Blackberry: the phone, not the fruit.
For someone who has always prided himself as a gizmo geek, I finally own a blackberry. This is 12 years since the emergence of the first monochromic blackberry. Much to my shame?
Well, my earliest impression on the smart phone was that it was basically the gizmo of those people who on the go need to keep tabs with the server of workplace correspondence. Also, I have always been repelled by the sheer size of the older models (I dislike the bulk in my pocket!) and I have never really been a fan of a push-mail kind of life. It just seems to interrupt me. Agreed that certain messages require urgent response, but the circumstances of my life rarely demand the prompting of a mail. I just prefer to check things out myself. The deliberateness of that kind of pull-mail lifestyle makes me feel in control of my world. Who needs the feeling of loosing grips with life in this fast pace age of ours?
It has turned out that these days everyone needs information and even social interaction on the go. Also, all smart phones have push mail functions and the need for touch/multi-media screens make them bulky- though not necessarily heavy. So when I got word that a wrong deduction from my last year’s salary would be paid back in July, I opt to get one of those recent blackberry models and a tab. As I am also in the habit of indulging - well, rewarding myself periodically, my choices were justified. A birthday present would be in order too.
A few days ago, I finally took delivery of a BB device and I am probably the last person to own one. In retrospect, I wonder why it took so long for me to join the throng of young people whose use of the hand-held device has no input from a business mail server. Perhaps, the fact that every other person owned a BB was also a deterrent. Sometimes, one just wants to keep a unique identity from what is common place. In the end, one has got to do what one has got to do irrespective of position on the queue. From this hind stand of mine, the title of this post might as well be: “First from behind”!
Thursday, August 25, 2011
Saturday, August 13, 2011
BITS AND PIECES
My new found appetite for grilled mutton ribs has finally led me into writing something that is beyond meat and drink. Yes, it was after getting back to my car from one of those take-away orders that a child walked up towards my window. Dressed in oversized raiment and looking untidy, I waved him off and made to leave. Before I sped away, I took another look at his direction and just then saw him opening the thrash can in the car park. At that point my heart sank and I called him over and handed him something more than he’d asked for.
These days, it has become common place that all celebs run or are at least involved in a non-profit organisation. It is almost as if every one of them wants the world to know they are given back to the society. The list of such activities ranges from driving eco-friendly cars, fund raising for relief projects to the adoption of babies from third world countries. While all these are laudable in themselves, they all become ridiculous when one considers that it’s just a minimal percentage of the benefactor’s wealth that is thrown into these endeavours. The popularity of these activities bears little correlation with the true impact. I once saw a news clip in which the van of one of those donor groups in a war zone was moving at considerable speed and biscuits were being thrown out a chasing crowd!
Our world is plagued by hunger, disease, armed conflicts and disasters- both natural and man-caused. Our specie also lives in a societal set up in which social and economic classes exist; the have and the have-not, the able-bodied and the sick, etc. The privilege of possessions and high positions ought to stimulate an overflow to those on the other end of the spectrum. Political semantics to consider certain words like “handicap” discriminatory is denying the obvious. Human needs should be called what they are without a subjective feeling of being looked down upon. Ok, may be people should be made to believe that an individual’s right to be treated with dignity is as basic as the right to free speech; irrespective of one’s bank statements or the neighbourhood of one’s abode.
My disposition has always been to consider the glass half-full rather than half-empty but has the third world become the dumping ground of half-hearted sympathies? Never mind that some of these donors still imagine that Africa is a single country where most people are living on trees! Having a desire to offer a helping hand is just a starting point. The actions generated from that desire should seek true effect. Else, these isolated drops will never fill the ocean of human needs. To quote my elementary school teacher, anything worth doing is worth doing well.
These days, it has become common place that all celebs run or are at least involved in a non-profit organisation. It is almost as if every one of them wants the world to know they are given back to the society. The list of such activities ranges from driving eco-friendly cars, fund raising for relief projects to the adoption of babies from third world countries. While all these are laudable in themselves, they all become ridiculous when one considers that it’s just a minimal percentage of the benefactor’s wealth that is thrown into these endeavours. The popularity of these activities bears little correlation with the true impact. I once saw a news clip in which the van of one of those donor groups in a war zone was moving at considerable speed and biscuits were being thrown out a chasing crowd!
