Psedo-societies and virtual relationships

I have always wondered about the paradoxical illusions of 'being social' that networking sites throw upon us. Gone past are  the days when people were being social 'in person'. Today is an age of virtual reality and many social networking companies  are making us realize about it. Today profiles make friendships and continue the virtual relationships by being connected  'digitally'. Strong bonds of digital relationships are being manufactured by likes, comments and sharing things over  internet. We want ourselves getting noticed and this virtual, pseudo-social nature of networking is the fastest way to do  it. Are we really being social? My view is a big NO.

Today's world is quite fast paced world. Here no one is allowed to take a stop or rest for a while. We are busy doing  something or the other incessantly and that's how one becomes a successful person. Most of us are performing an act as per the script written for us. Some do it as it is required, some do it exceptionally well. Day starts with yesterdays work and  ends with thoughts about tomorrow's. Where is the time for ourselves, our friends, our families, our passion? The time slots for all these are shrunk and one most peculiar thing that I have noticed is our definition of family is also getting  shrunk. We may have more than 500 friends on face book but our family ends at me, my wife/husband, my kids and that's it. The true relationships ask for commitments, compromises, understanding and sacrifices. These are all reciprocating virtues. If you possess them , you can experience it in return. Are we running away from these? Are we being too selfish?
Unfortunately, the answer is Yes. We don't need these virtues to make friends over internet. Your new friends are just one  click away. And that is the most easiest way to make friends and relationships. Isn't it?

There is one more important aspect to it - the need of association, the need of being noticed, the need of being  appreciated. With such granular families, such a miniscule sphere of influence, we need somebody, some forum to recognize  us so that we feel associated to some form of society. We want people to know where we went, what we cooked, what good  things are happening in our lives so that they extend their acknowledgement, wishes to us. This gives us oxygen to breathe in tomorrow's polluted environments. And why not? These are the only good things happening and we want to share this to somebody. That how number of likes on your recipe is increasing and that's how you tend to like some good snaps of your friend on face book.

One thing is true that the likes of face book has kept the sense of relationships alive over distances. You can get any sorts of updates(either natural or manufactured) of anybody you wish over internet. Internet has bridged the distances between continents but it has reduced our ability to make human bonds. This is an era of personalities. The pseudo social networks are about personalities but we still need human connection to get to know the true characters.

Festival SRT200

After SRT200 festival, all brand machines will start gearing up for a new unknown festival, which nobody knows at this moment and for which the GOD is yet to be identified. India is such a beautiful and holy country that I am sure the next re-incarnation of GOD is on its way. It's just the matter of revelation by Media, Politics and Corporate offices. SRT has done his magic, which has enthralled us for over two decades and now 'they' have sensed that it's time to retire this GOD. It could be the intuitive feeling for the GOD itself that he is falling to a position of mere human, which is quite reasonable. But the fact is, SRT has ended his international career finally. A speculation from critics, which had grown into a fierce dragon-like  fire spitting creature for past 3-4 years, has come to a reality and GOD has granted them their wish in a magnificent way.

Comparing Sachin with the GOD is not just coincident with his Cricketing abilities. He is an outstanding sportsperson, no doubt about it. But does that only make him GOD? Absolutely not. If you think, far more deep and intriguing notions are associated with this GOD phenomena, specifically to Indian context. In the country of festivals and GODs people are always looking for opportunities of celebrations, with a worthy reason associated to the event. A Savior, an endower is always raised above the human levels and treated as an angel or GOD who will answer the prayers and fulfill the wishes. Sachin has done so many remarkable things to serve our nation in the world of cricket, such a reverence is called for. He acted as the winning king of a religion, language and cast agnostic battlefield of sport. He has always been looked up to as an idol, on and off the field. He has established his legacy on the field by fiercely talking with his bat only, where many other 'humanlike' cricketers of his caliber indulged themselves in abusive game. He has never hurt anybody even off the field. I feel there is a strong connection between the growing middle and upper middle class economic entities and artist-middle-class roots of Sachin's family background. The GOD like behavior is revered by masses because the conduct that SRT has maintained throughout his career is quite dearer to hearts of millions. Since centuries our parents have taught us to  behave like this and Sachin perfectly managed to personify the exact lessons of 'middleclass ideology'. Neither he was involved in big controversy nor he tried to end any of such like match fixing. He was never known as an abusive figure on the field as probably he could not use bad words but let the bat do the business. This was not crafted and scripted but was an outcome of the upbringing that he has had in 'Sahitya Sahavas'. The innocence and simplicity are the two virtues that he has kept with him all along and these two have performed major role in having GOD like stature and veneration for an individual. As a testimony, the speech that he has given on his retirement day is one of the class act which touched millions of souls.

There is an observed tendency of Indians to look for a GOD like figure which can be looked up to in hard times. We need somebody as a pacemaker. We need somebody who will act as savior to us. When many of the things go wrong, we tend find one such Sachin, one such Amitabh, one such Bhimsen Joshi who act as an analgesic to our daily bruises life. Does that mean the roots of this GOD making tendency lie in our inabilities to fight with problems? Does that mean we always need a 'Maseha' to get us out of troubles? GODs and festivals are always good. They will give us strength and ability to believe in self. We need not submit ourselves to them. 

I am sure there will be a next 'GOD in making' somewhere in some industry with the scripts by Media, politics and corporate,  and those will be executed flawlessly with the same euphoria that we have witnessed on SRT200 festival.