And after all we’re only ordinary men

Getting straight to the point, It’s the word maturity that’s destroying us.

Anybody comes up with an idea which frighten us and out we pop with phrases like, ‘get mature, grow up’ the unsaid intent being, ‘stay the defensive lump that every other defensive lump wants you to be’.

You all have to agree that we as a country need to change somewhere… and all of us also agree that the change’s got to take place in so many places that we’re not sure anymore.
We also agree that a major change in our attitudes is definitely required.
Yet when Greg Chappel comes along and tries enforcing change to stem the rot that’s set in (as deccan herald would’ve put it in the days of non idiotic sentimental journalism) we all complain.

It’s society that teaches us to get defensive, go with the flow and try to become worthless losers, like say a dad teaching his 5 year old son to like the merc (it’s classy to appreciate class you know). We’re scared of somebody who seems to have a plan, because it reminds us of our sacrifice.

Remember the time when you switched your ideas off for a more conservative approach and called that phase ‘growing up’? You sacrificed everything you stood for and what’s worse, you didn’t even know it. You joined this huge mass that’s hell bent on getting nowhere. You worked real hard to get comfortable in there, and now it’s a half jealousy half fear that forces us to try and hold back somebody who’s trying to get somewhere.

Get out of that hold.

If you already have, thanks… I associate with you…

If maturity is what society defines as, then I’d gladly accept being a kid. There are a few people I’ve known (more so in the circle in pune) who believed growing up included opening up to the world and going after what you’d dreamt of and trying to keep from getting your mind clouded with crap, I really appreciate the whole bunch of them for being the people they are and being so easy about it.

Call me egoistic, but I’m proud of the contempt I have towards society and wouldn’t go out of my way to keep the bunch of losers happy. I’m glad I’ve come across a few who think along those lines, to hell with the rest.

-KD

(p.s. our prev post wass our 50th, even we didn't realise that)

Us & Them

Boy! We are all back again. Good to see Antya penning something after a long time. Trust me, though I am a part of Thinshark, I am a big fan of the way the other two guys in the group write. You guys should take a look at few of the comments these guys had posted on some annoying blogs and then you would know what the art of hitting-out is. And then there was this article by Antya about the irresponsible attitude of the Admin guys. And another one by Komodo (that got him into a bit of trouble actually) on one of the local events. Man, if you want to explore the definition of sarcasm, you should get hold of these write-ups. We can definitely put the former here, what say Antya?

Anyways, there seems to be a sudden change in my life. I was busy all these days and now I don’t seem to have any work at all. Guess it’s all a part of the IT industry. One refreshing change is that I can get to ride on roads here. Something which I had completely forgotten in the last two years or so. Well, my ride (sometimes drive) to the office is more or less become a way of reviving the past now. Not the best of the past though.

Well, people in Mumbai would be very well aware of the so called ‘Eunuch menace’. Yes, I am referring to the times when you halt your vehicle at the Andheri fly over and within a minute you are surrounded by ten of these guys. Well, looks like quite a good number has migrated to Bangalore.

I still remember the reactions of people when a eunuch approached them. Frankly, even I was one of those trying my best to avoid them, probably more because I was a kid then and their looks annoyed me. Well, that was past. The other day I had noticed one of the eunuchs talk to a truck driver and trust me, there is no difference. Alright, I do agree that they are not educated and they certainly lack the manners to talk, but then I am of the opinion that they definitely do not deserve the treatment they receive from the people who think they belong to a higher class. I have noticed on more than one occasion, the way they get along with the not-so-affluent class is just amazing and that’s when one is forced to think that if we had ever given them the respect that a normal person gets, we would not have had to face them everyday.

Frankly, what I am talking about can never happen in a place like India because everything is considered a taboo. I do agree that Mumbai is a little different from the rest of the country, probably more because of it’s nature to accept everyone the way s/he is, but there would always be that difference in the way one looks at a normal human and an ‘abnormal’ one. I am not sure if these people receive the same kind of treatment in the west too, but I am sure it would be a little better than the state in India.

I guess we never gave these characters a chance to improve. Mumbai has, and that’s the reason you find almost a quarter of the lot talking in English, leading quite sophisticated and fashionable lives. I know not many would agree to this, but then that is the truth. We have always been biased in our opinions. No wonder we are progressing so much, but still lagging behind somewhere. Mindset is what we need to change. Else, we shall spend the rest of our life cribbing for no reason.

-AHAK

People

Hi People, Thinshark’s been pretty much silent of late, the reason being KD’s flown overseas. AHAK’s gone back home, he’ll be coming back but he’ll be leaving for good then. Both of them however had a pretty common reason for not being active. For once however I have a reason, a perfectly genuine reason for being inactive. Legend has it that I broke my right hand, how that happened is a mystery of sorts but yep I was in a cast for better part of Feb. and march and then in April I fell into league with AHAK and KD. I simply got busy, courtesy my one-month absence from the workplace. Luckily they decided to give thinshark a bit of voice and have come back into action.

Yep, Komodo was pretty much right in expressing my angst in his words. The last few days the media were in some sort of frenzy. My hands itched for want of writing on India’s dismal performance in the WC (not literal) (for purists it’s the World Cup). But then GAG did a pretty decent job covering it on the fiteklub. Me and GAG were constantly in touch during each and every match played, me at home and him in the land far east. But yeah I reached one conclusion. Match Fixing is NON EXISTENT in cricket. How else would you explain India’s elimination in the first round itself? If they wanted to make the cup a commercial success India had to be there upto the Semi’s at least. Isn’t it? So guys, it’s a clean game, go ahead and watch it.

