Its funny how I've spent around an hour trying to figure out the best way to start this and have finally come up with this silly line after unlimited pondering! This is in fact very similar to how life is, you plan for her for almost an eternity and she stuns you by unfolding in an entirely different way. (Being a male, I prefer referring to life as a female which ensures I at least live with some girl if I end up being single and makes me less of a sexist!) For one whole year now I have refrained from posting as the earlier posts had put a huge burden on me to churn out something as incomprehensible and winding as them. I do not say that I am posting since this is an impressive attempt at being incomprehensible or winding but this is the best I could churn out considering the new profession I've decided for myself calls for (stupid) structuring of thoughts whom I've tried to unorganize here to the best of my ability.
For those who'd care to know the barbers here (Delhi, Kamala Nagar) too believe in intimidating their customer by almost choking them and that is from where I derive my feeling of being at home (for the lack of other incidents as you shall soon see.) The capital of India has this notorious habit of shutting things down by 10 pm which for a Mumbaikar is simply unacceptable. So deserted are the roads that even men walking alone carry with them a small fear of being molested, mugged or raped. The roads are designed (in the area where I live) to accommodate around two cars together on them but the average Delhi guy (or gal) is always confident of finding his way through the lane especially when his is the third car and while doing so he loves honking (incessantly) cause historically car horns have had the reputation of magically displacing vehicles (and even humans) out of their way. It is said that the average Delhi guy spends around an hour of their daily lives parking and de-parking his car cause of the corners they choose to park in and the various kind of protective locks they use around the car. (Any feelings some of my Delhi friends keep of holding me by the scruff of the neck and strangling me should be done away with since this is simply my observation of where I live.)
The place sure has more parks than Mumbai (The urge to call it Bombay is strong). In fact the total number of parks in Mumbai would be equal to the parks in every 2 sq kms in Delhi. Its a different thing that whenever I've tried to enter them the gates have appeared closed! The metro here is a delight and one can only wonder if at least his kids would be able to witness a functional Metro rail in Mumbai. In short, both cities have their pros and cons but the key is your adaptability and on this politically correct note I shall like to lay to rest this debate!
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It almost strange how learning more actually consumes your curiosity. Compare yourself to a toddler who's inquisitive about everything around him. What stops us from asking questions like we used to as a kid? Is it fear of being judged? Or, the fear of sounding stupid? Or, simply a habit we get into (being ever so in love with conformity)? Or is it (the most dreadful of all) simply boredom? If you really sit down to think, you'd want to curse the pedagogic curriculum or even your peers (for constantly laughing at your uncalled for zeal, if you ever tried questioning in the first place, that is.) but you'd never blame yourself. Blaming others is another extraordinary characteristic the modern man seems to have developed, but lets do this one extraordinary characteristic at a time!
The unfortunate part is that once lost the curiosity takes a lot of effort to develop. The baffling part is that most of us (the author included) are facing this extraordinary (apologies for reiterating it) disorder at a time when almost any information is available on our fingertips. So, you can get over the fear of getting judged by peers by just being indifferent but how do you shake off the rust of boredom? For that you'll have to ask the first question, try to get the answer and plunge into the world of information.
And yet, amazingly, its our learning that restricts us. So lost are we in our, so called, specializations that we start rejecting 90% of information available to us since it is apparently irrelevant. Alarmingly, the modern man is curious at just two points of his life, one, when he has just started his life and is allowed to trudge at his own pace and two, when he is at its fag end and is left to trudge (or may I say crawl) at his own pace and at other points he's busy trying to conform to everyone else, running at the pace which is at least faster than your closest opponent. Kudos!
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For folks, like the one writing this piece, there comes a time when humor needs to be restricted. One wonders why some situations call for utmost seriousness, and if they do, one wonders what holds back a lighthearted, humorous soul from offering the same to it. Being from the school of 'Light Hearted- Using humour as a defense mechanism' myself I guess I'm decently qualified to dissect these guys. What is it that propels us to act unnaturally stupid when we meet new people (more so when it's the opposite sex!) or to give an, uncalled for, funny retort to even the most serious statements or to unnecessarily explain a fairly evident thing?
The truth is that these guys can't afford to be serious for too long and least of all in front of people they hardly know. They generally have a reputation to protect and protecting it is one job (and many a times the only job) they take very seriously. So much for being a jester.....!!
