Mass consciousness and Individual consciousness - some observations

Mass consciousness is such a vast, generic idea that any observations, thoughts about it manage to sound quite pompous (at least to me, if I sit down to write these ideas – which, somehow, don’t feel quite so pompous in my head). Given my innate humongous wish to live in a world ruled by parameters that today seem to not exist – I hv always been an observer, following changes in consciousness trends, and what seems to hv an influence on them. Firstly, I think it is people like me – or rather people who hv deep deep deep inside seated wishes like me - to be participant in a different world, a world which would allow for experiences of each being feeling: supported, safe, a knowingness all it wishes for will be provided by a loving Universe, uplifted by the presence of love in all hearts. A world which allows for movement between dimensions, so a loved one on the other side is only a wish away, a world where very soon the death process only becomes obsolete, and experiencing existence in different dimensions is an uplifting, reversible process. Yes. There are many others like me. Many many more than you would think. In fact, perhaps these wishes (a little suppressed sometimes, maybe) exist in every heart, I would even venture to say. And so it becomes second nature to me – living breathing these wishes all the time – to see where the world is going. For this my perspective has to constantly shift from zoom out to zoom in – zi to observe/study specific events, situations, people – and zo to study/observe their effect on mass consciousness (yikes now even the term is beginning to sound pompous!!! So it is MC from now on) So, plodding on. Determinedly, till I start to make a little better sense. I feel there are good things and bad things which have been shaping world consciousness into a very accelerated growth pattern over the last couple of decades. Everytime there is a disaster – an earthquake, an aircrash, anything terrible at all – there is less and less of us who do not feel the pain and the grief of those it happened to. 9/11, 26/11 in that sense happened to all of us. Except those who would still choose to inflict pain. Anyhow, the point is , those of us who hv felt the pain of others has increased exponentially, those of us who would wish these experiences away from all human experience has increased exponentially, those of us who would wish for the world I speak of has INCREASED – mass consciousness has become aware, sensitized to its ownself, and what it wants. A very cursory look at MC over the last few centuries will show this is very fast growth in a very short space of time. The internet, in all its myriad forms, permutations and combinations has of course played its role in developing and bringing different streams of consciousness together. A good thing which also influences MC is cinema. Now, I am not overtly influenced by world cinema, although I am sure it has an effect. Its just that I don’t have a sense of it, because for some weird reason I do not hv a connect with cinema produced beyond Indian shores. I feel films in the west seem to not hv a line to my heart, and in any case a lot of their films seem to be a bit depressing (whether films should or should not be so, whether well made true to life stories makes good cinema is really a matter of personal choice – it’s just not my choice, that’s all). The only production I really enjoy is Friends – a bit more on that later. For me, good cinema has to be uplifting, enlightening and entertaining. People whose work I connect with the mostest are Aditya Chopra/Yash Chopra, SRK and Karan Johar. Nagesh Kukunoor’s Dor also made me feel very good, because all the lines seemed to hv been written by me! Aaja Nachle – took me to when I had gone to see Shiamak’s version of Phantom of the Opera (my first live experience of a stage show) and how the experience seemed to open up my whole heart mind body system! I knew then the purpose of Art – to create the shift from everyday mindspace to euphoric heartspace – tis what the core value of Aaja Nachle was all about, wasn’t it? I love Aditya Chopra for attempting to seed/feed MC with this value. Everytime a woman’s sexuality was looked down upon down the millennia, or she was made scapegoat in someway because of her sexuality or otherwise, seems to hv evoked a response in Aditya Chopra’s heart which gave us the core values of Laaga Chunari mein Daag. Mohabbatein showcased love that was at once personal and beyond the personal – universal almost. Adi and Shahrukh gave this so much conviction and class I get goosebumps watching it even today! How many times have we thought/dreamed of love in idealistic thoughts – hv we all not at sometime been at one with the idea of love that transcended all things, a love so perfect where the loved one was worthy of worship, where we just knew no sacrifice would be too great to make – we’ve all been there I think. Yashji took us there in Veer Zaara. Rani’s role was beautifully scripted too. A whole new sensibility in boygirl friendships, fun and crackling with the best chemistry ever, a tingling sex scene (minus any proper sex) – the red saree one – and a general feel good wholesome feeling is what I took home from Kuch Kuch Hota Hai – and the rest of the audience too, I suspect. Karan had a beautiful root thought for his film Kabhi Alvida na Kehna – that love cannot be put under a Contract (eg “marriage”) – that as people grow, evolve and change over the years, become different people really, it is not necessary that what brought them together in a union of love would still hold good x number of years down the road. In which case, sometimes the nature of the relationship changes into an equally satisfying togetherness friendship, or more often than not, creates a restlessness and a need to move on – which given our “moral” concepts, family situations et al is usually not considered a viable option. Films like this make us re-think our value systems, and how real are they juxtaposed against the reality that is life. In the context of the Indian mass consciousness these are important ideas for us to progress as a society. It’s not for nothing these films hv gone down so deep with audiences here and the world over. In their own different ways changing world consciousness forever, albeit subliminally.