Write Concepts #19

Writing requires inspiration and motivation. I’m facing writing block at present and so I write blog posts instead of what I really want to write, fiction. Fiction is a beautiful as it allows you to build worlds. Each novel, each comic book, each story you have read, each movie or series you have watched has a world, a particular, specific world with its own rules. I like fantasy, and sometimes science fiction and speculative fiction. The world we are living in present doesn’t allow for much imagination for all but we can try to imagine. Each story has a different world and you can explore that world when you read that story. I have read a lot so the cognitive dissonance I had when the real world contrasted with the perception of the world that I had due to reading, especially fiction, was tremendous. With time the your perception of the world, the real world and the fictional world start to coexist together in your mind after compromise though they do take input from each other. The reality we are living in present, it’s hard to not be cynical but fiction allows you to get into world where you can leave your cynicism behind. I try to write different kind of stories. Yes some of them are dark, cynical and noirish or straight up laced with dark humor but I do write romantic stuff too though romance from the world is fast disappearing. I have a bunch of writing projects in pipeline and I plan to finish at least half of them in the next one year. There are a bunch of novellas, some short story series and a bunch of short stories and flash fiction. It’s about world building too, building worlds that the readers could explore. Writing block is terrible thing so you resort, instead of writing through the intrinsic flow with which some writers are blessed, to crafting with intent. I like to mix genres into a sort of masala, like mixing noir and mythofantasy. It’s been quite a while I have written flash fiction but it is my go to as it allows short bursts of creative output. I’m excited for the short story series and short story ideas that I have but their proper execution depends on me overcoming the block. I hope the coming year is kind for me creatively and I am able to achieve the goals that I want to achieve. For my novellas, I’m aiming to publish on Wattpad and if it turns out good I might self-publish.

Kashi Vishwanath

One’s hell is individual and one has to deal with it. The truth as I have subjectively confirmed in the past decade is that in this country it is only good people that go to hell. I had seen my culture growing up and I still think it was one of the most beautiful cultures in the world, “was” is the keyword here. And I used to think that sabotage of cultures happens in the tribal areas of Jharkand. My beautiful and refined culture has been thoroughly defiled and destroyed and the silence and peace that I see in my region is solely due to individualized intimidation and blackmail and that too only because my people are good. I used to think, since Bihar has shared culture with my region of Purvanchal, that Bihar is a misunderstood region. I have lived there. It is a literal hell hole and I still thought that it is government corruption and bureaucratic incompetence, it is in the past decade when the truth of this country, a mainly through a serendipity, got exposed to me I realized that it is an actual hell and since Purvanchal shares the same culture with it, Purvanchal is too. Only difference is the external government which I realised is just for cosmetic purposes. There is a consistent pattern of assholes who are ruling the region, getting the people of the region humiliated and raped by individuals from other regions and at first I thought that this is because the region is backward but then I realised that this shit is systemic and the cucks ruling this region enjoy people from “their” own region getting humiliated by people from other regions. I mean it was tried with but didn’t really work but I got to understand the setup. God is nowhere here except a tool for exploitation which unfortunately in Purvanchal and Bihar is of a very intimate nature. A decade in the region and I realised that illiterate and incompetent motherfuckers hold absolute power in these regions and since I belong to health sector I realised that these bastards are making people sick just for selling more medicines. Of course it is capitalism and my personal stance too is capitalist though it is ethical capitalism which these exploiter would know nothing about. What is going on in the region of Purvanchal and Bihar is totalitarian slavery being perpetuated by what is basically a criminal syndicate and is tied directly to big daddies of this country whom they provide human resource. At the greater level this country is about discrimination of people with roots by rootless bastards. Though as the arrangement revealed itself to me I realised that there is essentially no hometown or no region and people of this country are essentially homeless until it is the time to get discriminated and exploited for their origins. I had no business in this shit and yet I found myself in the deep waters as the character sketch of what truly owns this country is of an illiterate spoilt brat who goes around murdering people without any instigation. God is a smokescreen and thievery is the norm. The shitshow I have seen in the past decade is hilarious and only decided to write about it when I realised that literal criminals are in charge of the culture in my region something they are too dumb to even understand which has been thoroughly destroyed by now. One more funny thing, there is no intelligence establishment in this country or if there is it is complicit though they can hardly be called intelligent.

