Talk about being fanatics and Indians beat the entire world. Fanatic about what becomes a matter of secondary importance. Indians have always believed in displaying their affections for the public heroes. Be it cricketers, or movie stars, or some festivals our fanaticism knows no boundaries, and often becomes comparable to a mass hysteria.
The recent shows like Indian Idol and ongoing T20 cricket world cup to name a few have been driving the entire nation to a state of frenzy. Gluing to the television sets becomes a paradigm, ubiquitous across the length and breadth of the country. And mind you, gender and age permit no bars here. The Indian idol grand finale was showered with around seven crores of votes via sms over a fortnight. If this was less, people also thronged the websites to get glimpses of their favorites. Newspapers, TVs and hoardings were abundant with the posters and news about these young lots raring to make a mark on the nation of one billion and above. It takes no time for us to idolize "the rising star".
Running parallel to this is the cricket match. One match is sufficient to rush the adrenaline high in our mind and body. We have all the reasons to completely charge ourselves. As though some high voltage thriller plot would be getting unveiled. To get a taste of it just look around your self. People have rushed office a li'l early in the hope that they cud leave early as well and experience the ecstasy of watching their pets play and cheer our country to victory.
Here's a small excerpt from some e-mails in circulation in an IT firm as on 24th September 2007.
(C Savvy is a the Functional Manager for the project
Rahul is the functional lead
Starry is the functional lead
Jazzy is a team member)
All these mails were sent, by keeping the other three people in CC. So practically everyone knew who is penning down which excuse to escape from the boredom of office to the much exciting world of cricket.
Rahul,
I am out to attend a meeting from 5 PM onwards. I expect you people to stay back and put long hours of committed effort today..
No excuses please!
Warm Regards,
C. Savvy
Dear C. Savvy,
I'm expecting a sudden relapse of my food poisoning at around 5 today. Kindly grant me permission to go home early before you leave for "THE MEETING"
Thank You
Regards,
Jazzy
Hi All,
Since all you guys would be in meeting or at hospital (food poisoning or something else), I would stay back in office to work.
Please don't try and contact me as I would be busy. In order to have undisturbed work I would be in invisible mode.
Regards,
Starry
And this is the final one, breaking all levels of courtesy and patience…
Dear C Savvy,
I have to watch India Pakistan T20 Final today…
Will you allow me to go home early today or not???
Regards,
Rahul
The last one was in much bigger fonts; however it has been toned down for this blog purpose.
This is definitely a drop in the ocean. We Indians can go miles to follow such fanaticisms. One might wonder, what happens to millions to people who don't have access to media channels for following the suit of hysteria? Well, well my friend our fanaticism is not benign. It's malignant!
It's as contagious as common cold. It spread like a sneeze. When you get plagued with fanaticism, some visible symptoms would be laziness@work and hyper activity@home.
To prevent this hysteria from seeping deep in to the culture of the organizations, many IT companies also installed some TV sets in its office to allow its "fanatics" employees to enjoy their fever and also contribute to the company's bottom-line.
Such is our zest and fervor, that it becomes only too easy for these "heroes" to assume the status of god, at least demigods!! While these demigods get to bask in such ephemeral glory and mint money, we go gaga over their charm and adeptness. Time changes at the flip of the coin and these demigods are reduced to the stars of yore times. This however does not dilute our admiration, because a new star gets born and our madness follows that star incessantly…till it has fire!!
Monday, September 24, 2007
Saturday, September 15, 2007
a Wild goose chase
And this year we all witnessed it again…..Bangalore as always, extemporaneous.
Two occasions and many days of suffering…
Bangalore, once a pensioner’s paradise is now marred by the maddening population, occasionally accused of infiltration by bunch of morons.
The then authorities did not have enough acumen to predict that Bangalore would be transmogrifying into the IT hub of India, and occupying a place on the global map, and so here we are jostling everyday to commute between work and home!!!!!
Nah, that’s not what’s actually bothering bangaloreans, but the perturbing point comes firstly, when it rains heavily in Bangalore and the drainage systems show their shallowness (pun) explicitly. Within minutes of rain, the entire city gets sloshed and we are left to the muse of Mother Nature….but wait the plight doesn’t end here. This raining spree doesn’t complete at a stretch, but happens in intervals. So while first fifteen minutes you are required to be collected under a bus-stop or any shop, the other fifteen minutes you can come out and move towards your destination!
You could be called lucky if you are able to traverse this distance in the dry spell, else you are one among those who get to witness the mood swings of Rain god.
To make things worse, the roads also get jammed due to the slow moving traffic and water puddles. Lady luck has to definitely smile upon you, if you are riding a two-wheeler, and still able to differentiate between the road and the divider clearly.
This entire scene on the road looks no less than any procession. Albeit it s a different matter that in Bangalore, the procession for good causes are less and more for trouble causing issues (Rajkumar’s death for instance. The town was painted dark in vandalism on this particular day!!!!)
Secondly, if there are any festive occasions (which by a matter of chance are negligible in Karnataka, as compared to the other parts of India) like Ganesh and Gauri Habba (Habba in Kannada means festival) then the traffic assumes a mammoth stature.
I was stunned on hearing the consequences of heavy traffic, the other day. Many of my colleagues had started from the office at 7pm and reached home only after 1200pm, when the distance from traffic point to their home was barely 1.5 km (the only group of people benefiting from such heavy traffic were, the road side restaurants and thele wale, who enjoyed serving food to the much harassed people). Such scandalous travel experiences can leave you completely drained, both physically and mentally. You have to be an expert to maneuver in such traffic.
However, amidst all the sufferings, one thing which caught my fancy was the tech-savvy city traffic department, of Bangalore.
