The modern world

Since when have we been calling this place modern?

English with a frown

I was amused by a children’s educational TV show called ‘English with Aliens’ last evening. From what I understood, the concept of the aliens was developed in order to explain simple things in English to people who are clueless about the language. However, the grammar was messed up, inappropriate words and slang were being used and the acting in itself looked absolutely artificial. Some of the many errors include obvious mistakes such as “Can I have one?”, “A alien”, “the camping is ready” etc. etc.

Speaking is perhaps the most basic form of verbal communication. I don’t mean to be a critic, nor do I claim to be extraordinarily excellent with my language skills but this thing really bugged me. After all it was a program aiming to teach little children English. In the least, am I not to expect properly structured sentences with a natural accent for God’s sake? Hearing grammar mistakes in TV and radio news, spelling mistakes in newspapers, hearing people make speeches inaccurately and even tuition classes that employ semi-qualified teachers may be excused. But this? I mean teaching English on TV is great! But shouldn’t they be extra careful what they say and how they say it?

I pity the children of today. Grammar is not taught in the way that it should be and you are never really able to master English unless you specialise by doing literature or something. But then do we let the rest remain as just an unfortunate generation or do we seriously need to do something about it?
Would appreciate some constructive comments on this one!

Tis ok

Tis ok to idle sometimes

Tis ok to break rules once in a way

Tis ok to have your own way sometimes

Tis ok to never have loved

Tis ok to frown

Tis ok to express your feelings

Tis ok to make a mistake

Tis ok to pretend

Tis ok to lie

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Or is it?

The absurdity of indirect television advertising

Do you remember the Gillette 2 advertisement that ran on TV say about a decade ago? Now what was so absurd about it? It starts off with this guy waking up late. He then rushes to catch a train. Obviously he gets off the train little later than usual. Unfortunately due to the delay he misses the girl who had been waiting for him at the station. Just then another train comes there and what happens? A girl gets off with this major fake smile.
Now tell me what has this got to do with razors or shaving?

Self-imprisonment

There are those moments where life gives only a limited number of options to choose from and sometimes we may even have no choice at all. Every now and then there pops up the difficult relatives, the annoying colleagues and the distractions that cause the brain cells to spend way more time on things that are not worthy of it. People often talk about how destiny controls you rather than vice versa. How much control of one’s own self does one have, may be a more practical question to ponder over.
Can you start or stop thinking about a project, a crush or a painful incident as and when you want to? Is it impossible? If hunger can be controlled by satisfying it then what satiates the thoughts and feelings that often seem to possess us? Well, one can say that hunger and emotion are two different things and indeed they may be, but do we also agree that there is no chance of one controlling one’s own emotions, thoughts and feelings? Can this be learned? If you really want to learn something it can never be impossible can it? You can’t help what you hear but can you stop thinking of what you hear? Can you stop putting two and two together? Can you only think about things you want to think about? Can you simply forget? For most, the only way may be to force themselves to sleep; for others – mental stress relievers could be in the form of movie-watching, junk-food-eating or even comp games, for others – a good dose of booze and for the rest of us – is there absolutely no way out?

Hold it right there!

STOP! reverse
Ok move 30 feet skywards
What do you see?
Do you see people?
Their heads?
What are they doing?
Is anyone looking up?
I bet you, no one’s counting stars
Ok come down now, just a little bit
Yes about 10 feet would do
Do you have a closer view?
What are they doing?
Are they talking?
Look hard
How many of them?
Are they talking about you?
Seems so, huh?
What do you do?
Come back down?
Crash land?
Thrash them?
Stay up there, feel down?

Ignore, Reverse, Start, Move!
And don’t even think about crushing anyone!

Profession by choice

In most parts of the world, a painter is a painter because he/she wants to be it and a driver is a driver because he/she chooses it and not because he/she cannot find a job. They may be self employed, a photographer or an artist and it wouldn’t matter; nor would it arouse interest in others. People just do things that they simply like doing.
Unfortunately however, in this part of the world, people have little belief that they have control over the profession they choose to have. We encourage kids to write essays on their ambition, but if they wrote that they want to turn into a bus conductor when they are older we wouldn’t necessarily encourage that, would we? Is this a wrong concept to cultivate? Is there such a thing as low jobs and white collar jobs and whatever else there is? Is it right to look down upon people or label them as the less privileged just because they are happy doing a job. Yes of course it is certainly a fact that people sometimes turn to these so called “low level” jobs because they cannot find other work but it may not always be the case and I think we need to respect people based on who they are rather than based on the type of job they do, because it could be purely due to interest that he/she makes a life of it.