The Time Paradox

Once upon a time there lived a nuclear family comprising our hero and his parents in a village that was developing (so called) rapidly. As our hero grows, he completes his schooling in the village. He graduates with aspirations to pursue higher education and his fascination for the charms of urban lifestyle brings him to the state’s capital city for higher education. Enamored by the urban cultural diversity, sophisticated lifestyle and tremendous growth opportunities, his fondness for the city grows. After the initial enticement, he finds to his great disappointment that the urban lifestyle is not as rosy as it appears to be. He begins to notice the stark reality of the fast paced life of city dwellers. He realizes that people use every means to save time, only to end up wasting the saved time. Well, this could be our own story and the story of many people around us.

On a closer look at the present scenario of our lives. Right from the mobile phones to personal automobiles we use, saves our time. In the good old days we used to write letters which would convey our messages days later. Now, mobile phones can convey messages faster than the speed of sound. As we find public transport tiring and time consuming, we chose to travel in personalized bikes and cars. The extent of the fast paced life has even affected our food habits. We find fast foods faster and easier to make. Well my dear friends, the question here is, has anyone wondered what is happening to the saved time which we are accumulating with our fast means of living? Where does the saved time go?

On a closer scrutiny, it seems paradoxical to me. We expedite all the processes involved in our daily activities to make time so that we could spend some quality time on things that would give us peace and happiness. But we seldom use the saved time for the right purpose. Instead, we use it to find means to save some more time. Doing this again and again, man has fallen into the vicious circle of time saving rather than enjoying the saved time. Though I am not a sage to say which the right mode of living is, I believe that being aware of few subtle things in life can make our lives more humane and give a new perspective to it. Let us relish the pastry in hand instead of craving for a full cake.

The Man Media Convolution

Did you know that just by taking into account the top 6 scams in India, the government has swindled 401 rupees out of every citizen in the country? By every Indian citizen I mean the entire 1.2 billion population of India. Thanks to the freedom of press and media Act readily complemented by freedom of speech and expression rights which has brought many such scams into limelight to the otherwise ignorant citizens.  Indian press and media have continuously proved over time that pen is always mightier. This pen has the capability to instigate rebellion against oppression, inflict serious damages to the wealthy pockets containing illicit money and tame the rising power of the lawmakers. Although, the press and media does seem to have a lot of positives to brag about, taking into account the contemporary scenario I would say it is certainly not carrying its rich legacy to the future.

Newspapers and media have become a business rather than being a source of information. Articles and news featuring nonsense have become a trend just because it has a good Target Rating Points(TRP) value. To quote an instance, how many of us are aware of rising refugee deaths in crises hit Turkey? I don’t think the crises conditions in Turkey ever made it to the first page of any of the Indian newspapers. We all share a similar conviction that our country belongs to a different planet and anything that happens to the rest of the world doesn’t qualify it to feature in our tabloid. Disregarding the international scenarios, how many of us are aware of the alarming rate of farmer suicidal in our own country? How many of us are aware of the rising inflation and decreasing rate of agricultural output. Well, how will these news be published in the front page when the curious case of Indrani Mukerjea had taken its place on the front pages of every Indian newspaper! 

On a closer look, it seems confusing either to blame the media or the readers. Are the readers reading these rubbish news just because they are being fed the same, or the news agencies publish these news because the readers like to read rubbish. It does appear paradoxical. It used to be my conjecture that the press was the eyes of the common man that brought light to many sensitive issues to be dealt by the government in the near future. Nevertheless I could positively say that my beliefs are being proven wrong again and again on a daily basis. I cannot educate an entire institution called Press and Media. I can only preach to my fellow readers to give importance to the right news by turning a deaf ear to nonsenses. I am convinced that this could constructively develop the nation in the long run.