Seedhi Baat

It’s basically about ideas. The best thing I did in my life is that I thought less about people and more about ideas. Here is a fact, those who love you, or those who like you will do so no matter what and those who don’t, you can’t do anything to make them like you. So, in my opinion, one must focus on being kind to those who love and like you. Here is why thinking about people is a waste of time: people change, some due to their principles, and they are the good kind, and some according to convenience. I spent time with ideas and there were two reasons for it, one, a part of my job entails dealing with ideas and two, I like reading books which again introduce people to new ideas. It’s later in life I realized that life of people in this country, and I don’t know about the world, is composed of artificially created constructs which sit at the place of God but are actually created by criminals. It’s about navigating thought and sensation complexes being fed into you to make you reach your fate which has either already been decided or is decided in real-time and, as far as my experience goes, according to whims of thoroughly incompetent individuals. Life is suffering, as Buddha realized, but actually it is not. Life is not suffering for all, just for the good people. The world or at least this country, when you are enlightened enough you realize, works on the principle of exploitation of anything that can be exploited and that could be illness, handicap, poverty, self-consciousness, lack of confidence, personal secrets or anything for that matter. When you realize this nature of this country, and possibly the world, things become simplified and you fall back of little pleasures of life, like the breeze, plant and animal kingdom, the nature while the ones who are privileged lead an artificially curated life built on blood, sweat and corpses of innocents. When this truth presented itself to me I was not surprised because probably I knew it subconsciously throughout my life. The most unfortunate things is the people are not only deprived of things as basic as food, emotional support and intimacy, but even things like the ability to feel the breeze on their skin. The reason for all this? Random whimsical and baseless hatred. It is here choosing and working on right ideas to lead one’s life becomes important. The rule is that only good people get exploited because assholes know the tricks of the trade as they exploit others. And it is here a good man or woman must choose the ideals and principles he or she must live (or die) for and set clear boundaries so that they can’t be exploited by anyone except God (as God itself, in this country at least, is an exploiter). The system thrives on making people trip on different things so that they can’t empathize or feel compassion for each other and the control is so absolute that there is nothing that can be done about that. This country is officially a democracy but in actuality it is a centrally controlled kleptocracy. And of course and undoubtedly it is biopolitics. What one can do is to try and choose the ideas and ideals to trip on. The choice is solely yours, to choose your ideals and ideas and one learns, especially in this country, too late but it’s better late then never. You live in this country for long and you realize that at the ground level this country betrays its very motto, “truth always triumphs” and as you look up for respite, truth is is as rare as a dinosaur. Truth and justice, as I got exposed thoroughly to this country in the past decade, I realized that are not present not even in hinterlands but are also absent all over the country. Only true pleasures, other than your personal material interests and hobbies, remain your family and nature and nothing else. I have seen things in the past decade and I realized that those who run this nation have sold it and with it the people, majorly the innocent ones of the lot as the assholes have been co-opted for exploiting the good and innocent. Identity is something that is majorly exploited and so you have to be sure of your own. Faith is less of a personal entity and more of a political entity though it still does its job of providing respite and community to good men and women. When I saw the things I saw, I turned atheist, because there is no way in hell there is a God that lets things that I saw happen, but faith does give strength and despite my political stance being that of an atheist, I have faith in Mother Goddesses mainly Chamunda and Saraswati. Life for me has simplified since knowing the true nature of the actual political reality of this country, and it is my work and my interests. People, in this country, unless you have personal relationships with them, aren’t worth your time and if you are the kind of person who likes to fulfill responsibilities that come with your relationships, try to keep your personal relationships minimum an for social survival you must have professional and formal relationships. I hate to be this direct but the only God in this country are politicians, mafia and above all, the rich and the rabbit hole goes way deeper than you can ever imagine. No amount of bullet trains can undo the damage to the culture in the past twenty years. This country and the world is never going to be a better place because it is already better for whom it is, and for others there is Buddha’s Dukkha, life is suffering. 

