Recurring Thoughts of the Month

• Why are fashionable things the most uncomfortable too? I mean, think of skinny jeans, womanly bags, stilettoes and saree. Either they are extremely delicate or extremely uncomfortable. And/Or they need a lot of practice. It’s like having to be a whole different person to carry oneself well in those. I think it’s a conspiracy by people in the fashion industry to design stuff that others can’t easily wear/have. That way they would always be fashionably above the commoners.
• I am re-reading Ayn Rand’s Foutainhead and it makes a lot of sense today than the time I read it as college-goer.  I’ve read only 30 pages and I am not able to stop myself from noticing the similarities between the protagonist Howard Roark and Steve Jobs. The place where Roark says, ” Say I have 60 years to live. And most of what’ll be spent working. If I find no joy in it, I’m only condemning myself to 60 years of torture” reminds me so much of Steve Job’s Standford speech.
• And Oh God! Archie is marrying Veronica Lodge! I know that’s a late reaction but the gravity of the information never can be undermined. Who would have expected the guy you grew up with to marry an arrogant and fickle woman dumping the sensible and sweet one? Some say it’s logical because Ronnie has more money but that’s so insensitive to Betty.
• And lastly, the epiphany of the month “seekers find”.

Innocence Manipulated

I was watching this girl called Afsa Musani on youtube. She is a 5-year old kid who chatters her way through auditions of a reality show. I hate reality shows. But I loved the boldness of this kid to face a camera and speak. Like there’s a part where she says “Main actor banna chahati hoon. Actor banke Shah Rukh ke saath act karoongi. Shah Rukh ke paas bahut paise hota hai. Unke paas (wide-eyed and an exaggerated)  DUS HAZAAR hai. TV mein dekha hai” (I want to become an actor. I would act with Shah Rukj when I become one. Shah Rukh is extremely wealthy. He has TEN THOUSAND Rupees.) The kid also naively questions reality TV exaggerated music and asks “Waise yeh gaana kyon bajaaya jaa raha tha.” (BTW, Why were they playing this music?)

With expectation for more such innocence,  I checked youtube for more Afsa Musani videos but was disappointed to find only episodes where the kid delivers corny and affected dialogues, thanks to the artless script-writers of the show. To add to the trauma, there are scenes of  Afsa’s mom crying on national TV, of her birthday celebrated with her singing a cliched family song dedicated to her “beloved” parents. Now this is the reason I hate TV. Agreed, they have TRPs to raise. But do they think manipulating the very nature of a kid brings amusement to their audience?

While those questions can never be answered, there’s another manipulation of innocence that I admire. That’s the tool used movie-makers, writers and cartoonists who mask themselves as a kid and speak their mind. Like take the creators of Southpark. They can rile, ridicule and embarrass the world in the name of Cartman. Or take Bill Waterson for proposing profound complexities or imagining whacky fantasies in the name of Calvin and Hobbes. Or Harper Lee for giving life to the fearless and innocent Jean Louise “Scout” Finch who reminds us of the kid in us that died,  in her book “To kill a mockingbird”. They all seem to have clearly understood that when a kid asks a questions it’s innocence whereas when an adults asks the same question, it’s stupidity.

To be honest, I am scared of kids because they speak the truth. I wonder where they muster up all their guts from to tell you on your face that  you have dark-circles or that your clothes are funny.

But more than all that, I wonder why we grown ups lose the audacity that we were born with? Or are we all conciously hiding ourselves in the masks of an adult to avoid being called stupid?

2012

Heard about the year 2012? Seems the world is gonna come to an end because of meteors, floods, global-warming blah blah. Says Nostradamous, Hindu calendar and Mayan scriptures.  If you think i’m kidding, you HAVE TO check the trailer of a movie named 2012. It might remind you of Noah’s Ark but it’s worth checking for John Cusack and some AMAZING effects.

