Posts Tagged ‘friends’
e-Volution: The WhatsApp Group and Human Interaction
There was a time when we used to hear how in future there will be robots to do everything. When Matrix movie was released, the hype went even further. How the virtual reality would be? Then we heard about robots might even replace the need for companionship.
WhatsApp has reached quite close. Before you get naughty thoughts, let me clarify. The need for a companion to share thought; talk to, has been addressed at some level. Consider this; I have a WhatsApp friend group, with people living in different time zones. At any given time at least one of them is active to have a chat.
Chatting on WhatsApp is non-intrusive too. You sit in the coziness of your house; safety and security. Chat, share jokes, share emotions. If you need any help someone is there. If you are in grief, people are there to cheer you up. Of course you need a real group of friends first. I have a friend circle which I made when I was in college.
With WhatsApp group, the connection has gone to a new level. Any new movie we see, first thing we share with the group. Promotion in job, rejection in love, from going to gym to stomach indigestion, we end up sharing. I feel there is always someone to listen.
I feel it takes away a lot of loneliness. It is like a personalized Siri; a group of friends which matches your thought process. However this might lead people to stop looking for interaction in real life. Since there is no loneliness, where is the need to find someone to kill it?
To predict future is too tricky. But one thing is sure; we already are living the future we used to read in sci-fi during childhood. We are not able to realize as it is happening run time. I call it e-Volution of humans.
Popat
Disclaimer: All names and places are real. Nothing has been altered as the target is to make fun of people involved.
How to define Popat? Well its a situation when someone has a bad experience which seems hillarious to others. We call it iska toh popat ho gaya.
Let me relate an incident. A couple of my friends were going to a collegaues wedding. They had a train to cath from mumbai. One of them came from Pune. They were all set to catch train from Mumbai Central.
Their train was at 11:45 in the night and they discussed plans to gulp a beer or two at Marine drive before proceeding to Central which is 10 mins away from there.
The fun was their train was from LTT which is quite far even for late night roads. Had they reached Central and would come to know of the goofup, we could say ki Popat ho gaya.
Hope this makes the meaning and usage clear. Poor chaps would be left licking their wounds, while we audience would be discussing and writing blogs and making fun at their expense.
Unfortunately fate intervened and a third party (me) who shared the wassapp group on which this discussion was going on pointed out the obvious. So popat hone se bach gaya.
गोलू मेरे पास है
मुझे पढ़ते वक़्त कलम से कुछ भी लिखने/बनाने की आदत है। कोई चित्र, कोई शब्द, कुछ भी। यह मेरे ख्यालों से अपने आप निकलते हैं। “मैं गोलू के पास हूँ, गोलू मेरे पास है”, एक दिन पढ़ते वक़्त मैं यह लिख बैठा किताब पे। कुछ देर के पश्चात, मेरा एक मित्र मुझसे मिलने आया और उसकी नज़र इस लाइन पे पड़ गयी। वह हंस-२ के लोटपोट हो गया।
इस किस्से को करीब १० साल हो गए, पर मेरा मित्र इसे भूल नहीं पाया। न ही उसने मुझे भूलने दिया। जबतब वह मेरी टांग खींचता रहता है, इस बात पर।
मित्रों ऐसे कितने ही किस्से हो जाते हैं जीवन में। कुछ हम संजोह पाते हैं, कुछ धुंधले हो जाते हैं। दोस्त भी ऐसे ही एक किस्से की तरह होते हैं। कुछ से हम संपर्क में रहते हैं, कुछ अतीत का हिस्सा बनकर रह जाते हैं। कितना अच्छा हो अगर हम ऐसी हर याद को अपने पास रख पाएं, जब तब अनुभव कर पाएं उस एहसास का।
एक अंग्रेजी चित्रपट में दिखाया गया था की कैसे हम अपने मष्तिष्क में अपनी हर याद को संझोह के रख सकते हैं। हम एक ऐसी दुनिया बसा सकते हैं जिसमें हमें अपने सारे मित्र, परिवार, एक साथ रहने का आभास दें। बस आँखें बंद करें और डूब जाएँ अपनी यादों के समुन्दर में।