While I was at home with my irritated flat mates (there was no light in our township, and everybody was upset about not being able to watch Indian Idol), my cell phone beeped, indicating receipt of a SMS. I was surprised to see that the message was from city traffic urging to the public not to come out on the roads and add to the traffic, until unless it was required. I was glad that they at least took some human step to reach out to people.
The traffic had already turned python. To add to the woe, entire city appeared to have come out on the roads, as it was Ganesh Habba, and most of the people, living in the vicinity of Bangalore were going home, for the celebrations. I even fear to think about a situation where an ambulance could have got caught in the traffic and…..!!!
A chill runs down my spine, on mere thought of such a predicament.
If rumors are to be believed, then a red alert has been issued in Bangalore instructing people to be at home to avoid any kind of stampede.
With so many adjourn, I wonder how people can still manage to feel happy about the festivals. Maybe this is the spirit of Bangalore.
None the less, the magnitude of Bangalore’s traffic cannot be over powered by anything else. The nuisance it creates is nerve-racking. It makes you tour the enitre city to reach your destination. (Now, did you find a relevance between the title of the blog and the blog itself).
To put an epilogue on this, “killing” would be a euphemism for Bangalore’s traffic, but who cares!!!!
Two occasions and many days of suffering…
Bangalore, once a pensioner’s paradise is now marred by the maddening population, occasionally accused of infiltration by bunch of morons.
The then authorities did not have enough acumen to predict that Bangalore would be transmogrifying into the IT hub of India, and occupying a place on the global map, and so here we are jostling everyday to commute between work and home!!!!!
Nah, that’s not what’s actually bothering bangaloreans, but the perturbing point comes firstly, when it rains heavily in Bangalore and the drainage systems show their shallowness (pun) explicitly. Within minutes of rain, the entire city gets sloshed and we are left to the muse of Mother Nature….but wait the plight doesn’t end here. This raining spree doesn’t complete at a stretch, but happens in intervals. So while first fifteen minutes you are required to be collected under a bus-stop or any shop, the other fifteen minutes you can come out and move towards your destination!
You could be called lucky if you are able to traverse this distance in the dry spell, else you are one among those who get to witness the mood swings of Rain god.
To make things worse, the roads also get jammed due to the slow moving traffic and water puddles. Lady luck has to definitely smile upon you, if you are riding a two-wheeler, and still able to differentiate between the road and the divider clearly.
This entire scene on the road looks no less than any procession. Albeit it s a different matter that in Bangalore, the procession for good causes are less and more for trouble causing issues (Rajkumar’s death for instance. The town was painted dark in vandalism on this particular day!!!!)
Secondly, if there are any festive occasions (which by a matter of chance are negligible in Karnataka, as compared to the other parts of India) like Ganesh and Gauri Habba (Habba in Kannada means festival) then the traffic assumes a mammoth stature.
I was stunned on hearing the consequences of heavy traffic, the other day. Many of my colleagues had started from the office at 7pm and reached home only after 1200pm, when the distance from traffic point to their home was barely 1.5 km (the only group of people benefiting from such heavy traffic were, the road side restaurants and thele wale, who enjoyed serving food to the much harassed people). Such scandalous travel experiences can leave you completely drained, both physically and mentally. You have to be an expert to maneuver in such traffic.
However, amidst all the sufferings, one thing which caught my fancy was the tech-savvy city traffic department, of Bangalore.
While I was at home with my irritated flat mates (there was no light in our township, and everybody was upset about not being able to watch Indian Idol), my cell phone beeped, indicating receipt of a SMS. I was surprised to see that the message was from city traffic urging to the public not to come out on the roads and add to the traffic, until unless it was required. I was glad that they at least took some human step to reach out to people.
The traffic had already turned python. To add to the woe, entire city appeared to have come out on the roads, as it was Ganesh Habba, and most of the people, living in the vicinity of Bangalore were going home, for the celebrations. I even fear to think about a situation where an ambulance could have got caught in the traffic and…..!!!
A chill runs down my spine, on mere thought of such a predicament.
If rumors are to be believed, then a red alert has been issued in Bangalore instructing people to be at home to avoid any kind of stampede.
With so many adjourn, I wonder how people can still manage to feel happy about the festivals. Maybe this is the spirit of Bangalore.
None the less, the magnitude of Bangalore’s traffic cannot be over powered by anything else. The nuisance it creates is nerve-racking. It makes you tour the enitre city to reach your destination. (Now, did you find a relevance between the title of the blog and the blog itself).
To put an epilogue on this, “killing” would be a euphemism for Bangalore’s traffic, but who cares!!!!
Life-On a Philosophical Note
Sometimes, it takes li'l too long to fathom life...and then you realise that you have missed out on some wonderful things in life....or maybe you realise that you have metamorphosed for better in life!
Whatever be the outcome, its aftermath would emphatically be phenomenal. Time never flies, without leaving its mark.... You cannot have a command over time, however what you do to fill this time can surely be kept tab on. Relish the moments, which you get to live, lest life gushes away. Catch each moment and fill it with yous spirit;let your soul blend in the flavor of life. Live life in its simplicity, because complexity was never its name.
" Every person, all the events of your life are there because you have drawn them there. What you choose to do with them is up to you."
-Richard Bach
Whatever be the outcome, its aftermath would emphatically be phenomenal. Time never flies, without leaving its mark.... You cannot have a command over time, however what you do to fill this time can surely be kept tab on. Relish the moments, which you get to live, lest life gushes away. Catch each moment and fill it with yous spirit;let your soul blend in the flavor of life. Live life in its simplicity, because complexity was never its name.
" Every person, all the events of your life are there because you have drawn them there. What you choose to do with them is up to you."
-Richard Bach
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