 

Musing on Entertainment

I’m watching Jurassic World Rebirth at present and I was pleasantly surprised by it. It happened to me in succession now as the last movie that I watched was Final Destination Bloodlines and was pleasantly surprised by that movie too. I love movies that have exploration as a theme. Anacondas Hunt for the Blood Orchid is considered by many to be a B movie, though I would like to disagree, it is one of my favourite movies. I don’t see movies and TV very often, and only movies I see now are superhero movies of Marvel and DC and as a comic book and superhero genre fan I make it a point to try to watch these movies in theatres. The Jurassic Park movies are great, but I didn’t like the Jurassic World movies starring Chris Pratt, I found them soulless. The last movie I watched, Final Destination Bloodlines, and this movie I’m watching (I now watch movies in sessions as unless I am seeing then in theatres, I find it hard to watch them in one go), Jurassic World Rebirth, have something in common, that they are not soulless. Just like movies of the 90s and early 2000s, they have a soul no matter the genre. I find most of the Netflix content to be soulless. I think Netflix doesn’t really have a good intent as far as creating art and entertainment goes. Cinema, TV and content can make money and have a soul, these two things are not mutually exclusive. And with the news of Netflix taking over WB and all its IPs it is kind of concerning to me as they would have rights over the animation and comic book content including the comic book movies as well. As far as Indian entertainment goes, I have had my experiences in the past decade and after that I have totally stopped watching Indian movies and content. I realised that Indian entertainment industry, media industry and especially Bollywood is populated by shameless voyeurs who do not respect their own art and they are also shameless propaganda peddlers. I have no hope for Indian entertainment industry anymore and I miss Karan Johar era of Bollywood; it was sentimental slop but at least it was well intentioned. I miss good intentioned directors like Hrishikesh Mukherjee, Manmohan Desai, David Dhawan and Priyadarshan who could make comedies without disrespecting the people and culture. The motherfuckers running the media and film in this country have lost the plot and are majorly producing propaganda either to delude people or make them enjoy voyeurism and schadenfreude. I don’t think Indian films, television and web series are worth the time of a man or a woman who wants to unwind after a hard days work.

Provider and Still A Rider

My first bike was Bajaj XCD 125 when I was in 12th standard. I rode it a bit and then it was time to go to college. When I was in college there was Bajaj Pulsar 150 at home and in the third year of college, I got a second-hand Yamaha RX 100. I consider the RX hundred to be my first bike. I absolutely loved that white and blue 100 cc beast and whenever I took that bike for servicing during my stay in Patna the bike mechanic welcomed me with open arms. He loved to service the bike just like I loved to ride it. I explored Patna on that bike for three years and then it was time to come home. Unfortunately, the RX 100 was taken by one my family staffs and I didn’t have the courage to ask it back and I thought I’ll get another one for myself when I have enough space at my home as it is a consideration. Then I get married and get myself a Hero Duet scooter, it was a shitty scooter but then I can’t say for sure as I didn’t take good care of it but then I don’t take good care of the Activas at home too and they run quite well. There is a Royal Enfield of my brother but to be frank I’m just an admirer of Royal Enfield and not a fan and only Royal Enfield bikes I might get for myself are the Himalayan or the Continental GT. I’m a fan of dirt bikes and cafe racers and hence my preference for the Continental GT. I might get myself one, I think. When my scooter croaked and I had to get myself a two-wheeler for daily commute which is mostly a bit of Highway and quite a bit of village roads, I chose Hero Xpulse 200, it was inspired in part by my love for dirtbikes and although it is not a dirtbike it is the closest a middle class man can come to a dirt bike in India. My opinion of Xpulse 200? Great bike. I thoroughly enjoy my daily commute of about 35 to 40 kms up and down. Runs great on the highway and runs great on village roads.  

