Violation of privacy at its best

The other night out of sheer boredom and in order to stay awake for my nocturnal husband, I was surfing on the television. I cam across star world which used to be my favourite channel during the days of frasier Crane, Friends, Whose line is it anyways etc.. A sense of curiosity on what was currently happening on this channel made my stop and watch. There was a reality show going on and I decided to give it a dekho since there was no concern about continutiy. There was a suited man sitting opposite a lady dressed in a severely low necked dress looking rather ill at ease. The crowd was hooting at something she had just said that had supposedly won her a considerable amount of money. I then gathered the name of the show - "Moment of Truth" which supposedly tested how honest you were and how far you would go to win a 100 thousand dollars.

The questions asked were as intrusive as they could get and all desired to produce one effect - salacious pleasure for the audience to sate the voyeur that lurks in most of us. That a channel should try to pander to the peeping top- gossip monger in people stunned me. How far would they go for TRPs, i thought. They had interspersed the show with "highlights" of other shows where people were being asked if they had cheated on their girlfrieds, slept with people and every possible outrageously personal question you could think of. And undoubtedly the answer was scandalous. Yes people had cheated, yes they had slept around.. So we get to peek into the fetid underbelly of society. But to make an open confession out of it and in the presence of the very near and dear ones who the confession will devastate the most is ridiculous. There were actually live reactions of these people reacting to these "truths". You had a heart broken father listen to his daughter dosowning him, a sister who had to listen to her sister refusing to have her as her bridesmaid should she get married and that was supposed to be worth a hundred thousand dollars

What are getting to? Are we saying that emotions are calculable, can be valued with money and that breaking people's hearts is actually a sign of strength that requires rewarding? I think the entire thing is just a sign of how materialistic and self centered we have become as a society and how instant gratification and salacious fun is now justified by any violation - be it one of privacy or values

Nature the perfect balm to all your worries

Life has been pretty hectic the last month so have not had a second to write. Many thoughts slipped over each other and disappeared into the vast sea of consciousness, never to be expressed. How many times have we had a beautiful thought, an observation that desperately wanted expression but due to absence of an audience or a willing ear, it just fades away into the mundanities of day to day living. What a pity. Wish I had a recorder embedded in my brain to save these thoughts..

Normally my husband is my confidant, my sounding box who has to listen to my every thought but he is so busy of late that it seems criminal to disturb him with a passing thought.

When I used to be younger and life was less complex, I would retreat to the water tank at every opportunity. I would sit with my back against the wall of the water tank and look at the senset and converse with the gods. I have always believed that if there is a God then he resides in the sunrise and the sunset. Such beauty could only be possible by the master artist himself. And what would surprise me is how original each masterpiece would be..no two sunsets are the same. Sometimes the sun is in a hurry to slip away from the world and all its weariness and some other days he takes his time, painting a myriad colors on the canvas of the sky. As the skies were streaked with tongues of fire and the horizon took on an orange haze slipping into vermillion and then finally azure the stars would suddenly make their presence known, one by one. Isnt the fact that the stars are always there in the skies but visible only at night a classic example of Maya- an optical illusion.

The other sight that never fails to calm me is the sight of the waves crashing on the shore. I can sit for hours on the beach and listen to the sound of the sea. The sight of the frothing waves, the sound of the mighty walls of water beating down on the shore can drown every worry every sorrow and make your issue seem so insignificant in the general scheme of things. Issues that seemed mammoth in proportions can suddenly shrink to oblivion when we see things in proportion. The problem is that when we are in the issue it is quite like the frog in the well. The issue assumes collosal propotions and significance and threatens to blot everything else. However nature has the ability to set things back into perspective, to help us realise that we are only a small part of the great scheme of things.