your nerves.  They don't even mean to be your family, they just are".

I came across these lines recently. So simple and yet they answered one of my most favorite questions about my family that I often ask myself.

Families are weird. Either that, or I really need a psychiatric. I don't know what is it with families, sometimes, I even fail to understand the concept of a family.
Why do we even really need one, like really? Ok, strike that, that's just my fed-up mind speaking.
I see friends. And their friends. And friends of friends of friends. All of them belong to some family and what surprises me most is that no two friends would ever boast of having identical families.
Everyone's is unique and the problems, characteristics, qualities they come with are quite unique as well.

On days, we would love them. We would hate them but we can't imagine our lives without them. They are our first point of contact with humans when we enter this world (for most of us, at least).

I have friends who want to give a serious thought to "starting a family in near future".
Phew, I guess that's a whole lot of hard work, responsibilities and headache that we sign up ourselves for.

From a point that I see it, raising a family is no child's play. And your kids will eventually imbibe your qualities, will reflect and even follow your acts, accept you/ reject you as their role models depending upon the conditioning they receive.
So, if you are a great person, you will probably bring in more number of nice individuals in this world. But if you are someone who is not quite sure of him/herself, morally/mentally breaks down during the tedious process of raising a family, there are chances that the children too, will spend a considerable amount of time trying to figure out wrong from the right, exploring things, know themselves and then, take a stand.

I know I'm probably too inexperienced to be writing all this.
On days, I really wonder what would have I been had I not been living with my family. I know I would have been a far more independent and calmer person. But then, I know I would also have not imbibed some moral qualities that I have and take pride in.

We can choose our friends, but we cannot select which family we ultimately get born into.
So, no matter how much we crib/hate/love/be embarrassed of/adore/get jealous of our families, that is one truth that we can't change about ourselves.
I guess I will make peace with that fact too and graciously accept my at-times embarrassing, at-times supportive and madhouse loud Punjabi family with utmost humility.
Maybe that should calm me down, for some time at least. 

Families are like fudge - mostly sweet with a few nuts.  ~Author Unknown

Making sense of it all..

Has it ever happened to you that you tried reading a "famous" novel or watching a movie but couldn't get it? And then you happen to come across the same novel or movie again, years later, give it another try and voila, it seems to make sense? Not only make sense but you are better capacitated to appreciate the beauty of it?

Well, I don't know how many of you reading this would agree to the above statement but it most definitely has happened to me. So many times. Case in point, its true that we mature over years and become more able to handle things we couldn't even understand earlier.
The funny thing is there are so many things in my life which still baffle me in quite the same fashion as they used to years earlier. These are the things which make me doubt if I'm growing and becoming mature by the day at all or not!

Most of them are regarding people in my life and not things anymore. Tangible things, complex subjects and issues I can handle now, its the people around me which baffle me. Like this best friend I never had. I never could quite understand whether she liked me, hated me or secretly despised me. I still can't. It was like being judged all the time. Being judged if you achieve something, being judged if you date a guy and being terribly judged on how to behave and my clothes when I used to be around her. I never quite came around to telling her that this behavior of her's confuses me, not to forget prevents me from respecting her completely.
Also, that she was this perfectly normal, affectionate friend for others, but for me.
God knows it that the day I lose it or I'm too drunk, I'm gonna give her a piece of my mind. But maybe, I'm just too coward to do it, thinking it would hurt her feelings and all.

I fail to understand why we allow ourselves to become a doormat for someone, allow ourselves to be "used" emotionally, mentally and professionally by others. In our hearts, we know we would never take this bullshit and we still do.
It's this human tendency to be loved, to be wanted and the due course, somewhere it all just gets too confusing.

These people around me are the new "challenging" novels in my life that I still haven't been able to figure out. But eventually I will and probably, I would also then know how to behave appropriately.
Amen.

Analyses of others are actually expressions of our own needs and values ~ Marshall Rosenberg