So during my postings to another hospital once every 3-4 months, I eventually developed the knack of reading newspaper. With full allegiance I used to spend almost an hour of my free time to all the sections of the paper, including sports, which perhaps could never float my boat! The most catchy angle of picking up the paper used to be the front page of the Times, which made me wonder how could they perpetually dedicate it to one word advertisements of some online-mega-sales, and the following page describing the offers on the commodities and their flashy price tags; while they should actually have used it for putting up the breaking news stories! And thus followed my quest for more, which had me penned.
So what really comprises of our daily dose of masala-news? Gang-rapes, murders, road accidents, dacoits and thefts, the collapsing life of the city due to stagnant road traffics (The epic Gurugram fail!), either excessive rains causing floods and damage to crops or droughts which are again detrimental to the fields (We are just not prepared to handle any adversity!), rising number of dengue and chikungunia cases this monsoon (Dirty Delhi keeps breaking its own records!), ISIS and their endless Vandalism (Any and every other country I can possibly think of!), never-ending Hindu-Muslim debates, the Holy-Cow upliftment issues and Beef ban riots, the beyond-my-tolerarance-level political jest ( Modi-Kejriwal face-off!), reservation or ruckus, the occasionally Quaking earth, the collapsing bridges, floods and sloppy landslides, from hunger strikes to surgical strikes, from Indus to Cauvery, retweeted tweets, animal abuse,domestic violence, dowry deaths, filing for divorce and its newer clauses, corruptions and scams, the un-controllable pollution and the exponentially rising population, the wannabes at Page 3, the box-office dhamaals, glimpses into the phony private lives of bollywood celebs, and sportsman shaming (Why Dope when you still have hope! :P) ( *Sorry about the last one, couldn't resist that rhyme*).
Whatever the news be, does it really make a reasonable difference in our lives knowing about these happenings? Or is it really just spiced up gossip in a large scale to feed our brains? I mean what could possibly happen if people lead their own lives without being updated about the breaking news? For one, there are certainly going to be awkward voids while conversing with people around. News serves as such a great filler that you can talk to random people from different professions, whom you have nothing in common with, just by discussing some gooey topic that's trending lately. So that is going to be one major miss I believe without keeping up with news!
But what if you choose the less travelled road, and go on talking about speculations on life .. Theirs and yours.. The petty little things that you think about while you are at work, or while on the road, and just keep them to yourself because you have no-one to talk to then.. We often tend to forget those things that we have no-one to talk about! Perhaps that could make a difference. You never know! Instead of the gruesome disturbing content of the news headlines, you could fill in your mind with some instigating thought that you gather from someone else's perspective on life. Wouldn't that be worthy enough to occupy all the cache in your system,
instead of all the spamming that is done by our breaking news!?
However, what about the prejudiced flip-side? There might be consequential downsides to it as well. How badly could your lack of awareness affect your ADL (activities of daily living)? Not being updated could put you into monetary setbacks, could make you miss important events taking place around the city, raise concerns on the safety of your beloveds far-far away, leave you unprepared for a stormy evening or a day of water-cut due to maintenance, cost you more on the sudden overnight fuel price hikes, leave you out in the cold, oblivious to the latest methods being used to hack and traffic young girls and children from the day-lights of your city's streets, or how the burglars can now hijack locked houses and cars without being caught in a rundown, and it eventually might leave you exposed raw and naive to the unrelenting cacophonous realities of the outside world.
That reminds me of how being good doesn't give you good in return; still you don't want to give-up your kidness.
How looking face-off to the world with your puppy-eyes doesn't make you less eyed-upon; even then you mustn't lose that innocence.
And how much you try to find the benevolence in the happenings of your life, you cannot escape the murkiness of your nightmares; yet you hope to dream again.
'Life is really not fair, deal with it!' - Anonymous
Vs
'Try to learn to let what is unfair teach you!'- David Foster Wallace
Blithe or Blues!
