The ‘peeing’ thoughts

By Sibi Mathews

Statutory warning: Those who think writing and reading about ‘peeing’ is ugly, indecent, substandard or insane (?) may stop reading here and go for a ‘pee’

By reading this line, you have agreed that you have no objection in reading this blog on ‘peeing’

“Why can’t you at least consider that he is a human being??”

I woke up hearing this. I had no clue on what was happening in the bus. I was on my way back from Perunthalmanna to Thrissur after visiting my uncle who underwent an operation and was trying to figure out ways to forget pain and come back to normal life. As in any other bus trip, I could not help remain awake. I fell asleep exactly after 10 minutes. (Guys, this is my secret of not being bored and spending the time productively while travelling. I am sure that you also must have tried it at least once. Make it a habit. Trust me... it’s worth considering.)

I wondered what ‘inhumanity’ might have happened in this bus which had hardly 12-15 passengers? (I donno any direct correlation between number of human beings and humanity but somehow I felt so) I stood up and found 2 passengers arguing with the Driver and Conductor on something ‘major’. It is so serious that all their faces are red, heated with the anger which caused the voice to increase and had waked me up.

The passengers were well dressed, standing near the driving seat. Both of them were in anger, which is visible, but one of them showed the signs of ‘suffering from some great pain.’ He was restless looking at everyone for support but except the other fellow, nobody seemed to be in a mood to help him.

The argument went on in a fashion, as if they were in the legislative assembly. Guys, I am not referring to the quality of language used (They never said anything ‘unparliamentary’) but one of them argued as if he is ‘the inventor of democratic system’ which governs the nation, that the bus belong to ‘the people’ as it is a government bus so they have the right to ask for it (That piece of conversation did not give a clue on what the argument is on. I damned myself for having slept, I might have missed lot of such instances in bus as sleeping in bus is my ‘secret of not being bored, who knows!!) The custodians of the so called ‘people’s property’ retaliated that ‘People is not just those two passengers, there are others in the bus who can claim the ownership (they were the majority. democracy triumphs) of the bus as being in the group of people who do not wish ‘it’ happen.

The argument went on and on keeping me wondering what the hell on this earth has those guys asked for from these ‘people’s servants’ which resulted in a debate on the basic governing principle of our nation called ‘democracy’

All of a sudden, the driver stopped the bus and said ‘Do whatever you want, you are the owner of the bus, I should be obeying the owner. Let me see whether other owners like it or not.”

The moment the bus stopped, the guy with pain on his face ran out of the bus and his angry companion followed him. Other two passengers, who had been watching the entire episode of the show, started talking as if someone has demanded their seats and asked them to stand till the end of their journey. They started blaming those guys for making other passengers wait for them just because they had some personal work to be done by getting down the bus.

I still continued to wonder what would be that personal work which made the owners including me to wait...

I did not have to ask anyone...

After 5 minutes, both the guys came back with ‘great relief’ on their face. The guy who was suffering from great pain had a smile on his face, which made me to realise what the story is all about.

Guys, you might have also realised the reason. Those guys had to attend ‘the nature’s call’ which made them argue like a civilized citizen aware of their rights in a democratic nation. (Right to pee must be included in the fundamental rights, how could our forefathers missed it?!!)

Driver was still in a mode to argue and to emerge victorious in this event as he saw that some passengers did not want them to pee and wanted those guys to keep their bladder under pressure till the bus reach Thrissur which was one hour journey from there.

The argument went on for a little more while and ended up as the beneficiaries were not in a mood to argue any more.

I wanted to go back to my sleep but could not. As like any other mallu, I expected ‘the unwritten unsaid’ treaty between the two sides would be broken anytime... I did not want to miss it. But throwing all my expectations on the road under the tyres of the bus, both the sides kept quite till the bus reached Thrissur where I got down. I hope and wish no development took place after that. God can not be so insensitive to me!!

Well, in the process of expecting the fight to resume, I started analysing the root cause of the whole incident. Guys, I have this thing of ‘analysing the root cause and figuring out the permanent solutions for the issues’ no matter it bothers me directly or not. But I always make sure that I do nothing to address the root cause or to solve the issue. I am being normal if you think that I am acting otherwise... Well guys, let me proclaim this... “Being a citizen of a democratic nation, I have all the rights to think about the root cause of any damn issue bothering this nation and to blame the system for not ‘figuring it out’ or not ‘addressing’ it or being not effective in ‘solving’ it etc etc.”

The root cause analysis of this particular incident gave me two conclusions,

1.     1.  ‘The right to urinate’ is a fundamental right for any Indian; I am not sure about other nationals as I have not interacted with any of them in my life. I wonder how our forefathers could miss it while writing the constitution!!

