Bheja Fry!!

Every so often, I meet an old friend / acquaintance and he/she asks me why is it that I have not written much on my blog lately.

It’s a pertinent question, since the frequency is definitely lower than what it should be. (and that would be quite an understatement).

At this point, I really don’t know what I should write.. There are many things I would like to write about, but there’s really nothing that comes to mind when I wish to write about something.. It’s as if there’s an immediate writer’s block that comes up when I see a blank MS Word screen..

But more importantly, there’s really nothing intelligent to write about. And even if I do think it will be intelligent, I doubt it will be read by many. And in the event it is read by someone, I am almost certain that the said reader will vehemently disagree with me. 

For example, I have been meaning to write about this new stupid concept called “Love Jihad”. In my 36 (or so) years, I have not seen a stupider concept, trumping even Freedom Fries. The thought is that somehow there is a conspiracy of Muslim men trying to “lure” innocent Hindu women into marriage, thereby increasing the Muslim population to a level that one fine day, the population of Muslims in this country will outnumber the Hindus.

It’s almost as if someone went “You know, this idea is just so crazy, it might actually work!!”

I mean, think about it. 85% of this nation is Hindu, 13% (or so is Muslim). Assuming that normal birthrates apply, it would take roughly 150 years for the balance to go 48:48. Surely, there’s no strategy in place where the earliest possible solution is so far away.

But let’s not get sanity get in the way of a sexy conspiracy theory. However, there’s a much bigger problem at hand.

The problem is not that this is a foolish theory. The problem is that by writing about such bullshit, even if we’re conclusively proving that it cannot happen, we give it a level of legitimacy. Simply by writing about this, even as nonsense, this article will pop-up in a Google search about Love Jihad.. We just accentuate the entire cycle just by talking about it, nonsense as it is. And that, only helps the whole myth to get a life of its own. 

And that’s what this entire exercise does, it gets you down to talk at an intellectual level which is so low that there’s no chance you’re going to win..

Which is why it is probably better not to write at all.

(picture courtesy: Conrad Hackett)