Mind of the smoking man

Disclaimer: I am not against smoking even though I am a non smoker. I am all for individual freedom. In fact, I have strongly supported the right of people to smoke in the blogpost - Leave the smokers alone. Just like smokers, even I find the patronizing anti-smoking enthusiasts extremely annoying. Still, this does not stop me from critically analyzing the mind of smokers as let's face it - they too are a patronizing bunch! Simply put, I don't like the attitude of smokers but have no problem with their act of smoking.

As a child in school, I was intelligent enough to know that smoking is bad for health and it is addictive. I'm sure most of my friends knew that too. Yet, some of my classmates, as soon as they turned 14 or 15, started lighting up. Even they knew cigarettes were harmful but they were not thinking long term. They were more concerned about looking 'cool' and 'badass' so that they could get some respect among their peers. People like me, who were encouraged to smoke but chose not too were looked at with a patronizing fervor - "Arrey, yeh to baccha hai!"

When you are a teen, about to become an adult, someone calling you a 'kid' can be quite distressing. Some of my classmates gave in to that distress and the number of smokers grew. I personally was not disgusted with smoking (I still am not) but at the same time I still thought, "Why get in to something that is going to harm me a lot in the future?" Also, my self-esteem was not that low that I needed an additional identity that was borne out of smoking cigarettes.

When I got to degree college, the immaturity of my peers remained. I joined the BMS course in Jai Hind college where a bunch of students who smoked started hanging out together and assumed that they were the 'coolest' group in class. The rest of us were supposed to worship them! My resentment towards smokers grew a bit! (Kindly note - the resentment was towards 'smokers' and not 'smoking')

During my engineering too I got a similar feeling. In fact, I also always saw girls magnetically attracted towards smokers. Maybe the girls too suffered from low self-esteem and wanted to be seen around tough, Marlboro-man type guys.

During my third year of engineering when I was 21, I believed that my peers were now adult enough not to start smoking. The ones who were already smoking, started it in their immature years and that is understandable to an extent. I was in for a shock when one of my classmates, in a deep search of identity, started lighting up! He even bragged about it!

And during my MBA, again a bunch of smokers got to together and started calling themselves the C.Com - the Cigarette Community. Since smoking wasn't allowed on campus, these guys used to hold their 'C.Com meetings' behind a stinky toilet and gossip about the rest of the class.

Finally, when I started working, my office colleagues looked at me as some guy who hasn't enjoyed life as he hasn't held a cigarette. I was thinking, that at least now, at an age of 25 or more, people should stop thinking that way! My disgust for them was slowly turning into pity as I started realizing that they had become slaves of the cigarette and were in a denial mode.

That brings me to the mind of a smoking man - simply put, it is screwed!

The Revolution

I recently attended a consumer meet at Nashik for our company's customers who use Tata Tiscon rebars. It was an informal event where the focus was to build relationships and talk beyond steel and construction. There, I met a civil engineer called Mr. J Datta who said he was a communist when he was in his teens back when he lived in Calcutta. He did not lean towards communism now but related an interesting insight of Karl Marx to us.

Karl Marx was a communist and communism mainly believes that in order to end exploitation of the working class by the rich or the bourgeoisie, there has to be a major revolution - an anarchy which may be violent but extremely needed. Once the bloodshed ends and the bourgeoisie are defeated, whoever assumes power will form the government and ensure an equitable distribution of resources.

Karl Marx derisively used the term petite bourgeoisie to describe the middle class. He said the working class are not strong enough to fight the bourgeoisie but the middle class are! Unfortunately, it is this class of people who believes purely in consumption and learns to adjust with the exploitations and corruption of the rich and powerful. It is only when the petite bourgeoisie have their backs to the wall and are removed from their comfort zone, they will fight back.

That struck a chord with me. This can't be more truer in India! The intellect of the country lies within the middle class. Unfortunately, the middle class adjusts and finds a way out of the obstacles the government places in its path. The middle class does not vote. Children belonging to middle class families want to educate themselves here and then migrate to other countries.

