TINA...?

Have you ever been to a Circus or a Zoo or an Animal Sanatorium or a Monastery? If you have, did you see the Elephant petted by owners of these places for their respective purposes? And if you have seen the mighty animal standing still, fanning its huge ears and waving the trunk, chained to a small peg grounded just beside one of its legs? And have you ever wondered why this (al)mighty mammal never tries to escape when it can easily shatter the feeble chain and tug the peg with a swift jerk and set itself free? Being a little curious and having this habit of probing into the things makes an Einstein of a boy labeled as Learning Deficient! So a little study and analysis into the matter could make you richer with a life lesson – talk to the Elephant Trainer and he will tell you that he used to tie the Elephant with the same chain and peg since it was a baby. At that time it was not as strong as it is today and hence could not break the chain despite its desperate efforts to break free. In fact it got hurt with the escaping efforts and eventually started to believe that it is impossible to get rid of the chaining, it developed a sense of being a prisoner and slave of the skinny creature called human even if it has NOW outgrown everything – its size, shape, strength and superiority! This is called… Conditioning!

The Jackal in the Panchtantra stories went to a nearby village in search of food, was attacked and chased by the dogs there, fall into a barrel of indigo making it blue from tip to tail. Upon returning to the jungle, no animal could recognize this blue animal and as they got frightened, the Jackal, being shrewd that it was, took this opportunity to declare himself God-sent King of the Jungle to take care of his subjects! However it was too clever to risk his ‘blessing in disguise’ and hence chased away all other Jackals out of jungle as they might have recognized him sooner or later. It was so far so good for the cunning Jackal as he was enjoying his Lordship till one night when few jackals passing through the jungle decided to take rest. As the night progressed, all the Jackals with their basic instincts started to howl in chorus as it came to them naturally. On hearing the chorus of howling, the self-imposed ‘King’ couldn’t resist its natural instinct and he too joined the song by howling free and loud as he could. All other animals heard him howling, discovered the fact and as they realized that they have been cheated and exploited for all these days, all their outrage fall onto the ‘King’ as he got a good beating and thrashing by all his ‘subjects’ and he had to run away for his life! This is called… Autocracy!

A lion woke up one morning feeling really rowdy and mean. He went out and cornered a small monkey and roared, "Who is mightiest of all jungle animals?"

The trembling monkey says, "You are, mighty lion!"

Later, the lion confronts an ox and fiercely bellows, "Who is the mightiest of all jungle animals?"

The terrified ox stammers, "Oh great lion, you are the mightiest animal in the jungle!"

On a roll now, the lion swaggers up to an elephant and roars, "Who is mightiest of all jungle animals?"

Fast as lightning, the elephant snatches up the lion with his trunk, slams him against a tree half a dozen times leaving the lion feeling like it had been run over by a safari wagon. The elephant then stomps on the lion till it looks like a corn tortilla and ambles away. The lion lets out a moan of pain, lifts his head weakly and hollers after the elephant, "Just because you don't know the answer, you don't have to be so mad about it!" This is called... A Joke? Seriously...?!?  

In physics, the law of conservation of energy states that the total energy of an isolated system in a given frame of reference remains constant — it is said to be conserved over time. In other words, this law means that energy can neither be created nor destroyed; rather, it can only be transformed from one form to another. For instance, chemical energy is converted to kinetic energy when a stick of dynamite explodes. Similarly the law of universe believes in the cycle of Creation, Development and Deterioration. Nothing is permanent or invincible as long as the ecosystem is in place taking care of itself. If nothing is permanent or invincible, how could it be irreplaceable? TINA is nothing but a socioeconomic, sociopolitical myth, developed and maintained by the Rulers who want to Rule their Subjects or the Capitalists who want to Sell to their Consumers and not any condition that cannot be altered or removed completely.

If the Elephant is de-conditioned and made aware of his strength and the Jackal is demystified of his masquerade, Democracy sure can prevail and Nationalism could thrive with or without mandate of standing to honor the National Anthem played in the Cinema Halls.

By the way, this entire episode of thrusting Nationalism needs a serious attention. I mean how could one expect an extravagant crowd that can afford to spend thousand rupees for 2 hrs for a thing that inherently is fake, show-off and is shrewdly overrated, to respect the national anthem by standing still for 57 seconds? If all these people do their respective job dutifully, conscientiously and HONESTLY, wouldn’t that be more like paying respect to the Nation, forget the National Anthem? What’s the point in saying your marriage vows if you blink at the beautiful best friend of your fiancée while doing it? The analogy might seem a little filmy, but that exactly is the subject matter, isn’t it…?