Category: Uncategorized

Lustless Commercial Era of Indian Movies: A Critical Review

Why the Era! And Why Now?

I think it’s because Indian Film Industry is getting its revenge from Hollywood of not getting the money they deserved for a very long time.

In recent years, Indian Cinema has changed, good or bad is for you to decide. I’m just here to make an opinion. As Always!

The change came with a director who made larger than life movies, “The Modern Master Sir S.S. Rajamouli”. He made Bahubali which became the biggest grosser of Indian movies then. Why was the movie a hit? He amalgamated fictional mythology (not totally), amazing music, and unmatchable cinematography skills.

But what that movie sparked was the thought of shaking hands with different film industries (Bollywood and Tollywood) to make all movies Pan-India. While I understand the reason of them shaking hands as to restrict anyone from making a remake in Bollywood (as if they could!). But they wanted to make a Pan-India movie that can be released in multiple languages and make it popular worldwide. And now, we all remember the famous dialogues and songs of Bahubali! So, now all movies started becoming Pan-India and I think that is where it went all crazy.

In the effort of maximizing the audience and avoid selling remake rights, every movie now has actors from different parts of the nation. This sounds so good and inclusive in today’s world! Well, the filmmakers didn’t do anything wrong, but when you’re trying to cater everyone, you end up fucking it up. For example, you can’t expect an American to love burgers served in McDonalds for dinner. Sure, they might love it for a few days, but it’s not something they would like to do each day. The point, I’m trying to make here is, that when you’re trying to do something to make everyone happy, you end up screwing up the sauce –

For some it may be too sweet, too sour, too hot, or too bland.

So, following the patterns of “The Tipping Point, by Malcolm Gladwell”, the era of commercial movies tipped. Now, any Indian movie from a big banner has actors that may not speak the language to cater that to a particular state’s audience, but their voice is dubbed for the larger masses. Or better, release the movie in 6 different languages. The audience’s brain wires are entangled in reading subtitles suddenly in the middle of the movie or trying to do an audio-video sync for dubbed dialogues. These movies have famous actresses from different regions who hardly speak the language, but they have a screen time of 15 minutes where the total movie run-time is over 200 minutes. Also, the movie has trippy songs that can go viral months before the movie is released and die right after the release of the movie. And, what all these movies have in common? VFX!!!!! Read these last 3 letters a million times and think of all the movies that you have watched recently and had shitty VFX or let’s say unnecessary VFX that spoiled the movie and cinematography. So, all these things are making the movies Super-Hit across the world and the average collection goes to 200-300 Crores INR. But then why is it bad? I mean actors are making good money, movies are hit, giving Indian Cinema worldwide recognition, creating more jobs than ever, and receiving Golden Globe and Academy Awards. So, what went wrong? Well, here is what I think –

In the wake of making commercial and larger than life movies, the reason for which anyone watches a movie went to SHITS! Yeah, STORYLINE went down the drain. How? Let’s see..

A movie like Jawan starring King Khan was a mix of at least 5-6 Tamil, Telugu, and Hindi movies, but didn’t have a definite story. It had essence of Lion King, story of Tagore / Gabbar, action scenes from stupid Hindi and Telugu films, and a stretched storyline. The movie made the highest gross Hindi film of all-time. They had an actress from Southern India who had a good screen time, however had no impact in the movie. They had the villain from Southern India again, and I think he was the only person who did justice to acting or story line (whatever story was left). The movie had groovy music, expected Indian emotions and hitting nostalgia, but the story was missing. Why? Because Shah Rukh Khan felt the need to cater the audience in Southern India (as if he wasn’t already doing that), so he hired a Tamil director and Southern Indian actors, who did their jobs well, there were subtle VFX in the movie, but he forgot about the dead and repetitive story. And honestly, he didn’t need to cater to anyone, he’s one of the best actors in the world and doesn’t need to prove it to anyone. But you know, the pressure of making it “Larger than Life.” By the way he got the best actor award for the movie when there were people like Vicky Kaushal, Ranbir Kapoor, Vijay Sethupathi, Vikrant Massey, Ranvir Singh, and many more actors who made an impact with their work.

Similar example and the last one, I guess because I want you to keep reading.

