Myriad thoughts on a million things
Posts tagged Life
Life‘ville’ !
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‘Farmville’ is the new thing on Facebook with tons of people playing the game. I’ve been on it for some time now. I am currently at the level 15! (That’s like the mid stage of the game). The more one plays the game, the more hooked one gets to it. It got me thinking that the designers of the game must know the human psychology quite well. How else can a game about repetitive planting, ploughing and harvesting become the new fad with almost everyone on Facebook?
Come to think of it, the game is very much like life itself. You have to start from scratch with basic stuff (Level 1 with basic seeds and land). You have to gain experience to get to the next levels. The little incentives that keep you going on (and get through the repetitive planting, ploughing & harvesting parts) are the new things that you can plant and buy with each new level that you gain. Isn’t that very much like life, where one keeps at the regular routines just to get to the next level in life so that one can get the little incentives it offers(like the bigger house, bigger car, bigger TV, etc)?
And that’s just not it, in ‘Farmville’ you have neighbours and neighbours’ neighbours whose farms you can visit. ‘Farmvillers’ can usually be seen checking out everyone’s farms (and of course helping them out) and wondering how some of them have pets, trees and decorations that their levels don’t offer! Very much akin to life, people with neighbours / friends at a higher experience level (or higher station in life) are recipients to special gifts that are only available to the people with the higher levels of experience.
Well, like life the game definitely is… and I guess that’s what keeps people hooked to it. Oh, gotta go now… my ‘super berries’ are ready for harvesting! J
Your Internet Presence
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I was reading an interesting update from silicon India. It said that 42% people in offices spy on their colleagues! Here is the link for the article
It got me thinking about how we leave a very personal imprint on the internet that is just waiting for anyone and everyone to look up. Social & professional networking profiles, blogs, tweets… there is so much out there about you that people have access to in order to know you better (if not spy!)
It made me also think about the impact of personal opinions that one expresses on the net on the way potential employers view you. I know of some recruiters who look up networking profiles to get a better understanding of the candidates that they shortlist. I’m not sure it’s a widespread trend now, but I’m sure it is catching up fast. Some people may blog/ comment about work that they are doing in an unflattering manner (maybe in jest)… does that mean they could be overlooked by recruiters? How careful should one be with their personal content, comments and profiles on the net? Sometime ago I read about a teenage girl in UK who got fired because she made a FB status update that said she was bored at work! There’s even a ‘youtube’ video about ‘how your FB profile could get you fired’.
These examples may be a little extreme, but I can’t help wondering if this explosion of online action with networking, tweeting, blogging is slowly and steadily blurring the lines between who we really are and who we pretend to be at work.
Random Musings
51010 days
by Anmol
in Random Thoughts
This is not really a post about anything in particular…Just some random stuff I was wondering about.
Staring at People
I wonder what really is the science behind being able to ‘feel’ it when someone stares at you. How does that work? How can you ‘feel’ someone’s eyes on you? Stare at someone for a bit (even their back) and without fail they will ‘feel’ it and turn around and look at you. It’s just strange isn’t it?
The collective consciousness of City Traffic
I’m not much into driving…It’s just tough for me to focus on so many things together. The pedals, the gear, the car, the traffic….So sometimes when I’m being driven around; I often think about how it seems that the traffic has a collective consciousness. It feels like every driver on the road is tuned into a collective consciousness system and subconsciously knows what the other drivers are thinking … a little turn here and subconsciously the driver behind turns/brakes a little. They don’t even have to think about doing it. Packed roads…with less than a few inches of space between vehicles…and everybody moving like some smooth flowing river. It’s like watching a well coordinated show…. Most of the time that it. Sometime, maybe the collective consciousness misses a few beats and there are scrapes and accidents.
Different kind of problems
1A few minutes of telly watching in canada and one would get to see multiple adds on debt counselling, bankruptcy help, help with bad credit history and cash for jewellery! I mean I know there’s a global meltdown and people across the world are adversely affected… but this?!
Apparently this is ever quite so normal here…. People going bankrupt all the time, not being able to control their credit spend. From what I understand, medical costs can often spiral and cost people their livelihood. It’s quite the experience listening to cash man’ Joe go on about being able to give you instant cash for your jewellery and Mr. Aggrawal (attorney at Law) encourage you to file for bankruptcy in order to get out of your debt trap! (He even had a gujju chick intone in gujju how it is marvellous to get legal help from a gentlemen who can speak in her very own language!)
I thought emerging economies like India had problems… of population, of poverty, of development. And that our more developed counterparts had at least the livelihood issues figured out. But I guess everyone has problems… only different kinds.
Mumbai under attack!
7A bunch of crazy terrorists have taken our city to siege and we don’t even know why!! They’re holding hostages in Taj and Oberoi, going on shooting rampage, killing innocent people who’re going about their normal business and creating the biggest show down that Mumbai has ever seen.
Police, Army, NSG, Navy commandos have been battling them for over 20 hours and we still don’t know what the hell do these people want!! Over 101 people randomly killed! This is so freaking insane…!!! All this pointless killing and scaring people… Why?? What are they going to get out this all?
Sorry… this is hardly a blog… I just feel like venting. AAAAAAaarrrrrrgggghhhh!!! @$#%#^&#^#%^!!
The Real Moment of truth: People will do anything for Money
7As you might have gathered by now the three things I enjoy and write most about is going places, reading & TV shows!! So here’s a second blog on a TV show that is airing currently on star world. It’s called the Moment of truth and it runs with a tag line – ‘is there an Honest American left?’