2.       2.There has to be rules and regulations governing the code of conduct while urinating, the facilities at bus, maintaining the facilities etc etc. The parliament, legislative assemblies should debate, discuss this right in length and breadth to come up with a law ‘pee law of 2010’ or ‘law of urination- 2010’ and could be subsequently amended, modified depending on the changing needs of  peeing/urination. This law must be studied by the lawyers and there has to be a specialization for lawyers on this law. This must be included in ‘concurrent list’ where central and state governments are concerned about this basic need of its citizens.

The law should provision for toilets (or rest rooms?) in side every bus and every bus operator should be given a reasonable time to have these facilities within each and every bus. They might lose the revenue of 6-8 passengers in every trip but who cares... the law of the land should prevail (democracy triumphs!!) if any operator fail to do so, get the opportunity to keep the bus in shed forever (Democracy triumphs again!!)

A sudden spark went through my brain (don’t ask me where it originated and where it ended and how does the spark originate in brain and the scientific explanation of the same) such a great business idea!!!... Yes I stuck GOLDMINE.  As the father of this law, (well I guess I would be granted this title. Hope nobody is working on it now!) I will be honoured with a patent or honorarium of this idea and would get a share of the revenue from this great initiative. (I deserve a share of payment from each person using this facility anywhere in the country, there could be some negotiation with the states. I should anyway get a decent amount from each state, life time!!)

Wow!!!! I am just rocking...

When you think of a business opportunity, you tend to think about maximising the profit. (If you don’t, I do) I could not resist myself from the thought of making people to pee more while they are travelling... I will negotiate for a ‘binamy contract’ for selling water in bus. Which will eventually result in more peeing... more peeing means more money for me (Did I mention that you will have to pay each time you use the facility in bus? Great income for the government! Why the hell are our so called rules miss out such great yet simple revenue model and cry over deficiencies?? I just done understand)

I was patting my back for inventing such a great ‘revolutionary’ idea for the betterment of humanity (Hope nobody would question the humanity inside a bus after this law materialises), a great revenue source for our struggling governments and a livelihood for me. No idea is so great.... nobody can beat me!!

“Thrissur Thrissur....... Get down....” I woke up from my thoughts with a little disappointment... There stood the conductor asking me to get down... I smiled at him (after all he is the one who gave me this great idea... ‘An idea which will change my life...)

It was raining heavily and... and...

Do I feel like peeing?? Hmm I need to get an auto and get home as soon as possible as the toilet at the bus station is not even good enough for 'a pee'...Here I am, thinking about having toilets in Bus!! Damn me!!!

Christian Communism>>Communism>>Sampada>> ?????? (Evolution of a dream)

Friends, whatever I am writing here are my views; excuse me if I am hurting your sentiments...


Before moving to Sampada and Sampatti, let me state the definition given by Wikipedia for Communism and Capitalism.

Wikipedia says, Communism is a social structure in which classes are abolished and property is commonly controlled, as well as a political philosophy and social movement that advocates and aims to create such a society.

Again, Wikipedia says, Capitalism is an economic system in which the means of production are privately owned; supply, demand, price, distribution, and investments are determined mainly by private decisions in the free market, rather than through a planned economy. Communists argue that (they are by and large true) capitalism leads to exploitation of proletariats by capitalist bourgeoisie.

For me, Communism is a nice, very nice dream to cherish forever. Yes, I said ‘forever’ because it’s a dream which will never come true. (My dear communist friends, don’t tell your DYSP, SFI comrades about the existence of my blog, I have many more blogs to write!!)

With great conviction I always used to and will continue to argue that communism (Sampada) is a utopian idea. Tell me a mechanism or a system or a structure with which you can abolish the difference between two human beings, the difference between you and me, the difference between my needs, my wishes my ambitions my desires from those of yours, then... then I shall agree that communism is no more a dream, its ‘practical’

But, as an ideology, I do not know any other socio-economic ideology which has influenced the mass, the common mass like communism. Its advocates could make people believe and fight for the abolition of existing socio-economic order for the establishment of communist order of society (or socialist order?) and common ownership of ‘means of production’. Communism paved the way for the abolition of a mechanism, a system which exploited the deprived, marginalised larger mass. It was the movement of the exploited group when the torture became unbearable. Communism essentially gave power to common man and the ability to decide their ruler. (The statement is just arguably true).

Was communism successful in establishing a ‘sustainable’ socio-economic order which is capable of providing equal rights, equal opportunities and equal treatment to all? History says, communism failed to establish anything of that sort. Sustainability was the issue. If communism has to work in its ideal nature, human beings should go through psychological transformation. Nobody should feel that I am different from him’ ‘I can do it better’ ‘Am I ill treated?’ and should be happy with whatever government provides them, equally. Which is, if not impossible, is certainly improbable!!