KALKI 2898 AD, more like “KALKI AD” or after my death. YUCK! I spent $30 to watch this nonsense. The movie starred the legendary actor Sir Amitabh Bachchan, who was the only one who acted in the movie and everyone else in the movie was mere props. And as Arshad Varsi said indirectly about Prabhas. Prabhas’s character was like a Hero who didn’t know who he loves, who he wants to protect, who he wants to kill, or who he wants to act like. He wanted to be the Chris Patt of Guardians of Galaxy but ended up being the Ben Stiller of Night at the Museum in the real world. I don’t remember any notable song, which says a lot about the death of music in commercial movies just after few months of the movie release. Movie broke all records of Indian movies gross collection. The audience loved it, I don’t know which and why (I mean, I know the audience)! But yeah, you can’t say bad about the movie in an Indian café, or you can expect spit floating in your coffee mug. So, why was the movie commercial or baseless? They went on for 3 hours to make a sequel. Just for that! There was no story or excitement in the movie until the end climax (literally the last 20 minutes of the movie). Not forgetting to mention the no-acting or role actress Deepika, who didn’t have dialogs or screen-time. But they must cater to the Pan-India audience. I can’t resist to add a few more movies to this list that rambled on for 200 minutes or so, just to make a sequel or only to ruin the original movie with the sequel – Devara, Indian 2, Pushpa 2, Bhool Bhulaiya 2, SinghamNth, Phir Aayi Hasseen Dillruba, and the list is endless.

Now, there are many other examples of bad casting or bad story lines, like Rashmika in Animal, Nayantara in Jawan, Alia in RRR, Kiara in Bhool Bhulaiya 2, all women of course because male actors don’t have boobs you see! Bad music in some, poor VFX in others, poor lip sync, and the rushed climax. I think the directors / writers lose patience after a point and just end it abruptly because the production and cast can’t wait for them. I mean they have to act in other commercial movies too, right? And who cares about the story and climax?

There are other movies on the other hand that have actors who are yet to be commercialized, doesn’t mean they won’t eventually not go and do a commercial film. One example is Stree 2, the movie was a little stretched, but packed with hilarious punches, beautiful story, subtle messages of the life and state of women, and all of this without actors from 20 different industries and bad music. Few others – 12th Fail, Lucky Bhaskar, Laapata Ladies, Maharaj, Maharaja, Shaitaan, Merry Christamas, and thankfully there are a few more like these.

I understand that Indian Cinema is at a point where now actors are famous worldwide, they are becoming one of the highest paid actors, and now at least getting worldwide recognition. Now that I’m writing about it, I am thinking that it took Indian Cinema (yeah, not just Bollywood) long 75 years to get a Golden Globe and Academy for best song award and it was only possible because of high investment, amazing VFX in the movie, collaboration with different industries. So, may be that is the way for Indian Cinema to get worldwide recognition. And of course, the so-called western people consider India still a third world country. But I am scared thinking about the day when these fan-following, whistling, howling, confetti, and stampede audience will eventually stop paying to go for these baseless storyline box office hits. Because they will be bored of similar VFX and viral TikTok and Reels, Memes, Dialogs, and dance moves. Once it completes its time.

But hey, I’m just a person who loves movies way too much, so I may still end up watching some of them. I’ll not be howling or whistling, or throwing confetti, but I hope our writers and directors understand that people watch movies for fun, but also expect some reasoning, story, or sense in it.

And for y’all, the good thing is that there is not going to be a sequel for this long and opinionated article.. Ha!

Yours fearless,

The Shameless Indian

Posted on by Rakshit Goyal 0

Our System (Part 2)

Note: If you haven’t read the first part of the article, I would highly encourage giving it a quick read on this link. 

We blamed the British to play divide and rule, but we never realized that every government in our system has been playing the same game. Gujarat riots were a result of the clash between Hindus and Muslims and both the communities were and they still are, equally responsible.

To re-strengthen the caste system pillar, we recently introduced a bill that was criticized across the world, The Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAA). Personally, this is a great initiative to help the people in need, however, the question remains, “Why only people from one religion are kept out of this bill?” Because we don’t want their population to increase in our system. Why? Because they will make everyone like them, but why do we care?

It is intriguing to understand that we have collected all the eggs of the single community in a single basket and we are weighing them in the same way, but nobody understands the fact that not all the fingers in our hands are of the same size then how can people be?

To reinforce these 4 pillars, corruption came out as the 5th pillar.

But wait, what? This can all go away. Like, really? How?

We have all known the answer for all this while, but never choose to accept it. Here’s the answer:

CRITICAL THINKING

Critical thinking has an answer to most of the questions in our system, but we choose to ignore critical thinking because it takes a lot of brain, research, and knowledge and it is easier to make assumptions from the content you get from your family’s WhatsApp group which is sadly now the new sources of information.

