Smoking

Before I type anything else, Let me state that through this post I am in no way encouraging anybody to smoke nor indulge in any kind of drug addiction. These are extremely harmful and dangerous to the human body. Ok ..let the crap begin..

I had always wanted to quit smoking (Ok not always , but at least now I do) but for various reasons couldn’t really get myself to do it. “Da you are killing youself", “dude, your days are numbered”,”you are smoking cancer in to your lungs” are some of the kind words that I usually get to hear from my colleagues and friends. In the middle of a very interesting conversation today, a friend of mine just asked me “why do you smoke da?”. That was quite unexpected to say the least. Why do people ask such questions which requires me to think a lot to make up an answer? Quite frankly I did not know the answer and told him “give me some time , let me think “. While in doing so, I lit up a ciggy and immediately it dawned on me that I smoke to think !!! Eureka ! that’s it. Well, to be honest, smoke breaks give a much needed time out to reflect, to reflect on the days happenings, to reflect on absolutely anything. Well, any sane person can argue that you can reflect on a days happenings without a cigarette, but for me it seems, to do that, I need an external force.

Pscycologists say smoking and alleged reflection is just an escape from reality that our reasoning uses, as well as drinking and is a sign of degradation.

I don’t like Pscyologists any more !

WHAT'S IN A NAME

What’s in a name you ask ? Well, If you get the name right, you get a gold ring worth 15grams! I was going through one of the news websites last day, when I came across an article there. In an attempt to promote Tamil language and culture, Tamil nadu government has started a scheme under which babies born in the city corporation hospitals would be given a gold ring if they are given authentic tamil names.This is also like an add-on to commemorate the birthday celebrations of M. Karunanidhi. I also believe that they have also set up a committee of Tamil professors to verify the authenticity of names before giving away the gold rings.

Fine gesture indeed as far as the gold rings are concerned since they are being given to parents using the corporation hospitals. Money going to people who actually need it and at the right time.Now Authentic Tamil names,I can think of a few when it comes to Hindu names but are there any authentic Christian names(Tamil, that is ).?

Well, I am all for being proud about our country, our state, our language and our culture.Having said that, there is also a very thin line that demarcates promoting a language/culture and maybe, overdoing it resulting in accusations of language chauvinism. I guess, more than promoting a language or a culture, more relevance should be given to being open and tolerant to all languages and cultures. This, is in no way, am I Suggesting that anybody who promotes their language/culture are not open/tolerant to other cultures. But somewhere down the line we get closed out, we fail to interact enough with people from different cultures, we feel more inclined to mingle with people who speak our language and hail from the same cultural background.Although there is absolutely nothing wrong in interacting with people from similar domains (as there is a comfort factor involved) however the problem is, when we restrict ourselves to only that.This can be ideally be felt with Indians or for that matter Asians abroad. Many mingle only with their own communities and there is this reluctance to open up, reluctance to take the initiative and talk to the locals, reluctance to move out of their comfort zones.

IT IS A SMALL WORLD

A friend of mine called me last month over the phone and told me that he wanted a new job starting tomorrow. I said “ok, just go to sleep and everything will be allrigt by tomorrow and no, you really don’t have to see a doctor now .Its just the starting stages, maybe sleep would do”.Needless to say , he dint find that amusing at all. A few minutes in to the conversation, I realized that he was indeed troubled and his tone was getting increasingly desperate.

So I called upon the wiser, mature philosopher in me to respond to such a situation.Well after a lot of calling I realized that the wiser, mature,philosopher in me never actually existed..it was a mythical creature!(But the ever optimist in me would like to believe that he was down with fever). Ok...so we discussed about how recession and getting a new job does not exactly go hand in hand and that he should stick on to his present company (Which again, is an MNC ) and not give up so easily.He responds by asking me very politely to keep my advise to myself and instead channel all that energy in helping him find a solution to his problem. “k..dude..that is my solution..dont quit your job..unemployment is not a good state of mind” I seriously endorse that point of view on Unemployment ..and infact the problem with being unemployed is that everyday you wake up in the morning, you are on the job!

Well, 60 minutes in this conversation, I decided to do some root cause analysis..I asked him “Why do you want to leave your job”(Brilliant question isin’t it? Why on earth dint I ask this question an hour back ?)I got a very abrubt answer to that question to which he said something like”work pressure”.The famous thumb rule in a corporate environment states that when ever a man wants to quit his job desparately, its either a bad reporting manager or a broken love affair.On probing further I realized that, with him, it was a case of both ..his Ex is now his boss! Ouch !..Man that should be a bit tough.All my attempts at reasoning with him with statements like “need not mix professional life with personal life, If you run away now, you will have time only to do that” were treated with utter disdain and hatred. Even the common job sites agreed with me ,they were pulling out comparatively lesser jobs when we searched(This, after we were squeezing the life out the sites to spit out any jobs they had!)Its amazing what desperation can do, as, we even applied for a fashion designers job!(Well, absolutely nothing against fashion designers, its just that my friend’s job profile dosen’t have anything remotely connected with fashion).By this time, both of us had reached a consensus that quitting the job is the way to go and because of the sheer sincerity of our thought processes we were atlast able to find a job opening in a very reputable firm and managed to schedule an interview for my friend.Again, with his skillsets and experience he got through and today was his first day at the new office.Today evening I receive a call from him with the same desperation that he called last month and guess what , even his Ex changed jobs and she is now his new reporting manager in his new company ! Phew! It is a small world after all….

PS:-Well, Nothing connected with above post. Cigarette packs are supposed to look more dangerous from now on (with the mandatory regulations coming in)Me decided not to buy the packets, cigarettes alone would do.