Is our emotion a blessing or a curse?

A good movie leaves the audience something to think about after the lights are back on, and so this 165-minute ''My name is Khan" is surely something worth watching because it has left me emotionally drenched with heaps of thoughts and WHAT IFs in my head.

I'm not particularly fond of Bollywood movies, but I think I have to make an exception to this one. This movie, starred by a top-Indian actor Sharukh Khan, centers in the life of a Moslem-Indian Rizvan Khan, who in a way is a modern "Forrest Gump". Both see the world in black and white and share similar virtue of perseverance and honesty because of the nature of their disease. Gullible by nature, Khan struggles hard to fit himself in the American society, facing injustice after injustice, not only because of his Asperger's Syndrome, but also due to the people's accusation and discrimination post 9/11. Khan becomes a symbol of hope in the American society's diminishing sincerity and innocence, especially towards Moslem people, whose positions in the society are in jeopardy after the 9/11 terrorist attack. He wears his disease as an emblem of blessing in disguise, moreover his strength, to see what's right and wrong - not based on one's religion or race, but on one's action. "There are two kinds of people in this world, the people doing bad things and the ones doing good things," Khan points out, and though I honestly don't know to what extent this perspective infallible, but Khan's inability to feel and show emotion and so seeing the world in black and white has got its essence. His strong grip of principals, supported with his impeccable determination and earnest intention to help others get him through the ups and downs of life and reach his goal to meet the president, and is finally able to announce: “Mr. President, my name is Khan and I’m not a terrorist.”

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Even in continents where people are not defined by their religion like in America and Europe, terrorists correspond closely to Moslems. As terrorists continuously haunt the world, the people of the world, traumatized and angered by the terrorist attacks, become 'little terrorists' creating a hostile atmosphere to live for Moslems in non-Moslem countries. They tend to have prejudice towards the Moslems and treat them as second-class citizens. People like Rizvan Khan thus become scapegoats, the objects to unleash cumulative hurt and fury, being accused as terrorists only because they share the same religion as the terrorists.

Now, as people of all society and the Moslems believe to have been unfairly treated by each other, we build a wall of defense to protect our ideology, religion and ultimately, ourselves. In this way we destruct our society from within, don't you think? But who’s put to blame? Everybody, I’d say, for letting ourselves become the victim of our own emotion. Many of my friends are devoted Moslems, and I've got to say they share my opinion concerning this matter.

If emotion was the trigger that led Al-Qaeda to the 9/11 massacre in New York, and the same word 'emotion' led other people to defend their society or race and do something offensive or violent (like beating up a kid with a Moslem surname to death), and the very same word 'emotion' triggered one Moslem group's blood to boil and plan an attack on other religion, then could I say 'emotion' is a really a curse? For in this sense, it's the very word that has decimated the human beings.

But then, what would we become were we all like Forrest Gump or Rizvan Khan - neither expresses his feeling well? Would we embrace emotion as a blessing, for we have the prerogative to appreciate all the beauty this world has to offer?

The ideal would be having the privileges in this blessed-life of ours to express emotion wisely and responsibly and not letting ourselves be conquered by fury. But then again, the world is not ideal, is it?

Recently in Metro TV, a former jihad general claimed that there is a fatwa in Islam, pointing that "terrorism is kufur". Later I need to find out what the word "kufur" means, but it must be something bad. According to him the terrorists are worst than prostitutes and he even said that people who claim to do jihad by doing terrors are like the dogs from hell. So guys, if the Moslems oppose the terrorists' perspective of seeing what's right and wrong, why are many of us still biased about Moslems?

Underwater river in Mexico, a hoax?

A friend of mine once whined about feeling utterly useless when she was heavy with a child, alone in her parents-in-law's house, zapping channels and ended up watching a local gossip show. She pointed out that you'd know your life is pathetic when you have nothing better to do than watching such shows in the middle of a work day. But today, I had the opportunity of enjoying all my morning at home watching TV and felt totally fine with it! I got to work later than usual because my oh-so-nice boss offered to pick me up and he had something to do in the morning :-).

