Skip to main content

Idle chit chat

I am noticing that I am losing patience with people.  Fast.  Last night we were at our kid's friends house waiting to pick up the child when a cold gust began blowing.  It is mid June in the northern hemisphere and it was late in the evening.  The occasion was the daughter was celebrating her birthday and is a friend of our offspring.

Among the waiting attendees were parents of their respective wards.  Most of Indian origin.  One dad remarked on some sort of derived analysis about the weather.  Idle chit chat is all.  I am not sure what to make of this anymore.  His comment while profoundly vague was frankly immaterial.  This planet will do whatever the heck it wants to do much to the chagrin of all the arrogant know it alls.  But in retrospect it was merely a way to make small talk.

I for some reason found that irritating.  Then another dude walked in to pick up his kid and instantly made a sweeping comment that all the previously standing desis must be in the IT sector.  I pointedly corrected him that I was not.   Again he might have made some vague attempt to interject himself in an otherwise bleak evening.  But to me it was a profoundly biased and pointless statement.

I need to start thinking about the 'moun wrat' aka vow of silence approach again.  Not to say much unless my life depended on it.  I do not need to counter someone's point of view simply because I think it is wrong.  Or a source of irritation however big or small.  If it does not threaten my existence (e.g. a jackass motorcycle rider causing a near collision on the highway due to their erratic driving)  I should be able to completely ignore the chaos around me.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Presumptive Society

Today's world is hyper connected.  I am not so sure what it means but you hear it a lot.  It is probably hyper but not sure how connected it is.  Sugar (fermented or not) is available in many ways than before and so getting hyper is easy.  It is probably more a threat than cocaine since it is sold legally. And what is this connected stuff?  Most people I encounter seem disconnected from reality.  So going back to this assumption that we are connected there are subtle and no so subtle instances of how brands and companies and middle men try to portray someone - A linkedin profile for somebody working for X years at a place advertises to the connected network that so and so is CELEBRATING X years @ Such and Such Inc. Do we know if (s)he is celebrating or cringing?  Perhaps a better way to portray will be - So and So LASTED X years @ such & such inc. Then it exhorts the readership to go ahead and congratulate them for this lasting effe...
2 comments
Read more

Of Jims and Johns

Here is another essay on the subject of first names. As in birth names. Or names provided to an offspring at birth. While the developed world tends to shy away from the exotic like Refrigerator or Coca Cola for their new production there is a plethora of Jims and Johns and Bobs or Robs. Speaking of which I do not think there is a categoric decision point at the time of birth if a child will be hereafter called as Bob. I mean have not yet met a toddler called Bob or Rob for that matter. At some point though the parental instinct to mouth out multiple syllables runs out and they switch from calling the crawler Robert to simply Robbie to Rob. Now speaking of - it is strange that the name sounds like something you would not want Rob to do - i.e. Rob anyone. Then why call someone that? After all Rob Peter to Pay Paul is not exactly a maxim to live a young life? Is it? Perhaps Peter or Paul might want to have a say in it? Then there is this matter of going to the John. Why degrad...
2 comments
Read more

On the go(zay masta) in Japan again

Cool cat the Japanese are Tokyo at dusk  My second visit to this land of the rising sun after almost a decade. Back then clearly I was wet behind the ears product manager and likely didn’t pay attention to all (efficient) things Japanese. But today I did and of course continue to be impressed. It is as much the obvious stuff like on time travel that is both clean and comfortable and all that which makes it possible. The impressive landmark and landscapes that these humans have put together despite their cramped (or because of it) surroundings and precarious geological conditions could amaze a novice architect among us. But it’s also the little things that someone had to think about which have a phenomenal impact on day to day lives that make the Japanese stand apart. Below are few random examples- 1. Providing a very fine machined wooden toothpick in every packet of wooden chopsticks. The said chapsticks are simply set on the To Go counter of any food vendor/ convenience store wher...
Post a Comment
Read more