There is another concept called ‘Christian Communism’ which was the experiment of the real communism which happened much before Karl Max proposed the idea of communism. The first generation disciplines of Jesus Christ (First generation Christian) tried to form a socio-economic order based on the principles/teachings of Jesus which was no way different, practically, from the communism which came into existence centuries later. They contributed all their personal assets to the community, worked together, lived together, prayed together, worshiped together and tried to lead a happy life. The means of production was commonly owned and nobody had any personal assets. The result of their effort was used for everyone’s well being regardless of the percentage of contribution done by each member. Everyone enjoyed the common facilities equally and ‘tried’ to live happily.

But the happy did not last forever....Even the teachings of Jesus or the faith they had in Jesus did not restrict them from being ‘ambitious’ asking for the due share and raise voice against the equal treatment of all. Probably, this might have happened during the 2nd or 3rd generation Christians who might not have had the same intensity of faith and belief in Jesus and the socio-economic order built on his teachings. This reason could be anything but the result is that the community could no more stick together as they designed or envisioned. They divided the assets among themselves and decided to mind ‘their own businesses. If you are minding your own business, you cannot be a true communist’.

I wonder why the church did not promote this socio economic order despite having its own benefits for the church as church becomes the owner of means of production?! (In case of Modern communism, the owner is the Party. Probably because of the at most certain failure the model carries... Otherwise I am sure that church would have taken it up and would have made it the model, as they have proved that they are good in marketing (They have marketed Christ very well, nobody can deny that fact) they are good in administration (The rules and regulations set by the church and their ability to make people adhere to it and running number of organizations, profit making, any part of the world they are)

As Hitler said, Communism loses its ground of existence when people are no longer poor.

Friends, don’t you think Hitler was true in saying that?

One more question.... Who is the real inventor of so called Communism?

(a) Jesus Christ (b) Karl Max (c)First generation Christians



Hope you have the answer!!



I have a dream... not about establishing a true communist society, but to see the day when the Communist Party of India gets dissolved and the members join Congress or any other Socialist Party realising that whatever they are doing, I said ‘doing’ not ‘saying’ is not communism and are more close to socialism (or to capitalism?



SAMPADA is a great movement launched by Mr. Bibek Kumar to establish a new socio economic order based on the concepts of ‘Selfless Society’. You will get more info from sampadaway.com

As I said, even if I feel it ‘Utopian’ (I do not find much difference between Communism and Sampada except in the approach) I feel like being with him as he is such a nice human being who could think and propagate the idea of ‘Selfless Society’ after all who do not wish to cherish a nice dream?


Sibi Mathews.

Tough to be an idiot...tougher to remain as one- Reflection on ‘3 idiots’

There are lot of ‘I am not sure’. I hope you will also reflect on this.


Yes, I am referring to the idiots of the movie ‘3 idiots’ not the ones in the conventional understanding. I am not sure about the precise meaning of idiot in conventional sense. I think there in just a very thin line (or no line at all?) between two.

For me, the word idiot is just used to indicate the unconventional way the hero deals with. Nobody would ever think (None of the viewers, I am sure) that Amir Khan is an idiot at any point of time in the movie (other than those who are acting in the movie who are asked to do so by the director)

The movie conveys two messages (There could be many more. I wish to discuss these two)

1. Get out of the cat race and enjoy life, learning etc.

2. Do what you love to do, no matter what society says.



It’s not that easy as they said or tried to say (Well, Amir Khan and others could do it as the writer decided to write it that way. After all, movies and its heroes do things which are difficult for common man). Getting out of the cat race of getting good marks, good job (good job is always the well paid job), good car, good wife (good wife is always the daughter of rich father, good looking and at times employed), good house, kids, kids education, their job, marriage, retirement and dying peacefully (isn’t death the end of everyone, no matter you are an idiot or not?)

How many of us have learned just for ‘learning’ without thinking about the marks it carries? How many of us could pursue our ‘interests’ while selecting a course to study or a job to work?? Its not easy to break the conventional way of dealing with these things. Society has set the rules on the accepted degree of deviation one can make from the standard behavior in each and every aspect of life. If somebody crosses the limit, society looks at him in a weird way, and would call him an idiot and... and would do its best to pull him to the standard behavioral pattern.

Why is it happening so?? Nobody to be blamed I guess. Society is conditioned so... so does it condition each and every one who belongs there. How did the society get conditioned so?? There are number of factors. Major one is that the society has a great history of evolution. It has seen engineers and doctors leading comfortable life and earning respect in the society. Success, money, being respected are the scales of measurement. Here comes the risk free play. Society (here, society means your parents and your so called well wishers) infers that if you can be a doctor or engineer, no matter you like it or not, you could lead a happy life (kind of a sure bet.)