Although education has an answer to every question raised by these pillars. But what kind of education? Religion? Holy Books? Gods? Practically, we never need the knowledge from these books because our lives have a better way of teaching us.

Critical thinking is no rocket science if you choose to study more in-depth before you talk or share the information and if you think that it is too much to do then you can always choose to ignore the information and move away from it rather than spreading it anyway.

The reason why the caste system is still a strong pillar is that we have made it so. We have chosen barking news journalists over newspaper reporters who give us an option to choose a side or make an opinion.

Our caste system is indeed required to withstand the constitutional foundation, but educating ourselves more with facts, information (verified only), and evidence will help us make our system stronger and free from biases so we can decide who was driving Salman’s car, who killed Jessica, or who owns the beef exporting companies, or what led to the misery Gujarat riots.

A few of us have heard it from our friends, and family: “Aur kitna padhega? – How much more will you study?” You might have an answer for them today, not to prove yourself right and them wrong, but for a reason.

One can never be over-dressed, over-prepared, and over-educated!

Let’s educate ourselves more to encourage self-decision making and not identifying the caste of the one who is receiving that education.

Respecting the caste system,

The Shameless Indian

Posted on by Rakshit Goyal 1

Our System (Part 1)

Our system stands upon 4 strong pillars: Politics, Judiciary, Media, and the Caste System.

Although 4 pillars are withholding the pressure, there is one important pillar that can make the entire system tumble down. That pillar though mentioned in the end (Aap chronology samajhiye!) still bears the entire burden of our current judiciary, media, and political landscape and that will be THE CASTE SYSTEM.

This article will focus on this most important pillar proving why the other 3 are dependent on this pillar. And for the sake of a better understanding, I will be using regions, races, and religious communities, as a part of the caste system.

But please don’t deny that our system doesn’t have caste system as a pillar, because we know that none of our political leaders ranging from Nehru to Modi could have won the elections just based on their promises of development or Ache Din. Well, the caste vote bank has always played a major role in bringing the Ache Din back perhaps, they never came back.

It is interesting to note that the caste system plays such an important role in our system, yet these different castes are not respected and with conspiring methods, the caste system is used as a weapon of self-defense. But this shouldn’t happen in the world’s biggest democracy where secularism is imbibed in the constitution or I should say, “Secularism is just imbibed in the constitution for namesake”, because every day someone dies in our country because of these caste-related issues.

Let’s start from the start, shall we?

Dr. Ambedkar gave birth to our constitution by meticulously adding an act to save the minorities because he thought it might uplift them, perhaps there could be a vested interest as he didn’t want bad things happening to people which could have happened to him because of his caste. Although I don’t remember anything bad happening to the person who got continuous scholarships from the kings to acclaim numerous degrees from foreign universities.

But I don’t blame Ambedkar for safeguarding the rights and interests of the minorities because the situation was bad 75 years ago and the situation is still the same or is it worse? Well yes, because now we don’t have trains burnt in religious violence, but we still have everyday lynching which may have killed more people than a pandemic. But no, that’s an exaggeration and we never exaggerate!

An adequate portion of the part played by our politicians to politicize our caste system was always based on just the person’s caste and never based on their family’s financial economics. And our dearest father of the nation, Mahatama Gandhi didn’t leave any page unturned to uplift the untouchable classes by terming them as Harijan and to safeguard the interest of these Harijan he replaced Indira Nehru’s last name with Gandhi so she could continue the legacy of using the Harijan as vote bank for Congress.

Too much political history was involved, but the judiciary wasn’t behind in any way by supporting the minorities and encroaching the rights of other citizens. But it was recently when the Supreme Court tackled the Scheduled Castes & Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Amendment Act, 2018, a law for atrocities against minorities which could probably put anyone behind the bars.

Even having one of the biggest judiciary systems in the world (well at least the system is big yet we have awkwardly less number of judges), we still struggle to find the justice and that’s simply because the conclusive evidence is never present, neither when nobody was driving Salman Khan’s car nor when he didn’t kill the black buck and definitely not when Kasab’s death was on hold for killing hundreds in 26/11 attacks. Why? Because the judges didn’t have the right evidence and also because our judiciary works on evidence and sadly not on common sense.

As a matter of fact, the judiciary doesn’t consider the news reports as evidence, but they easily get biased when a News Channel airs a show of former judges a day before Aarushi Murder Case and state a useless judgment that the parents killed the daughter because CBI said in the lieu of evidence that only parents could have killed their daughter. Or in other some cases, no one killed no one! Remember, “no one killed Jessica for ages?”

