December 26, 2006
Nothing can replace it
Does anyone else find this ad distasteful?
(for water)
December 24, 2006
To judge or not to judgeDoes making comments on someone’s blog enable another to figure you all out? One might think leaving traces of your thoughts and opinions in addition to else’s, helps random people on the internet gain an insight on ones personality. How many bloggers online are exactly the same as they are in their normal lives? I think not. (I’ve even come across people admitting the same, people I know personally and online)
As people, we have this common urge to make judgments about other people we come across. As soon as we come across a new person we want to label them immediately and model our conversations with them accordingly. I guess the same goes for interactions we have with people online. We don’t know them, but in a quest to categorize the person, we base our decision on how much ever we know of them. Obviously, there really isn’t a choice. How much more can you know anyway?
Everyone is guilty of making judgments. Never believe a person who denies it. Only the methods differ. Some like to place the individual almost on the first immediate point of contact/ interaction/ communication. Others like to give the person some time. Some like not to judge at all or try to stray away from bias as much as they can, but at the back of their heads, they DO have an opinion.
My personal method can be explained by a combination of 2. Immediately making a lil note of my decision in the first instance. Setting it aside to provide some buffer time, getting to know better or learn better. Ultimately weighing out all the possible communications I’ve had with the person during that time and then comparing it to my first impression. 90% of the time absolutely right. 10% still wrong. Not bad me thinks.
As far as people I meet online esp. via blogging. Mostly right. It’s the people I meet in reality for the first time is when I make the mistakes. Its okay. I don’t HAVE to judge. Its something that helps you get around – socially. Cater to the different kinds of people and gel in. Helps me grow. Probably cuz, online – it’s just the persons raw opinions we deal with. Face to face or working life/ educational life/ etc, theres more to thoughts. In fact the persons actual thoughts is the last thing you know. We’re dealing with expressions, body language, etc and everything needs to be evaluated.
So, how do you know a person in his/her true self? Which one do you think is a better way to evaluate a person – out of the two: Online or in the flesh?
Sometimes we are disappointed by our own judgments. Other times they come as positive surprises and we are glad we were wrong. Story time:
I recently judged a person incorrectly. Well partly at least. There is this girl in one or two of my classes. From the very beginning I even saw her around college, I hated her. I thought very little of her. I despised the way she spoke, carried about her studies – this lead to detesting many other things about her. All in all, I dint want anything to do with her. But recently, on an outing with friends, she had come along. I tried my best to avoid her and made sure we dint get into each others way. But the weather had other plans. Finally, I did interact with her, kinda spoke to her, hung around and even had fun! I figured she’s a really nice, sporty and kind person. I was disappointed by my opinion I held against her, but trust me, when she’s in class, Uff I hate her, she makes the class miserable. hehe. When she talks in class, I want to strangle her. Conclusion – stay away from her in college – have fun outside!
December 23, 2006
I Wish I Was A Punk RockerI Wish I Was A Punk Rocker
Artist: Sandi Thom
Album: Smile... It Confuses People
[Chorus:]
Oh I wish I was a punk rocker with flowers in my hair
In '77 and '69 revolution was in the air
I was born too late into a world that doesn't care
Oh I wish I was a punk rocker with flowers in my hair
When the head of state didn't play guitar
Not everybody drove a car
When music really mattered and when radio was king
When accountants didn't have control
And the media couldn't buy your soul
And computers were still scary and we didn't know everything
[Chorus]
When pop stars still remained a myth
And ignorance could still be bliss
And when god saved the queen she turned a whiter shade of pale
My mom and dad were in their teens
And anarchy was still a dream
And the only way to stay in touch was a letter in the mail
[Chorus]
When record shops were still on top
And vinyl was all that they stocked
And the super info highway was still drifting out in space
Kids were wearing hand me downs
And playing games meant kick arounds
And footballers still had long hair and dirt across their face
[Chorus]
I was born too late into a world that doesn't care
Oh I wish I was a punk rocker with flowers in my hair
I really like this song. Though it came out a while ago, I still like listening to it and singing along.
No, I don’t wish I was a punk rocker, but I do wish I had flowers in my hair! ( I love fresh flowers and loathe even at the sight of artificial flowers)
hmmm.. and I don’t think I was born too late either. Something my mom would disagree with. Since I was actually born 4 days later than I was due – for which she had to stay in the hospital 4 extra days.
