Skip to main content

For the love of getting caught:

“By getting your thoughts down on paper in an undirected manner, you catch glimpses of yourself” – Richard Peck in Remembering the good times.

Is that the right way of quoting other people’s intellectual property? Perhaps not. Blogging, as I understand it, is about not having a Quality team breathing down your neck and dissecting your flaws. A moron [yes, I have every right to call him that] told me that everything from the most negative to the most positive, the most startling to the most appealing things exist in the world. I guess I’ve not been able to put it across right – he meant that anything can happen and we need not be surprised at it. By God, he is right, but I’ve never made my peace with it. Things still surprise me, and is that such a bad thing? So much for making the world interesting!

There are things that pick me up when I am feeling ‘Life is a labyrinth of dark shadows’ – quoth – who do you think?? Me! Okay, Narcissism all the way . . . Really, Almighty, when I felt I shall now add another post to the small mass of musings that Scribbly Scraggly is, I wondered if I’d be able to make it without the word ‘I’ in it. And an inch deep into the meanders of thought, I lost the battle with myself, as you can see.

It was Voltaire, the man, who said the secret of being a bore is to say everything. Very well, but I love the obsessing part. It makes me feel like I am doing something. And when I am not being my fastidious self, I say to myself, ‘Ah well, slugabed!’

Ever wonder what starts off a tirade of typing from anyone, say a seasoned or sporadic blogger? Oh yes, there are events like the 26/11 when everyone who has not hit or gotten hit wants to show how they feel somehow or the other and it gets rough on the blogging sites. It’s like a national phenomenon. But there are the simpler things that fill you with an urge to have your say. Some months ago, I launched into a discourse on marriage with a friend through e-mail. Although she didn’t buy into everyone of my standpoints, she made an observation which took my breath away. She said she could read innocence and hope between the lines of my litany. And I wanted to say, ‘No, wait! Not really’. Was I just carried away by the force of my argument? That’s something that seldom happens to great orators. They have their fingers firmly on the pulse of their listeners and they can still speak with great passion, conviction and empathy.

My motive is not to convince my reader, but to interest him.


Signed – Guilty as charged. 

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Tips to hunt for the right job overseas Moving abroad to work is exciting. It is your chance to experience exciting city life in a new country, sample their work culture and social customs, all the while earning money in the local currency. For most immigrants, the exchange rate is a promising one as it offers an economic advantage over the home currency. Travel, cuisine, novelty in every daily activity, and access to a high-quality life – what’s not to like? The path to applying for a job overseas is not a straight one. There are procedures to be followed and precautions to be taken. Here are some sure-fire tips that every applicant has to follow so that he or she can navigate the uncertain terrain of applying for jobs in another country. 1) Be as hands-on as possible: Sure, hire a consultant in your home country or an overseas one. But be in the loop and find out as much as possible about the process to be followed and each step in detail. 2) Start early: Begin early – if poss...

Sales people get annoying as does sales talk - here's how to steer clear of verbal pitfalls

My scenario: Seller: software maker (on-rolls sales agent making the pitch) Buyer: a digital marketing company looking to buy software to collect feedback from its employees on HR policy, workplace conditions, etc. Annoying things a salesperson says When needs match with offerings, sales happen with vim and vigor. An astute salesperson analyses prospects well before making them an offer. He/she thinks of the needs of the customer from the big-picture point of view and recommends products that meet them to the fullest extent. Finding out these needs and framing them to suit a product’s utility calls for a fluid visualisation ability and tact. A sales agent needs to discuss the expectations of the customer as part of ‘needs analysis’. In the interaction with a prospect, the best impression a salesperson can give off is one of honesty and knowledgeability. At every stage, a seller has to be an active listener and a quick thinker. They have to ask all the right questions...

Reaping a rich harvest of rewards from the crop of modern writers - my takeaways from Times LitFest Bangalore 2019

I was at the #TimesLitFestBlr, and my thoughts got thoroughly piqued. It all started with my crashing in Devadutt Pattanaik’s badinage with Shobhaa De. Here was someone who has made mythology and legend come alive for this generation. Kind of on the lines of what C. Rajagopalachari did for my generation, if for no other parallel. I entered into the spirit of things by asking a question of Anand Neelakantan if he ever bothers to be politically correct. And he said no. It’s impossible to be PC. For someone who created a whole fleshed-out story on the mythical character of Tara, the wife of Vali and Sugreeva according to the Ramayana, twisting words around to not really put too fine a point on anything wouldn’t have been too tough. But he chose to give it up and say what he really wanted to. It isn’t surprising that he got young Indians to start reading up on the nitty-gritty of Indian mythology through his forthright narrative style. Despite the sweltering way that Bengaluru gets ...