Even politicians do not focus on the middle class as they get their votes from the working class and the money from the bourgeoisie, ie. rich and powerful. Even though it is neglected by leaps and bounds, the middle class selfishly soldiers on and remains the highest consumer by volume for most of the goods and services available in the country.

I am not a communist and neither am I advocating a revolution but the recent support shown to Anna Hazare's anti-corruption and Lokpal campaign does indicate that the middle class back has finally reached the wall.

The youth who haven't seen or do not remember India pre-liberalization are getting impatient. They aren't seeing India progress even half as fast as it has the potential to. There is a clamour for seats at prestigious institutions which is leaving many aspirations unfulfilled. There is an awareness of how the lives of their contemporaries in developed countries are better as far as comfort is concerned.

I'm not a fan of satyagraha. I also know that Anna Hazare's mentality, knowingly or unknowingly, is anarchic. I also have faith that there are certain people in the government, especially the Prime Minister are not delaying the passing of the bill on purpose but want a healthy deliberation which Mr. Hazare is not too keen on. I also cringe at the thought of protesting with banners and holding candlelight vigils. Lastly and importantly, the country is still dealing with issues more dastardly and more rampant than corruption - female foeticide/infanticide, dowry death, caste segregation, honour killings, child marriages, etc. I am not 'caught on' to the movement as much as my contemporaries are!

Even then, the volume of people supporting his cause is heartwarming as it is only this volume that will make the UPA and Congress higher-ups who have been taking the nation for granted, a bit rattled. As one of my friends on facebook put - "Dear govt I hope you realize that people are not WITH anybody but AGAINST you". You don't have to be a Hazare supporter to be against corruption, you just need to be against corruption.

I don't see a revolution happening in India like the one recently happened in Egypt to overthrow Mubarak. India is too large and diverse a country for a sustained revolution. But one thing is for certain - people's backs have touched the wall and the government would be a fool to take the consumer class for granted.

Cyber-BJP maniacs

I'm back after almost 3 months and I found it appropriate to rekindle my passion for BJP bashing in this comeback! Recently, I had this cyber showdown with a Narendra Modi worshipper on facebook and it got a bit ugly. He was a typical cyber-BJP supporter and believe me, the quantity in which cyber-BJP maniacs post their crap on the net, it seems the population of India is lesser than the number of such people!

However, I have observed something recently. There are two distinct types of cyber-BJP maniacs.

Type 1: Trolls: I hope I don't have to explain what a troll is, anyway, check this link: Troll, only read the first 3 definitions. Check the web fora or newspaper sites of any country, the trolls are almost always right-wingers. Same is the case with India. Sometimes I wonder if BJP sponsors these nutcases to spread their foolish propaganda over the net or hardcore fans of the BJP, by their nature are just acting themselves. The impact of such cyber-maniacs can be seen through annoyance of pro-liberals like Vir Sanghvi, Sagarika Ghose, Ranvir Shorey, etc... they are inundated with abusive, illogical rants, especially in their twitter accounts. In fact, Sagarika Ghose coined the term "Internet Hindus" to describe them.

Type 2: Logic Abusers: Sometimes logic can be a tricky thing! It can be used (read abused) to get caught up in semantics and drifting from the main topic in hand. For example, the person I mentioned in the introductory paragraph somehow agreed that Narendra Modi in some way, could be held responsible for the post-Godhra carnage but fingers should not be pointed on the individual but on the system as it was a 'systemic failure'. He also used some more fancy words like 'retributive effect' which I didn't seem to get as I'm not good with semantics beyond a point! Although trolls largely outnumber such logic abusers, such logic abusers do make their presence felt and keep smartly diverting from obvious truths. Arun Jaitley, the biggest logic abuser in the country would be proud of them!

Although, there is one thing common between the two types. They automatically assume anti-BJP people as Congress-supporters or Hindu-haters. Why can't they seem to understand that there are many people like me who are not much in favour of the Congress either and have nothing against the Hindus? In fact I am a Hindu!

I guess abusive rants and diversionary logic are the only recourses to support fascism.