The Age We Live In

If human kind across centuries was to meet and introduce the ages we lived in, what would we have to say about ours?

The age of unbound progress and technology, the age where your voice, thoughts and work can reach across the world in a matter of few seconds? When man first starting exploring outerspace and imprinting its footsteps on the Moon? When living was at its most comfortable and we had things at our disposal, we really didnt need?

Or the age in which we harnessed technology to further erode our happiness? Of an economy running on foundations so weak, that it could all fall down and shatter any time? When we are bothered about who twitted about what and who liked your status? And we don't know if the person in the house next door is alive or dead? When we have deadlines to meet and green paper to make, in the hope that it would bring us happiness? When people who cared about you and brought you up, were relegated to a corner of your mind or even a corner of the home?


The age where we lost all sense of reason and became extremely shortsighted?
The age when the inertia was so high, that every single being born in it, got sucked into the chaos?
The age when humanity convinced itself that there is no other way to live but to run after the concept known as money? The age when we had no time at all for doing anything we liked?
A race devoted to wiping itself and the planet out?


A whole planet of intelligent life gone wrong? Yes. Thats the age where I come from.

Oh, and what would the people from the next age have to say? Probably the age where humans transported themselves from one spot to another by mere technology, so much so that evolution took away their legs and feet and left them with just a single finger on each hand to push all them buttons they wanted to!

Music!

I hardly know enough to write on the subject. Our introductions to each other were late, apart from the nursery rhyme cassettes in school. Filmi love shove music was never appreciated at home. Neither was music of the blaring variety and I once got a reprimand for singing a certain Karishma Kapoor song during a family Antakshari :D

An attempt was made to learn a few ragas at school...and then came the Backstreet Boys and the Spice Girls and all the other zillion boy and girl bands. How I listened to BSB more and became an ardent fan because I thought Nick Carter was cute than for their music! ;) and my fandom was limited to the peppy pop songs sung by groups of 5 guys or 5 girls wearing outlandish clothes or standing a la MIB. I even thought the Titanic OST was highly overrated.

Enter college and the horizon expanded to music I never knew before. The Kishore Kumar songs and NFAK, the Old Hindi Melodies to the King of Rock n Roll and then on to Rock and Classical Indian Fusion...and its been a pure blast. There's so much undiscovered melody, and like a friend said, I have just begun to explore!

Music to lift your soul. Music to keep it light.
Music to bring it down and Music to set it right.
Music to drown yourself in and Music to keep it bright.
Music when you are down and out and Music when you can't sleep at night.

Ok, so you think you can spell?

.....That don't impress me much!


Ah so what is this post about?

A spell checker? Those wiggly red lines on a Microsoft document? (and my dislike for American English) , The teacher who used to mark spelling mistakes with red ink? -- Nope.

The further away we are moving from being consciously aware of our spellings as we type out more than we write? -- Partly. Didn't realise this until I began mis-spelling words and using a right click to correct them , rather than bother to re read and correct!

And contrary to the title lines of this post, mostly on how I base my judgement of people on whether they can spell or not. Of being put off by bad spelling and more so by bad grammar.

Some say that its the beauty of the English language that it is so fluid, others seem bent to give the language a runny nose!

Of late have noticed people writing their names online in all small letters. Instant put off. Some would argue its convenience. But its your name! You just don't do that to it! Ah and if someone says 'He don't' instead of 'he doesn't' then I would have instantly written him off! Okay. well not that drastic. But the good books are closed :P

Language is by no means a measure of the nature of a person. You might have a heart of gold or be a genius and still be horrible at spellings.

But language sure is the world's window to a person, one which allows us to take a peek in and form an impression. It is his presentation to the world and then some more. I daresay even a measure of how sophisticated and cultured a person is. Definitely more than the clothes he wears or the brand of his footwear - The very shallow hallmarks of judgement these days.

Had read somewhere that bad spelling is worse than body odour. Here is me vehemently nodding my head in agreement!