गोलू भी वही दर्शाता है। मैं गोलू के करीब उतना ही हूँ, जितना गोलू मेरे करीब रहना चाहता है। यह एक दुराही मार्ग है। कोई याद अगर कड़वी है, तो उसे हम कहीं गहराई में दफना देते हैं। गोलू और मैं दूरी बना लेते हैं।
जिन लोगों से हम संपर्क में रहते हैं, वह लोग हमसे संपर्क में रहना चाहते हैं। वह हमारे लिए गोलू होते हैं, हम उनके लिए गोलू होते हैं। अत: मैं गोलू के पास हूँ, गोलू मेरे पास है।
हॉस्टल की यादें
सुट्टे का धुंआ, पसरा था हर ओर,
नशे की चुप्पी, न होता कोई शोर,
किस राह चलें, क्यों सोचें हम,
हॉस्टल, दोस्त, मस्ती हरदम|
ठहर जाता था वक़्त, आकर वहां,
वो धरती, आसमान, वही सारा जहाँ,
खेले कूदे, लड़े झगड़े, सब वहां,
किसने कहा जन्नत नहीं होती यहाँ|
वो किला था हमारा, हम सिपह:सलार,
सजती थी महफ़िल, लगता दरबार,
औरत जात का आना मना है इधर,
हर दीवार पर यही लिखा था उधर,
पहली बार का जश्न, जोरदार,
पहली हार का मातम, खूंखार,
किताबों की जली होली, मज़ा,
छुट्टी में घर जाना लगती थी सज़ा|
मारपीट की नौबत, कुछ कहा हो,
किसीने हॉस्टल के खिलाफ, जो,
हो जाते सब तयार, जान देने को,
जब उसकी इज्ज़त ताक पर हो|
वहीँ सब सीखा, वहीँ सब किया,
वहां नहीं रहा, तो क्या ही जिया,
हॉस्टल की ज़िन्दगी न हूँ भुला पाता,
न चाहते हुए भी ख्याल है आ जाता||
No Country for Emotional Men
“Real Men do cry”. This has almost become a modern cliché. Of the past, men were considered to be this hunk, who were strong physically and emotionally. They seldom broke down, could take right decisions even in traversity and could carry the family on their shoulders. Of late this perception has changed. Emotional sides of men have come to the fore. They do cry, they do break, they do are humans.
How does our society behave with these mortal beings? How does the emotional men treated? Well not quite well to be frank.
What I have observed is, however we may evolve, however we say its fine for men to be emotional, the truth is ‘emotions’ and ‘show of it’ is considered by and large a weakness. On your face nobody would say anything, but you would be mocked behind your backs and the worst part is, at the next opportune moment, you would be ripped off and your emotions en-cashed.
Not only people who don’t matter to you, but also the people who matter to you a lot, your friends and family, will chance upon. Might not be music to your ears but it’s true.
How many times have we seen parents trying ‘emotional blackmail’ just because they know their ward is an emotional fool? How many times did your girl fake cried just because she knows you will break? How many time a colleague told an emotional story just to get some money out of you? It’s all a big hoax.
The thing is, there is no place for emotions in this cruel-cruel world. None outside, None inside. Especially, if you are men. My tip would be to keep to yourself, not let anyone in your emotional side. Not unless you want to be short changed.
People will try to make a fool out of you, just because they can. No other reason.
Ek Main Aur Ek Tu: Seriously!
Recently I saw Ek Main Aur Ek Tu (EMAET) featuring Imran (Rahul) and Kareena (Riana). It was tad slow but a good time pass. The movie was meandering towards an expected finale when the director decided to surprise us. Under the pretext of mature ending, Rahul and Riana decided to be Just Friends.
I couldn’t help but LOL literally. How do people let themselves be manipulated like this? Rahul was happy with his life at the end. He was fine with continuing his friendship in the hope of she agreeing to marriage someday. I have serious issues with people who use this Just Friends after egging the other person on. I have further issues with guys/girls who let themselves into this honey trap.
What I hate is Friendship being insulted, which for me is one of the most sacred relationships. If it’s Friendship, it should not be affected by gender. Right? A friend can be a guy or a girl; one should have similar dedication and feeling towards him/her if they are just friends. Agreed? However most of the people never stick to it. The least they can do is be honest about it.
