Thursday, September 13, 2007

Anticipation

Noun. [an-tis-uh-pey-shuhn]

:)

An emotion involving pleasure in considering some expected or longed-for good event, or irritation at having to wait.

How does it feel to look forward to something really pleasurable and count the days, hours and minutes as the time approaches?
How does it feel if the event does not happen because circumstances change?
How does it feel at the last minute?
How does it feel when it happens? :)

Remember the school trip that was scheduled just after the test? How the night before, you just had to study and get through the hours till you were done with the paper? Even the summer holidays that began just after the final exams of the year. Ah,
the elation at walking out of that exam hall.

Me, I get so excited, I can barely think of much else. Even despite the fact that I believe that there is some value in doing what you must in the hours that you are counting. Some satisfaction at a job well done. Some happiness well-deserved. Some pleasure to enjoy without guilt.

Chug on I will now. Who knows when I'll have something to look forward to. :)

Saturday, September 08, 2007

The Art of Conversation

There are an infinite number of ways to start a conversation. Only I don't know any of them. As a certain someone says, there are 'different folks with different strokes'. And sometimes you are just stuck with another person alone. What must one do? How must one proceed?

The little kids are the easiest I guess. There are the standard set of questions that are guaranteed to give you returns whether you like it or not.

Which school do you study in? The answer to this one is, more often than not, UKG.
But that is your class. What school?
UKG.
Oh forget it..so who is your best friend? This seems to be every kid's favourite question. It's easy to answer, doesn't require much thought, because everyone has a best friend. Or think that they do. Maybe more than just one. And thus begins Priya, Divya, Karan, Rahul.. Note that as generations progress, there seem to be more names belonging to the opposite sex in this answer than earlier, and well, stranger sounding names.

Then we get to the in-their-teens-and-almost-resembling-adults category. I feel at my egotistic best with these ones. No one admires and respects a 22 year old more than these darlings. You can exhibit so much knowledge about so many things they don't yet know, and still come across as someone they can identify with. So we don't have to talk about them. Seems, however, that I already did.

Category 3: Peers. Same age group. Maybe older. Ah, all the same! There are people here that talk and talk and talk. And there are people who don't. At all. I'm put slightly at ease by the people who smile. It's easier to venture into communication with such people. But the other set that don't smile..and don't talk either. Why? One teeny smile is all I ask of you. Makes life easier for the two of us, seems to me. I think I must research the art of comfortable silences for them.

Again, when I say conversation, there are the normal must-fill-silence questions that I use on a regular basis (with different people!) : Where do you stay? How do you commute? Oh, the traffic.. this usually branches of into enough conversation about traffic, Bangalore, people, etc. to fill the next five-ten minutes. Unless the other person belongs to must-not-talk-or-smile category.

Again, note the difference between having a conversation and being an information market.
Conversation: exploring each other's thoughts, opinions, learning something interesting, getting to know something.
Information market: One party provides the other party with a lot of information. What kind of information? Well, depending on the listener, either interesting facts, uninteresting facts or irrelevant facts. Either way, it is one-sided, and some amount of discretion must be used when in this mode. :)

Well, there you have it, from kids to teens, information shops to he-who
-must-not-smile... a lot more categories waiting to be listed there, but for the fact that this post has gone on too long for me to go any further.


Wednesday, September 05, 2007

New Blog Post

This time I just want to tell you how it feels to write a post. There are these thoughts in your head. You bring them out through your fingers. I love the way my fingers move on this keyboard, and help me convert thought into word. At times I am amused, at times I am amazed. There are times when I'm feeling sad, there are times when I'm happy. But writing here somehow makes me feel good. I read and I re-read what I write. And feel strangely proud, regardless of the quality of the final product.. :)

I hope to see a time where I can write more, write better. Magically transform all these random thoughts to coherent sentences. Nice coherent sentences. Fun-to-read. Informative (and/or) Entertaining (and/or) Delightful. I'll get there someday :) My promise.

Saturday, September 01, 2007

Horror-Scope (neologism borrowed)

I'm guilty of reading my horoscope everyday.

:) I'm not guilty of taking it seriously. It works like this: If it sounds good, I hope it'll work. If it doesn't sound good, it doesn't bother me. Either way, I forget about it within approximately 120 seconds.

But today, apparently, fellow Ariens, 'karmic Saturn enters your 6th House of Health and Diet.'

!! Seriously? It would seem unlikely that the astrologers don't just make all this stuff up as they write. Get up in the morning, (maybe its the previous night, they like to be prepared) think, what can I tell the gullibles today? Hmm.. let's make a new House altogether!

Why stifle creative juices that flow in the veins of those who have taken this up as a career?

While we're making the new House (upper case!) lets get them a little health conscious. My bit to improve the world. Lo and behold, ladies and gentlemen, presenting to you, (sound please) the 6th House of Health and Diet!

I have nothing more to say. From today on, or is it only today, I have to make improvements to my daily health and diet routine. Thank you for telling me that, Astrologer. Only us Ariens, is it, again?

Ctrl-Alt-Del

From time to time, I have found, I see the need to give my reset button a push. I have to start over. I cannot forget the old, I do not think it necessary that I should, but it gets easier with practice to let go, or atleast start afresh with new perspectives.

I love that, as opposed to earlier, or even as opposed to other people I have seen, I can now condition my emotional reactions (atleast in part) to be the way they should be. (Who defines what they should be, is another story.)

Incremental self-improvement, said someone. A continuous attempt, said I.
Seems it helps. Well, so long, older life. I'll keep your memories. And learn from them. You hang in there :)

From quote archives of Groucho Marx:
I, not events, have the power to make me happy or unhappy today. I can choose which it shall be. Yesterday is dead, tomorrow hasn't arrived yet. I have just one day, today, and I'm going to be happy in it.