Skip to main content

Humor to pathos – a wink to eternity

British accent sounds horrible – any time of the day or night. But when you’re marauding through sleep cycles and get an earful from the late night telecast of Harry Potter, you know what the websites that advertise knife sets are talking about. Slick, ominous and cold. I don’t care if that is ruined parallelism, the tirade would give me nightmares even if I were dead to the world. It could actually wake me from sweet slumber by the sheer disdain in their prunes-and-prisms mouths strongly enough to write a blog post on it.

Somehow, my sense of language is not what it used to be, at this late hour. Free flowing American expressions cannot be a smokescreen for lopsided grammar, tawdry flow of thought and half-baked enthusiasm to write. There I have to agree that the English have got their language down cold. Remember Nigella Lawson crooning over her cauldrons. Makes me feel life is worth living.

And that way, I’ve made my morass lead my readers to the central thread of my labyrinth – life. Living in alternate reality has its compensations. I can imagine things – sing with joy or drown in the misery of my perceived hopes and pleasures or slights, and go pouting for days on end.

Does it help me? Not for long. What made me feel on top of the world 2 weeks ago, has come back with haunting second-guessing now, and it is not comfortable. I need a constant to last me through my morbidity, something I can always feel good about – something like A R Rahman’s music, perhaps a little more personal and fiduciary.

Clutching at straws now. One after another, each tapers off leaving me in the light of an intermittent spark or with a burnt finger.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

buying something - a perspective from an NRI's marketer

Indians are lovers of beauty and utility. To them, a high-involvement purchase decision is not only one that uses logic but channels emotion as well. A good purchase is one that continues to give joy while delivering functionality for the consideration put in. Conditioning of several generations, mainly governed by household economy, has been drilled into the Indian consumer. To claim a share of the taxpayer’s wallet, the value provided by a product is paramount. Indians famously seek to ‘repair and reuse’ as opposed to ‘use and throw’. The Indian diaspora largely remains true to this idea while mulling over a purchase. They seek to gain lasting value. The fillip of value lies in an item reminiscent of the motherland – one that smacks of the flavours, tastes, and the colourful heritage that India signifies. Uniquely Indian items – and they are many – have historical, religious, or nostalgic significance for non-resident Indians. Linking a product’s features and benefits to

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

Reacting to wellness stimulus

Meditating has been a roadblock in my path to well-being. Or at least that’s what I think but I met some useful advice today: meditation is not about keeping the mind from wandering, but letting it finish its wanderings and come back to the present, awareness of the physical state – breath most importantly, so much so, that it burns itself out of aimless buzz, for a time at least. This is why they say meditate for at least 20 minutes, at least once a day. Doing this lets the mind run out of steam for the time as far as distractions are concerned. Once the clump of noisy thoughts is dealt with, what remains is, surprise surprise, a clear mind to deploy at the tasks of the day. And goodness knows we have distractions. These distractions are closely linked to our insecurities. Is it Facebook notifications that I can’t keep from checking out – why am I so concerned with what people might be saying of me? Long term goal: learn to offer a wide berth to others’ opinions of me. Is