For those unfamiliar with the show, let me lay out the format….The premise of the show basically is that Participants are asked to take a polygraphic test of 50 personal questions before the show. They don’t know if their answers to those questions are true or false and during the show 21 of those 50 are picked and they are asked to answer them as true/ false. If they get correct answers for each of their questions they can win up to half a million US dollars.
I’ve seen some episodes of the show and have realized that its popularity is hinged on the fact that participants are washing their dirty laundry in public and who doesn’t love some gory details of personal indiscretions?! It’s not so much of the viewer greed for gossip and need to pry into the personal lives of individuals they don’t know that bothers me so… it’s the readiness with which participants, for the greed of Money, answer questions that undoubtedly scar their relationships with their loved ones.
They are shows in which participants have agreed to cheating on their spouses, regretting marrying their spouse, hating their parents, stealing money, peddling drugs, Sleeping with over 100 partners and what not. It surprises me that people would be ready to hurt their families and friends through their gory disclosures on national television in order to make some easy money.
It’s not as if these people don’t know that they would b expected to answer these questions. They’ve already been asked the questions…! They come with full knowledge of what they are going to have to reveal and they are ok with it!! And this show is wildy successful in the US. People who have been shared the dirtiest secrets have become like celebrities…. Not only have they won money, they’ve become household names… chat show hosts are asking them to come over and share their dirty secrets in more details. Jeez. It saddens me that people support this kind of thing. Are these lessons we want to propagate to masses and to our kids? It’s ok to say whatever, hurt who ever, as long as you make lots of money!
I cannot think of another prime time show that destroys our social fabric more and yet no one seems to be saying anything/doing anything about it.
Mumbai: Culturally diverse or inherently Racist?
1So many cultures, religions, regions… Mumbai would call itself proudly a city with many hues. There are allegiances to faiths, religions, regions, states, casts, and god know what not and yet we manage to live in relative harmony. Most of the time, that is…
The preamble to the Indian constitution states that we promise to ensure equality in status and in opportunity and yet on a daily basis our politicians pass out decisions and make speeches that are against equality. If Raj Thackeray’s rant on about ‘Me Mumbaikars’ and ‘outsiders go back home!’ is not a racist outlook then nothing is!
We are all part of one country and we should be able to live and earn livelihood in any part of this country no matter where we are from. Then why is it ok for Raj Thackery and his flunkies to go about creating mayhem and attacking successful north Indians in Mumbai? Why hasn’t anyone from the legal community / central government reined these people in and charged them with racism? Why it is that Amitabh Bacchan has had to apologize for something innocuous that Jaya Bacchan had said? Damn it… she is from UP, so what is the big deal if she made a comment saying that she is from UP and she will prefer to speak in Hindi? I don’t get it.
Raj Thackery goes on about the lack of opportunities for the ‘Marathi Manush’ and the lack of focus on the Marathi language. What they don’t get is that if Mumbai belonged to and was built only by the Marathis, then it would not been the commercial capital it is today. The opportunities that exist today in Mumbai, would probably not have existed if the UPites, Gujratis, Marwaris, Punjabis, North Indians had not come to the state and contributed to it as they have. If it’s not reservations, they go on about the Marathi language. They rant on about how it’s important and all the legal and government documents should be in Marathi only and shops should all have their names written in Marathi so that the poor Marathi speaking Manush can get around his own city. If all this raving and ranting about Mumbai for the Marathis isn’t targeted racism against Indians from other states then nothing is.
More than 50 years of having a constitution that believes in Equality and do we have it? Nah…I don’t think so.
Smoke free partying…. Finally!
0October 2nd dawns and India is to go smoke free! Yayyee… finally!! Smoking is going to be illegal in all public spaces. Those include pubs, restaurants, stations, movie halls etc. (any place that requires more than 20 people to congregate in a closed space)
The effective implementation of this ban would enable non smokers to finally lead a normal life! Being a non smoker in a group with smokers is like suffering from some kind of handicap. When you crinkle up your nose, they look at you sympathetically (like they might be sorry that you’re missing the fun) and try and make you comfortable with a ‘I hope it’s not bothering you too much’.
It’s even worse when you’re at a pub…. With that much smoke holed up in a room, it doesn’t matter that you don’t smoke, the tar is already making its home in your lungs and you’ve lost a few years of your life. A few hours in the smoky pub and you know every inch of your clothing and hair is going to smell of the dank smoke. I have almost become unsocial and don’t feel like hanging out with friends in pubs/disc because it would take too much effort to sit in a smoky room for a few hours and feel like you’re having fun. I even tried a silent protest wherein once I sat in pub with a handkerchief tried around my face and nose… but I had to give that up due to insistent friends who couldn’t bear to be seen with someone who was looking like the Taliban.
I was there in the UK when it went smoke free last year (2nd July 07). And even with the Smokers raising hue and cry about it, a large majority heaved a relieved sigh. The government even reported that within 2 months of the ban, the sale of tobacco products had fallen 21%! In the UK, the usual pub wouldn’t be more than a few square meters big (atleast in the city I was in) and before the ban I would often just choke walking by one of open doors of the pub! Since it became smoke free, I found that I was more willing to hang out in them and really enjoy myself!
In most countries, and Wikipedia cites over 25, smoking in public places is banned. I can’t wait till it happens in India and hope that we are able to implement it. Non smokers can finally have a life and not feel like the outcasts!
Apparently Bhutan is the only country which has banned the sale of tobacco products. I don’t know why more countries don’t follow suit. I mean if it is illegal to kill yourself, then why is it ok to kill yourself (and others in the closed spaces with you) slowly?