1. After I wrote '
a series of changes', some days I felt like those changes were all just transitory. As one of my Gtalk status messages said, "Life's about to settle back in its dull routine without much room for creativity." But, as the same message said, "I'm trying to rise with the tide and resist the ebbs, but my strength is being tested." This attempt to resist the dullness itself gives me confidence that I am indeed changing... And things around me are changing for the better, which is a symptom that I am too. Good. :)
2. The word 'multiple' has been stuck in my mind for multiple.. I mean, many days. It all started when I realised that a program I was writing at work required not one but
multiple input files. But from then, this word has shown its face every time I was blank in a conversation. When a colleague asked another colleague here if he was single, I answered for him 'no, he's multiple', and was given glares for the PJ (i.e., bad mokkai). The results have not always been this harmless either. No, my dear mind, when your manager asks you 'How many days will this work take to complete?', 'Multiple' is not an appropriate response!
3. After I wrote my previous post, I thought why would people want to ever read about my insignificant life. But then I realized most of the blogs are about people's 'insignificant' lives only. And I too read those every now and then. So, why do we do it?
There's of course a social element - we read and comment to keep in touch, to maintain relationships. But it's not even just friends' blogs that we read.. Think about it, haven't you ever read a post in some stranger's blog, about his/her own experiences totally unrelated to you?
We all do it, because we are interested in others' lives. Why would that be?
Well, imagine a large, very large auditorium, where random people from the street are picked up and asked to dance the Assamese tribal dance (and imagine none of them are Assamese or tribal). The rule is that, the better they dance the happier they will feel. Let's call this auditorium as 'Life', just a random name I picked. What do you imagine would happen?
Since none of them really know to dance it, each one would be unsure what to do. Everyone would start with bad attempts, and would probably become frustrated. Many would get into a state of denial, where they refuse to admit that they are not as happy as they could be, that they are not dancing as well as they can. They place the blame on something - their neighboring dancers, the floor, even their own legs. Among themselves, they would form local groups called 'Friends', with some of whom they are unashamed to share their ignorance of dancing. With others, they would put up a great show of their 'expertise' in dancing, their ego not wanting the others to think less of them. Since no one really knows what that dance is, everyone would keep looking around, observing how others are dancing, while pretending to know the dance. In this situation, if some of them started writing about their experiences in dancing, on what worked and what didn't, wouldn't they be eager to read it?
Of course, there are greater texts, written by experts who, with years of effort in the auditorium, have mastered the dance. But, these are out of their reach, too difficult for them. For all they know, these experts might be people lying about their dancing skills, just as these people themselves do at times. So they deny them, or claim they are for 'special' people, not for ordinary men and women like them.
Their friends' blogs, on the other hand, are much simpler - they feel comfortable seeing that others are also stumbling around in Life, and they have the confidence that the methods they find and share here would be tested and true. Wait, did I say blogs? Yeah, that's what these writings by ordinary people sharing their dancing experiences are called.
As I expose my ignorance of the Assamese dance here, I hope to get myself out of the denial, and perhaps help a few others get there too.
Have a great weekend... :)
