Lambu Motu

One has to be wise enough to never make a choice between truth and fantasy. Truth and fantasy can go side by side and if at all fantasy can be the future version of truth. The choice is between truth and delusion and this choice is arises for people when power is wielded with cynicism. When absolute power is wielded with cynicism then people end up becoming homeless, destitute and dispossessed, although once power has been cemented forever it doesn't matter to it if people end up becoming homeless, destitute or dispossessed. Early 2010s my fantasy had depth. I was always a pop culture guy and I liked stylish stuff and for quite a while I dabbled in psychological thrillers, noir and transgressive fiction until the reality dawned on me that base reality at the core of the nation that I live in is in itself transgressive and my life in late 2010s removed the remaining illusions that I had in my mind. Pop culture matters. I am not a big AI fan except its use for the mentally handicapped, but I find myself going to ChatGPT and discussing with it what if Miles Teller's Reed Richards becomes The Maker or if a Midnight Sons movie is in the works. Why? Because except a few, I don't have people to discuss pop culture with. For many AI is their girlfriend or boyfriend. Why is it so? India from its population doesn't have a dearth of people and then you realise that it's not people but the politics and economics and especially socioeconomics. I used to read comics, the indigenous ones and sometimes foreign ones, in my childhood and I graduated to new age Indian comics as they were being launched in late 2000s and early 2010s, there was Virgin Comics now rebranded as Liquid Comics, Level 10 Comics, Yali Dream Creations, Holy Cow, Indusverse. There were, other than older characters like Chacha Chaudhary, Fauladi Singh, Nagraj, Doga and Dhruv, new characters like The Sadhu, Devi, Odayan, Rakshak, Shaitan Singh. The latest addition in these characters is of Alpha Comics' characters like Bhujang, Bawarchi and quite a few others. It is in mid 2010s that I realised that the soul of this nation has been defiled so much that pop culture artifacts like comics have become useless unless and until a person intentionally wants to delude himself because unlike the MCU the Indian comics do not automatically transport you into their world especially if you are acquainted to the base reality of this country like me. My delusion was great while it lasted and I felt the depth in the characters like The Sadhu, Devi and Odayan. Here is the basic truth, pop culture comes way after food, clothing and shelter, that is if we are taking air and water for granted and we know that even water is not free. Also, I ended up realising that finer sources of entertainment like pop culture especially comics come last as a source of entertainment as the primary source of entertainment of this nation, and it wouldn't look like it on the surface, is sex.