Epiphany of Endless Reading Writing

It has been a while since I penned my thoughts around any news or even an event yeah…. Everything has been just boiled down to nought, thanks to social media.

Mornings used to be fun. Getting up to a fresh cup of tea and a morning daily to decode the madness in and around the world. Then would be the time to discuss the important topics over the breakfast table with my family and friends who much keenly appreciated the talks. I know I know…It sound like a perfect family scenario or rather a recipe of Fiasco. However my point being, People read newspapers and talked about the happenings.

I used to get my fair share of information from our Doodh wala (Milkman) about increasing Chara (Fodder) prices, then the Dobhi (laundry service personnel) about the increasing rates of soap and electricity and finally by Mom, who denied every chocolate in the world just to remind me the Increasing cost of FMCG and interest rates.

Now now, No raised brows please. I meant people do read these days. In fact everyone is now either reading or writing. Yes, reading other people’s messages or status updates or updating their own. In past I sure hell didn’t own a phone but still knew where all my friends were and today I am still clueless about my 700+ friends on a leading social networking site. 

Everyone is either sharing facts, places they have been to along with a +1, Things they think are funny, his/her dreams or most importantly an image with mostly a caption ‘Aww’. Now I wouldn’t deny liking some of these status but let me tell you the thing behind it, if you don’t like it then it means you are no longer my friend online and physically ending any relationship that existed.

What I meant was the sheer grief to read something new now only persist in Books and to some magnitude blogs. The daily papers print all the important news day after it is already published on e-paper and much before that it is waved in through connectivity applications. That means you read the same information/News almost like couple of times and by couple I meant hundreds of time. For example: The latest news I laughed my guts out that floated across on Whatsapp. (thanks Hiten Raja for lovely collaboration of facts)

    

Now as soon as I received it, I passed it over to 50 of my friends and some 5-10 random groups I am a member of. Now think of this, If genuinely all 50 of my friends send to 50 of their friends and so on and so forth the message goes viral but the chances are you recieve the message 50 times back. So with one share of numbers you expect the same to be back in your inbox.

Now this same message was visible also on Facebook by my 200 active friends (a lower count of 700 friends I have. 500 rest don’t think they are interested in talking on Facebook or sharing stuff. They have remain dormant since I accepted their request or vice versa.) plus the hundred of pages that you have liked that share the same message over and over and OVER again. Now add + /- 200 to the above +/- 50 and you are viewing this message at least 150 – 250 times a day. Well, I think with number this huge I would rather remain dormant to even 200 active friends and curse the page admin to share the information again.

However this is happening. We are writing and reading and now we are in endless loop. people don’t see anything new but share what is already shared and read what is already read. I do blame myself to an extent for being a part of the loop but the bigger problem is ‘Everybody Shares.’ and this is what makes a news out of your views in second.

Think about this, your favorite IPL series is in it’s final stage and you are watching it peacefully minding your own business and being discreet about it. Suddenly there is a six and everybody is just so exhilarated (I think in this case more than the batsman) and the next step is you update your twitter status and facebook status. Now think about a person who is reading your tweets. He is happy that you are into the game and you feeling the edge-of-the-seat sensation but if you follow 400 people (average) on twitter including sports networks the chances are you read the message more than 50 times (I mean the same message of ‘There goes another 6…Yayy’ and also a formal connotation tweet done by leading sports website) Now you scroll and scroll till you reach a point and find another interesting tweet or you are out of twitter in no time. This is where you also count fools who tweet twice or thrice and think…’Yeh saala itna kyun kush ho raha hai’. 

Point being, you read the redundant stuff and you are ‘OK’ with that. Similar goes for new season episode of Games of thrones, with first rain, Sanjay Dutt off to jail, Young Jiah Khan commits suicide (May she RIP) but after a time you give up on your enthusiasm. It’s like reading the same newspaper over and over for more than 50 times in a day.

