Other people’s lives

Before I start...let me ask you this...

Are you the type of person who often seeks entertainment in other people’s life?

Answered? Ok...keep the answer to yourself.

I think almost every one has this insurmountable desire to know about other people. The manifestation is however is three fold.

1. Petty gossip: Sit in a group (face-to-face), pick some victim out of the group, dissect and analyze his/her activities with mind numbing clarity and pass judgements. And feel really good after the session. Contrary to popular belief this is not an effeminate quality...(almost) every body indulges in this to some extent.

[People who are confidently nodding their heads and still asserting that they do not like to discuss other people read on...]

2. Books: Do you like to read? Stories? Fiction and non fiction?

Well...plots do not exactly revolve around your life...do they? I think most of the stories that you read are about other people’s live.

3. Movies: Again..these are not scripted based on your life...right? [Now stop claiming that such and such movie had an astounding similarity with your life! Why not love the unpredictability of your own life?]

It is not our fault...we know ourselves too well. So even if you are a very interesting person since you are already aware of your tricks and secrets you are bound to find yourself mundane...

PS: Are you sporting a smug smile on your face because you indulge in none of 1 , 2 or 3?

Well...that is nothing to be happy about! That just makes you a narcissist of the worst kind...take a break from looking into the mirror to look around a bit...interesting things are happening all the time!!!

Etymology

My best friend complained to me about the philosophical (Really? I guess she is too sweet to use the words “drab” and “dreary”) nature of the last few posts and hence I promised her that the next post would not have any sad undertone/overtone.

I have come across a very interesting language and so I decided to share some insights here. You might have read something about it here. But I still felt that I have something more to share.

Prerequisite: To follow this post you have to have a very basic knowledge of Hindi.

Let us analyze the etymology of a few words of this language.

1. Makan means khana:

(E: Influence of the witch’s house from Hansel and Gretel )

2. Air means pani:

(E: We always keep comparing water with life and poor air keeps serving us and just because of it’s invisibility we keep ignoring it.

Just like a classic love story…water is the show off whom you mistakenly think to be the love of your life and air keeps loving you secretly all this while…then one day you are left by both water and air and you die…

No Paro…No Chandramukhi…Devdas dies)

3. Saya means main

(E: Nice word for me.)

4. Anda means tum.

(E: Nice insult for you)

5. Gila means pagal.

(E: When newborns wet themselves at the interval of 5 seconds I guess that does drive their parents crazy. )

6. Garam means namak.

(E: They are the first people to have tasted sweat...)

7. Dan means aur. (E: Anagram of and…)

And finally the one that won me over!

8. Chinta means pyar! (E: Do I need to elaborate? If you qualify as a human being I'm sure you will agree to this one.)

From now on think twice before telling anyone “I worry a lot about you”...

Well I was immensely pleased to have picked up so many new words…until…

One day I heard two local people talking in their native tongue and I was surprised to find that I am getting the meaning. “Wow! I have learnt so fast!” With a smug look on my face I proceeded to ask the person, “Excuse me…are you guys conversing in *****?”

“No…we are talking in Bangla.”

“Oh…so the two of you have been talking in Bengali…”

“No no…it is Bangla…we are from Bangladesh…you Indians can never pronounce it correctly.”--- a very condescending smile on his face.

(Often life’s “I am the best” moments are followed by “I am worthless” moments--- states the law of conservation of awesomeness.)

Coming back to the original topic…there are other casual words with very “unusual” connotations. Your reaction on hearing those might vary from a naughty twinkle in your eyes to a petunia blush in your cheeks depending on the kind of person you are. So to save you from embarrassment I shall not highlight those here.

But this post would be incomplete if I do not mention the following.

“Terima kasih” means “Thank you” in this very special language.

So if someone obliges you with a favour you are supposed to say "beep beep" …makes you uncomfortable…does it not?

Makes me think of poor Harbhajan Singh…if only he was aware of this language during the Symonds episode the whole incident could have been presented in a different light altogether…

Is it the onion or am I sad?

Sometimes it is hard to figure out...

...if you are really fond of taking long walks or is that a desperate attempt of making peace with directionless mazes...

...if the gentle caress of the wind in your hair still inspires you to dream or just hushes you to an escapistic slumber...

...if the subtle kisses of the rain drops on your lashes still make you smile or do they evoke a smouldering sigh from within...

Sometimes when we are done with successfully convincing every one around with our lies we try to lie to ourselves trying to keep our precious, vulnerable worlds from falling apart...

Hoping it is the onion...

PS: Apologies...shall make up for this with a cheery post soon.