I have been discussing this 2012 thing with a few friends and their responses have been interesting. Here are a few

• Wow! I wanna be there when the world is coming to an end.
• Shoot. You should have told me a week back. I just invested on a 10-year insurance plan.
• If it’s true, I wouldn’t wanna be trying so hard too get into IIM.

My reaction to the 2012 story was mixed. Anyway, I thought it would be meaningful making a list of things to do by 2012. To-do lists are funny reminders of how lame you were a few days/months/years back. So here I am making another list so that I would laugh at myself a few months later.

My list of 12 things by 2012 are:

1. Watch an eclipse.
2. Go to 2012 London Olympics.
3. Believe and loyally support a sports team.
4. Participate in a hunger strike.
5. Learn to drive a car.
6. Go to Goa.
7. Visit Kerala.
8. Complete reading ‘A Brief History of Time’
9. Visit Kolkata.
10. Adopt a dog.
11. Go to the concert of a rock band I know.
12. Start and complete ‘Moby Dick’. (filler)

Why the world needs spoilsports

I am lying in bed with my eyes wide open. I can’t sleep. I am glowing with excitement thinking about the fun I would be having tomorrow. Tomorrow is Holi and I just can’t stop counting the minutes to day break.

Yeah, I know. It’s not a big deal for an adult like you who is reading this. But I am just a kid and I can’t wait to wallow in the puddle of mud we would be making tomorrow. But more than all that, this is going to be a great Holi. Credits <tadaaaa> to Mannu.

Mannu is a guy in school and. I hate him. I can use all the synonyms of hate that I know and still not be able to convey the magnitude of wrath I have for him.

Reason being, he has never missed first rank in academics since kindergarten. The next rank would always be at least 50 marks away. There is not one question Mannu doesn’t shout out the answer for. Plus he is a good singer, a tennis player and the school’s star orator. Also, he is a gentleman in front of the teachers. You know- well-behaved, soft-spoken, obsequious and all that. I just can’t stand it when he says “May I carry those books for you, Ma’am?” and gets his hair ruffled by every teacher in the school”

Come on. Don’t look at me all wide-eyed and accuse me of being jealous. I am not the only one who despises him. My whole class does. Nobody talks to him. He also doesn’t talk to us. He just sits alone in the first bench, shouts out answers, scores straight A’s and leaves.

We all know he is weird. But the day that gets even more obvious is Holi. He comes to school in drab clothes. He doesn’t bring colours and he doesn’t participate in any of our Holi celebrations. He is a kabab mein haddi even here. He makes a big fuss about anybody applying colour on him and runs around the school asking teachers to save him from us. Thanks to the prerogative to hooliganism on Holi, we have never been reprimanded by our teacher.s But we have never been able to forgive Mannu for being such a spoilsport.

But this Holi is going to be sweet. Mannu has left school and there is nothing that’s going to hinder our celebrations. We don’t have to tolerate his whims. We don’t have to listen to our teachers saying, “Look how mature Mannu is”. We don’t have to waste our time and colours on him. We are going to be ourselves and we are going to have fun our way.

The day broke. Our classes got over by noon and we were given the whole of the afternoon- complete 4 hours for playing with colours. Once the Holi celebrations started, we didn’t have to fervently run around to apply colours. Everybody just went to each other and got themselves smeared with colours. In less than 30 minutes, we all got bored and stopped playing.

“Dude, Holi is so lame”, declared Rocky, the class punk. “Yeah, let’s all go home and play something on the internet”, agreed many. We all dunked our colours, eggs and other weapons of our Holi arsenal into the trashcan and walked home.

Although I sported a i’m-too-cool-for-Holi face, my mind began to boggle. How can this be the most disappointing Holi ever? I mean, with the spoilsport not around, it can’t be more perfect. And still here I am, feeling disappointed.Though it’s hard to accept, I think I miss Mannu. All the running and chasing when he was around was more fun than a sullen Holi where everybody simply did the same things as others.

