Me and my mobile

My day starts with a milk delivery person or newspaper delivery person having the latest Tollywood song in full blast on his mobile, while completing his rounds. Next it is time for my dear dear neighbor to enter his balcony, which is adjoining our kitchen balcony, and talk or rather yell into his cell phone. I wouldnt mind except he speaks in Marwari and has some business-related boring conversation. My phone has been silent all along.

We go to a multiplex to watch a movie. Get into a lift, someone yelling into their phone, am in a lift, signal will be off for a few minutes will resume the conversation once out of the lift. God forbid he didnt get "idea", else no idea what we would have to endure. My phone has been silent all along.

Step out of the lift, everyone goes in different direction to answer/call on their mobile. My phone has been silent all along.

In the movie, someone's phone rings non-stop. Then the lady next to me has a long conversation on her cell. Interval time, no chit chat about the movie or anything else, everyone busy checking the status of their mobiles. Returning missed calls, answering messages and what not. My phone has been silent all along.

Dinner at restaurant, same scenario. Everyone busy with their cells. This place advertises wi-fi internet connection while you dine. My phone has been silent all along.

Go to see a doctor, here I am listing out my ailments and the doc is busy messaging someone. Even takes a call in between. My phone has been silent all along.

Children busy playing games in mobile, students updating their facebook, twitter accounts, parents catching up with everyone under sun at the same time driving, eating etc etc . My phone has been silent all along.

So what am I doing? Watching all this? I think my mobile is angry with me. It never rings, no messages come. Alas, it is one of those mobiles that thinks it is there only for emergencies. It doesnt realise that my life would come an end if it doesnt beep every second. Is it angry that we have a landline at home? How does one pacify cell phone and make it behave like a normal one?

Media and Insensitivity

Today headline news on front page in TOI caught my attention. It said "Insensitive Cops Upload Gory Accident on FB" and the ironic part, there was a picture underneath it. If cops were being insensitive, what about the newspaper? The article went on to say how traumatic it was to the parents to see it on FB but they wont be traumatized to see the picture on the front page of their daily?

The issue of media insensitivity has always been a debatable issue. Daily we see gory pictures in the newspapers, be it a train accident, or a bomb blast, or a murder. Where is the necessity to insert photographs? Isnt that a bit disturbing? Here we are with a cup of coffee opening the newspaper and then rush to throw up. I guess they are helping us detoxify & cleanse our bodies.

It's the same with TV news channels. They keep replaying the events again and again. At the time of actual event taking place, at one month anniversary, at every annual anniversary. Imagine the plight of the victims, they are trying to come out the trauma and they switch on the TV there it is being replayed again. Guess they are trying to steel our nerves, so we wont be traumatized by another accident.

The worst thing I feel is the pictures of innocent people being beaten up, with a caption saying the spectators didn't lift a finger to help the victim. Aren't the camera person, the news reporter, the news staff under any obligation to lift that finger? Aren't they human? Are channel TRPs much more important than humanity? What I would give to have the golden days back when news was telecast once or twice a day, a world without 24hr news channels to sensationalize every stupid thing happening in the world.

New Year Resolutions

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL

Well a new year has begun and after the celebrations and everything, the next thing is to take new year resolutions. Now why take a resolution to improve self on a particular day is beyond me. If one wants to improve upon self, isnt any day a good day to start? Who am i to argue with the ways of the world.

So keeping up with the tradition, past couple of years i did take some resolutions. I have been met with more disappointment and frustration than anything else. Obviously, I havent been able to keep my resolutions and this led to frustration as to the levels of will power I have apart from the disappointment of not meeting the goal.

Then dawned a realisation. Why try improve self? Instead why not be happy with who you are? Why cant my resolution be that I am content with life, everything is perfect? People might argue that that way one is not striving to better self and will be leading a sedentary lifestyle. Well I object. For one all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. And secondly, what was Newton up to when the apple fell on his head? He was relaxing under an apple tree and being happy with life. What about when Archimedes ran around shouting Eureka? He was having a leisurely bath. So relaxation is important for great ideas to crop up.

So to this effect, I prepared a list. Actually multiple lists. First one contains all the good things in life, things I need to be happy about. So whenever I feel down or depressed I will go through this list. Next list is a bit difficult. I prepare lists for all the people in my life who irritate me at times, and then for each of the person I write down the good things they do. This way next time I get angry at them, I need to go through this list.

My new philosophy of life - it consists of glasses and jug. When we are born each of us has a set of glasses and a jug full of water. Glasses represent various aspects of our lives, like health, family, wealth etc. etc. Water denotes the levels of success in life. Water is poured into the glasses. The level of water in each glass denotes how much of each attribute you are given, ie amounts of health, wealth etc etc. The total amount of water is same for all, just the distribution differs. Some get more in one glass as compared to others, some glasses are empty so on and so forth. So if you compare yourself with others you will see that they might be having what you lack, but definitely you too have something that they lack. So concentrate on what you have rather than on what you lack. That makes all the difference.

Happy New Year again.......