Recent Bollywood trend - also in OTT Web series - showing Indian females smoking, drinking, abusing beyond what exists in reality [COMPACTIDEA]

1. Lesbian love-making sequence in City of Dreams. WTF?! No connection to reality. Is this what the series-makers call 'empowerement'?
2. Indian girls/women shown using excessive cuss words and local language abuses. Not in line with the reality that Indians see in their lives. What's the point of depicting the usage of swear words beyond what exists in reality? To add masala to the video?
3. Not only abusive language, Indian females are also [forcibly] being depicted using vulgar words that feel out of place, under the banners of 'liberated', 'modern', 'progressive', 'empowered', etc.
1. Clear example is the sudden + screaming 'vagina between legs' dialog from City of Dreams, and also the daughter referring to her own father's testes in the same show. Nonsense and unrealistic!
4. It seems like the average Indian person / viewer isn't mentally clear about what exactly do terms such as empowered, liberated, etc., mean, and filmmakers are consciously or accidentally exploiting this lack of clarity to push masala dialogs and scenes that are in reality not aligned with the real definitions of these terms.
5. City of Dreams has such excessive depiction of Indian women smoking and drinking that you're like WTF!
6. You're left wondering whether these filmmakers are merely trying to reflect the reality of Indian societies, or are they covertly [maybe overtly?] trying to affect Indian societies, sensibilities, culture and public order?
7. In Voot series Illegal, women are deliberately depicted revealing cleavage when it's out of touch with the reality in India. Now, one could argue that actresses have been exposed for eons by filmmakers in order to make books/movies/shows sell [more], but in this case it isn't only that. Cleavage exposure is also being used as an overt visual cue to convey 'empowerement'. It's like the makers are overtly telling you - "See that cleavage? She's empowered!".
8. Even in Voot's Illegal, display of cleavage has been used as a tool to convey empowerment and confidence. Which professional female lawyer routinely wears cleavage-revealing dresses at her workplace {a high-end law firm}?
9. Also, another overt cue being used these days to highlight 'empowerement' - also visible in Illegal - is excessive use of English language. More English is being sold as more modern, more empowered. Ma or mummy has become mom, this sub-trend is part of the overall English issue.

TAGS= FEMINISM, FEMINIST, GENDER

Financial success doesn't necessarily by itself imply wisdom in other areas, although society considers it so

In general, at least in the Indian society, those who have made a lot of money are also considered wise in non-monetary / non-business areas. Friends, colleagues and relatives start taking advice from these people on a range of social, financial, family, and other issues, implicitly implying that these folks are "wise".

I don't believe that this implicit assessment is correct. I have at least one strong example to think so.

Recently, one of my relatives - who is one generation senior to me and has had huge successes in business over the last many years - kept not one but two extended-family gatherings at his home within a span of roughly 10 days. What kind of wisdom is this, I ask. Entire India is burning from the coronavirus / COVID-19 fire for the last many weeks, and in these dangerous circumstances how can someone put his own extended-family's lives in danger just because he wants to celebrate some of his own occasions? Due to the nature of the close relation, it becomes difficult to refuse the invite, but shouldn't the relative act wisely in the first place and not hold such gatherings at all?

Should we put our lives at stake just because you want to celebrate? Do you know for sure in advance that out of all the people invited / attending the gatherings, none has covid, or that none's body will be devastated if the novel coronavirus enters it?

A corollary. I think earning a lot of money makes a person overestimate / overconfident about his intelligence and wisdom in non-monetary / non-business areas. The person starts to think that because he has successfully earned a lot of money, it's proof that he's universally intelligent / wise - that is, he's capable of intelligently thinking about any area, discipline, situation or subject.

This, I feel, is a major trap which can bust this rich person.

Am I overreacting to the threat from coronavirus? [COMPACTIDEA]

As the various curfews / lockdowns are ending, I - sometimes - feel a bit of a doubt on the unchanged continuation of my strict protection / safety measures from coronavirus. Wearing a mask always, regular sanitization of hands, distancing, not letting anyone into my office, and many more. In contrast, people elsewhere seem to be starting to mix and meet others now. Some of my friends have even done some sort of meetups / get-togethers, but I refused for now. Am I being unnecessarily strict? Am I harming myself by this religious continuation preventive practices? Is it already time for some relaxations? I don't know, but it's important to express the self-doubt that has started to occur at times.

TAGS= CORONA, COVID-19, PANDEMIC

New trend in India - A-grade actresses shamelessly exposing their bodies right in front of their fathers, brothers, etc.

Surprising that they don't feel any sort of lajja / shame / sharam while exposing their bodies in front of their fathers, brothers, etc. So much for Westernization! No value that you're the daughter of that man? Or a sister of your brother? Will this shamelessness ever end? Do these Westernized actresses have no shame left? Bikinis while with your father / brother? How much more can you possibly expose when you're with your boyfriend / husband, compared to what some actresses are currently doing with their fathers / brothers? Further, the discourse environment that has currently been manufactured in the Indian society is such that if you point out or criticize this shamelessness, you're yourself targeted and attacked as regressive, ancient, sexist, dirty-minded and what not [and immediately labeled a "troll"]. No space for unbiased consideration of the criticism.

