All I care for is the truth; and if not truth, something close by: transparency, accountability, credibility, validity, dependability; all the abilities combined together. At least make an effort is what I say; make an effort to put the word out, to make it worth all the efforts.[break]
Last time I heard, the XYZ corporate is giving out ten LCDs, two DIOs, one Civil Homes (and the list goes on) to its ten lucky customer. Last time I heard, the PQR media is throwing away a bumper prize for its lucky subscribers.
Last time I heard, the TOP company is distributing free umbrellas (the monsoon craze they call it) to whoever rings their bell. Last time I heard, the CC Café gives you one free drink with two combo meals.
Last time I heard, the kirana pasal’s uncle is giving out free orange ball with every purchase of Gyan Chakki Aata. I have never in my life met any of those lucky winners; I wonder if they exist. Least is to say, I have never been one of those lucky winners.
If you take some time out to look around and see, you will realize the world has become a magician’s hat and everyone is waiting; the sweet, dripping anticipation, for the magician to pull out a rabbit, or a motorbike, or a car, or a house, or gold, or television set, or a trip to Malaysia. And the sweet, dripping anticipation is rewarded with an illusion of all the aforementioned.
You are bored of the mundane, but you are routinized; you are enraged with the instability, but you have grown comfortable; you complain but you comply; you disagree and deny but there is no way out.
You give in to the gimmicks of the magicians (read: whatever you want to fill this space with) because you see no power in humanity; you have lost faith in the leaders and you need to survive. All because you are “happy” with the junks that you are showered with in every purchase, subscription, and prescription.
Gimmicks; that is what our lives have trickled down to. That is the oxygen we breathe in and the carbon dioxide we breathe out for others to breathe in.
What we forget is that we pay for those gimmicks to run their circus. We, the ones at the receiving end, are also at the giving end; like a humongous and horrid tunnel that leads you to despair because there used to be a beginning that is now lost in the maze and there is supposed to be an end that is nowhere in sight.
Humanity is an amazing thing: it allows me to believe that my parents were meant to be (that was no gimmick). It shows me that my education matters no matter how many more of “me” is produced (that was no gimmick). It helps me breathe and maintain my calm; because what I am now, and what I think to be, is no gimmick.
However, humanity is also weak. Like it is strong. It has a tendency to go frail; rely on science, invent comfort, define being, and go stagnant. Humanity’s kryptonite is gimmicks.
This morning, I bought myself some cucumber, tomatoes, onion, and lemon; it was drizzling and the didi under the umbrella did not offer me any bumper prizes, I was no lucky customer; I was an ordinary individual trying to make myself a salad. And a salad prepared from locally produced freshies is no gimmick.
Because you know I don’t like gimmicks.
Give me no gimmicks, I am no ordinary individual. Give me no gimmicks, because I think; over-think and think over again. Give me no gimmicks; because I care.
My question is: do you subscribe to these gimmicks? Are you one of those individuals who have given up?
For more on Sisakalam, visit sisakalam.wordpress.com
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