Our judiciary system doesn’t consider anything, but evidence and yet one of the best judges in the world get influenced by the so informative media. But that works only when a Hindu is bailed when he is charged with lynching a Muslim for allegedly storing beef.

If a man dies in a car accident, then the media will not take the pain to disclose his caste, but if a drunk man dies in a car accident then the media will make sure to enlighten us all with the truth about that person’s caste. This gives our parents the chance to say, “Ye saalo ki jaat hi aisi hoti hai – These rascals’ caste is like that!”

It was so easy to blame Jamaat people for organizing an event at Nizamuddin during a pandemic, but nobody talks about the oh so sweet, Hindus, who went to temples on Ram Navami despite of the lockdown. Indeed people belonging to the Tablighi Jamaat have lynched doctors and frontline workers but is it not possible that the news about other caste was never published? Why? Because we are building New India, which is not newer India, but we are becoming Hindustan / Bharat again.

Well, there was fun in provoking the lynching cases by media so much that beef was banned in our country, but less fun to unearth the names of Hindus who own one of the most profitable companies which produce and export beef. That would have made it even bigger breaking news to get the ads. But they ignored it because our system has the strongest pillar of the caste system which must be supported.

Caste System is not just 1 out of the 4 pillars, but it is the first pillar that was built, and all other pillars followed it!

Now that’s a lot of stuff going on in the name of CASTEISM..

In the next part of the article. Here’s the link!

Respecting the caste system,

The Shameless Indian

Posted on by Rakshit Goyal 1

Do we hate nepotism?

Do we really? Or the right question is, “To which extent do we hate nepotism?”

Well, the answer is pretty simple! We hate it to the extent where we are not the beneficiary from the circle of nepotism. Is this answer arguable? Yes, but only for those who are complacent with what they have, and No, for those who have been enjoying these privileges for many years now.

Food for thought:

Do we hate nepotism because we don’t get to choose the side of the coin or the coin didn’t toss to the side we chose?

There has been a recent debate in my country, India, which isn’t getting any closure. The debate is about nepotism and it sparked when the underrated Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajput committed suicide. The thought of his death is excruciating, yet I believe that the fickle-minded people should have talked more about mental health which is one of the major reasons for suicide and not nepotism which was ignited by Team Kangana Ranaut’s video on nepotism right after Sushant’s death.

How justified it is to blame nepotism as the cause of someone’s suicide rather than mental health? It sure feels bad that a person might have lived if they weren’t the victims of nepotism, but that’s the way of life and if you wish to change the way of life my friend, it’s a long road!

Let me define Nepotism for you, “Favoritism shown to relatives or closed ones by those in authority or power.” Now think, is it bad? Wouldn’t you choose a friend of yours when the first thought comes up to start your own company even when you know that the other person is more eligible to be the co-founder?

Well, if nepotism is really the termite then people like Ratan Tata, Kumar Mangalam Birla, Mukesh Ambani, Anil Ambani, or Aditya Chopra, must be stripped off their titles as they are the results of nepotism, yet they are one of the greatest businessmen this world has ever seen. And it is possible that someone else might have done a better job than these gentlemen, but who should have decided that? The people who are in power or the one on the receiving end? We obviously know the answer, because they are the ones who created it, they know it better, and they can trust someone they know more than anyone else.

We often forget, how would it feel if our parents didn’t give their houses and businesses to us in inheritance and rather our parent’s secretary gets to keep it? Now, that would have been a problem, right? How can someone else enjoy the privilege which you were always entitled to?

It sounds simpler and valid when we relate with such theory: “Your boss would mostly hire you if they know you, rather than any random person who applied online. Why? Because your boss knows you, trusts you, and they can teach you whatever they want.”

It is absolutely normal to feel bad when the bias caused due to nepotism ruins your plans, but probably that’s what you would have done too.

A business runs on profitability and when it is about money then nothing else matter. When Karan Johar launches star kids, he does because people are crazy about young star kids who have millions of followers on Instagram already, or when Doug McMillon became the CEO of Walmart, he did because he understood the business better than anyone else in the Walton family.

What people fail to understand is that nepotism exists because for some reason they were inexplicably obsessed with Taimur Ali Khan even before he learned to lift a finger by himself. And this exists worldwide, especially where people are obsessed with the Royal babies in the UK or the Kardashian kids. There’s no proven research as to why the Royal Family gets special treatment, but the answer lies in the question.

