Why You Are Probably Still Looking For Love in a Bottle

Why You Are Probably Still Looking For Love in a Bottle

This article is not about just love. It is about what passes off as journalism today. It is about advertising. And it is about the truth. So if you were looking for just an article about love, you should stop reading right about here. This is about my disgust towards what is called journalism today and why its only growing by the day. Its truly appalling what passes off as journalism today - every piece of journalism out there is just another advertorial trying to sell you something. A new dress, a new perfume, a new food, a new scam, a new government. No journalism is about the truth or facts anymore. Its about placing a product in your consciousness, disguised as a fact with half facts and elaborate lies with fancy pictures and alluring glamour. For a guy who has 'truth' and 'justice' tattooed on his forearms as reminders of his only principles in life, coming across such journalism on a day to day basis is excruciating. To the extent that when i meet 'journalists' like these, it makes we want to slap them so hard that their head rolls off - but then i refrain, well knowing that the vicious circle they build, eventually has them spinning in it too. They are the ones who end up looking for love in a bottle just as much as everyone else. You'd think they'd be conscious of the phenomenon, but no, they're just as blind as everyone else. Living the same petty lives they are pushing everyone else into. Every article out there is a big flashy lie full of crap posed as the truth. Which is why I generally refuse to write for 'fitness' magazines despite being so passionate about fitness and health.

But when a renowned newspaper approached me, i for some reason presumed they would be different. Since this was not the leading newspaper and prides itself as a 'honest' newspaper. I write a detailed article on how to train with a periodised training regimen alternating between strength training, practicing the sport and practicing plyometrics for the specific sport which the newspaper is trying to promote. The 'journalist' from that paper calls me the next day and says that the article is too detailed, to which i reply that it can be summarised effectively. The reply that i get puts me off any respect that i ever had for the newspaper: "we don't want a detailed article. we just want 2 workouts that a person practicing (the sport) must do.". Now, i ever there was such a magical formula that just two workouts could make you fabulous at any sport or anything - everybody in the world would be professional athletes!

But unfortunately that's what modern journalism is all about - the magical cure, the fastest way to greatness, the potion of love, the quick fix of life, the 4 hour body and the one pill sex life, the 'celebrity' secret. The truth can take a hike. Thanks to such journalism, you, sitting out there in the masses, will rarely know the truth. All you get in your quest for the truth through the endless barrage of advertising posing as the truth via news and media. Because the sad fact is that the truth is often quite simple and non-flashy. It does not come in a bottle. It does not have a multimillion dollar angel investor or a corporation funding it.

If people knew that the best way to greater intimacy is absolute, unpretentious honesty, who would buy all those fancy perfumes and exotic holidays and that amazing diamond ring promising you the perfect love life? If everybody knew that there is no shortcut to success, who would spend on all those products out there promising you little little shortcuts to fame and glory? If everybody knew that success that's purchased isn't worth the money, who would spend on paid media? So finally, you get sold an idea, packaged in a bottle that looks like the truth. While the truth remains in a few hands, only shared with those who can see through the bottle.

In a way, i like it like that - it makes the truth even more sacred in a world that lacks it so bad. Its out there everywhere, but only those who truly seek it, ever find it. Some are lucky to find it early, while some find it after a million bottles. While some will never find it. And some are actually better of without it.

- Pushkaraj S Shirke