Category: Society & Culture

  • The Non non conformists

    There was a time conformity was common. When the non conformists became the majority, they changed the rules. Belonging suddenly became cool, and new herds were formed. But if you really look at it, not much has really changed. We’ve only traded conformism for a sense of belonging. The options are many, the choices few.

    until next time, heard the post begin here 🙂

  • To be Shore..

    And “Alan Shore fans” makes it to my orkut communities because of this…
    Alan Shore: Well you need to hear it! ……… to abuse a talented, selfless employee only because his social skills lack the polish! To allow him to work tirelessly under the delusion that he could make partner! A delusion you carefully nurtured so as to make piles of money off of him in the short term. That’s a betrayal, Shirley. Not just of Jerry, but of you! And your character! Which up till now I have considered undeniably decent.

    Shirley Schmidt: Are you finished?

    Alan Shore: No. Jerry Espenson, no doubt, will go off quietly into the night as the meek often do. But somebody around here has to get angry about it. Otherwise you’ll just go off and blithely do it again.

    Shirley Schmidt: We have not yet made a decision concerning Jerry Espenson, when we do I will call you first to tell you, “It is none of your concern!”

    Alan Shore: There’s a saying Shirley, perhaps you’ve heard it. ‘All it takes for evil to succeed is for good people to say, “It’s a business.”

    While that might have been boring to the non-followers, what interested me was that it addresses an issue that i have found constantly encountered in professional life – social skills, or the lack of it. I’ve been ambivalent about this myself, but it irks me when people with lesser skills tend to be able to push their case only because they are aggressive, especially in situations where the hard skills are more important than the soft ones..

    And sometimes i see this aggression being used in a social context when the people who prefer to exist in the background are subject to the sort of bullying that usually is associated with school life… And each time i see it happen, i thank god for a reasonably sharp humour sense and a dichotomy of personality 🙂


    until next time, the meek shall inherit the earth…

  • Social Currency

    Was chatting with a friend last week on the complexity of human relationships. Of course, she is of the view that it is not so complex after all, and i tend to complicate it with my penchant for over analysis 😀 I admit to the anlaysis bit, but in this case, am not convinced about it being undue. Double the negative, double the fun.
    Coincidentally, also saw a movie last weekend, which brought out my stance almost perfectly, almost, because the character of the protagonist does a U-turn midway. Anyways, the crux of the matter is that i believe that every relationship, even, rather especially the close ones are tinged with a selfish motive, actually, not tinged, more a strong undercurrent. There are precious few exceptions.
    It depends on the individual’s choice whether this gets acknowledged or not, but i strongly feel that there is always currency involved, and it is not always unconditional love or any such seemingly pure emotion… the acknowledgement does not happen perhaps because we mould ourselves to fit into a society and its forms of expression…The undercurrent may be that of emotional security, convenience or anything else – based on the situation, but its most definitely there. And for every help/favor/token of affection etc there isa meter ticking, some of us keep it in mind, and some of us keep it deep in the recesses of our mind

    until next time, mind it 🙂

  • Next Level

    Its a bit like games.. once we get into a game, what keeps us going is the eagerness to master the level and reach the next level.. as we proceed, it gets more and more difficult as each level is designed to be tougher than the previous one… The stakes also get higher as it might be difficult to do it all over again, and all the gains amassed would be wasted…
    And thats why its a bit like games – life… Its always a play to master the current level and thereby reach the next level.. and the stakes get higher, because it is life, and not just a game… theres a standard of living, peer pressure and so many other things that make it a must to survive and move ahead.. the only difference being that unike the game, the progress in life cannot be made to stop.. or maybe we cant bring ourselves to make it stop… for its a race and like the cliche goes, you have to run to at least stay in the same place… and the things around will not slow down to accomodate you..
    we get used to what we can get from the money we earn – most important among them a lifestyle and its accessories, and once we master one level, we are eager to move on to the next level and find out what it has to offer.. and theres no end in sight… perhaps the biggest winner is one who can will himself to be satisfied at a particular level and not move to the next level, inspite of all the pressures from within and without.. for maybe it has been rightly said that when its a rat race, what matters in the end is that whoever wins,they all remain rats…
    infancy, school, college, the first job…sometimes, its true that the grass is green on the other side… only, i am just looking back, and speaking of the grass i had been on…
    until next time, theres no level playing field…

  • Having a Blast

    Thats definitely a sadistic approach to the entire thing, but thats unfortunately the way i feel about it… and since i am the only citizen journalist on this blog, i need to be the one to express it this way..
    From what i notice, the government and everyone else involved definitely have a machinery and a process in place for this kind of stuff.. exactly 2 minutes after the first incident, there will be a PR person somewhere busily setting the trend and in effect saying ‘Let the blames begin’… this will of course be followed by ’eminent’ personalities like Javed Akhtar and Shabana Azmi doing a song and dance about it… and then comes, as if on cue, the fitting rejoinders from the people affected… the media, all the while, is having a field day, because finally there is actual news to capture, from theories on who pressed the button to graphic visuals of the dead and injured to preventive action to astrologers who had predicted this… of course, towards the end, you will have tales of heroes… we will salute them and honour them, we will play the blame game and fix on a commonly acceptable target.. and we will do what irritates me most, Mumbai will bask in the glory of a city that can spring back to action irrespective of what happens to it… well, damn it, the reason is because Mumbai has so many people that even a few lakhs lost wouldnt make a dent onthe rest who have not been affected….
    and its not just for the blasts, its the same for the floods too.. in fact, the floods are an annual event now, like ganesh chaturthi or something.. i propose that mumbai should celebrate ganesh chaturthi when the flood happens, so they dont have to go the sea for immersion, it could be done in their houses.. so you dont waste time at all.. and someone like a makemytrip should arrange boat cruises, after all does mumbai ever let a moneymaking opportunity go by..
    why am i not happy on mumbai springing back? i would be much happier if it was declared a holiday and people were encouraged to help those affected by the tragedy.. that wouldnt be a money making proposition, but it will inculcate what used to be called compassion, and if that were around more, maybe we wouldnt have blasts, and the floods would become a bit more tolerable… no amount of money can bring back the dead, no, compassion cant either, but it definitely can help heal the wound faster…so, is the spirit of mumbai such a great thing? of course, because, the spirit is money, and the spirit costs a bomb!!

    until next time, it isnt just an alternate train of thought…