It is about the one in power!

But it is indeed sad when nepotism which is the way of life is related to a person’s behavior. For example, after Sushant’s death, Sonam Kapoor made an arrogant statement on enjoying the privileges of nepotism. Now that’s egoistic nature and not nepotism and this is how privileges and money can ruin your thoughts.

It is a popular and understandable sentiment to hate nepotism because we don’t get the privilege and it sure feels worse when someone like Rahul Gandhi gets to be the President of INC and you don’t.

We only hate or don’t like things that we don’t get to cherish because it is personal when it comes to life, growth, money, and power. At some point in life either we have been the result of nepotism or maybe we have stripped off someone because we chose someone less deserving. And blaming someone’s success or failure on nepotism isn’t right because just one opportunity doesn’t change anything and the consistent efforts in that job do. If the person who got the job is doing great then it is because he could do it and you might be better at doing that job, but then the choice is yours, either crib about the reality or try again!

But who am I to say, I am just The Shameless Indian who penned his opinion because I believe that there is always one more side of the coin and today by unveiling that side, I might have answered a lot of questions for some people and for those I didn’t;

It isn’t about nepotism. It is about which side of the coin you are!

P.S. Sushant Singh Rajput was way above what we have been thinking!

Learning the nepotist way,

The Shameless Indian

Posted on by Rakshit Goyal 0

Networking or Relationship? (Part 2)

In the first part of this article, I talked about the differences between the definitions of networking and relationship. In this part, I will quote a few scenarios which will help you understand those definitions and differences.

Note: If you haven’t read the first part of the article, I would highly recommend giving it a quick read on this link.

Warning: This might be an awestruck eye-opener!

Scenario 1 – on LinkedIn: We send thousands of connection requests to recruiters who might not have any knowledge about the role we are looking for. We sometimes send connection requests….

Click here to read the complete article!
Posted on by Rakshit Goyal 0

Networking or Relationship? (Part 1)

It’s been almost 3 years in the US, and I am still learning!

I came to the US in 2017 and the first word I heard in the professional development course at The University of Texas at Dallas was Networking. Since then I have heard this word at every step of finding the right career opportunity for myself. Later, I heard from the CometX Teacher Shahzil (Shaz) that….

Click here to read the complete article!
Posted on by Rakshit Goyal 0

Dear China

Dear China,

First, we would like to thank you for making India realize that we have been a too good neighboring friend for you. Well, you clearly don’t deserve that friendship after all!

Now looks like you are no different than your other neighboring “BFF”, Pakistan as you too have been creating a lot of ruckus on our border even when we are one of your biggest trade allies. But it is all our fault, you know why? Because we kept supporting you when the entire world was blaming you for the Coronavirus, we respected your stand for Hong Kong, Tibet, and Pakistan, but now you are being a prick by pestering on our land again.

Looks like it is out of your habit that you invade the privacy of people like you do to your citizens and invade the lands of countries like you did to Hong Kong, Tibet, Bhutan, and now India. Your recent manipulations with our neighboring friend Nepal have led to new border issues with India and in just a moment Nepal forgot about the support India gave them during the devastating earthquake. But thank you for defacing the truth for us, China!

Out of curiosity, how much more space do you need, and why? And how different are you from the United States who have always interfered in the peaceful lives of the Islamic and South American countries?

We were stupid that we ignored all your mischief since forever, but if you think that we will fall short in giving you a tough battle then you must understand that this is 2020 and India is stronger than you are and on a spree to be a better nation than you are, both economically and on humanitarian grounds.

The barbaric act of killing our soldiers with iron rods will be dealt in the same way when Pakistani troops beheaded Indian soldiers. So, you please don’t even dare to take us lightly!

Now, the entire world has turned their backs away from you, but India has all the support from your biggest rivals like the United States, Hong Kong, Tibet, Taiwan, or Israel. Don’t forget the UNSC membership as your petty Veto couldn’t stop that either.

The controversial Chinese media has always belittled India and they assumed that we don’t have befitting replies, but we don’t believe in cheap pranks. We lost to you only once in 1962, but this is 2020, and if you didn’t realize then India has been USING you as cheap labor for years now to build the biggest economy of the world, but you were quite busy in claiming our land.

And if you doubt our capability, then you may want to ask your dear friend Pakistan about the time we cleaned our borders overnight with 2 surgical strikes in retaliation to their attacks on our unarmed soldiers. (Obviously, as they are your friends, they never accepted the facts!)

