Experiences

Guess what the word of the year in 2016 is ????????????.

Post-truth: ADJECTIVE

Relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief.

Eg in sentences; In this era of post-truth politics, it's easy to cherry-pick data and come to whatever conclusion you desire’. Some commentators have observed that we are living in a post-truth age’

Experts believe that 2016 was defined by this particular word. Mostly i guess it is because of Donald Trump taking office. Peoples emotions are reflected in the year 2016. As far as i am concerned this word has been in our daily lives for quite long. How many of us are really sure of the facts around us. I for sure dont know what the fuck is really going on in mainstream politics. The list can go on and on. I know for sure that i am not the only one . Very few people in today's world know the answer to that question.

Wink Wink: Yup Politicians as i will like to call them silver tongued shammers. They are the Movers and Shammers. This is how it has been and will be. Putting your full confidence in them is like putting your feet in your mouth. Silver tongued politicians have perfected the art of lying and many like them for what they are. Guess that makes all of us liars. Let me face the fact; My life is revolving around a lie and will. I should accept the fact that i cant do anything about it and i will live in the current madness that defines me.

All that i can do is resort to the quote given by Euripides. Question everything, Learn something and Answer nothing. These words will have relevance today and tomorrow and will not loose its significance. I should put full trust in myself when it comes to this particular quote.


I have few experiences that can relate to the point i make.

Literature has the power to heal when it comes to getting confronted with choices of survival. Literature can make you walk through the pages of history. History is what has defined us as it has left its obvious traces behind. All we have to do is to go down the memory lane to get really acquainted with who we are and what has so far really defined us.We all know it in our own way. Literature makes you to realise that you are not crazy and makes you take the right informed choice by knowing what to do. Just by knowing what to do does not mean it is the right thing. People tend to lie and your actions are based on the people who lie.

I have a example to prove my point and i often remind my current knowledge with this particular movie The Imitation Game. The movie makes it clear that it has been inspired by a true story and the secret was released by the Queen of England. I never knew who Alan Turing was and his role in breaking the Enigma. I was not taught that in school so i don't know. By watching the movie i realised that it was Alan Turing who was responsible for major German losses during the war. I would have never guessed that Alan Turing was a brilliant homosexual who Germans loathed. I guess payback is a bitch for Germans then,

Anyways i had the chance to hear a Israeli war veteran Yonatan Berg speak and the point he makes with using literature. He usually finds solace by thinking of Psalms in the Bible and talks of Bibliotherapy that has been gaining popularity in his nation. Bibliotherapy is a therapy like psychotherapy that uses literature as a medium. With a country dealing with war and bereavement people have found a gut wrenching desire to articulate feelings/human experience with literature. People are trying to access the third voice that literature is trying to convey. Verbal communication takes a much better presence than the spoken word. I guess if this works to help a deranged person get back on his feet then so be it. Well this has been the scenario of using literature and finding peace.

Apart from the literature that one can use as therapy it is important that one should get his facts right is a point made by Shashi Tharoor. He gives conflicting views on the British Raj with his book An Era of Darkness which one would have never known otherwise. Literature can mislead at times if not dealt with facts is what he is trying to convey. I have jotted few points he makes during his talk and will have to read the book anyways at some time,

1. Thinking in the right direction. One should know where he has come from.

2. British Empire made its grounds with Globalisation. These circumstances have allowed me to be who i am.

3. British during its reign in India spread fear and terror in its own way. They were interested in making profits. Maharajas in their princely states taxed 15 % to the common man whereas the British charged 45 % as taxes.

4. Lord Ripon the Viceroy of India had a conscious policy of Divide and Rule. They seized India with a sword and a yardstick.

5. British imposed tougher sedition laws for those protesting against the British Empire.

6. Railways laid were a colonial scam to loot India's wealth. His book has a series of arguments that makes us to think of the impact the British Raj had on us a society which makes us who we are.

Apart from that he discussed that British exploits were not racial in nature otherwise. Ireland suffered huge looses and cruelty beyond belief under the British. Many Irish had to flee to America because of the conscious policy of the British Empire.

This makes us to realise that it is nothing but than being a Advanced civilization and greed that has rocked the cradle of mankind.

On the same note on getting your facts right was another talk by Colleen Taylor Sen and Vir Sanghvi which spoke on Chasing the origin of curry. The theme was focused on the Indian palate and food for the soul. The points i got from this topic are

Well i need to cleanse my palate before i say Chicken Tikka Masala is Indian. Unfortunately it is not as per experts. No one would have thought that Chicken Tikka Masala is not Indian. From what i can recollect is Chicken Tikka Masala is a dish concocted in a British Kitchen. Mughlai cuisine has got nothing to do with the Mughals. Majority of them are restaurant dishes. They originated after post partition. Butter chicken originated from Tandoor. Indian cuisine is a collection of recipes unlike French cuisine which is a collection of techniques. French tribute cuisine to imagination based on ingredients unlike Indian food. Majority of the French recipes are coded which gives them the authority over Michelin rating.

Hence with this i can conclude Question everything, Learn something and Answer nothing.

World we live in should put you in a Dilemma.