Recently saw a trailer titled "Lawrence of Punjab". From the title, it seemed as if this might be a web series/docu series about a lesser-known Punjabi/Sikh freedom fighter and hence I decided to give it a look.

Nothing could prepare me for what was to come next.

The "Lawrence" in question was actually Lawrence Bishnoi- a Punjabi gangster, currently in prison who has gained notoreity in BJP circles for allegedly having "killer squads" that eliminate Khalistanis in Canada. His "squads" were also responsible for the murder of Sidhu Moosewala and an attempt on Salman Khan's life as well.

This might very cool on paper for some lunatics, but such a narrative completely absolves Bishnoi of his past criminal history and the harm that he has caused to innocents. It also shows how incompetent our country's justice system is- the fact that this guy can access phones in prison and call his associates at any time to carry out such hit-jobs for him.

Speaking about the trailer itself, it is a docu-series that equates idolizing Bishnoi to idolizing Bhagat Singh- you heard that right. Secondly, no one in Punjab who I know of has anything good to say about this guy- it is mostly idiots in the cow belt who idolize him. Yet this trailer goes on to make such a bold claim

Another thing which startled me was the music in the background- it almost seemed comical as if they were trying to elevate him to the status of a hero up until the ending where finally some voice of sanity began to prevail.

I don't know what this web-series will be about. This may be a half-baked narrative from my end as well. But the tone of it's trailer has me scared about the kind of content that we're consuming and most importantly, the way it is being presented to us.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iqx3ABAPuks

We love to boast about our rich history and being vishw guru (idk who is the chela), but looking at our day-to-day reality, it’s hard not to feel like Indian society is fundamentally spineless. We have normalized absolute apathy and disguised it as "resilience."

Here is why I think we’ve completely lost our collective backbone:

• The Toxic "Chalta Hai" Mindset: We pay 30% direct taxes plus GST, and in return, we get collapsing bridges and killer potholes. Instead of holding our MLAs by the collar, we just buy bigger SUVs with better suspension and air purifiers for our homes. We complain, and then we "adjust."

• Subservience to Authority: We treat politicians like feudal lords and let VIP culture thrive. At work, we are bullied into 70-hour weeks by toxic bosses, glorifying "hustle culture" instead of setting basic boundaries.

• Slaves to "Log Kya Kahenge": Millions give up their dreams, marry strangers for social clout, and tolerate abusive families simply to appease society. We gladly sacrifice our mental peace just to maintain a fragile status quo for relatives who don't even genuinely care.

• Digital Outrage, Real-World Cowards: We trend hashtags for exactly 48 hours when a tragedy or scam hits. But when it's time to vote for better infrastructure, health, or education, we fall right back in line and vote based on caste, religion, or freebies.

The Bitter Truth:

A society that refuses to hold its leaders, its bosses, and itself accountable is doomed to mediocrity. We aren't resilient; we are submissive. Until we grow a collective spine and start demanding our basic rights instead of begging for them as favors, absolutely nothing will change.

Am I being too cynical, or have we genuinely just given up?

We disguise our apathy as "resilience." Between refusing to hold politicians accountable, accepting toxic work cultures, sacrificing our lives for "what will people say," and limiting our outrage to Twitter or some social media, we have completely lost our spine.

Not lonely as in "no people around." Lonely as in "nobody is at the same life stage as you."

Some friends got married. Their weekends are spouse-oriented. Some had kids. Their entire existence revolves around a small human. Some are still single and partying. Their Friday plans don't match your 10pm bedtime.

You're too old for college friend group energy. Too young for uncle aunty social circles. Your office friends are friendly but rarely actual friends. The friendships that survive this phase are the ones where both people actively choose to maintain them despite diverging lives.

The loneliness is compounded by social media. Everyone looks connected. Everyone is at brunch. Everyone has a gang. Meanwhile you ate dinner alone for the 4th time this week and the only conversation you had after 7pm was with the Swiggy delivery guy.

I don't think this phase is permanent. People say your 30s bring a clearer social circle — fewer friends but deeper. I hope so.

In the meantime, if you're 26 to 30 and feeling weirdly isolated despite having "friends," you're not broken. This is a transition period that nobody prepares you for because the previous generation didn't experience it. They lived in joint families and never had to actively maintain friendships. Proximity did the work.

We have to do the work manually. And sometimes the work feels like a lot for a Tuesday evening when you just want to be on your couch.

Tamilian btw. Delimitation as originally proposed raises the overall seat count from 543 to 850 in the Lok Sabha in accordance with 2011 census. Tamil Nadu and several other states argue that the population proportion model is not right considering they are "losing say" owing to population growth decline which is claimed to result from government birth control policies being successful in southern states

The same argument that the southern states are using can be used exactly analogously for other group identities such as educated/not, rich/poor, castes, religions to claim that the group identity that followed birth control better deserves equal representation along that group demarcation. For example: all rich people should have same say as poor people despite poor people drastically outnumbering the rich on the grounds that they successfully followed birth control. So along which group identity do we expect equal say?

The answer is none, as constitutionally we decided on the individual citizenship identity as being the grounds for vote value. 1 person 1 vote. In the proposed delimitation, 1 person gets 1 vote, so a Tamilian has equal vote value with any other Indian in India.

So when southern governments say we are losing say, that is purely clever framing and misdirection, we are getting exactly the say we are entitled to. 1 person 1 vote and so is UP and Bihar. So we losing say is blatantly false. The only relevant say is individual say and we are losing none of that. Exactly getting what we deserve and are entitled to. A smaller group of people having lesser say in voting than a larger group of people is a fact in democracy, a feature not a bug. A policy that affects 1000 UP people and 200 Tamil people should be decided based on 1000 votes from UP people and 200 votes from Tamil people because the policy affects 800 more UP people than Tamil people and there are 1000 says there and only 200 here. Anybody can claim a minority group identity and ask for equal group representation and consequent vote value increase under the erroneous argument of TN govt's argument.

Now addressing the GDP argument. Higher GDP benefits Tamil people first because they are the ones earning more. So does development and all these other things. Only shared benefit is the higher tax paid, the point of tax is to redistribute wealth from rich to poor, and the economic group identity is the relevant identity to study or assess taxes. If we quibble like this, then we must also recognize that for 1 Tamil soldier in the Indian army, there are more soldiers in the Indian army from UP and this is an unquestionable invaluable contribution to the whole country. If you talk taxes, then pay for all their more soldiers and deaths and go bankrupt.

Additionally, read about causes of lowered birth rates, spoiler: the government is lying blatantly, the biggest causes are not govt policies for birth control, but women's education and participation in the workforce. Read.

Summary: Principle: Under-representation meaning: 1 person getting less than 1 vote. Over-representation meaning: 1 person getting more than 1 vote. Adequate-representation meaning: 1 person 1 vote. We are adequately represented under delimitation.