So, think what we will do with you, now!

We were friends and we will be friendly, but don’t assume that we don’t have the balls to chop yours because we are no more “HINDI CHINI BHAI BHAI!“

You were and will always be indebted to India! When you didn’t have a culture, we gave you Buddhism, we made you rich by letting you build our Statue of Unity, and we can continue to use you as and when we want. And please do not forget that one step from India towards the trade ban can make you lose billions and as India is becoming the hub of manufacturing, we will replace you in less than a decade.

It is for your good to clear our lands or even if you want to fight then fight like soldiers and not like your dear friend Pakistan (Umm… invasion and terrorism!). So, keep up and stay away because we don’t want you to blame us later that we didn’t warn you.

Always caring for you,

The Shameless Indian (On behalf of India)

Posted on by Rakshit Goyal 3

Is the brain a part of our body?

THIS ONE’S FOR YOU SUSHANT SINGH RAJPUT!

It is common to get ill, not feel well, or feel feverish, right? Often, we can catch a cold and cough, or suffer from a headache, body ache, and whatnot. We solve all these problems with medication, therapies, and treatments. Some people suffer from cancer, tuberculosis, hepatitis, and heart problems too, which are dealt with either a proper diet, heavy medication, love, support, or guidance.  All these diseases and illnesses are caused due to some dysfunctional organs of our body and this is pretty normal, isn’t it?

I am not sure about you, but I have plenty of problems, blood pressure be the first and anxiety be the other one. We know how to deal with high blood pressure, but do we know what organ is related to anxiety? THE BRAIN, the most important yet most ignored organ of our body! We can replace our hearts with pacemakers, but we need a brain to replace a brain, which I doubt if it is economical or practical. However, we still don’t take care of our brains and neglect the treatment they deserve.

The always tirelessly working brain

The real question being, “Should people even take problems of the brain seriously?” I feel the answer is yes, and why not? Issues like anxiety can be treated, yet more than 60 percent of the suffering population in the United States remain untreated. In the United States, anxiety disorders are the most common mental illness, affecting 40 million adults who are 18 and older, or 18.1 percent of the population every year. The World Health Organization says that almost 75 percent of people with mental disorders remain untreated in developing countries, with almost 1 million people committing suicides each year. The same study said that one in 13 people globally suffers from anxiety.

It was during my first winter breaks of December 2017, when I suffering from my low academic grades all alone in my apartment in the no man’s land, called the United States. I didn’t go for any vacation, as I had many important things to do — “Writing new blogs, updating my resume, applying for internships, and exploring Dallas”. Plot twist: I am lying! The reasons I didn’t enjoy my vacations were that I didn’t have anyone to accompany me and I was too scared to spend a few hundred dollars in a country where the currency is 70 times more valuable than mine. I couldn’t even write, as I was craving to be around people, I didn’t feel like updating my resume and applying for internships as I assumed it was futile. Things didn’t end here, I had cut my finger while chopping potatoes, I couldn’t sleep for 36 hours straight, and I couldn’t cry! I didn’t know how to deal with it. I tried talking to a few friends, which was fruitless — until I talked to a friend whom I didn’t know well, fortunately, she happened to be a psychologist.

I was flirting with her out of habit and then I came to know about her profession. I started thinking if I told her what was going on with me, would she judge me? Or stop talking to me? Although I was skeptical about the thought of opening up to her, I still confronted her with my thoughts about my depression. She asked me about my history and life, and after writing a huge rhetorical email, she diagnosed me as a patient with anxiety. She said that it would take a small amount of therapy and I would eventually be fine. I thought that I was sick and ill; I told her how weak I felt for needing a counselor. She laughed and said, “It is okay! Everyone in this world is crazy about something, everyone is anxious about something and all you need to do is talk it out and meditate. And the reason for your anxiety is your career and life, which is quite legit. So, there is absolutely nothing to worry, and you are absolutely normal.”

After talking to her for a few days, I talked to a friend and got to know about the Counseling Center in my university, The University of Texas at Dallas. Like others, I was also embarrassed and ashamed about visiting a counselor at first, but when I found one, I realized how important counseling is. I signed up for personal counseling sessions and all I had to do was to walk in and talk! I let out all my thoughts about my career, interest in writing, cooking, grades, friends, family, and parents and the counselor listened to me with patience.

It took me just three sessions (one every week) to improve. I felt better or maybe even my best, and when I talked to my counselor friend, she told me “You were always the best!”

