Tuesday 26 May 2015

The nosy affairs

This is quite a common tendency. And primarily for Indians it's more of an idiosyncrasy. This moots up among all age groups,without any tint of partiality and in all places that attracts people in groups for those chit-chats. This can lighten a situation by being jest-filled or even provoke a war like environment. So what's this "this"? It's the petite nosy attitude that most of us have , making us interested in others more than ourselves. So what's wrong in this ? Is it something like a no!no! to keep updated about others affairs (here I mean their activities :P) or enquire about what others are upto so that you could be the topper of "Who's who" list and what's currently trending among your clan ?. Well , it is not so until you maintain the so called limits with which you can approach a person. This is what I want to discuss in this article.
                                                 To understand what exactly this nosy attitude means, I would like to cast few examples that explains itself.  Firstly let's consider the dramatic scenario at home on the day of our 10th standard or 12th standard board examination results. There the bike starts and gears up with full speed whether or not in reality but at least in our stomachs as we check the results ,with our parents' eyes glued to the monitor (yeah almost all of us check our results online :P) that looks brighter than what we think is our future and with the grandparents sitting at a stone's throw from us chanting all those lines from scriptures to make the God shower blessings disguised as marks. Then this volcano stays dormant until you check your marks but erupts the same day when the so called relatives whom I bet you guessed didn't exist make their calls ,and sadly in most cases visit your home. Then comes the uncle's mother-in-law's sister's daughter's son's stories , where the alienated relatives with their honed skills starts comparing the marks , asking you your marks just as the criminals get questioned by an officer. There,you stand in the court scenario with the "Whatever I say is the truth....blah blah..." verse running in the background. The nosy affair starts here. So what's the problem of those people who didn't know that you existed ,during hardships but come straightway to enquire marks when declared ? Don't you think this nosy habit  balks at the personal space of people?. Ironically , it does.
                                                It just doesn't end there but travel to places as we commute. Why not marriages and get together functions? They prove places of gossips and untold stories about people. There this curious behavior creeps in like a hole through the tight wall.How many of us questioned by those so called aunties and uncles , just because they have right to ask silly questions due to their age?. For most of the times , it's not the care for us which makes them ask such questions ( at least we would be happy if it's that ) ,but it's that attitude that's ready to put us down by saying boastful stories of their wards and grandchildren the moment we finish. You are at blame if you are not engaged (for the one's in late 20's) , or you are at blame if you are not one among those millions who land up in the so called creamy IT jobs (for them any other domain is waste of time and money. At least for most) or the last question that turns up would be about the salary. The most irritating fact is when all these questions have to be answered as a quench for their curiosity and not as a matter of care or responsibility in guiding us. This indeed is a very nosy affair.
                                          Why put the entire blame on the elders ? Often , we youngsters end up poking our nose and piquing into people's affairs beyond our limits. Gossips do arise , but that's not the thing at blame. Kidding and gossiping go hand in hand in friendship. But what matters most is the amount of  healthy personal space that each of us maintain and the way each one should act without intruding into this. The most important fact is that your concern for others and the curious nature to know about their being and happenings should not hurt or irritate them . For this nosy attitude not only lowers your image but also leads to troubled circumstances that goes beyond control.
                           
So can we start reducing this nosy habit of ours and instead  show real concern and care for the people around us ?. Well, it's high time we should.
                       

Thursday 21 May 2015

Of those oxymorons in our lives

Well, they are so feigned. They are those few of the usual words uttered by us in our everyday conversation .Yet we don't really seem to notice them for they tide along the flow of talk. Yeah, so the "they" that is mentioned here are the Oxymorons. I'm glad for those who already know what it means. (Oxymoron , as the name may seem new, is an old concept belonging to figures of speech. For those of you who have memories of spending your high school days with  red-tinged Wren&Martin book, this term is no new.). In simple terms , ever tried juxtaposing words for fun? Well , if not no worries, for oxymorons do the needed by consisting words juxtaposed for contrast. They are paired words with contrast meanings. Interestingly, the word "Oxymoron" itself is an example for it meaning the words "sharp" and "dull", two unusually paired words of opposite meanings. This article is not a discussion of any point in particular , but just a tale to open up the concept of oxymorons and how funnily we end up using it in our normal conversations, in most cases without knowing.

And this is no special term because there are other figures of speech like simile and metaphor. This post is just out of my liking for "oxymorons".

So here are those oxymorons and the random examples ( You may have some other instances too). The bold words are the oxymorons.

                                      There are times of test in your life. They drive you crazy for you may not know how to go about and how to deal with. Neither their source nor their results may be known. Haven't you been absolutely unsure to take decisions ? Well you might have surely had. And then you say " Omg. Just don't know what this is up to! I'm absolutely unsure what move to make next".
                                      Then time may pass, you may land up in what the Engineering students call it as "the biggest problem" , the semester exams, that intrudes a happy life once in 3 months ( well , just don't believe the six month story , for its never been so ). The count down starts , one month to exams , 20 days ,3 days and finally the night before the exams. And then that friend of yours , who acts savior by telling you important questions to learn calls. You say, " Chancey illa! (No chance ) The only choice  is to leave this answer and go for there is no time". (Did you know that you were using an oxymoron? :P)
                                    And there, after the exams , you'll face another semester where the first day , fate tricks you by giving a lab period in the timetable. And there you go to the lab , without knowing what it concerns , and on the very first day of the sem (*facepalm). Also you being the unluckiest are put into a batch that goes to toughest lab class and the other batch manage to go to a lab with a.c's and fun loving teacher ( Engineering students would know what this means :D). After this class ,you come out , and the other batch students wait like monkeys seeing bananas coming, waiting to know how the session was, and you say " The sir /ma'am clearly confused . I don't understand the format for the record!Attending or not attending the class makes the same difference".
                                   And then , remember those fast paced evenings before the submission of records? We all end up going to the xerox shop and make the guy who runs the shop to run out of ink itself ,  by taking all our last-minute printouts. Half of the time we use our friend's completed record for our supreme xerox, for why waste our time formatting the stuff? :D. Then we say to the shop guy , "Anna (brother) this is original copy . Can you take xerox of it?".
                                    Those jobless times in class. We end up blathering and jabbering gossips. When gossips turn up , the gaucheness of yours come along and you comment about someone near you such that is turns into a loud whisper. There you are, deadlocked when that person hears you. Your non stop conversation would end in deafening silence.
                                    Have you tried to act naturally in certain circumstances instead of falsely pleasing others? Or  even when your patience ( or cool ) was found missing , were you  awfully good to that person at stake? . Have you asked for exact estimate while heading any event in college ?You would have at least once, and unknowingly you would have used the words.

                                 Ever known how contrasting words could hodgepodge into a sane and meaningful context?. Well you would at least now if you hadn't known so long.