Mended
The resolution to stop smoking hasn’t worked. Yet. But there’s this other thing I’ve set out to do: count the number of books I’ll be reading this year. Sort of like a tab… I’m thinking a hundred is a good rounded number… but whether it’s too presumptious a digit, time will tell.
So, let’s see. Till now, it’s been two Terry Prachetts. One ‘My precious sock’ (kids’ book, a gift). And just today, I began Broken Verses. Kamila Shamsie’s Broken Verses. The first 16 pages have been tremendously enchanting. And a friend’s book I’ll be reviewing will make that five books by the end of this week.
Barkha Dutt’s latest We The People was about blogging, and whether it needs to be regulated. Apart from the fact that it seemed she was out to settle a personal score with a rumour-mongerer, I seemed a little surprised that among all those who opposed regulation per se, none came up with the argument that regulation would entail the creation of a system. And systemising the net is done in places like China. And that spells a doom for freedom of expression, for free thought, for all those who will be left out in the creation of a system (for that’s what a system does – creates a centre, and, this follows automatically, a margin.. a fringe).
The general tone of disbelief in outside regulation was heartening.
Ok, I’m writing this some seven hours later. I came back from a rather insipid interview with an oncologist, and now I’m trying, in office, to finish a story. In many ways, I love the fact that I’m living alone in this city – Mumbai – and working. But that’s a digression. The point I wanted to add was this interesting conversation I had with a colleague, who had a very different perspective on ‘illness’. An illness, he said, points out the weakness of the system. And, once pointed out, and expunged, the system becomes stronger. He was of course using the body as a metaphor of the political system. Ergo, according to him, the only way to attack a system is to let the illness spread… and let it engulf the system totally. Ok, so that bit’s frightening. But the perspective is succint. We’ve all heard about how we can only fight the system from within the system. But what has all this fighting got us? A stronger system…