My counselor knew that anxiety is just overwhelming thoughts in our mind which needs guidance. The counselor worked in an effortless and slick manner, as they let me do the talking and gave me feedback on my thoughts, guided, and appreciated them.

At that moment, it got me thinking, “What is so bad with visiting a doctor for your brain?” It is funny to know that any illness is an abnormality in our body, but we consider only illness caused by the brain as abnormality! We differentiate the brain from the rest of the body and keep it away as if it is not even a part of our body. Talking, counseling, reading self-help books, meditating, or taking a treatment can save lives — ours and someone else’s too. We assume talking about our brain is even a bigger taboo than our mother’s periods. Don’t you think that since the brain bears so much pressure every day, we should pay more heed to it, more than our whole body? Shouldn’t we see a brain’s doctor more often, just like other doctors? But we never listen.. or do we?

Our brain is the only organ in our body that works at the same pace all the time, so we need a counselor who calms our mind and solves our puzzles. Sometimes, if it can’t be solved with therapies, a psychiatrist can come into the picture who treats you medically — as healthy as antibiotics which we take under any bacterial infection. Anyone can listen — your friends, family, parents, teachers — anyone, and if they are not able to make you feel better, then knock at the doors of the counselors and psychiatrists. They have better scientific and friendly methods. And when there is an easy way out to make us feel better, then why not try it? Believe me, counselors are worth more than our time and money.

We often separate ourselves from the people and surrounding as we think that if we tell them about our problems then it will make us look weak and mad. But in the time when we need help, why not just ask for it? Asking for help does not harm. And if you can ask out someone on Tinder for a date or hookup, then asking for an appointment with a counselor is way easier!

All you got to do is ask for help, talk and let go!

Always asking for help,

The Shameless Indian

P.S. HERE ARE SOME REMEDIES TO TREAT YOURSELF WELL. I HAVE PERSONALLY TRIED AND TESTED THESE AND THEY WORK!

  1. Read – Breaking up with Stress by Parushi Kalra: This is an amazing book to make you understand what stress and anxiety are and help you cope up them. The book doesn’t rant for hundreds of pages and has summed up everything graciously in just 66 pages. The kindle version of the book is available on the link above.
  2. To calm your mind, try Headspace app: This app has been a constant friend. The best thing about this is that it has guided meditation and the soothing voice will make you feel so relaxed.
  3. For counselors, you don’t always have to visit them as they are now available on call, chat, video conferencing, and letters.
Posted on by Rakshit Goyal 8

We never listen.. or do we?

Okay, tell me a time when we listened before things slipped out of hand. Even so, do you think we ever even listened?

Because if we did, then we would have been in a better situation to avoid the damaging effects of Corona-viruses / Covid-19, or our climate won’t be changing so much, or people wouldn’t have died at Chernobyl.

When China didn’t listen to Dr. Li

In November 2019, the first case of Covid-19 came out and the cases increased from 1 to 180 in just a few weeks. Dr. Li Wenliang who was the whistle blower informed his family, friends, and journalists via text messages and online videos, but he was suppressed by the local authorities and Wuhan’s Health Bureau rubbished the claims, saying that Dr. Li was creating unnecessary ruckus and there’s no contamination of the virus in humans.

If the Chinese Government would have listened, thousands of lives could have been saved, but their arrogance was bigger than the research of a doctor. The Chinese government responded so late that the virus was already dispersed across the world. The government thought that the scientists are as usual just pressing on finding the truth when nobody cares about that truth.

Sadly, Dr. Li died treating an infected patient later.

When Boris was laughing, and Bolsonaro said, “So what?”

In the UK, the scientists and doctors claimed that this virus can be very dangerous, but Boris Johnson laughed and said, “Economy should be prioritized over lock down!” Later, he was the one with the last laugh as he was tested positive with Covid-19. Perhaps, now he appreciates the efforts of the doctors, and people who helped him recover, but his laughter had already skyrocketed the cases in the UK.

In Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro didn’t consider Corona virus as the biggest threat and even after the death toll surpassed 5000 with the highest record of 474 deaths in a day, he said, “I’m sorry. What do you want me to do?”

When Donald Trump wanted to fill oil to the top

In the meantime, Donald Trump announced a National Emergency in the United States. And that was the day when I realized that human lives are not that important in the US because a country where even the life of a cat stranded on a tall tree was important, the President of that country dared to mention, “We are going to fill the oil to the top!” during the announcement of National Health Emergency. Even then he wasn’t acknowledging the risk of the virus and kept the nation away from an enforced lock down like India or China. Not forgetting to mention that he even shook hands with Doug McMillan, the CEO of Walmart, during the press conference because he thought social distancing is just for the commons and not for the President.

