Monday, December 11, 2006

Ordinary Life

Most of us try hard to remain ordinary throughout our lives.

Every facet of our lives is plagued by ordinariness. We often fear that we might become different during the course of life. We try everything to prevent it from happening.

We make sure that we wear the leading brand of Jeans (If we can afford it).

We listen to the top 20 songs in the music channel. And believe that they are the best songs and try hard to 'like' them.

We eat Rasam Rice with a spoon in the office cafeteria so that others do n't think that we are not modern enough. Others too eat it with spoon and they too are thinking the same !

We yearn to buy that cool car the moment we know we might be able to afford it. What if somebody asks us : "Hey, you are a software professional for so many years. No car yet ?" So we buy the car partly to kill that question.

We read business magazines to make sure we don't lag behind our colleagues and friends.

We go to Adyar Anand Bhavan because everybody else goes there. How can we miss something that everyone else thinks to be good ? Long waiting time at the counter, no place to sit. So what ?

We go to Shabari Mala because everybody else thinks it is a good way to earn Positive Karma in 41 days. We too think so because we are afraid to think differently.

A certain amount of uniformity in our thoughts is required to keep the society from collapsing, but sometimes we go overboard - like a set of computer game characters with programmed lives.

11 comments:

rajagopalan said...

hmmm... that does make me think...
Am I doing what I like ? or am I doing something because others do it ?

This is something called crowd behaviour. Many a times we would have seen that individuals in isolation behave in a particular way. But in a crowd, the individuals are lost, what remains is a singular character of the crowd.

Anonymous said...

OK ! Agreed to everything - except
your view on Shabari Mala.

BTW, nee yaraiyavadhu thakkanum-na
directa solluda... Dont use Blog as an alibi.

Anonymous said...

From Raj's interpretation - Can we call it inertia ???

We get moving along with the Crowd and it really takes an effort to step back and retrospect - and a much higher (physical/mental) effort to change the course of action......

coolkrishnan said...

@raj,
'crowd behavior' - that sounds good !

@anonymous,
Spirituality need not be dogmatic always. My intention was not to insult Shabari Mala. It was just an example for things people do under fear of the unknown. Look at the newspaper - You will see news that says the infrastructure in Shabari Mala is not sufficient to withstand the crowd of devotees. To me, the best part of Shabari Mala experience is the period in which one stays away from worldly affairs - It gives the common man a chance to experience spirituality using a simple algorithm ! The temple is just a variable here !

Karthick Viswanathan said...

I think the blog is ORDINARY and you write blogs becoz others write it and I think anonymous is Deva. :)

Anonymous said...

Machan...let me tell you something..

I dont wear that branded jeans because its popular...because I go only for the fit and dont care for the name.

MTV, [V], VH1 charts don't make a difference nowadays...because the songs seriously most of the time.

Food, I can eat only non-veg...I am sure very few are like me.

Cars, haven't yet got the desire for it. But bike? Yes, I went for a Bullet. How many people own a bullet compared to other bikes?

Don't care about business mags...but I read the Newspaper just to know what happens around me.

Busy restaurants are not my forte...give me the quietest ones and I love them.

Sabari Mala- no comments. I am a Christian, but I dont even go to church.

But dude, I agree with your points. I see a lot of people going with the crowd. so what about you?

Arunkumar said...

well said da AK. agree with ur points.. everyone wanted to learn CS after 10th and everyone wanted to take B.E (CSE) in college and here i am now... a s/w engr..

//
sometimes we go overboard
//
guess most of the times, we do...

nice post da.. keep them coming :)

coolkrishnan said...

@anwin,
good that you differ in these things !

I am just beginning to realize somethings that I do becoz others do... I wonder how far can I go in being what I like... At least, I live more consciously these days that I used to.

@arun,
thanks da ! I often wonder these days whether a life stuck to the PC has any meaning at all !

Anonymous said...

Enna machhi,
romba philiosopical-la irukku.

vig said...

agree on the essence of your post , but examples could have been better......sabari mala one is hurting ....why didnt u pick a voyage to vatican or mecca .... just becoz the hindu society is so liberal that it can accept any blabber.... this should stop ...starting from the media to blog... now that sounds like a VHP blabber ;-)

coolkrishnan said...

@vig,

dei, picking mecca or vatican wud hv been so easy. Picking up Shabari mala was just to give an example of how humans behave when they are under the spell of religion. As I already said in my earlier comment, I have respect for the Shabari Mala trip - but in a slightly different way - pls read that comment.