Are we passing the buck of responsibility?

Interesting things keep happening around to motivate me to write something, don't they? While I totally accept that the Members of the State Assembly better perform their duties well and not watch dirty videos during a working session, especially in a country where supposedly no one watches them, I am not sure how to differentiate watching in the Assembly, a dirty video from a normal movie or from reading a magazine or from reading a novel. Shouldn't all of these deserve the same punishment?

Unfortunately the people and the media don't think so. "When you're in power you better be responsible." I surely agree with this point. "People look up to you for inspiration, so you better behave inspiringly." I agree with this point too. In fact, it was the same line of argument that the Indian Government brought up when it tried to ban smoking scenes in movies. Interestingly, the same people and media did not like that idea. "If someone is going to smoke, he will smoke regardless of what the hero does." "A Don character cannot go without puffing smoke on screen." I agree with both the reasons.

But how is the inspiration logic different here? People's justification is that a real life inspiration is different from a reel life one. This is an extremely difficult supposition for me to support, but if people think that there are more teenagers looking up to our politicians for inspiration than to our movie stars, fine, I will take the point, I have not conducted market surveys. The moral of the story so far is that you can't expect the entire population to be responsible, do as much as you can to prevent bad inspirations and wrong motivations. With power comes responsibility. Perfect.

Now look at the picture on the left. The protestors are asking the entire population to be responsible while they want to have the freedom of their choices. This is perfectly fine too, people better be given the freedom to do what they want to, without harming others. The eyes that look at an art should be blamed and not the art itself. Ah, did I rake up an MF Hussain controversy here?

Don't get me wrong, there is surely nothing like telling the rapists, they ought to be punished, brutally. But do you see a blame game in all this? When others fall down, it's their clumsiness, while when we fall down, it's the misplaced stone. When others succeed, it's chance, while when we succeed, it's our effort. When it comes to others, they have to be responsible, while when it comes to us, still others have to be responsible. And leaders have no choice. Is it time we rose above the mediocrity of passing the buck? Absolutely no doubt that a leader has to be more responsible, but I think everyone has some power to be responsible and while it is fine to expect others to be responsible, it is finer to be responsible ourselves too.

My name is Ozymandias

I’ve come down for a wedding and I’ve a few more hours to check out of the hotel. There were a few other weddings too happening in the hotel, but looks like I’m the last one remaining to leave, everyone else seems to have left. As my heart was wishing happiness to all those newly wedded souls, I went around, only to see all the structures that were so lively till a few hours back sport a deserted appearance. Old structures were getting dismantled and new ones were coming up in their places.

I went through this during my own wedding as I saw those sets getting dismantled the next day. And that was not the first time a "dismantling" had created this feeling in me. Is this weekend a culmination of all those past weekends spent thinking about attachment and detachment, about emotions and reason, about shallowness and depth, about enjoying life at the moment and enjoying living itself, about being useful to oneself and being useful to others?

As I was thinking of all this, my eyes fell on the lovely ashtray in my room. I can already imagine all that it would’ve seen in its years of existence. A happy couple loving each other? A routine family with its usual fights? A group of friends partying? A loner having a sad cup of coffee? A businessman with a drink? But what is it all about? All the decoration and all the proclamation, all the music and all the dance, all the happiness and all the excitement, all the people and all the life:

And on the pedestal these words appear:
"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.

May be living for oneself is like breathing, but I think true living has to be about living for others. Sure, we didn’t carry anything when we were born and we won’t carry anything when we’re gone, but I think, we can die as someone who thought beyond himself, we can die as someone who was useful to this world, we can die as someone who made a difference to the lives of a few creatures around him. As we continue to breathe, let us not forget - we've to live too!