I'm ashamed of wasting my Friday morning

'Breaking News': "South Indian Silsila"...

What a marriage of words! The media played it up and the passionate lot lapped it up.

Ugly statements, I-told-you-so buffs, blessings, predictions, sympathy, pity, tributes, photoshopp-ed  pictures and cheeky one-liners... Enough!

So how do I know the order? I am also guilty of having followed it for some time yesterday morning, before realising my shamefulness.

I've had a soft-corner for Munju Warrier - purely on the basis of what I read and heard in the media - all pass-me-down information.

But how am I authorised to conclude anything about another's marital life? Whatever  happened the way it happened can be only understood if we go in and reside inside the conscience of each of the three characters involved.

One: That's impossible. So let's not judge.

Two: There is no right and wrong. There's only perceptions.

Three: I will not take sides with either camp [supporting Dileep or Manju Warrier] who claim with pride to have smelled the smoke or seen the fire.

Because:

In my 20 years of experience as a journalist, I've played a shameless part in 'making' actresses pregnant and zooming in on the underpants of models only to create 'silsilas'  in order to have a 'Breaking News' for the day so that I could visit the ATM at the month-end.

Hope this explanation vindicates me of the guilt and shamelessness.

Marriage is an intricate union, which can 'survive' if it pacifies the dictates of a complex mind and impenetrable heart. Some choose to 'thrive' than merely 'survive'. That's when they become fodder to the average lot.

Yes, I wish more power to Warrier. May her be ultra-successful and achieve the highest rewards in what she chooses to do.

Yes, I wish more power to the newly-weds so they find the happiness and peace and whatever else it is that they seek to have through this union.

Now to the passionate Indians:

As adults each one of us has the right to choose a partner when we wish to and walk away when we feel it's not worth it.

But majority of us are blinded by misplaced passion and superficial correctness of how a relationship should work, based on beliefs. And unfortunately that begins at home. We need to settle down at a certain age, we need to take the permission of 1,2,3; we need to choose from a.b.c; we cannot look at x, y, z...

All you parents who are reading this:

Please understand the duty of a parent is to ensure your child stands on his/her own two feet. It ends there. Period. After that how they lead their lives, if they make mistakes, if they reap rewards... it's up to them. That's why we are bloody born on this planet. To grow, not to be spoon-fed and leashed in and moulded as adults...

Okay, enough, I'm veering off the subject.

God Bless!

Why I love Arnab Goswami

Let me confess outright here. I am NOT a fan of journalist Arnab Goswami and his whirlwind  'The Newshour'.

He disrespects Indian Constitution, which he hollers to be the uncoronated custodian of. He invites people to his show to work them up so mercilessly, denying them their basic right of expression. Modiji could explain the Fundamental Rights to him. Or perhaps, Smriti Irani could do that better. In matters of the mind, after all wavelength matters!

People love to hate him and all the same hate to love him, too. He may be loud, brash, arrogant, ignorant, impatient...possibly all of these and more. His attitude of 'my way or the high way' riles people and yet they tolerate him, when in the 21st century they have an easy option of switching channels without having to work their ass off.

Somewhere within, people fear missing him.

How else can you justify the reaction that his resignation has evoked. I find it ridiculous when people heave a sigh of relief that he's quit but are eager to know what's his next move. They blame him of impatience and they have got not an iota of it. People are enthusiastically guessing his next venture, when he's gonna return, where and how and with whom. Not satisfied, they have suggestions, too.

This is the average lot. Average minds tolerate people that fit into their mediocrity. They encourage people with pity to let them be or praise and eulogize them as one among them out there trying to make it. But once they cross over the bar and 'make it', then the lot considers it their birth right to shred them.

Arnab connects with the armchair-opinion-makers

Let's get this straight... Arnab has successfully managed to touch a cord in the masses. He connects with the armchair-opinion-makers. On issues that disturb them but are lazy to act upon or are helpless to support, he does the shouting and protesting on their behalf. Period. They let him stroke their ego on national issues. But when they have to take sides, their little selves within rise up. And they accuse him, lampoon him and talk ethics when they could easily IGNORE him.

Simply because, it is difficult to ignore success. It's in your face. You can acknowledge it or discard it, but you can't ignore it.

Arnab Goswami has changed the face of Indian media. Whether it is right or wrong or you endorse it or not, or if he's set of a disastrous trend, notwithstanding. This is the truth. And it is his passion that's got the world talking!

That's why I love this man - Arnab Goswami the individual, the person.

I love his passion and his unwavering dedication. He's clear about what he wants in life and he's worked towards it, without a care to the critics. That's the trait of successful people. They are focussed and let nothing hamper their vision. If only all of us could have such clear intent and make our respective lives worthwhile doing what we love instead of making one man's decision a colossal issue.

He is just one among the 7 billion-odd people on a small piece of rock, which in turn is spinning in empty space.

So relax guys!

Live your life, while you have it!