Tea-Junkie.

I've become a tea-junkie. Can you see the crazed tea-junkie look in my eyes? Or maybe that's the caged-animal look? I'll be perfecting that one once the prelims are over and I'm stuck at home for one whole month before the final exams start! Yuck!

I've been actually secretly wishing that the prelims won't get over because of the long study leave after that. Ah, me and time. Sometimes I actually catch myself thinking things like, "I wish I could go to sleep and wake up in May!" I know. *Gasp* right? Thankfully, God's response to my sometimes ridiculous prayers is simply, "Uh, NO!"

If I have to look at the bright side though, I guess having all this time on my hands can be a good thing? (Besides the studying part, yes, I know :P)

I'm slowly getting back into the groove of reading the newspaper again. Otherwise it used to just go back into the pile - unread, its folds still perfectly intact... It's not that I didn't read due to lack of time; but a general disinterest in world issues that had somehow crept over me. I was just frustrated with what I found in the papers. Millions of ads (which is considerably less now since I switched to Hindustan Times), stories (badly written ones, at that!) about absolute non-issues, the usual political drama that plays out in day-to-day Rajya Sabha or Mantralaya life. What's the point? All it ever led to was pointless canteen discussion with my friends that got louder and louder as went round and round in circles. But I hate being a cynic. And ignorance may be bliss, but it's also dumb sometimes. So I'm reading the papers again, a little. Not sure what the next step is though?

After I posted the tiger post on my blog a few days ago and re-posted a short video clip on the same on Facebook, a guy asked me if I thought these awareness videos actually make a difference. I said, "I think so. At least we're more aware, right?" And then I think I may have proceeded to cover up my lame answer with a :) Because, really, I'm not entirely sure if it does make a difference.

As a Sociology student, last year in our media paper we did various theories of Mass Media. And one of them, I can't remember which, might have been Frankfurt School or Marxist Perspective?? It's killing me that I can't remember this. See, exams are pointless. If we had a big heated discussion or a debate on this, I'm sure I would still remember it!! But I digress.

So anyway... one of these theories talked about how the Mass Media can actually have a desensitizing or a numbing effect on us. We're bombarded with all this information from all sides and over and over again that we go into a sort of fake comfort. Now that we know everything, we've done something. We're fooled into thinking that knowing is enough and we don't end up actually doing anything to change the situation.

Is it just me or is there something freakishly scary and wrong about that? Are we being lullabied into inaction by the endless amounts of information that we have access to at the click of a button?

p.s. A song comes to mind. Brooke Fraser. Gotta love her.
Now that I have seen,
I am responsible.
Faith without deeds is dead.
-- Albertine