Next, what is wrong in such a conclusion?? After all that is the logical conclusion. Our society demands a lot from the parent in bringing up their off springs. They are made to live for them!! (This is another vicious circle!!) they have to provide them the best possible-cloths, education, food etc etc and are supposed to take care of them till they get a desired job. The word desired job, desired income plays the key role here. Being a doctor or engineer ensures that their off springs get the desired job, desired income, easily and in a short period of time. So how can we blame the parents for demanding their son/daughter to become a doctor or engineer??

Even if some parents think in terms of encouraging his son/daughter to be an ‘idiot’, when can they expect somebody to realize that he/she wants to be a singer, footballer, or a wildlife photographer?? It could happen at any point of time in their life, could be when they are very young or at an age of 50!! Can any parent take such a risk and be blamed by the society, as society controls everything...

See guys you just cannot expect any help from your parents or society in nurturing the ‘idiot’ in you. It takes lot of effort, continuous struggle to be an idiot and to remain as one, to pursue your dreams and your passion. You are all alone if you wish to be an idiot. It’s like swimming against the flow; the flow will always pull you down and will try its best to make you a part of it. The struggle is continuous and never ending. As a result, not many have succeeded in being an idiot.



Having said all these,



As in the movie, the reward of being an idiot is worth taking the risk I guess. Amir gets fame, success and his love for being and remaining an idiot. I am still sceptical, as I have never been an ‘idiot’ though I have tried many a times but could not sustain. I have always taken the easy way out, the way of swimming with the flow where you just have to remain afloat. The flow will take you places, may not be so exciting but safe and comfortable. For idiots, journey is not comfortable, not easy, and not predictable. But I think they get to see places which are not seen by many- exotic, exciting and cherish able (again, I am not sure!)



After all, the way you travel makes the difference if you realise that the end is the same for everyone. (I am referring to death. Is death the end? Is the end same for everyone? I am again not sure.)



Guys, if you have been expecting me to come up with a solutions or suggestion or at least a conclusion on being an idiot, sorry you have to be disappointed. I have nothing to suggest but that whatever you choose, to be an idiot or not to be one, do it you way. For a change, consider being an idiot at any point of your life whenever you feel like... after all



Society remembers only idiots even though it does not wish produce any.

 
Sibi Mathews

Why am I blogging anyway??

This is my first attempt in blogging. I have been always fascinated by the idea of writing down something or other everyday which had made me to pause and say ‘hmm’. It could be anything, about me (well, I have no probs if you wish not to read!) or about anything of my choice.

 I have been having a BlogSpot account, which is 4 years old and have nothing but 2 poems in it (both by Wordsworth, I have deleted both now). I have not shared it with anyone for I never thought anybody would be interested to read what I write. Now, I am looking at it from a different angle, ‘I do not wish you guys read it just because I have written something’. This is an exercise to make sure that I am externalizing myself’ well, if you find it interesting, do read…as long as you feel it’s worth reading. When you read, please reflect on the same, criticize, appreciate, encourage, discourage….

Though I have been thinking about writing something for a long time, my friend Tilj and his blog (or blogs? Not sure about the usage) has made me to kick start this exercise. He is a first time dad and has been writing about being a father, his daughter Jenny and how Jenny has changed the world around him. For those who think ‘hae what is there to write about fatherhood every day??, I suggest to read his blogs (http://www.jennysdad.blogspot.com) you will certainly realize that what a father goes through while bringing a daughter up. There is something or other new about her every day. Guys, I too had the conviction that he will not be able to write after a week. After all what is there to write about the girl which would keep the interest of the readers???...till I visited my Brother at Bangalore last week.

There, we have our girl Diya, 6 months old who has changed the world around her, and has been continuing to do the same, everyday!! I am sure that If I were at Bangalore, I could have written 1-2 pages about her every day. May not be anything big or great but the feeling of having a baby girl around, the way she recognizes you, the way she smiles at you, the way she demands things from you (You just cannot say no to her, I bet) the innocence, the freshness, the beauty, the affection, the love etc etc. See I can go on and on…..  :)

Hats off to Tilj, for making use of blogging to writing about his daughter, to externalize. I am sure someday, Jenny would feel proud about her Father for actually writing all this down. Guys, TIlj’s blog is a reference guide for ‘to be’ first time fathers. Those who are expecting can make the best use of it!  :)

So, this has motivated me to start writing…Someday, I will also have a girl to feel proud on whatever I am writing… :)

With this, I am ending the starting of an exercise…. Keep visiting this space… You will get to read something or other… That is the only promise…. :)

A note on ‘Personification’

Here, ‘Personifies’ means nothing but to ‘represent’. I believe that each and every blog I write represents different aspects of ‘Sibi Mathews’ which you have or have not experienced in our interactions. You may or may not agree to my representations. My ‘self perception’ may not be right always.

‘Personify’ also means representing my ideas, my thoughts on different aspects of life. Again, you may choose to agree or disagree…. Please do let me know your thoughts on the same…

Sibi Mathews