Miss the maturity: Chronicles of Cardiff

Everything has its limit!

I say this to myself and to others usually. When I first came here to the Cardiff city to do my post graduation, I didn't have the slightest idea that I would find such good company here. The company of friends. It took me, for the first time I suppose, almost no time to get along with people here so easily. Almost all of my friends are from the same country, and being away from respective home played its part, and we quickly became comfortable with one another. Sharing our stories with each others, cracking jokes at almost every sentence we spoke became the norm. However the speed has its repercussions as well. And it happened here too, for me at least.

A big part of my life during and after graduation had been filled with serious reading and contemplation, and discussion of issues that hardly any one of my age would have done at that stage. The friend circle that I've always had, especially after my graduation is the one I know I would cherish till my time comes. The intellectual atmosphere that I was in, the spiritual uplifting that I got was refreshing. Every time I felt like I was losing myself, I would seek the company, meet with those friends and then feel the rejuvenation. It was this friend circle, the reading and the discussions within it that actually and eventually brought me to this city for doing my MBA.

Now, as I'm here, I was supposed to do my work sincerely as I had taken a risk of leaving a good-earning job for it. Alas, I'm not doing that. I blame myself for it. I've let myself too much into the jokes and senseless discussions here. It's reaching the brink of insanity. My reading has gone to the lowest, my studies disrupted. And the worst, I now feel like I've even started losing my religion. It is just at the beginning stage, but I can sense the decline in the spirituality - the very force that keeps me ticking. Maturity is one thing I feel lacks so much in our talks. This I miss the most. And from my past 2-3 days it's actually making me feel like I've had enough of all these. I want to go back home as soon as I can... Miss the maturity, miss the touch with the reality. I don't wanna get trapped in the matrix of delusions!

God help!

P.S. (This was by no mean a critique of my friends here. No. They are my treasure! I'm simply turning over the coin and looking at the other side of it. It is a critique on myself.)

Is democracy failing?

I've been thinking a great deal on this question: what has become of the word so dear to everyone, 'democracy'? It strikes me at moments when I don't understand how people can be so blind to the injustices perpetrated on other human beings by individuals or political parties. I think it is the frailty of human mind: "self-interest". This thing in itself can't be a problem. It's a law of nature that allows an individual to grow, learn, adapt, innovate and even to contribute. The problem where I think starts is when the boundaries of this self-interest starts narrowing down, up to the point that an individual thinks of nothing but his/her personal interests, even if it comes at the expense of the other's interests!


When this happens, it becomes easy for the political parties to play with the public: to pit people against people while they enjoy the benefits that the current "democratic" system offers to those who are in power. And what about the people who are away from it? Who do not fall into this violence? Hardly is there any voice from these apolitical ones. And when they speak, they limit themselves to petty regional politics or to local-level administration only. They almost never discuss issues that really matter, the policies that the govt after Govt. follow. This becomes a major plus point for the powerful. They tend to exploit this situation.

We have such examples where the parties and individuals get away with crimes, murders and genocides. Improve the administration, make it more business-friendly, and there you go. Almost no one is interested in finding out about the crimes they had committed earlier. Some of the influential would even try not to get the truth out as it might disturb the stable environment so needed for the business. And many are simply happy with the "freedom" they think they are getting. This departure from the reality is partly due to the skewed and manipulated reporting of the main-stream media. The misrepresentation and outright lies about the different communities living in the country by movies has also played its part.


There are also those, the tiny minority, who understand what democracy means, who refuse to give in to the powerful and who refuse to accept every piece of news they get from the corporate media. What happens to them? Silenced! Killed! Raped! or simply Ignored! Still some are fighting. Some fight in the literal sense. They pick up arms to make their voices so loud that they cannot be ignored. Do they still get their right? As far as it can be seen, no! There is a major war taking place in the heartland of the country. Villages are being burnt, forests are being cleared, and people are being left homeless, their livelihoods destroyed.

What happens to such a "democracy"? Can it be called a democracy in the first place? If yes, then what is left of it today? Is democracy just about maintaining vote banks? Is it failing?? What is missing that is so essential to the very functioning of a democracy?