Pseunami

One thing that has struck and interested me about the Tsunami incident is how people have become so concerned about the pseudoness of giving aid / feeling for the victims.

It started when I read a post by a fellow blogger about how he hated himself for not feeling bad about the victims. This same guy, on New Year’s Eve decided not to go to the most happening party in town and stayed home alone instead. He felt that he just could not party in the wake of the tragedy. This led to the dilemma of what he should tell his friends when they asked what he did on New Year’s Eve. He felt that if he told them the truth they would think he was being pseudo. Yet if he lied and told them he went to the biggest party in town, he would definitely be untrue. How can you not love this twenty-something dealing with confusion, trying to do the right thing, trying to be true to himself.

Then yesterday my Mom watching SRK on TV being interviewed on his donation said that all these Bollywood people were just trying to be one up on each other. Especially since he was saying that he preferred not going to the affected areas since he would be a distraction, she thought that this as a well-thought out excuse for not doing what Vivek Oberoi has.

Last night at a party, a girl was saying how she went to all these fancy parties and these rich women would talk about taking out their clothes to donate. She was saying how fake it was, sitting in these elegant drawing rooms ‘pretending’ to empathize. Her husband who works for a PR agency told us how all the MNCs, Coke specifically, were trying to cash in on the situation by making a donation just for the publicity.

Then today at lunch with the in-laws my father-in-law got very upset with B cos he felt that B is self-centred and not at all concerned about the suffering. It started when he had called B yesterday and asked him what the death toll was. B had replied 25,000 and his father was shocked that he didn’t know that the figure had long exceeded that number. He told B that he was insensitive and had no soul. B shouted back that he didn’t have to know the figure or talk about the Tsunami to prove that he cared. He said that people who do so are fake and that he is not one of them. He said that he refused to be fake by telling people how bad he feels about the situation or about what he is doing about it.

Personally, I don’t think anything human could not be affected by the visuals. Celebs might think about the mileage they are getting, even the best of them may have it at the back of their minds perhaps, but that can’t be the primary or only reason for their donations.

About individuals questioning themselves, asking whether they are being pseudo or are giving/feeling from the heart – for me, this is the most beautiful thing that has come out of the incident.

Hmm – now am I being pseudo? :/