A study shows that if you don’t do 5 kinds of different activities in a day, by the age of 50 your brain will rot. (Well understand the rotting of Indian Political System, if you know what I mean) but where have those days gone, when we played games with friends, took part in charities (and not just to post an image online), danced till our feet ached and laughed so hard that it went all silent & tears start rolling down. What about the Meditation and Yoga centers. How about giving everything a toss for a day just to be with your old school friend and re thinking what bizarre we were. Cooking, cleaning and even theater with family.

I guess the greatest of all the gift, ‘Connectivity’ is probably failing to connect us with roots we were nurtured. A 16 year old girl is more terrified to look bad in a Facebook display picture than flunking in her exams. For that she can shop till she drops and have no time to study. Well if you study then you are the ‘Geek’ of Nerdland.

The habits we have adopted just to be a part of fancy-shamcy connection process is proving fatal to our very own existence. Frankly have a conversation with yourself. A like or a comment of a poor child not fed and looks awfully skinny image on facebook, how can it help him on facebook. Giving all kinds of bad words to a sports player caught for spot fixing on facebook will not change what he has done. This reminds us we are lacking to think in future and act in present. Now we live in present and condemn/appreciate what is past.

Plus to write such a blog read books. Books by great authors and people that actually mattered in past. They didn’t copy pasted the materials or pressed share buttons but have analysed concepts and proven theories. I just happened to finish an interesting short book of only 40 pages but it was worth a read. My mind had an orgasm towards the thought process of understanding new words, language and views. I am not a big time reader but I surely don’t want to give up reading just to make time to enter a virtual world of redundant readers and mindless sharers.

 

 

A Cow based Economics Lesson

This is just Superb. I always had troubles in understanding different types of economic systems. They always confused me or gave me forty winks but recently I was surfing the web when I found this article. The second I lay my eyes on it, I knew I had to share it with all and make the world a merry place for mankind to exchange knowledge. A simple way of understanding the different Economies by an apt description of  ‘TWO COW’ theory. Way to go!!!

 

SOCIALISM
You have 2 cows.
You give one to your neighbor.

COMMUNISM
You have 2 cows.
The State takes both and gives you some milk.

FASCISM
You have 2 cows.
The State takes both and sells you some milk.

NAZISM
You have 2 cows.
The State takes both and shoots you.

BUREAUCRATISM
You have 2 cows.
The State takes both, shoots one, milks the other, and then throws the milk away.

TRADITIONAL CAPITALISM
You have two cows.
You sell one and buy a bull.
Your herd multiplies, and the economy grows.
You sell them and retire on the income.

ROYAL BANK OF SCOTLAND (VENTURE) CAPITALISM
You have two cows.
You sell three of them to your publicly listed company, using letters of credit opened by your brother-in-law at the bank, then execute a debt/equity swap with an associated general offer so that you get all four cows back, with a tax exemption for five cows.
The milk rights of the six cows are transferred via an intermediary to a Cayman Island Company secretly owned by the majority shareholder who sells the rights to all seven cows back to your listed company.
The annual report says the company owns eight cows, with an option on one more.
You sell one cow to buy a new president of the United States , leaving you with nine cows.
No balance sheet provided with the release.
The public then buys your bull.

SURREALISM
You have two giraffes.
The government requires you to take harmonica lessons.

AN AMERICAN CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You sell one, and force the other to produce the milk of four cows.
Later, you hire a consultant to analyze why the cow has dropped dead.

A FRENCH CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You go on strike, organize a riot, and block the roads, because you
want three cows.

A JAPANESE CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You redesign them so they are one-tenth the size of an ordinary cow and produce twenty times the milk.
You then create a clever cow cartoon image called a Cowkimona and market it worldwide.

AN ITALIAN CORPORATION
You have two cows, but you don’t know where they are.
You decide to have lunch.

A SWISS CORPORATION
You have 5000 cows. None of them belong to you.
You charge the owners for storing them.

A CHINESE CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You have 300 people milking them.
You claim that you have full employment, and high bovine productivity.
You arrest the newsman who reported the real situation.

AN INDIAN CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You worship them.

A BRITISH CORPORATION
You have two cows.
Both are mad.

AN IRAQI CORPORATION
Everyone thinks you have lots of cows.
You tell them that you have none.
No-one believes you, so they bomb the ** out of you and invade your country.
You still have no cows, but at least you are now a Democracy.

