Sunday, October 22, 2006

Chillunu oru....comedy!

It is a rainy morning. I'm picking my way gingerly across the waterlogged streets to office. My umbrella is all that protects me and my bag from the lashing rains. My sandals are very slippery in the water. I'm trying to strike a balance between my doddling umbrella and my slippery sandals.
A lady , similarly adorned, approaches me from the opposite direction and passes me slowly. Suddenly she arrests me with a "Excuse me". I turn around and turn an enquiring glance at her. She points at my legs and says something.
Immediately I think that my duppata end is in the water and check it. It isn't.
I'm sorry to say I'm not very polite at the instant and I just ask her "What?".
A man passes us and points to a nearby transformer which at the moment is spewing out sparks because of the rain and warns us to move on. The lady gives a glance at the transformer and turns back at me with a guilty smile and repeats her question.
When I hear the question, all my struggles with the umbrella ceased. I'm frozen to the spot.
The question she threw at me was..."Where did you buy these sandals?". I answered with the name of the shop. She smiled at me (the same guilty smile) and went on her way.
I tell you, I admire her observant powers that were predominant even in the lashing rains and the morning rush hour.
Kudos to you Ms. Holmes!

Sunday, October 01, 2006

Who is this "Me" person anyway?

I've come across numerous quotes ever since I got myself an email account. Most of them aim at developing my personality. I've attended few seminars on the same and also have come across such books.
Most of them are fond of saying
"Be yourself"
"Find yourself"
"You are the best no matter what others say"
"You are the most unique person"
and more in the same vein.
All that's fine...but none of them tell me how to find "myself". They say 'analyse your actions'. Like, how? There's another one that says "You have to first lose yourself to find yourself". OK, so how do I "lose" myself? You gotta tell me that too!
The second most bewildering are those stories with the so-called analogy! For example, they tell me a story that may involve stones, sticks and sand... these stories will normally end in a moral that's so hazy that it'll hide a good sized house...then they tell me "and that's how we should live our life". I will be like "hullo? what???"
Most of these stories are wasted on me since I never have the patience to sit and think about how it maybe connected to my life!
For people like me, we need a very personal personality developer, one who comes with us every step of our life and tries to improve our personality by analysing each of our actions. (am I being too lazy here?)
If you can't do that, and all you can do is just preach us stories and throw quotes filled with the so-called power words then, kindly leave us alone! Let our humble little personalities develop their own way. Let us learn on our own from the syllabus Ma Nature has charted out for us :-)