Onion: 2006

Tuesday, October 31, 2006

Thursday, October 26, 2006

Thursday, October 19, 2006

Wednesday, October 18, 2006

Monday, October 16, 2006

Tuesday, September 12, 2006

Friday, August 18, 2006

I remember the famous lines by Gulazar in an Amol Palekar movie-
“Ek akela is shahar me, raat me aur dopahar me
Aab-o-dana dhoondhta hai, aashiyana dhoondhta hai…”

Nothing could better express what most of us are going through and rest of us has gone through.

In today’s 24/7 work philosophy we end up working day and night to earn enough to fulfill lots of our needs and a little bit of our greed. Time taken in accumulation of things to live a life makes us miss the life. Especially in private sector, there hardly seems to be a moment we can call our own.

Then there are people who have the capability of sucking ultimate pleasure out of their job and professional ambition. Like a blinkered horse they can’t see anything else or don’t want to see anything else. Result? They end up becoming bosses, powerful enough to impose their lifestyle on others, and looking for somebody who can patiently listen to their "success stories".

But what about those who feel livelihood is for life, not vice versa? They end up writing blogs or doing something else like that to get a momentary relief from this imposed lifestyle which may not have the meaning they are looking for.

Wednesday, August 16, 2006

Petty People Look for Petty Sources of Happiness

We all are looking for pleasure. We want it. Somehow.

But it’s the kind of source we use to get pleasure that defines us. The quality of source becomes our identification.

I remember a small story. A newspaper editor got a letter from somebody who had pointed out five mistakes in the newspaper. Since the mistakes were from different and obscure parts of the newspaper, so it looked like the reader had really worked hard to search them. Then he had worked hard to put “witty” remarks in the letter to feel intelligent and confident. The editor replied like this, “Thanks for your letter and the time you’ve put in writing it down. Since we have to take care of everybody, so we always leave some mistakes for people like you.”

Well, I don’t know how the reader felt after he read the letter, but I can perhaps guess the kind of pleasure he might have derived from pointing out the mistakes.

But why would somebody get such pleasure in trying to make others feel bad unnecessarily?

Pettiness, perhaps! People look for the source of pleasure which suits their mentality, character and attitude.

If you bump into somebody like that reader, just bless your luck. You got a wonderful chance to learn patience, and you may also feel that you’re better than somebody as a human being (and your thinking may not be that wrong).

Monday, August 14, 2006

Small is Big

Being a smallish person, things haven’t been exactly pretty good with me always. There were always suggestions rushing from my well-wishers regarding techniques, medicines and exercises to improve my vertical length which was annoying at best. I looked youngest while being the eldest in my family in my generation which was quite harmful to the ‘authority’ I as an elder had inherited. In cinema halls, shows etc. what I ended up watching was not the movie or other watchable stuff but the huge head of some T-Rex dinosaur sitting in front of me.

But as they say, “Nothing is entirely good or entirely bad.” Well, my lack of reaching great heights ‘bodywise’ hasn’t been irritating every time. It had some positive effects also.

Whenever I go to a clothes’ store I end up spending less. Reason is simple. My body can manage with less clothes in terms of quantity. So I can manage with L size T-shirts, less cloth for my suit or trousers etc. Economical, no!

Ah! My height doesn’t seem lovelier than when I have to travel in trains or buses. Ever got a "birth" on the side of the compartment? I’ve seen tall people getting "births" allotted there and making innovative yogic postures to manage their legs and heads between the two walls. Again I see tall people doing amazing things with there legs to fit themselves between the intimate seats on buses. I feel better.

But the best benefit is yet to come. You’ll never find a small guy bowing down in front of a taller man while talking to him. He keeps his neck and head high. A sure-shot recipe for having a confident tête-à-tête. Then you’d find people with great heights bending over backwards to make their point in front of a small guy. Interesting, no!

So, small is not always small. At least its benefits are not small. Perhaps a big news for smallies!

Friday, June 16, 2006

Hurting others is a thankless job

How many times have you felt tempted to hurt somebody? Or to hurt somebody back just as a sort of payback? I think at least once. In my case, hundreds.

There have been many times when I got golden opportunity to satiate this hunger. And again, there have been times when I utilized the opportunity. I hurt the person back with as much vitriol I could possibly spew. And then I took pleasure in my triumph.

Unfortunately, that feeling of triumph was as short-lived as we find the emotion of gratitude in some people. It just vanished before I could ever enjoy it to my heart’s content. Then came emotions like regret, repentance and self-disgust. My conscience was fighting back.

I felt how different it would have been had I taken a different stance. Suppose I could have waited for a while to see how permanent my anger was. Trust me, no anger is strong enough to take on patience. It just vanishes away when the person gathers enough balls to watch it, to just let it be.

There is nothing like when anger fades away. It leaves a feeling of peace and contentment. You also feel powerful. Powerful enough to rise above the temporary annoyance and vindictiveness. Powerful enough to do what you should do rather than what you feel tempted to do.

There is another benefit also. Oscar Wilde said, “Always forgive your enemies. Nothing annoys them so much.” Wit (and truth) apart, there is no better way to make the person regret who has harmed you. It would surely surprise him when he won’t get the feedback he was so confidently expecting. Well, I’m talking about the people with some trace of conscience in them. For others, there is no rule. Discard them. They aren’t worth the time, yours or mine.

The worst part of hurting somebody is that most of the times we choose to hurt the people we like most. We take advantage of their vulnerability. Then we make an irreparable chink in our relation which could have been easily avoided with little bit of understanding. Seriously, hurting others doesn’t pay much. Sometimes it doesn’t pay at all. On the contrary, it makes us pay. And it doesn’t say thanks also.