AN AUSTRALIAN CORPORATION
You have two cows.
Business seems pretty good.
You close the office and go for a few beers to celebrate.

A NEW ZEALAND CORPORATION
You have two cows.
The one on the left looks very attractive.

 

Post courtesy (Sam Aminisam)

Old by age, Young at Heart.

I read a following tale quoted in a social newsletter circulated for just 15.00 INR a month to spread awareness about the sufferings of ‘OLD’ age. shuffling through the pages I saw a picture of an old man and suddenly glued to his eyes, I wanted to know more. The following story gave me goosebumps and I am pretty sure it can also cause a tear to shed from your eyes as well.

The story was as follows, “When an old man died in the geriatric ward of a nursing home in an Australian country town, it was believed that he had nothing left of any value. Later, when the nurses were going through his meager possessions, They found this poem. Its quality and content so impressed the staff that copies were made and distributed to every nurse in the hospital. One nurse took her copy to Melbourne. The old man’s sole bequest to posterity has since appeared in the Christmas editions of magazines around the country and appearing in mags for Mental Health. A slide presentation has also been made based on his simple, but eloquent, poem.

And this old man, with nothing left to give to the world, is now the author of this ‘anonymous’ poem winging across the Internet. 

Cranky Old Man

What do you see nurses?……What do you see? 

What are you thinking .. .when you’re looking at me?

A cranky old man, . . . . . .not very wise,

Uncertain of habit .. . . . . . . .. with faraway eyes?

Who dribbles his food .. . … . . and makes no reply.

When you say in a loud voice . .’I do wish you’d try!’

Who seems not to notice . . .the things that you do.

And forever is losing . . . . . .. . . A sock or shoe?

Who, resisting or not . . . … lets you do as you will,

With bathing and feeding . . . .The long day to fill?

Is that what you’re thinking?. .Is that what you see?

Then open your eyes, nurse .you’re not looking at me.

I’ll tell you who I am . . . . .. As I sit here so still,

As I do at your bidding, .. . . . as I eat at your will.

I’m a small child of Ten . .with a father and mother,

Brothers and sisters .. . . .. . who love one another

A young boy of Sixteen . . . .. with wings on his feet

Dreaming that soon now . . .. . . a lover he’ll meet.

A groom soon at Twenty . . . ..my heart gives a leap.

Remembering, the vows .. .. .that I promised to keep.

At Twenty-Five, now . . . . .I have young of my own.

Who need me to guide . . . And a secure happy home.

A man of Thirty . .. . . . . My young now grown fast,

Bound to each other . . .. With ties that should last.

At Forty, my young sons .. .have grown and are gone,

But my woman is beside me . . to see I don’t mourn.

At Fifty, once more, .. …Babies play ’round my knee,

Again, we know children . . . . My loved one and me.

Dark days are upon me . . . . My wife is now dead.

I look at the future … . . . . I shudder with dread.

For my young are all rearing .. . . young of their own.

And I think of the years . . . And the love that I’ve known.

I’m now an old man . . . . . . .. and nature is cruel.

It’s jest to make old age . . . . . . . look like a fool.

The body, it crumbles .. .. . grace and vigour, depart.

There is now a stone . . . where I once had a heart.

But inside this old carcass . A young man still dwells,

And now and again . . . . . my battered heart swells

I remember the joys . . . . .. . I remember the pain.

And I’m loving and living . . . . . . . life over again.

I think of the years, all too few . . .. gone too fast.

And accept the stark fact . . . that nothing can last.

So open your eyes, people .. . . . .. . . open and see.

Not a cranky old man .

Look closer . . . . see .. .. . .. …. . ME!!”

Finally I saw the eyes of the OLD man, who was no longer an ordinary old man but and an OLD man by age but a Young Lad at Heart. The 15 INR social newsletter gave a million dollars worth a read. You never know what you bump into next as the best and most beautiful things of this world can’t be seen or touched, they must be felt by the heart!

(Courtesy originally by Phyllis McCormack; adapted by Dave Griffith)