The media at it again and the last few days have been full of Abhi Ash (the bearded prince and the plastic maiden). As GAG mentioned or someone did I guess they married a banyan and a peepal tree to remove their manglik doshas and things like that. The less said about the matter the better so I’ll leave it at that.

Thinshark is more about the things that happening around us but then excuse me if I express my personal angst out here. For the first time in the last so many years Antya’s been had. Betrayed is a better word. Plain simple breach of trust if I may put it. I’ve my own ways of dealing with things like this. These things don’t happen much to me but yeah I am a vindictive person when hurt; I’m not called the Antagonist for nothing. But over the years I’ve learnt to live with a lot of things. Call it spirituality or whatever but I can feel the anger inside me much more controlled. So my being busy was mostly (its an ongoing process still) me trying to come to terms with the feeling of being stabbed in the back. I still haven’t decided what to do next and trust me at the back of my mind I am feeling real lousy. I’ll figure it out somewhere down the line but yeah it hurts and it hurts real bad.

These were the few things happening out there and I know and hope that KD and AHAK would not mind me airing my personal angst on Thinshark but then this is something I had to say someplace. The next write-up, however will be definitely more thinsharkish and more cheerful than this one. And that’s a promise.

-Antya

Antya's angst

Antya’s been shouting himself hoarse about this for a while now and that includes tea time discussions and all that… Thought I’d say my bit about it as well…

The media and their general lack of having anything worthwhile to say is one thing, but then, even if they did, would they have too many listeners?

For instance, I read this piece of news from homeland the other day…
Some clowns that form mobs that generally make lives hell for everybody, themselves included, were annoyed about Gere kissing Shetty…
This apparently after Shetty didn’t really look annoyed or anything worth making a deal of…

Reminded me of another incident about the mika – sawanth liplock… there, Sawanth did protest, looked annoyed straight away and so on… and the same set of clowns went about labeling her a slut and what not…

What is it that they want exactly?

Anyways… I now prefer checking out the local news here… I don’t understand a word spoken or written and hence do not associate myself with the thousands that are really annoyed with the goingons… probably.


-KD

Finally, I am back to home. Trust me; even your home looks different when you stay away from it for almost two years. That’s probably because everything in life changes…your daily routine, your food. I guess I am so used to eating tasteless food that good food causes indigestion now.

It’s been almost a month since I moved to the office here. This place is weird. Firstly, it is situated in some corner of the city, a corner which most of the people haven’t heard of. It’s a 30 km ride to the office everyday. So when you finally reach this place, you feel like you have traveled to Tamil Nadu; consider the fact that I work in Bangalore. A few more facts… to get a cup of coffee, you need to go to the fourth floor. Btw, I am on the ground. People here need the AC temperatures to as low as possible. I have no clue where these people have come from; definitely not Chennai. They don’t feel the cold at all. The security guy checks your bag everyday before you leave. Wondering if he checks for my stuff missing from the bag because there’s absolutely nothing here that one can flick. This is especially for Antya and KD – there are chairs lying all over the place. None of them occupied. This is definitely a surprise for people who have moved in from the Pune office.

People here yell on the top of their voice. The concept of telephone is obsolete here. You need to call out for a guy sitting in the other corner of the floor; all you have to do is shout ‘oraaaeei’. KD would understand this lingo better. And yeah..the conference calls…there is nothing called confidential here. I can tell you when the project guys next to me are planning for a release and who is the guy who messed things up last evening. In fact anyone on this floor will be able to tell you this.

Wonder how cultures differ so much within the same country. I guess it’s got to do more with our language and upbringing. Ever wondered, how it would have been if there was only one language spoken throughout India. I personally feel life would have been much better. Think about this, there would be no north Indian-south Indian discrimination and hence there would be less fights. We would all follow the same traditions, so no confusions there. At least I would not have had to pay 100 bucks to fill the form for a driving license (the form was in Kannada).


-AHAK

This and that

Hi you all...
long time and all that...
apoligies, the three of us were like crazy busy all these days.

Anyways, firstly, Antya did nothing in particular, AHAK moved to Bangalore permanent and I moved to KL for a short while and that’s how things stand as of now.

Things are quite different here tell you, for one, I landed and asked this dude in the airport about the train to Sentral*, and he tells me where to collect the tickets, the cost of one, the place to board, the time taken to reach there and a whole lot of other info including the average cost of milk tea and he gives me all this Tamil.

I was stunned to say the least… I mean how could anybody guess that I’m Indian and more so, how could anybody guess I’m tamilian… more so, considering I speak kannada and not tamil.
Pretty interesting.

On my second day here, a local dude in the office gives me a friendly pat on the back 2 minutes after being introduced to me and calls me a giant and is wondering how I grew so much in only 25 years and how huge I might be when I’m say 40… people here grow till they’re 40 and hence the thought…

Anyways, that’s for them to know and for me to find out…

And something more thinsharkish next time…

*they don’t have a script here and here’s where they’re real smart… they don’t bother finding substitutes in the local lingo for newish English words like Taxi, they just spell it in an easier way, so Taxi becomes Teksi and Central (which isn’t newish, but still fits) becomes Sentral.

-KD