It made me think even deeper. So, all the rules that we bitch about, all the people who compete with us, all the people who we hate for not agreeing with us are in a way helping us feel contented with life?

Gosh! Imagine a world that had no rules, no expectations from individuals, no role models and no examples set for the right behaviour. Given a perfect world, where all of us thrived entirely by our free will and all of us got everything we wanted, would we even survive for a day?

Gosh! Baffling are the enigmas of life!

P.S. Due to a technical error in the title as pointed out by a  person who knows better Hindi than I do, I have changed the title from ‘Why kakabs should have bones’ to ‘Why the world needs spoilsports’.

Recurring Thoughts of the Week

• I am completing a year in Hyderabad today. Not that it’s a big feat but I am generally happy I have started liking the city. The city is good cos it’s a balanced place -cosmopolitan and still not fake. Also it’s not as expensive as Bangalore or as sweaty as Chennai.
• It’s preposterous worrying why you are not worried about the same things that worries others, isn’t it?
• I am seeing kids becoming cynics in thier teens. I mean how much have they seen the world to lose their innocence so early in life. Is it worth losing out on the good things in life by becoming a cynic so early?
• Dreams can be so haunting sometimes. They expose me to my deeply hidden expectations, anticipations and fears. They kind of make me see my true self .
• Is ‘healthy snack’ an oxymoron? I have recently discovered a tasty combinations of sundal (sauted boiled lenthils) and sutta milagu appalam(roasted masala papad) and am proud of it.
• I’m close to finishing scrubs. I am going to miss them a lot. It’s amazing how every character in scrubs somehow relates to me. JD is like me when he is day-dreaming, Elliot is like me when she starts speaking about herself, I also identify myself with Dr.Cox and Ted(poor him, he doesn’t have a page on wiki) sometimes. Is it normal? Does everybody do that?
• The backstreet boys and britney spears that i grew up on suddenly sound very corny to me.
• I am addicted to WordPress stats and that’s the reason I make it a point to update my blog frequently.

Colourblind

I am usually not a video-posting person. But this one is heart warming :) The expressions of the kids are priceless! I am not giving out any more spoilers! Just watch it!

Gyaan: The boy is Chinese and the girl is Malay. There apparently is a lot of tension between those 2 ethnicities in Malaysia. So this ad was made by an oil company called Petronas as a part of their CSR I believe.

Stuck

R: Should we tell Q she shouldn’t be doing that?

S: No! We’ll spoil all the fun

R: How can someone be so innocent?

S: She’s dumb.

R: So can’t we make her wiser by talking some brains into her?

S: And get blamed for spoiling her innocence? NO way.

R: So we just wait and watch? Till she falls down and burns?

S: Yes. Then she becomes a cynic like all of us.

R: But I don’t like being a cynic. I want to trust the world and be happy. Just like Q.

S: YOu mean you want to become dumb?

R: Why does being happy and trusting have to be synonymous with being dumb?

S: That’s because cynics are the only people who can see the whole side of a thing. Non-cynics can’t take the big picture and are hence dumb.

You can’t change yourself from being a cynic anyway. So don’t think.

R: Why can’t I?

S: Once you start seeing the dark side of things, you can’t stop doing it by choice. It’s like being an accomplice to a murder. You are one of us whether you like it or not. Moreover you owe it to cynicism for your current state of well-being, therefore there’s no going away now.

R: What the hell are you prattling about?

S: See, it’s like this. Think of cynicism as Godfather. When you were depressed and broken, you came to him for solace. His solace was teaching you how mean and selfish the world is. You recovered from your depression because of him. You can’t decide to turn your back on him one day and just leave like that.

R: What if I did?

S: You WILL get confronted by another problem and you WILL come to Godfather again.

R: So I am stuck in here forever?

S:Yeah baby! Come let’s get some more dumb people and convert them into one of us.

R: Hmmm…

R: Should we tell Q she shouldn’t be doing that?