Our world is plagued by hunger, disease, armed conflicts and disasters- both natural and man-caused. Our specie also lives in a societal set up in which social and economic classes exist; the have and the have-not, the able-bodied and the sick, etc. The privilege of possessions and high positions ought to stimulate an overflow to those on the other end of the spectrum. Political semantics to consider certain words like “handicap” discriminatory is denying the obvious. Human needs should be called what they are without a subjective feeling of being looked down upon. Ok, may be people should be made to believe that an individual’s right to be treated with dignity is as basic as the right to free speech; irrespective of one’s bank statements or the neighbourhood of one’s abode.
My disposition has always been to consider the glass half-full rather than half-empty but has the third world become the dumping ground of half-hearted sympathies? Never mind that some of these donors still imagine that Africa is a single country where most people are living on trees! Having a desire to offer a helping hand is just a starting point. The actions generated from that desire should seek true effect. Else, these isolated drops will never fill the ocean of human needs. To quote my elementary school teacher, anything worth doing is worth doing well.
Tuesday, August 9, 2011
LOST WORLDS
On a recent conversation with the one person who inspired in me the crave for writing; I was rather bemused at the void on her pages. Simply, she does not write any more. In a generation that is inundated with neology, her scribbles have lost the articulation of the post modern era. Also, being some one whose literary worth I respect, I find this revelation sad; a sad loss of sorts. My chit chat also revealed that she was unaware of the impressions her compositions had on me.
Indeed, walls have ears and there is an eye watching us every time. What people do with what they learn from others is entirely up to them but if only we know what impact we have on others, our lives would be more carefully expressed. Ok, this may infer that we loose some spontaneity but we would dot some of those the “I”s and cross the “T”s we so often take for granted. Some one has said that the things we do in unguided moments are the reflection of who we truly are. We really don’t look like what we saw of ourselves on the mirror because when we are in the front of a mirror we ever so often contort our looks and smiles to match what we would prefer to look like.
Back to the conversation with my sister, she is just busy with life has it is now but hopes that someday, she will pick up her pen from where it has been laid inactive. Isn’t this so true about all of us young people? We build up dreams and express much potential while growing up but then as the realities of life confront us; we take life as it comes as long as it represents positivity and progress. Much I wanted to write; it was not until I had attained some job stability and my life on a predictable track that I set up an organised forum to express my thoughts.
Sometimes, I wonder at what point we let the available become the preferable. The world systems tell us there are options for everything and a “Plan B” infers that we are thoroughly bred. As if to say success is never guaranteed and alternatives always come handy. Is there really an alternative to our lives? Is the achievement of our dreams of more value than the joy of what we have done with life’s opportunities? Is potential unidirectional? The questions are unending. In the pursuit of life, meaning or relevance; we should enjoy all the pursuit entails and make sure we find joy in all our endeavours. The Holy Scripture says “blessed is the man who does not condemn himself in what he allows”. This will mean living with peace within oneself; a manner that we can all live by.
Indeed, walls have ears and there is an eye watching us every time. What people do with what they learn from others is entirely up to them but if only we know what impact we have on others, our lives would be more carefully expressed. Ok, this may infer that we loose some spontaneity but we would dot some of those the “I”s and cross the “T”s we so often take for granted. Some one has said that the things we do in unguided moments are the reflection of who we truly are. We really don’t look like what we saw of ourselves on the mirror because when we are in the front of a mirror we ever so often contort our looks and smiles to match what we would prefer to look like.
Back to the conversation with my sister, she is just busy with life has it is now but hopes that someday, she will pick up her pen from where it has been laid inactive. Isn’t this so true about all of us young people? We build up dreams and express much potential while growing up but then as the realities of life confront us; we take life as it comes as long as it represents positivity and progress. Much I wanted to write; it was not until I had attained some job stability and my life on a predictable track that I set up an organised forum to express my thoughts.
Sometimes, I wonder at what point we let the available become the preferable. The world systems tell us there are options for everything and a “Plan B” infers that we are thoroughly bred. As if to say success is never guaranteed and alternatives always come handy. Is there really an alternative to our lives? Is the achievement of our dreams of more value than the joy of what we have done with life’s opportunities? Is potential unidirectional? The questions are unending. In the pursuit of life, meaning or relevance; we should enjoy all the pursuit entails and make sure we find joy in all our endeavours. The Holy Scripture says “blessed is the man who does not condemn himself in what he allows”. This will mean living with peace within oneself; a manner that we can all live by.
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