Age of Wisdom in English Literature

                                    Waiting for Age of Wisdom

George Ritzer the sociologist, first time used the word McDonaldization exhibiting the Fast Food characteristics adopted by society. The four primary components identified by him have also moved in the Global Literature. The Harry Potter and 50 Shades of Grey are the McDonald of Literature.

McDonaldization is nothing but another kind of rationalization emphasizing change in traditions and cultural values. The shifting of values is not in the positive direction. Even though the nature is doing its best to teach the predicament of advancement, man is not yet ready to learn any cheap lesson. The question is who would pay the price of costly lessons? Obviously The Poorest class of the mankind would suffer the disasters created by nature, and the rich would get another chance of proving their generosity.

An eBook can be published much quicker than McDonald delivers Pizza at your doorstep. So far as writing a book is concerned, it is just like McDonald doesn't grow the potatoes to make McFries similarly authors, hunt for ideas and plot of the story in published or unpublished literature of other authors. If authors could only learn to grow their own potatoes, they would never be labeled as McDonaldised.

How many copies Sold? Is the first question when you talk about a book. The Sell has become synonymous with quality, while once it was believed that quality always suffers in the hands of quantity. Why otherwise Carlyle should say 'There are nine fools in the world for one wise man..."One should write what people want to read or one should write what he wants to write and should not bother if his work is accepted or rejected by society. Is there any responsibility to refine the taste of people on the creative artist?

Predictability is a great asset for any product to win the heart of the customer. A book having clichés like Love, Girl Friend, Boy Friend, Heart, Friendship, Break Up along with an enchanting book cover of boy and girl, holding hands, crying, the monogram of a broken heart or walking in different direction have become the success formulas  in literature. Also, you have to encash the wave of theme or genre, if live-in relationship is in thing write about it and if semi-erotica is breaking the record of Sale, you must also try your hand on that. Many Indian Publisher would conform to the view that books are sold by name of the title and attractive cover design.

                                                                               pixabay

If we look further back at the post industrial revolution and the emergence of romanticism we realize that despite the advancement of science and technology man has remained spontaneous, irrational, imaginative and emotional. In the entire cosmos there is a cycle of the Age of Barbarianism,  Age of  materialism, Age of individualism, Age of industrialization, Age of enlightenment, Age of Romanticism, Age of rationalization and Age of Wisdom. We are only few centuries far from Age of Wisdom.

Literature is now mostly being read for entertainment. A novel is like a peanut you want to munch while travelling or waiting in a queue at the dentist. What we need is the De - McDonaldization of Literature. Micro-cosmos within man is harmonious with nature only when he shed off all that is artificial and learns to respect what is Original and Natural.

© Vipin Behari Goyal

Alia Bhatt- Brainless Beauty is youth icon

                                                          Hamari Pyyari Alia

It can be hailed as the most elegant and cherished love story of Indian History. It is believed that the Mughal prince Khurram fell in love with a simple girl who flew one of the two prized fantail pigeons and on being asked how she could have done such a crime she flew the second one too and said:'like this'! This naive girl went on to become his most treasured and loved wife, Mumtaz Mahal. She was the daughter of Asif Khan and granddaughter of Mirza Ghiyas Beg, both of whom held positions in the Mughal court. (tajmahaltour).

Now look at the jokes about Alia Bhatt on social media sites

1. Alia Bhatt is so dumb that she thought Pani Puri, Sev Puri are all relatives of Amrish Puri.

2. Arnab: What's the first name of Modi?
Alia: Abki Baar

3. Einstein says: Be friends with Alia Bhatt and feel like a genius all the time!

4. When Mary Kom won a Gold Medal in Asian Games Alia Bhatt congratulated Priyanka Chopra

5. Alia went to buy a national flag on Independence Day and asked to show it in some other colors, or that she insisted to a shopkeeper to give her free cholesterol when she bought Sunflower Oil.

When the whole world is rejoicing the youngest Nobel laureate Malala Yusufjai for her overwhelming achievement of  human rights advocacy for education for women, our most pure, innocent Alia Bhatt has received unparalleled applaud in the history of Bollywood for being labeled as dumb.

Four lunatics were standing near fence of an asylum when a car stopped outside on the road and the owner who was driving, got down from the car to change the tyre since it had gone flat. While in the process he had taken out flat tyre he accidently strikes the plate  where he kept all the four nuts and the nuts rolled in the nearby drainage. Now the owner was perplexed as how he would manage to reach to a mechanic, when one of the lunatic suggested that he take out one nut from each wheel and put stepney with three nuts. He can then go up to a mechanic. The owner was surprised he asked "Hey, you have solved my problem. How is that you are in a lunatic asylum."

The man answered " Well, I may be a cranky, but I am not dumb."

That was the time when being stupid  was considered as the worst kind of stigma society can attach to anyone. Now Alia has surpassed Santa Banta and Blondes in stupidity.

Is Alia dumb or stupid? Or both?

Dumb, simply put, is when you don't know any better. This could be on an intellectual, mental, or educational level. It could also be due to a lack of exposure to certain behaviors and subsequent reactions, relative to any kind of 'life' situation. The rate at which you react and whether or not you think first before the action or reaction is somewhat relative. Definitively though, nothing is more evident after the fact, or nearly as important as the simple fact that you didn't know any better at the time.

Stupid, simply put, is when you know better, but you do it anyway. The first time you do your own laundry and toss bleach into a load of colored clothing, destroying everything... This is a dumb mistake. The next time you do laundry, and toss the bleach into the load of colors again? That is just stupid. You knew better from the first/past experience, but you did it anyways. (English language and usage).

Alia is neither dumb nor stupid.

She is pretty, innocent, charming, unworldly girl who has chosen to appear what she is not? Why anyone would do that. On the one hand when Kangana Ranaut in North and Kajal Agarwal in South has established themselves as the most intelligent heroines in Indian film industry, why an upcoming actress when labeled as dumb would rather approve of it. Look at her statements-

"I always say that I rather be stupid than pretend to be intelligent."

"I think that is very funny. Basically there are these twitter and Facebook jokes on me, because I am apparently stupid. They are very hilarious," she said.

"I don't feel bad at all. I find it very funny. It's a joke and you have to take it in a funny way. At least, I am crossing somebody's mind at some point of the day."

And it all started from Karan Johar's talk show Koffee with Karan when she said that the Indian President is Prithviraj Chavan during the rapid fire round.

How many actresses do you think know the name of the President of India. They could be counted on finger tips.

Then why so much hue and cry to culminate it into a meme. It is an invention of some brilliant mind (a marketing strategist) to encash a mistake and project an image of a person with whom adolescent youth can identify and can make fun as well. The statements given by Alia are very intelligent. A stupid person would never admit that he is stupid.

This is the ultimate glamorization of stupidity.

Bollywood had been doing it in the past. They have glamorized criminals, vagabonds, tapories, rowdies and Mafioso. They are expert in tilting negative shades in such a way that audience starts identifying themselves by a rationality of displacement in their subconscious mind.

But credit goes to Alia Bhatt for doing it off the screen.

So when you are laughing at Alia in all probability she too is laughing hard at you, for having successfully befooled you. Only time would show who has the last laugh, but by that time the purpose would have been served.      

 ©Vipin Behari Goyal