I did not cry but nor can I say that tears did not come to my eyes. Call me a loser, call me a sissy. Call me whatever you like but for a fact I know what I actually am. A pure hypocrite. This blog is not a review of the movie at which my first sentence holds good : “My Name is Khan”(from the epiglotis). This is about something I realized while I was watching it. The tears or the feeling of sadness(to put it a bit manly) were NOT for Kajol or the suffering Khan(who, I have to admit, pulled off the role pretty well but at the same time gave me the image of not having to work too much to “act” new). It was not about the loss of a son or the life of a mentally challenged character. It was about the plight of the world. The acts of cruelty, the misunderstandings and also a feeling of detached pride in random acts of unity. Scenes portraying the patriotic, nationalistic and stray incidents of unity and courage always gave me goosebumps and what can be termed as “welling of the eyes”. For those of you who did watch the Khan as Khan flick, some scenes I can quote as examples are 1) the search at the airport, 2) Sam’s incident 3) the Georgia incident : not Shahrukh going over but when his relatives, and friends come to help. At the same time the scenes which irked me included the US teacher talking about “Islam” and the talk by the “doctor” to inspire Jihadism but there again the correct interpretation provided by Khan gave a sense of righteousness to the set. It is not religion, it is not nationality, nor race, colour, language that diversifies man. It is the good and the bad. Quoting another famous flick “You either die a hero or live long enough to be a villain”. The same way as absence of light is darkness, inaction or the absence of good is bad/evil. But I shall not stray into my “philosophies” on religion or “humanity” in this blog. Throughout the movie I felt that sadness due to the stereotyped portrayal of a specific set of people; be it religion or color.
That’s where I come in. On reading an article related to the Indo-Pak venture “Aman ki aasha”, I realized more than half of what they wrote was true. I would recommend the article for those who are interested. Our image of a topi(Taqiyah in Arabic) wearing man with long beard and robe has been combined with the same images of that person sitting around tables hatching plans to blow up a landmark. The media, movies and every single form of communication have shown remade “adaptations” of these images. Regardless of the number of disclaimers on being shown these two images side by side any person would just “logically” reason out a bunch of crap. Why not a man with a tshirt and jeans? Why not a guy in a coat?? It’s an image that generates a thought; an idea. I am not going to use any general terms here. Coz on contemplating at the end of the movie, I realized one thing I am just a HYPOCRITE. Just a day before I had these “fake emotions” flowing in, I was roaming around Hyderabad . As usual, lost and far from home!(I seriously should get a GPS and map while driving). At a point where I was definite I was going the wrong way, I stopped to ask directions. The person I happened to stop near was the typical stereotyped “long beard, topiwala” and my first response was “Would he really give me the right direction”. Disgusting. For the record, the way I asked him or talked to him did not get affected by this and he was a very pleasant man. Then WHY this stupid misconception. Why that thought!! Even after the movie and on hearing about the Pune blast my mind rushed to that spot. He was getting off a scooter. Boom!! This is me. I give a load of crap about being righteous, about being against religious fanaticism(which I strongly AM against) but at the same time I think like this. I fear/doubt an image. Why is it that we are made to believe that he or any man who looks like that can’t be our neighbor, manager or friend! It is not just the world that bothers me, nor the media. Right now it is me. And how much of a hypocrite I am. To all those people out there to whose images I have attached incidents : I can’t stop thinking or imagining but please accept my apologies.
P.S : I know for a fact, i do not speak about just myself here.
Later,
Shanker
10 comments:
Well written. Misconceptions are what are present by default in the human mind. People are, often, either not aware of their misconceptions, or they are aware, but they never accept it because to continue with these false impressions are easier for them than accepting their mistakes. Not for a single moment, while reading your post, I felt you are a hypocrite. You are not, because you had the self realization that you were wrong at that very moment of time, and you had the guts to write it off in a public forum. And I am damn sure you will not repeat the same the next time you meet a man with a beard.
Religion is a difficult term. But, life is even more difficult. Religion is supposed to be something on which a person banks upon in times of distress, when everything just seems to move out of human control. But unfortunately, a few people make use of the same term - "religion" - to make life even more difficult - difficult for people like you, me and people like your "Topiwala". And not only you, but rather every person on this earth needs to understand this fact clean and clear - Not every "Khan" (from epiglotis) is a terrorist. Those who are, have no right to call themselves by that name which also belongs to millions of common, harmless and innocent men on planet earth!
Cheers. Keep writing.
Nice read. i don't want to upset any religious faith over here, but its all just turning us against each other. we should really look deep into ourselves, coz we only created this animosity and we must understand that we are better than this. myriad of worst things are out there, seeking proper attention hidden in the plain sight but nobody really cares... i second, hypocrite is the right word.
Wonderful write up.You moved me enough to watch the movie asap
@abhishek : Thanks man. I feel your comment had more passion than my blog. Kudos.
@exodus: thanks
@sheejechi: wasnt exactly written to inspire watching the movie but okaii..hehe
Liked it.
Even today I was thinking along the same lines while discussing about pune blasts... There is no other way one can get rid of this mindset, unless each one of us makes a conscious effort to get the 'not so right' images out of one's head...
nice post,you definitely brought to light our perception of stereotypes and the appalling ease with which we fall prey to them.
Nice brief and this enter helped me alot in my college assignement. Gratefulness you as your information.
I was gonna post a longer comment but then I read abhishek's. His first para just spoke most of what was on my mind.
Forming stereotypes is something the human mind does by default. Don't beat yourself up over it. If you remember the HR classes we attended in 8th sem. The section on perception. Forming stereotypes is a natural way our brain operates because it is less taxing mentally. What we do have control of, is to be aware of this fact and make a conscious decision to not make negative judgments based on the stereotypes. And in that department, you seem to have done really well. So calling urself hypocrite is too harsh if you ask me.
Nice post man...i just stumbled on your blog...i live in Ahmedabad and what happened here makes me very sensitive to the religion-politics-islam thing.I believe its just as much the other guy's fault as ours.
Will u trust a clean shaven Muslim more or one with a beard and topi? One reason why I like what Sarkozy has been doin in France. Not having a beard, topi and burkha helps create a common cosmopolitan culture.
Nice post. :-)
@Janit: thanks for the comment. its a hard call infact.. I agree that i'd trust the clean shaven guy more although completely knowing that it doesnt make sense.. its all in the head.. the media's naming of "baby face" Kasab highlights how outward appearance makes u judge people.. but then again if we can look past all this beard,topi,turbans,and wat not, banning religious customs seems just like curbing another man's freedom... for some its a logical decision, for many its a decree they will have to live with but for some other's its a weapon and THEY are the scary lot!!
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