S: No! We’ll spoil all the fun.

R: How can someone be so innocent?

S: She’s dumb.

R: So can’t we make her wiser by talking some brains into her?

S: And get blamed for spoiling her innocence? NO way.

R: So we just wait and watch? Till she falls down and burns?

S: Yes. Then she becomes a cynic like all of us.

R: But I don’t like being a cynic. I want to trust the world and be happy. Just like Q.

S: YOu mean you want to become dumb?

R: Why does being happy and trusting have to be synonymous with being dumb?

S: That’s because cynics are the only people who can see the whole side of a thing. Non-cynics can’t take the big picture and are hence dumb.

You can’t change yourself from being a cynic anyway. So don’t think.

R: Why can’t I?

S: Once you start seeing the dark side of things, you can’t stop doing it by choice. It’s like being an accomplice to a murder. You are one of us whether you like it or not. Moreover you owe it to cynicism for your current state of well-being, therefore there’s no going away now.

R: What the hell are you prattling about?

S: See, it’s like this. Think of cynicism as Godfather. When you were depressed and broken, you came to him for solace. His solace was teaching you how mean and selfish the world is. You recovered now from your depression because of him. You can’t decide to turn your back on him one day and just leave like that.

R: What if I did?

S: You WILL get confronted by another problem and you WILL come to Godfather again.

R: So I am stuck in here forever?

S:Yeah baby! Come let’s go watch some dumb people converting into one of us or let’s at least rant about something.

R: Hmmm…

Writer’s Block

That’s my excuse for a post:

You've got my resume but it is impossible to know the real me without reading my blog.

Source: Pg.94, Harvard Business Review, May 2007

Being Blithe vs. Being Lithe

Life is full of hard choices. The most hardest of them is when we have to choose between priorities. It is common to see how health takes the back-burner for most of us when it comes to choosing between priorities. I was recently discussing this with my uncle and his insights were staggering. His study of the corporate health insurance by Indian employees reveal that there are almost twice the number of people in the age group 21-30 visiting the hospital in comparison to the people in the age group 50-60.

Since childhood we Indians are taught how to compete. And therefore since childhood starts the compromise on health. ”Too busy to eat healthy food or exercise, I’ll just guzzle some cola and grab an oily burger because I have 10th board exam, 12th board exam, to party with friends, placements, higher studies, year-end appraisal, promotion, ___________ (fill any excuse)” is the norm of a typical Indian. On any given day, you can see more middle-age and older aunties and uncles taking an early morning walk in the park or beach. While young adults do go to the gym, it is mostly for the short-term gratification of scuplting 6-pack abs or losing the extra flab before the “big day”.  The truth about health is that we can’t set ourselves a deadline as we can do with our other priorities. Eating healthy food and being physically active has to be a daily necessity as it is to check email. I sometime wonder if Capitalism is ‘rich growing richer, poor growing poorer and fat growing fatter.’

My uncle was also telling me how companies in the US give incentives to the employees who do not claim the health insurance worth $250. Such “healthy” employees  are lauded with discount coupons on sportswear and shoes, health bars and bottles of gatorade,memberships in fitness centers, spa and salons,  discount coupons on health products et al. These perks cost the company a mere $150.

While we might not have the privilege to such incentives, I guess we owes it to ourselves to take up some responsibility. It’s easy to ignore health because the effects don’t manifest in the short-term. Is life worth all the wealth, education, power, social acceptance and status at the cost of health?

I can see myself approaching the crossroad between health and other priorities. I am trying hard not to quit health. My affirmation is, “If Anil Ambani can jog an hour everyday, I should too”

On being a zebra

There are times when I am able to deeply relate to Marty, the zebra from Madagascar. I see myself asking, “Am I black with white stripes or white with black stripes?” There are lots of times when I start out doing something different, end up going nowhere but find myself gone too far to go back to square one and wind up feeling confused. Sigh! Whattey life!