“He took me out for dinner to Taj last night. He is just a friend of mine”. Huh! First of all there are no free lunches dear. Would he have taken a male friend of his to an equally lavish dinner at Taj? Everyone knows the answer. Stop justifying and just admit that you too were leading on.
In EMAET, Rahul is highly ignorant, or we can say he is too blind in love. He is happy at that very moment coz the girl he loves is there to give him company and he hopes that she will marry him someday. What he doesn’t understand is that Riana has specifically explained her position of being Just Friends. Hence she has no commitment and she needs to give no reason for the break-up. What would happen if one day Riana comes and says, “Hi Rahul meet my boyfriend James”. She would have committed no sin, after all she had already told him that they are nothing more than friends and that’s that.
What would happen to Rahul then? He will be devastated. During a breakup, at least you get to know a reason, you argue, fight and split. Here it’s simple plain stupidity. He won’t even be able to ask Why? This is what happens when a guy who has never been in a relationship gets smitten by a girl who has been in string of relationships and vice-versa. To top of it, throw in Just Friends and you being blind in love try to live in the moment and accept it.
It was one of the silliest ending I could have imagined. In real life, guys like Rahul deserve all the pain and agony they face, coz they are that stupid. He should have moved on when he had a fight. If he decided to be just friend, he should have quashed all hopes of the marriage, started afresh.
Anyways for me the ending turned out to be fun and I had a good days’ laugh. Also it gave me a topic to write about.
Walking Genius
There are times in life when we end up making fool of ourselves. One such incident happened to me lately. Made an a** of myself. I realized I am not alone. People like me walk among us. I would like to pay my respects to some such pals of mine.
PSO Padam Singh
Personal Security Officer of UP CM Mayawati, Padam Singh, bent down and wiped her dusty shoes. “I just noticed the dust on her shoes. I follow Clean India Green India campaign and wiped of the dust. What wrong have I done?”
Muammar Gaddafi
“They love me. All my people are with me. They love me all. They would die to protect me”, Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi gloated, laughing off international pressure to step down. When questioned as to how can he laugh it of, while he is slaughtering his own people, Gaddafi said, “I am just a happy person. I laugh all the time. More so since I started watching FRIENDS. Long live America!”.
S M Krishna
External Affairs Minister SM Krishna accidentally read out the Portuguese Foreign Minister’s speech at the UN.
“There was nothing wrong in it, I was just trying to learn some Portuguese”, clarified Krishna. A headline read, “Dear Krishna, all is forgiven. Don’t catch the wrong flight.”
Ratnakar Shetty
When asked whether it was unfair that only 4000 tickets would be sold to public for a game as important as the World Cup final, Shetty said the members of the clubs are also part of the “public” and so he disagrees that public is not getting any tickets.
Speechless! Well species like these are found in trio’s, lest they hurt themselves.
Haroon Lorgat
Some miscreants stoned WI team bus after Bangladesh’s shameful defeat. ICC CEO Haroon Lorgat played down the incident, calling it ‘minor’, pointing out that few individuals had thrown pebbles at the bus. This left WI team manager furious.
Bangladesh’s Cricket Board left the world further puzzled when it added that people mistook WI team bus to be Bangladesh team bus. They walk among us!
Hillary Clinton/Obama
US President Barack Obama pressurized Pakistan to treat Raymond Davis, who allegedly shot dead two men in Lahore, as a diplomat and release him. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton reportedly “forced” Pakistan to confirm the diplomatic immunity for Davis while threatening to withdraw the $1.5 billion aid.
“Life of a US citizen with per capita $48000 is way more than that of two Pakistanis with per capita $1000. It’s pure statistics”, asserted Hilary while greeting Davis back home.
Manoj Tiwari BB
Fuming over his eviction from the ‘Bigg Boss’ house, Bhojpuri star Manoj Tiwari hit back at Salman Khan and his brother Arbaaz Khan for ‘scripting’ his eviction from the controversial reality show as a part of larger ‘conspiracy’ against Bhojpuri actors
Manoj Tiwari Fan Club president Manish Kumar, along with a bunch of followers protested against Tiwari’s eviction, claiming that ‘Bigg Boss’ ‘insulted’ the 26-crore Bhojpuri community.