We all know that a large population in the US is living off the medics and dialysis every day, yet the American government gave statements that they are estimating deaths within the range of 100,000 to 240,000 people because they couldn’t enforce a complete lock down. President Trump said, if he enforced a lock down then more people will be dead due to hunger! This could be true, but keeping the bars and restaurants open until last month wasn’t really a sign of hunger, or was it?

When America didn’t let the scientists speak

Dr. Fauci was blocked from testifying in front of a House Committee as the White House said, “It will be counterproductive to allow Fauci to testify in front of Congress amid the government’s efforts to fight corona virus!” So, the person who knows the most didn’t testify, and later, Dr. Birx barely reacted when Donald Trump irresponsibly said, “Injecting and drinking disinfectants will help!” Later after attaining a lot of criticism, Donald Trump clarified, “I was being sarcastic about it!”

I believe, it will not be an exaggeration to say that Donald Trump has quite a lot more power to handle than he is capable of. Not forgetting to mention:

So, who is NOT listening?

So, it’s not just the government, it is Humans, us, who don’t listen!

And why can’t we blame just the governments? Because if they don’t put an implication and open the bars, you would still want to go and get a drink, right? Well, that’s exactly what people in India did. After the somewhat success in flattening the curve in India with the biggest lock down ever in the history, the government opened liquor shops and people swamped the streets forgetting about the social distancing guidelines to quench their thirst with a chilled beer.

And it is NOT just about Corona Virus

We didn’t hear even Greta Thunberg, a 17 years old kid who stood in the United Nations (UN) and talked about Global Warming. We didn’t hear the trees who were crying and burning in Amazon. We also didn’t hear scientists when they said, “Glaciers are melting. Antarctica’s weather is rising to the levels that we can now live there.” Sounds exciting, eh? It isn’t!

The problem is that we gave the command in the hands of the people who don’t know even an iota of the issues going around.

But WHY don’t we listen?

There can be a lot of reasons, most important being that we are ignorant and lazy, and the second most important is fear. Warnings about bad omens make us feel weak and the fear evoked in our brain resists us to give up to those warnings, and we tend to ignore these warnings to make ourselves feel powerful and ready. But we must understand that reacting to early signs and warnings from the experts doesn’t make us weak, it makes us prepared and intelligent to dodge the disastrous effects.

WHAT if we would have listened?

Well, let’s say we would have been able to contain the Covid-19 virus in the early stages and not let it travel like a free bird. If we would have listened to the right people like Dr. Li, then we might have saved thousands of lives and those crushing economies. And we might have already been in the list of countries like New Zealand with no new cases, Canada with the negative trend of new Covid-19 cases, and South Korea with the lowest per-capita deaths in the world due to Covid-19.

Or we might have saved millions of trees burning in Amazon or preventing the glaciers from flowing into the sea or we might have repaired the climate change or prevented the death of thousands at Chernobyl.

WHO should we listen?

The doctors and scientists are one of the most educated people in the world who are in the constant quest of truth, but we don’t bother ourselves, because we don’t want to worry about something which is not devastating yet.

We have done enough damage, not to the entire mankind, but ourselves, individually. It is high time to start listening, to avoid making another city of Chernobyl, to avoid another pandemic to tip, to avoid another glacier to melt, or to avoid another Amazon to burn.

So, for once can we think about listening before we speak? If we can listen to the cops when there is crime around us, listen to the lawyers when we are under litigation, or listen to our bankers when we need money, then what’s the problem in listening to doctors and environmentalists or the subject matter experts who know about the issues?

We have been listening too much to the so-called world leaders who are so incompetent and uninformed that they don’t even have the slightest idea about the science behind these events and if at all they would have been any more concerned about filling more oil or changing the names of their cities to glorify religion. And although these scientists who take risks to guide us and warn us, yet they are way too less paid than the unqualified world leaders.

Greta Thunberg said,“I want people to unite behind the science… And that is what we have to realize, that that is what we have to do right now.. I’m not the one who’s saying these things. I’m not the one who we should be listening to. And I say that all the time. I say we need to listen to the scientists.”

It is about listening, listening to the experts!

So listen, and listen to the right people and then.. ACT!

Still listening,

The Shameless Indian

Posted on by Rakshit Goyal 4