I think I was watching Insert, and they were talking about something particularly interesting today - gossip show style, but this was not another jibber jabber of some celebrity's life. It was about a so-called phenomenon in Mexico, in which they said to be the nature's mystery. One celebrity, Olga, was telling about his acquaintance who sent him a YouTube video of a discovery of a river under the sea somewhere in Mexico. It was shown that divers found some plants and trees 100 feet under the sea, and a stream of what they said fresh-water under sea water. Unnaturally, the so-called river doesn't mix with the sea water, forming an illusion of a river. To make things more convincing, the divers kinda opened their masks and tasted the water. Fresh water, they claimed! The presenters, and all the celebrities interviewed were referring this phenomenon as an amazing discovery and relate it to something either supernatural or non-human, just like some kind of the fabled Area 51.

Curious, I did cyberslacking later at the office and browsed the info about this alienated underwater river and learnt that it's actually an underwater cavern situated at Cenote Angelita in Mexico. The illusion of river turns out to be a dense cloud of hydrogen sulfate trapped in between sea water, and it doesn't dissolve because of the different density, and there's nothing supernatural or non-human about it. In some blogs it's written as a popular diving site, but some people would just refer it as a photographic hoax, pointing out that it would be impossible to get such clarity in such depth. Hmm, diving is really not my cup of tea, but hoax or not, the pictures showing this eerie site are just fabulous!

GLEE over matters

**SPOILER ALERT!** don't read if you haven't watched Glee.

Yippie-Yay, be gleeful and Gay!

"For the Loser in everyone of us" tag doesn't seem exaggerating when it comes to this sensational, heartening, not-so-high-school-musical drama comedy. I mean, hey, somebody finally made the satire about the off-the-record (high school) life we all familiar about, even only for a while for some people - being a loser! In some ways, I love how the characters are created as 'stereotypical' in a rather offensive way, but tartly funny and brilliant! To tell you the truth, it seems the Glee producers attempt to create a TV series about STEREOTYPE, and bring them all together on one stage: Glee - the ultimate money maker TV series! Please, I mean it in the kindest way.. I love Glee!

Each of the leading character, if not all, seems to be the portrait of the way Hollywood/Americans see one race or society.

Mr. Schuester, with his Justin Timberlake lady-killer dance style, is a typical central role that unites all the losers (read: Glee members). Being a too-good-to-be-true character, this optimistic, inspirative teacher is working his booty extra hard on low salary to meet the fat-budget of his super demanding, conceited wife. The gay member of Glee, Kurt is aloof and brand craving, and has an excessive effort to keep his face clean and all: typical gay. Finn, the football star is in a relationship with Quinn the head cheerleader (soo typical). Rachel is another typical woman leading role: so ambitious and full of energy, initially being the school prank, but is abundant with singing talents. Typical school bully: Puck (so popular at school but is destined to be a life-loser, or not?). Britanny, the typical the dumb-ass blonde; Tina, the Asian, and 'Other Asian' guy who share the same surname - Chang (Oh please, are the Chinese so unimportant that they are given the same surname? Or, is it the way to say: so many Chinese so few surnames?).

Other characters are as important as the Glee club members, and they actually are the X factors of this film. What a brilliant idea it is to have an Indian as the school principal (who's always consulting his calculator when discussing school budget), to give curry to this already tasteful comedy. Never had I heard the word mysophobia before, and I thank Glee for adding my vocabulary. Well, what guidance councilor is with mysophobia?

I never liked musicals (apart from the Sound of Music) but the film is top-notch. It comes in a complete package: biting comedy, great songs, good looks, and above all, the stereotypes.

Up to this point, 'Friends' and 'Will and Grace' are the sitcoms I can't ever grow tired of watching, and there's a big possibility Glee is on the list now, and I hope for a quite long time...

[Hmm, now come to think of it, the high school life I experienced was way more friendly (and al lot more boring) than the one I watched on Glee. Well, yeah, we do have that bullying thing at Tarakanita, but c'mon, it's not that bad! Nobody would have slushee on their face at the end of the day, apart from there wasn't any slushee at school back then. **When will Indonesian school have the privilege of having stuff like slushee? - anyone?**]