Your’s Truly
Incident With-hold
Same Same but Different
Last night I had this amazing dream. I woke up at night with lights flashing all over. A man with big mustache and vintage golden dress was standing tall, over me, and laughing loud. “Wake up, you lazy bugger, Wake up”. Sleepy and startled, my first reaction was to blame it on the overdose of Vodka that night. But soon the gravity of the situation or can I say the lack of it dawned on me. Aaj toh lag gayi Mamu!
He told me I was dead. Died of a certain Gastropathic attack. Gas! Couldn’t it have been something legendary? Like being attacked by flying dragons while jumping of a plane which collided with a UFO. Leave it. I died of Gas alright.
Here I was, one moment trying to realize my dreams, my future and the very next facing the shock of my demise. My whole life flashed before my eyes. Family, Friends, Future. What now? I begged, pleaded with my soul transporter. Let me live to make things work, make things right.
It’s hard to say that it was my lucky day, given that I just died. But he took pity to me which clearly didn’t seem to match his M.O. “There’s one condition though”, said he. “Here it comes” “Give me a reason to let You live. Hey it’s easy, “I have so much left to do in my life. Get married. Make a career. Have kids”. He gave me a smile. “You don’t seem to get my question. Why should I let You and not some other person, live”
I was just an answer away. Given that I have been writing exams all my life, it shouldn’t have been that difficult. But believe you me, however hard I tried, I couldn’t get an answer.
Have you ever thought? Trying to make a mark in life, a place for ourselves, we have ended up being clones of each other. Lost that very individuality that we have been craving for, fighting for. When I look outside my apartment all I see is blinking stars. Only they are not stars, they are other apartments. We are all boxed up. All flats look same. All work looks same. All roads look same. All blokes look same. How is my life any different to my fellow men?
Well, it only seems logical that we all be same. The funda of evolution revolves around learning and surviving. We learn from others, grab the best of all and apply to our lives. Thereby becoming a hybrid.
With the advent of cut throat competition, this cloning process has only hastened. Don’t you remember your mother/wife saying, “Pados waale Sharma ji jo TV laaye hain humein bhi wohi chaiye” Or a kid crying that he wants the new Play station which his friends have. You covet other mans wife, car, house, life.
If we look at it the other way round, “What’s the problem in being clones” After all we are all born humans. Same at birth. Same creator. Same creation. Why is the need to be different? Just that it doesn’t seem all that right to be part of a monotonous system. It just seem what can I say, unnatural.
The similarity doesn’t end with the lives we tread; it follows us to our grave. However hard we have tried to make our post-death ceremonies different, the truth is, after a certain point, nothing but dust remains.
Anyhow, I was not able to answer the question of the big mustached guy. Good that it was just a dream. Am not sure what I had done for real. Not even sure I really do care to be all that distinctive. I might try now and then, something out of the blue to be different. Might also be successful at that for a while. Till someone decides to catch up and steal my thunder of course.
College: A place to make friends
I completed my graduation recently and have taken up a job. The transition phase of life is as complicated as it is exciting. It’s not as if, I had to move for the first time. It’s just that the four years at college imparts stability and in that sense a settling feeling to life. Moving away from the cozy spaces of college to the material world is not as easy as it sounds. It’s not just the college and the hostel room you are leaving behind, it’s far more complicated than that.
At college you begin as a fresher, go through various facets of life, learn zillion things or as they say mature. During the first year you meet a lot of people. Slowly and steadily you find your own comfort space and the people who you are comfortable with. We call them friends. You live a lot of lives with them; you die a lot of deaths with them.
There are times when you are happy and you party with friends. There is time when you all plan a mischief and execute it nervously and then it becomes a routine. They are the people who, even if screw you, you share a laugh with them on your being screwed. The first time when you were holding a drink and you hands were shaking, there were friends who too had shaky hands but gave you a zillion fundas and spoiled you and got spoilt in return. You shared the first smoke with them and had GD over the first adult film you saw. They consoled you when you were down. They carried you on their shoulders when you a bit a too drunk. You shared each and every secret of your life with them. They were your teachers, they were your students. This can go on endlessly.
All of these are not things that one can just brush aside. They remain an integral part of memory which remains etched in forever. A lot has been written over friendship and a lot would be written in future. For me it’s one of the strongest relationships in life. There are times when it goes sour. But when you are in deep trouble you know that there are friends you can bank upon. This for me sums it up.
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