Tuesday 8 April 2008

Things that make you go 'Hmmm..' : Contradictions.

26th of march 2008.

Being driven up to kudd, we attempt to overtake a truck carrying like chickens which are soon to be somebodies dinner. We are filled with a sense of remorse for each of those ill fated chickens aware of their bleak and not so distant future. Slowly, we attempt to make our remorse and compassion evident saying things like, "Oh! those poor things", "What bad conditions they are being transported in!" and my forever favourite,"we should all be vegetarians and stop this world wide massacre."
Oh Please! Those poor things were born to be eaten by us. Thus is the food chain. We should "Oh those poor things!" all livestock and for that matter, prey. Are you really willing to challenge the way of the world in the name of human compassion?!?! As for those "bad conditions", well, how well would you keep something on its way to the gallows? Pointless statement... yes?
Vegetarians?! Hm, to the person making this irrational statement, YOU become a vegetarian and leave my habits alone please. Thank you! Do you really think ONE person not eating chicken is going to affect the poultry industry? Here's the bad news, it not going to make any difference.
As practical and heartless (hm, somehow those two always go hand-in-hand) as I may sound, at that particular moment, I must say, my heart did go out to those poor chickens in those 4 inch by 6 inch compartments being transported long distance only to be murdered at the break of dawn and served up with gravy by lunchtime, to say nothing of dinner. The argument I have presented myself with is the one I have stated above. It makes me feel better to say those things. Practicality is my answer to heartache. I am an animal lover and my heart goes out to each poor soul on the street though I have evidently learned to harden my heart over the years. I myself have my own little fetish-s. For one, I will never eat anything that looks like what it did when alive. That is probably why I will never be capable of eating fish. I also refuse to eat anything that I may have kept as a pet [i.e. named as it scampered around under my nose]. Which means, no fish, dog, pigeon, lizard, snail, rabbit or parakeets for me.
As you can see, residing within me is a cynical hypocrite who is so politically correct that he/she can openly be described as politically incorrect.
The same child, who ran home crying because she saw a dead puppy, ate chicken nuggets that night. In fact the only thing that did console her were chicken nuggets.
My dear friend the hypocrite doesn't just restrict itself to views on non vegetarian food but on everything. even vegetarian. I refuse to eat paneer and claim to be repulsed by he very sound of it, but place a plate of special paneer pakoras in front of me from nandini and im at it like a hungry lion at a deer(if you'll excuse the phrase).
Moving on from food, I claim to be perfectly happy with the way I look, and on most days i am. Try putting me in a swimsuit though, you've had it.
I hate politics and shun news about the government and ministers and what not. In school, I run my own little government, state, country, or just a social group of teenagers, take your pick.
I'm not the only one either! Within each of us resides a little monster of contradiction who takes immense amounts of pleasure in ruining our social status and polluting our otherwise pure thoughts with thoughts of the extreme nature.
In essence we are all little contradictions to ourselves, inspired by our actual innermost feelings that we chose to reveal to few.
Our little contradictions have this way of showing up when most unwanted, creating problems and snagging us in self set up snares. But living without these contradictions, is living without knowing yourself.
To know myself, I'm willing to be a a bit of a contradiction, willing to lose a little social status, be a hypocrite. To know myself, that is a price I am willing to pay.

NOTE: the author at the time of committing ideas to paper, was extremely obsessed with the words 'contradiction' and 'hypocrite'. She even went to the extremes of calling the sky a hypocrite as it supports both the sun and moon. shes is known to be absolutely senseless most of the time. To drive that point home, the original title of this piece was Hypocritical Rhyme. Just because.