Updating Software.

The security guard looked at me in a total shock.. I was dressed like a decent, affluent person, who has come to the mall to shop. To add to my flair- I even had a fancy sipper, sipping away some fancy drink that was in it. He recognised the sipper as a product of BMW- mustered up courage and spoke- “Sir, aapse ek baat poochu?” (May I ask you a question?)

When I smiled, he could not hold back, “Why are you not smoking a cigarette but a beedi? We feel cigarettes are better and they suit your level more.”

Standing on the balcony- I could see behind him huge advertisements of a slimming center, a finishing school and a deodorant that can- no matter who you are, turn you into a babe/sex magnet.

That is the moment it hit me- the eureka of partial self actualization of the effect of the media taking over, and numbing us to the state of projecting whats cool. WOW!

What I wear and how glib I talk is my marketing tool for a manipulative image of who I am. Whether I want to look serious, rebel, casual or affluent is all on offer inside the mall. Hire a stylist, and a well groomed image-a version that’s there to put me inside an ideology is available. Whether, I am that person or just projecting a fragment is something that rhetoric.

If I can shop in the malls, bring my own coffee in a fancy sipper and drive around in a car- Why do I still smoke beedis?

Is that not what all seekers have been seeking? Peeling of the layers, enquiring into what is left, post the influences have been done away with. Once, the influences are dealt with- there is a state of unrest- a dangerous void, that can either be further influenced or a part of existence starts taking shape.

That’s exactly where I am- shifting shapes. The evidence is in the changing style of my work, and even the clothes I am wearing.

It like a revised version of a software.

When did you install the latest version?