At an arm's distance please!

Remember assembly time in school? When the teacher asked you to stand at an "One - Arm Distance"? In my opinion one of the most valuable lessons ever taught at school!

Now there are so many people who somehow never caught on to this all important concept. Its sometimes a necessity to step hard on peoples toes in a line just to make them realize they are imposing on your personal space. An elbow or an umbrella comes handy too! ;) Manageable so far.

But then there are people who just don't know where to draw the line. You really don't have to come right up to my face to speak. My hearing is alright and I am sure I can hear you from 5 feet away!

If I am polite doesn't mean you get to poke your curious nose into my life. I am not your new found best friend... I have my friends , thank you and guess what, they know how to respect personal space too! It makes you cringe to tolerate their over enthusiastic friendliness, the obvious inability to decipher or just an intentional overlooking of the subtle and not so subtle 'back off' hints! Whatever happened to minding your own business? So infuriating.

Then there are the kinds who want a minute by minute live update of everything in your life. Like a twitter feed into your day. Always, always an intrusion! Master of Art, Specialization: "Getting on people's nerves"

Boundaries are important. The more you respect that, the more respect you are bound to get!

On forgetfulness!

Seems like age is catching up....and I haven't even touched a quarter century yet! :|

How else do you explain things like forgetting names of people you went to school with, the song you heard in the morning, the name of the place where you gave your first college party and the weirdest of all - words!!!!

It was always a task to be able to remember by dinner what I had for lunch..Now that happens with most of us. I am sure even you don't rem what you had for lunch yesterday!... You do it without being aware of it but this is a whole new level! How can you forget words! Its almost comical filmy Paresh Rawalish... when you remember the concept and forget the bloody word :|

Too much dependence on google for everything you can't remember? Just Plain Distraction? Overwork? Beginning of Selective Amnesia? Information overload??? (!!)

Exaggeration? Well. Okay, Somewhat.
Worrying? Definitely!

Thank God for Anaesthesia!

To all those who contributed in inventing Local Anaesthesia.... I owe you one!

Well well well... in case you are wondering why a post on this of all things! One painful trip down to the dentist and you ll also be thanking the heavens! No matter how brave you are... u think u could handle anything in the world... but the dentist with his face hidden behind a mask and eyes peering out of thick glasses, while u r trapped in that chair ,is a different story all together! You turn into jelly the moment he comes at you with his arsenal of tiny shiny pointed metal weapons that he pokes and prods your mouth with!

and I turn into Ally McBeal imagining all sorts of things while putting up a brave face and repeating "IhatedentistsIhatedentistsIhatedentists" in my mind :D

and then came the life saver.... "would u prefer if I gave u Anaesthesia?' Yes! Yes! Oh please... I wonder if he could see the tears of thanks in my eyes :P

One prick and no feeling later.... I could stare him and any of his shiny pointed weaponary right in the face. :D

Here's to local anaesthesia!

On a different note altogether.... Life on the otherhand shouldnt have anything remotely like anaesthesia. Every painful moment is an experience too... Numbing it out wouldnt be a wise choice here :)

Cheers!

Yap yap yap $#%@%#

How in the world can people talk so much! Yap yap yap nonstop. It’s like a verbal form of diarrhea. And it’s equally painful to the one on whose ears the nonstop jabber falls! After a while the mind wanders away while those words still keep hammering away on your ears. Worse so if the person is talking to you and you have to give that occasional nod out of politeness.

One nod and the hammering begins with renewed gusto. So much for politeness. I mean don’t they ever take a break? So much potential energy being converted into sound….When it could be put into so many better uses :D

And as I listen to the endless talk, all of it stories of how they did this and that and that too. …my mind goes into this zone. I wonder if it would come to a stop if I suddenly stood up and screamed loudly….or maybe poured cold water on top of them. Pretended to faint…. Something!

Seriously. How in the world!