What should I be afraid of??

Terror attacks in Mumbai had left an impact over so many people in so many different ways. Right from the top most authorities of the nation till the common man. My deepest condolences to the families who lost their dearest ones, I salute the brave souls who fought hard against the terrorists. I admire the attitude with which the citizens of India took up this issue and have started to press the government hard to protect the interests of this county. But this episode has raised too many controversial questions in my head. People might even call me stupid and will advise me not to worry about these things, but that’s the reason blogs are there for, to express ourselves.

                                    What happens when a lie is being repeated a billion times, what would be the effect of it over a common man who doesn’t think much or when the common man trusts the person who tells that lie repeatedly? The result, you are being put into a situation where you’ll start to believe that is true. This was almost the same scenario with the recent terror attacks over Mumbai and this was the role that the media played with the common man.

                        The news broadcast said that India’s heritage symbol The Taj hotel has been put to attack and siege by the terrorists. As far as I know, being a citizen of India, the Taj hotel or the Trident hotel wouldn’t be called as heritage sites. If it was up to me the CST station is a heritage site. But the most miserable thing was that no media channel was giving detailed reports about the situation over there. They virtually ignored the whole story happened over there. Their only priority was the so called Indian heritage symbol, the Taj mahal paradise hotel.

                        I don’t know how important the Taj and Trident hotels are in the life of an ordinary resident of Mumbai. Of so many media persons, fire brigade or even the army personnel, who were stationed there, I am very sure that most of them won’t be able to afford for a coffee at these hotels.

                        These hotels are the play grounds of the rich and the super rich. The super high class citizens of India and around the world. These super rich may be politicians, industrialist, movie stars, people of the underworld and many more. They virtually decide how the country must be run. These people determine who rules the country and who doesn’t. These people play the power politics sitting behind a screen. And these hotels are places where these kinds of people stay but the common man doesn’t. These hotels cannot become the symbol of the common man or even the country.

                        The sub-urban train service of Mumbai carries nearly a million citizens of Mumbai everyday down and up the whole city. Those people are actually the pillars of Mumbai and they are responsible for the growth of the city. When the trains were bombed sometime back, there wasn’t so much outburst or angst from the media.  There were bombings in trains, markets and so many other public places where the common man was hurt so badly in the past. But the common man was strong enough to put these kinds of things on the back seat and return to their routine on the immediate next day. And there wasn’t so much of media attention given to these attacks also. It was publicized for a day or so and further no actions were taken. But look at the picture now, the terrorists were smart enough to pick targets of the rich and super rich. They invoked fear into them, they made the super rich know, that their safety is also under jeopardy. And in the big picture, the terrorists got the attention they needed; the government is taking drastic changes in its policies of safety and security. It had even approached the UN assembly regarding this issue. And there were few other changes in the cabinet and even the state’s Chief Minister lost his job. Did these things happen when the common was the target? Aren’t they citizens of this country too?

                        When the common man was targeted earlier, and when they came back to their routine lives the very next day, the businesses of these people weren’t affected. The media was hailing about “Spirit of Mumbai”. But when the super rich and the people who run the media were attacked directly and when their security was jeopardized, and their businesses being threatened, the media pushes the common man to stand up and fight. They tell people “Enough is enough, let us stand up and fight against terror”.

                        The media is also blaming the government with this issue. It can be agreed to a certain extent that it happened because of the carelessness shown towards the intelligence, the government received. But the media is criticizing the government beyond a limit. The media was even injecting a thought into people towards dictatorship in our country, it even supported people, again the super rich, who were injecting the thoughts of bringing in a dictator for this country. Dictators are very easy to be dealt by these rich and affluent people. In democracy, there will be at least one soul, which cannot be corrupted, will always stand against people like them, and show genuine interest towards the common man of this country. In democracy, the common man is the ruler and the politicians are always under a threat, and they cannot work against the people beyond a limit. Dictators can be easily corrupted. Dictators have always been either psychotic or puppets. That is what history tells us. When media is trying to spread a thought like this towards the people, isn’t it working against democracy?

                        What I felt is that there are two kinds of terrorists, the ones who use bullets, guns to kill innocent civilians in a random act of madness. They plan only to raise the death count. But there are other breeds of terrorists who are well educated,  who plan to attack our integrity, manipulate our psyche and try to make us live in a constant state of confusion and fear. People have to be aware enough to know what is happening around them. People should always possess this clarity of thought and shouldn’t allow any external idiocracy to influence it. Be awake, keep thinking.

Creative.....or Copy cat??

Recently when I was browsing through the internet, I came across this web page pointing out to the music in Indian cinema which has been “lifted” from other sources of world music. Yes, this is a very controversial topic indeed and it is agreeable to a certain extent that there are composers in the Indian music industry who have lifted songs from all over the world and from their own counter-parts also. These are done so blatantly that even the common man who just listens and enjoys music can point it out. This, as a musician I can call it as outright copying or so called plagiarism. There have been numerous instances when this has been happened and we all shall agree to it.

                                    But the same webpage points out so many musical pieces by legendary composers in the Indian music industry.  But to point out a few, there were certain compositions which were identified as “lifted” by say Illayaraja, I am citing him because I’ve been listening to so much of his music right from my childhood, that makes things easier for me. The webpage says he has copied music from the symphonies of Mozart and Beethoven and certain Russian symphony writers. They are pointing towards certain compositions of AR.Rahman also where they claim there is plagiarism.

                                    As a musician myself I got to admit that some of their works were similar. But most of the cases like IR’s inspirations from the symphonies were magical. I got to admit that too. Every artist draws his inspirations from the things from which he was inspired. Creativity cannot be original always because what you create is from the things which you have been influenced by.  Being creative is a sub-conscious and a subtle process. It doesn’t involve rationality like mathematics or physics. On that note even physics and a lot of inventions were “created” from the so called inspirations from the nature.

               I have to agree to the fact that since music industry involves a lot of money nowadays, things like these have to be avoided. If some composer is inspired from someone else’s music, a proper formal approach can be taken up so that issues like these don’t arise. I also have to say that people like the one who runs the webpage, sitting at his office, listening to someone else’s creativity and searching through the entire world for something similar are very stupid and wasting their precious time. They have to understand the basic fact that inspiration from things plays a very huge role in a person’s creativity. And I also strongly believe that creative works shouldn’t be analyzed with a rational mind, because it never does justice to a person’s creativity. Rationality has it own limits. But kudos to the people who run the webpage for bringing out composers who have literally “copied” music as claimed by the page.

 

And by the way, if you people are interested in checking out the web page, here’s the link

www.itwofs.com