I love riding though the bike should be enjoyable to me to enjoy the ride. I dislike heavy bikes and that would include superbikes though I don’t hate them. I like bikes that are easy to handle, nimble and quick. RX 100 I had was all of it and the Xpulse I have is the same, though it’s a bit tall but an enjoyable ride, nonetheless. I might eye a Continental GT for purchase because I love the bike though the final decision would be made after I have ridden it as I haven’t got a chance to ride that bike till now. The Royal Enfield at home is a great ride but it is not as great hype though I can understand it’s a fanboy thing. Like I’m a fan of dirtbikes and cafe racers. Real dirt bikes are expensive, though not as much but I’m waiting for a company to launch an authentic dirtbike in India. The only cafe racer, I think, in the market is Continental GT and I search there are a couple of more, but Continental GT remains the most available and accessible. If the space issue gets solved, I would aim for a RX 100, or I might turn shameless and ask back my RX 100 from my family staff.  

A Glance At The World of Linux

I’m a big fan of Linux and its ecosystem and a bigger fan of Linus Torwalds. I have been using Linux on and off since the mid to late 2000s and regularly since late 2010s to early 2020s. I try different distros and at present I have three of my machines running Linux. Initially I was using Ubuntu LTS but later for two of my machines I switched to Pop OS and Zorin OS pro. One of my machines has Fedora. Pop OS and Zorin OS are based on Ubuntu while Fedora is just Fedora. I have Windows machines too but that's only because my academic and clinic work requires Microsoft office and repertorization and clinic management softwares and both of them do not work natively on Linux. Even my heavy duty machines are Linux. My main gaming machine is Pop OS on which I run Steam. Of course it does not run all the games on Steam like it would on a Windows PC but it does run a lot of them thanks to proton and its increasing compatibility. The main issue on Linux machines is Microsoft Office which is the most used office suite, and kind of necessary for thesis work, but Libre Office is a good alternative and if you download proper fonts it kind of works well but still I keep two windows machines, one for my clinic and one for my thesis and writing works as some of the writing software like Scrivener and yWriter don't work natively on Linux. I donate to Linux based distros and apps and I think if not for official purposes and some apps not having native support on Linux, it works well enough for me given the amount of customisation and control I have on Linux. My main gaming rig has Pop OS installed on it and I play, whenever I have time, Steam games on it. My ThinkPad has Fedora on it and I use it majorly for research and writing purposes. If you are new to Linux, I would highly recommend Zorin OS. It is based on Ubuntu and is very sleek and polished. I have also used Linux Mint and it is great too and there are numerous distros out there you can test and find out which of them you feel most at home with. 

Gothamabad

My two primary loves are literature and comics and I try my best to devote time to these interests of mine. Early 2010s, I wanted to write a novel. Late 2010s, I realise that the novels are redundant. I see Anand Gandhi of Ship of Theseus fame creating a new universe and its lore which seems promising as it has different species inspired by Indian mythology. But as far as I see it it is a universe developed for the rich, by the rich. I can afford the Maya lore books, but I'd rather stay away from it because I don't really find any soul in it. Even imagination has been commodified and is being rationed. Compare this to the 90s when middle and lower-middle class had access to comic books and unbridled imagination. Lower class still didn't but at least middle and lower class could imagine. It's not really possible in this country now that a food delivery guy comes home from his shift and reads comics and immerses himself in imagination. Reasons are, the times are such where imagination has been commodified and rationed and two, comics, even Hindi comics have become incredibly expensive. Of course this is totalitarianism. The government, if your eyes have been open in the past decade, is just working as an arm of the rich, which you can see in the recently declared labour laws. We are living in the times of officially sanctioned exploitation, which for that matter has always been in this country unofficially. Quality of life, is basically being gatekept and the poor only have sex as entertainment which for the assholes in the poor become rape, the brunt of which is suffered by some helpless poor woman. The ones who are awake are seeing in real-time, complete feudal-corporate-mafia takeover while others are asleep and are busy with liking, mostly vulgar reels and watching black market mms scandals and pornography (and remember porn is banned) being peddled through Telegram and Terabox. The good ones are trying, comic book communities on Facebook and pages on Instagram are trying, but the actual comic nerds of this country are helpless because the right to be called "nerds" is only for the kids of rich. Isn't it funny, what's street level in the West, like rock music, rap rock and rap, is high-class in this country? People can't escape anymore, all that remains, especially for good ones, is sexual repression, religious and moral guilt, financial exploitation and locked stratas, and we are living in times about which the Discovery Channel in 2002 said there would be flying cars.