Friday, April 24, 2009

Weighty Issues

AB

 

 

 

 

 

The other day i stumbled upon an article in the Time magazine which aspired to guide one in the science of 'how not be hated by potential friends on Facebook'. (No, I'm not going to copy paste the article.)

One among the many of "Facebook etiquette rules" was->' Stop taking quizzes. Nobody cares what literary time period you are'. I personally log onto FB not to cuddle up to potential friends and flaunt my impeccable personality and leave an impression, but to see if any of my friends have taken any interesting quizzes.

Of course, there are the self-propagating all time favorite quizzes on ones favorites but who doesn't like to share their interests and favorites. When we do that, we don't give a damn to what the others might think !, it's just all about us. It's our way of feeding our ego (which BTW is being wrongly portrayed in a very narrow and negative way in most circles). We do take some really lame quizzes like "who's your celebrity GF" and "which rock song are you" but this behaviour is much better than, not taking them due of the fear of making a bad impression on possible suitors.

In short, it's better to "be yourself and act as a jerk" rather than "pretend to be a sensitive saint". [The phrase "be yourself" has been thrown around many times that I feel like it might have robbed the chastity of the declaration and turned it into a skanky filmy line.] (I do hope that you are smart enough to realise that taking those quizzes didn't make you a jerk, it was just an expression)

------------------------------>Change of  Topic

 

I watched the palm d'or winning movie of last year "The Class" recently and was astonished at the way the student-teacher interactions were depicted. The movie shows 13 year olds refusing to do what the teacher says proclaiming "rights of expression" and "rights of freedom" and all that. I can't even begin to imagine that kind of free expressionism in our country. The students do cross the limits at times but that's not the point.

I reckon we have been corrupted ever since childhood into believing the restrictions posed on us are for our own good and that our tradition is the best in the whole wide world. There are two ways, i guess, of looking at our culture, those in favour may say it breeds discipline but the others might say it curbs our natural development. 

A typical students' life in India (not related to the above discussion or anything):-

Thrown into school even before they know how to use the toilet. Parents then proudly exhibit their childrens' talent by forcing them to recite multiplication tables and English alphabet in front of the neighbours with the sole purpose of showing how smart their child is. Boys don't even get the remark of "you throw like a girl" from their fathers. All they get is "do your homework ". Then as they grow older, the coaching institutes come along and the parents are only too happy to find a place which provides for maximum jail time. Career defining exams come, unable to cope students go.

[ I've said all that as an adult watching today's school going children. Our generation was caught up amidst this towards the fag end but we might just have escaped.]    

As someone said and my friend on Gtalk statused*-> The world is a tragedy to those who feel, but a comedy to those who think.

P.S:- No matter what you write or do, how can IPL be not on your mind. Looking at AB, the customary " whom do girls ogle at" list for IPL came out and this was what was said about AB :-

If you like the choirboy type, AB is your baby. Incidentally he does sing, and while his debut single, "Show Them Who You Are", may not be the love song you were hoping for, it will work well enough to annoy your boyfriend no end. He looks like a dream and bats like a dream, so what if he doesn't sing like one, eh, ladies? 

The others on the list were Vettori, Dravid, Mccullum, Gayle, Sangakkara, Duminy, Pujara, Lee, Steyn, Dhoni (http://content.cricinfo.com/iplpage2/content/story/398866.html)

8 comments:

  1. The world is a tragedy to those who feel, but a comedy to those who think.
    A nice way to sum up our situation. The problem is that people who think can't get away with it without feeling it, unless of course one is all-renounced-monk types. Let me give an example. Having gone through the ordeal of higher education in this country, all of it looks like a big joke (the comedy part) to me whenever I happen to look back upon it. But then, if I were to have the chance of starting all over again, alas!, I figure I'd do it the same way as there is no better choice (the tragedy part).

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  2. The world is a tragedy to those who feel, but a comedy to those who think.
    Reality indeed.

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  3. Hi, good post. I have been pondering this topic,so thanks for sharing. I'll certainly be subscribing to your posts.

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  4. nice! i'm gonna make my own blog

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