Rock On!

It was really a time back in the day. People playing Quake 3 Arena on LAN. The young men going on bike rides and sharing a heartfelt moment with paatis running small tea stalls when they stopped for a tea. These things happened simultaneously with the writers of the era moaning about discrimination and tragedies. The writers in this country have moaned since forever. There is a reason why no writer in this country has been able to write a Lord of The Rings or a Harry Potter. What we get is either depressing or cheesy shit to read. You won't see an Indian version of A Thousand Splendid Suns or The Kite Runner. And I had to realise, and very late, that it's not because of lack of talent. What do you think, no one in this country is capable of writing better than the Meluha series or One Night At The Call Centre? Books like The White Tiger can be written, and their conception itself is a thing of irony. Majority of good literature produced in this country is of depressing nature. I am quite connected with literature and I don't find any quality fantasy or sci-fi books written in this country. Recently I came across a book series, which ticks the Dark Fantasy checkbox, but it was written quite some time back. I remember 2011-12, which was the peak of me wanting to become a published novelist and a comic book writer, a physician-writer if you will. Early 2010s actually were a time to dream as it was the time when famed director Shekhar Kapur launched comic books in India. It was the time when new comic book companies sprang up and India was getting comic books based on Indian mythology with modern twists, and India based fantasies, it died down suddenly and it all coincided with the death of rock music from the mainstream in India and going to exclusive pubs which only the people with loaded pockets could afford. The bikers and vloggers, were suddenly not the kind individuals who actually enjoyed the paatis' tea, but individuals who did not even bother to improve their language for the sake of presentation in front of the general public. We suddenly saw a tiered system developing in this country, and the crassness level of each tier locked people in their tiers forever and trying to upgrade themsleves would only result in an ego response from themselves and the collective ego of this country. It suddenly became a country of wannabes. The ones who really were, faded in background and the wannabes took the hold of the narrative or so to say were forced to be the face of the narrative. That someone could actually like rock music truly in a country like India became a thing to prove, proven again by metalheads on Instagram trying to prove that they actually and genuinely like metal. I became aware of the setup and gave up my idea of becoming a published author, because I realised that being published in this country is not a matter of talent, but of contacts. The publishing business is a circlejerk and a propaganda machine. The White Tiger could be published and got a Booker not because no one in this country can write better than that, but because it was the right amount of skill and contacts. And it's ironical because the book is about corruption. Hindi literature is dead (actually murdered), and the ones who launched comic book companies in the early 2010s are now fighting each others for a couple of thousand rupees in public. The watchable biking vlogs are nowhere to be seen. It may look like the collective narrative of this country has gone down because "everyone" now has got a camera and an internet connection but I assure you that it's not the case, and I have watched this shit really closely.