Females publicly sharing their near-nude pregnancy photos feels like exhibitionism and narcissism to me [COMPACTIDEA]

The 'usual' exhibitionism can be called out as such, but in the case of 'pregnancy', since it's considered a unique and divine experience, it's difficult to call out exhibitionism as exhibitionism. But just because the situation makes it difficult to call something out doesn't in itself mean or imply that it isn't the same negative thing that it was before the current special situation. Basic point being, keeping aside sweet language - females get some kind of excitement/kick in sharing exposing photos of themselves during pregnancy. Whether it's the hormones or whether it's usual stuff, who knows.

SEARCH TAGS= pregnant, childbirth

My presence making him uncomfortable

My father isn't coming to the bed to sleep because I'm around. We are in Ghaziabad to attend a family function, and just the two of us have come here. Now we're back to the hotel, and he isn't sleeping on the bed but is sitting on the sofa, despite me requesting him twice to come to the bed and sleep. My feeling is that his dislike and hatred for me is so high that he doesn't want to sleep next to me. If this is so, why did he take me along to Ghaziabad at all, I wonder? I am feeling so hurt and devalued at his behavior towards me that I'm feeling like buying a new, separate room for myself so that as soon as I leave, he can comfortably sit on the bed, and I can come out of this nonstop insult and sleep as well. He's not even making any effort to not let it be visible to me that he's trying to avoid sitting next to me on the same bed. It's sad and bad but then I cannot let anyone hurt and abuse me on a continual basis, even if that's because that person happens to have a weird kind of personality, bordering a mild illness.

The rafoo / rafu on my jeans is a reminder that I need to work more, earn more [COMPACTIDEA]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darning

Update [2.11.22]: Each year when I go to buy Diwali fireworks - and this has been especially true in the last few years - I'm reminded of my/our financial constraints. When we have to forego fancy aerial crackers because they're too costly for us - I'm reminded of the limitations of our spending power. This year this realization was so stark - I had exhausted all the budget and didn't have spare money to buy fuljharis [sparklers] and Cock's Jil Jil. Apni asli aukaat pata chalti hai.

Update [8.12.22]: I'm down to shoes that cost INR ~500. Till a few years back I used to buy shoes costing INR 1200-1500. What's wrong with my spending power?

I now feel that there might be some kind of God in this Universe [COMPACTIDEA]

I've always / traditionally rejected the presence of God based on the absence of any tangible / visible evidence [although I did at times wonder about the creator / meaning / purpose of our Universe if there's no God after all].

Lately, however, as I've come across some photos that show the sheer vastness of our Universe and that our own Earth is almost zero in comparison, I've felt humbled. I've started to wonder far more deeply about who might have created this Universe, its galaxies, the stars, the planets, the laws that govern all of these bodies, the nature of time, the nature of human intelligence, and so on.

In particular, when I recently looked at the photos of Uranus and Neptune [embedded below], I almost felt for a moment that there must be some kind of God somewhere. It just shouldn't be that such vastness, such enormous amounts of matter and energies, such distances, such "long" time periods, and so on, exist without any creator. Very difficult to understand.

Update [9-May-19]: Looking at the unbelievable vastness of a tiny portion of the Universe in this Hubble video, I feel even more strongly that there could/should be a sort of God somewhere.

Lesser-known and offbeat places can be better than popular and usual travel destinations [COMPACTIDEA]

The point here is that most people, when they travel, travel to same popular destinations to which most other people travel. Travel agencies push these usual places, and most in the public buy tour packages for only these "fast food" destinations. Most people are unaware that tourism can at least sometimes be more enjoyable by doing places and experiences that are less-known, less explored, more untouched, less crowded, offbeat and overall more exotic. A rare village here, a serene trek there. A remote island here, a scenic valley there. A Greenland here, a Siberia there. And so on.

And not just the usual Dubai, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, London, Hong Kong, Paris, etc.

One should consciously try - as much as possible - to do a mix of usual, popular tourist places and also sometimes explore stuff that's rare and exotic.

Update [Oct'22]: Dharamkot, during our McLeod Ganj trip. Same thing, same effect.

American politics, and more generally America itself, is so weird, ruined and rotten [COMPACTIDEA]

It can probably happen only in today's USA that a prostitute/porn actress [Stormy Daniels] openly commented - in detail - on the shape / structure of the US President's genitals in a book she wrote. It wouldn't have been that bad if things had stopped here. After all, she's a call girl [or an "adult star" - little fundamental difference between the two actually, irrespective of what people will say], so obviously she'll say shitty things that are standard in her trade, and one shouldn't look too much into it. What is weird, however, is how America's mainstream news media outlets reported her words verbatim. That was a low. No respect for the post of your own President. Petty domestic politics and quarrels above national dignity. Quite rotten America itself has gotten lately, I must say. And to claim that such clickbait reporting by American newspapers is a reflection of the presence of "free press" in America is shitty and doesn't have legs.