Thursday, April 14, 2011

Intolerant to Morons!!

This is a phrase my friend and I coined when I came to US for my first assignment, five years back. We used to use it to qualify our frustration which grew in leaps and bounds, especially with respect to our work then. My friend quit soon after ….

Recently, this phase has been a lot on my mind so decided to share the rationale.

Oh no! this is in no way a show of pride or arrogance. In fact, I believe that people like me who want to be qualified for the job we do, want to take bottom line responsibility of task assigned, work round the clock to dazzle, try to stay honest to people who report to us as much as we do to the people we report to, continue learning, stay sincere, earn love-and-respect and find unreasonable, dishonest and political ambiance at work or otherwise …very stifling belong to the lowest strata of achievers.

Because these attributes definitely do not translate to big bucks or overnight success or effective balancing of relations; it’s more of a constraint, a constraint wired in us.

So morons are not really morons but smarter people who know the art of credit-grabbing, back stabbing , drama creating and who can live happily with their own misplaced self-image of excellence.

What is frustrating is that when every now and then despite the route we have chosen, we are cornered to participate in their sleazy game by their rules. And it hurts to loose our peace of mind without getting any of the benefits of being an unfair player.

The perfect scenarios will be able to learn just enough tact to coexist with them without eroding the way of life and work that we have chosen. Till then there are breathing exercises and the ‘use the abuse’ policy.

Thursday, April 07, 2011

Love ….Really?

So we love chocolates, music, beaches, good looking celebrities, successful sportsmen & women, boyfriends/girlfriends, spouse, kids …. and most things under the sun….

Does an emotion like love really exist? Or is attraction, affection, level of comfort, acceptance, rebellion, need, adjustment, obstinacy, security, sensory pleasure, fear of loneliness, extreme fondness, dedication, devotion, social pressure ….or a combination of these emotions/perceptions is misrepresented as love.

We can argue that skipping of a heart beat when we see some one is attraction; long extended glimpse of someone from the corner of the eye is flirting; long talks through the night is sharing; remembering special moments and celebrating them is caring; struggle to be with some one we decided we want to be with, is rebellion; secret crush is a fantasy; relationships are a human need; continuing a not-so-successful relationship is the fear of moving out of the comfort zone; an abusive relationship is lack of self confidence; marriage is a commitment; Indian marriage, a social pressure; parenthood is responsibility and devotion; extra marital affair, a deceit; and dying for someone is plain and simple, stupidity

And love for all material things is just an expression to convey very strong liking

May be love is over-simplified-in-definition and over-exaggerated-in-depiction emotion which was created as inspiration for short fictional creations like stories, movies and lyrics; as an excuse for tacky decoration and gifts; as a cover for all defiance; as a romantic lie to embellish the not-so-pretty truth of mundane life

The complexities of human mind, nature, attitude and behavior through the turmoil of time, are just too mammoth to accept, cherish and live, a single all absorbing, all eclipsing and all important, ever lasting emotion …even if it was thought by Shakespeare :)