And seriously! I wore a LOT of hand me downs. I used to idolise my cousin sisters and loved growing up wearing their clothes! The kids these days.. uff like as if their parents are gearing them up for ‘America’s next top model’. Whats with that??
Anyways.. this song has become one of my all time favorites.
December 21, 2006
Like I said...I prefer talking.All in all, I’m kinda done with the rush of maintaining a blog. I thought blogging in general would tire out for me, but it’s been a year and I’m still hooked. But perceptions have changed. Blogging sure has been a learning experience. Some bitter some knowledgeable. It can be said that, it’s a lil hard to convince me about things than it was before. I try to do my own lil research before arriving at anything (or at least I try to). I completely stick to the initial impressions I create about bloggers, even after denial, in a while, I have proven to be right. Discussing fellow bloggers in not what I like to do…anymore. Getting to know fellow bloggers personally may not be a very good idea (this I learnt from others). And after writing this para I feel I’m generalizing too much.
Another frequent common subject among blogs here (actually most places) is rants. I’m done with it. I can’t take ppl complaining anymore. I try not to whine either. Doesn’t help. I’ve planned to start doing something about the situation on the spot (READ: situation , not issues). Mainly, just stand up for what you’re thinking at the moment and DO IT.
Let me give you one tiny example.
About 10 days ago I needed to go Bur Dubai to get a new mobile for myself. After 15-20 mins of looking for parking, me and mom just waited in a parking area for a while. Within seconds we saw a man approaching his car to vacate a parking space. My mom was driving so she put on her indicator and waited. Before this guy could even take his car out, another car overtook us and positioned itself to park straight into the parking, blocking us. I then decided to get off the car and go and stand there so that mom could park. (she’d have to move away giving space for the current parked car to get out thus giving enough time for the ‘overtaker’ to park).. this guy almost ran over me. I start tapping at his bumper and ask him what he thought he was doing. He says ‘I’m parking.. get out of my way’ after which results in an outbreak of and entire lecture on signaling when parking, over taking, rules breaking, driving ethics and everything you can think off…in a calm and controlled tone. No use. His defense? “I’m waiting here from half an hour and you just came sometime ago, I should get the parking because I’m waiting for so long, you cant just come and park like that, I should get this parking because you JUST came” You can label him now.
Anyways, long story short, I argued and told him I know frustrated he is but I don’t know how the fucking hell his got his license. He continued to try and park and talk in a very misbehaved manner. I ended up opening his door and standing there till he apologized and moved (luckily it wasn’t locked). Gave him another lecture about how manner less he was. Finally he did move.
ALL THAT... for a parking space. Is it so frustrating? You can’t behave morally and follow the rules? In all the time he spent there acting like a completely illogical idiot (which he carried out successfully), he could have just taken another round and found another parking. Anyhoo.. I felt good about it. That I actually fought that guy and dint let him go and come here and blog about how angry I felt at that point of time. ( I did eventually end up blogging about it anyway!!)
Writing all this reminded me of another time when I was called for an interview to a company who were the sole agents of a very famous sports equipment brand. When I arrived there – the office was closed!! I had sacrificed my precious lunch break for this interview. I scribbled a note that said something on the lines of “ Had a scheduled appointment for an interview at *whatever time it was*, office closed. Very professional, I wouldn’t want to work here. Thank you” and slipped it under the door.
Later that day, I got a call from an apologizing Managing Director asking to re schedule the interview. (I was initially to meet the general manager)
I dint get the job anyway, I couldn’t commit to their working hours with college and stuff, but again, it felt good.
A different ending:
Later that day after the whole fight in the parking lot episode, I asked my mum if she was worried while I was battling that guy (she was sitting the car and watching me all the while). She says “ No, I was ready to get out incase he made any advances, but I wanted to see who’d win. And I knew you’d win the argument”. At this instance Harsha goes into a daze of proud feelings that her mom has so much confidence in her, which in broken by the continuance of her mother’s voice “after all you were hungry. We were right outside Puranmal , you were craving for that Raj Kachori. If the same thing happened after you had your tummy full. You would have let that tired man go”
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