Millennium musings

And with that one thought. A millennium doesn’t change anything. Nor does tall talk. What perhaps could have changed a few things could have been the realisation of a second chance, an opportunity to start afresh. To think out the mistakes and great achievements of the past and then exercise our choice of decision.

But as always we missed the bus. And at the end of it, nobody seems to be bothered. Almost as if we never indulged in all that hoopla some time back. In any case it is smart to feign ignorance once you are face to face with a fiasco. So why should anybody want to think about it now?

If anything, things seem to have remained just the same, if not become worse. We have had the cricket match-fixing scandal which has shaken the country’s faith in its heros, the usual monotonous talk from our politicians — on second thoughts, who really listens to them now? A central minister resigning and you know it is drama time again, more train accidents… the list goes on. Some start to a millennium this has been.

And at the same time there is a crystal realisation that a millennium doesn’t mean anything to the majority in this nation who earn just enough to survive each day. And as you make your way to the office at every red light you encounter faces that remind you… of what? Nothing at all. Except the wretchedness of life that this nation offers. And the hope, well, somehow this word only doesn’t ring true here.

In the normal course of things, it takes aeons for things to change. And for new ideas to be accepted, almost an eternity. So the mere passing of one year of the millennium shouldn’t be depressing but at the same time it could be that perfect excuse to sit and ponder. To quietly say to ourselves, no to all such hype and frenzy in the future. For a change, we will try and be a little more honest with our selves and our truths.

And the biggest culprit in this case could be the media. Participating in the hype around frivolities and replacing serious and important issues (they are too boring, remember) with meaningless stories… hope and vision for a better tomorrow then dies out very easily. Who wants to read or watch stories about the poor, who wants to watch a documentary on the lives in the slums? It makes better business sense to write about every idiot who makes it to the idiot box, and see movies with exotic locales and the dumbest of scripts. But then I wonder, when did issues become business? Maybe that is what happened at the onset of the millennium with everyone adding heartily to the frivolity, instead of trying to say something sane.

Perhaps we can end this first year of a new millennium on a positive note. To try and think a little more, even if thinking is no longer the in thing.