Blank noise

You can run but you can’t hide. They entice you to buy or sell something or go somewhere or just want you to know that they exist. They relentlessly pursue your last buck and even when they have it, it’s not enough. Then they want to give you their money for a while so you can go ahead and feed the system. They want their money back, of course, albeit with an interest.

It is not only the corporates or even a common advertiser that I am talking about. Also, the conversations which revolve around the same damn thing, the disturbingly stupid get who insists on testing his mobile phone ring tones in a miserably crowded train, the constant chatter about issues that nobody really gives a damn about and so on and so forth. I could go on, but I guess you get the point

The concept of individual space is completely lost in a city like Mumbai. Before you scream bourgeois elitist, let me tell you that I love the city and its crammed trains, just spare me from the incessant bullshit!

The constant messages to which a common person is subjected to are multiplying by the minute. Like a virus replicating till the entire space in infested with the disease.

The entire expanse is riddled with bullet holes on a clear canvas of lush green tress under the canopy of the bright blue sky.

We are to blame ourselves for it. The obsession to keep oneself entertained has reached its crescendo. It begins from television for all, a book for the discerning kind, an i-pod for the young yuppie, the internet for the socially challenged and last but certainly not the least a mobile phone for the perennially bored. The entire objective is to keep oneself occupied so as to stop the possibility of thought at its inception.

‘The century of self’ as Adam Curtis would put it, is truly evolving into a heightened social chaos promulgated at an individual level. And to a great extent it is all self-inflicted.

The natural environs are cluttered with hoardings, blaring noise, LCD screens, posters, a discourse on the public announcement system, advertisements on vehicles, blinding neon signs, etc. The shared commons are defaced by this irreverent abuse.

Who gave them the right to scar my landscape with such grotesque imagery meant purely to extract a premium for a service offered? I certainly didn’t! When did we as a society decide it was alright to put up blatant propaganda instead of conserving the scenic beauty which nature has to offer every living species on this planet?

This may not go down well with my ilk but am suffering from severe media fatigue. I don’t want to read another paper, watch television, surf the net, plug in to my i-pod or answer my phone.

Silence has become a rare commodity and so also natural, uncluttered scenery.

I delve deep into my soul and look up, only to realize that the world has changed and they call it evolution, progress, better living. You decide.