Cheap thinking

(Caution: Extremist views expressed. General feeling while writing this article was, "Screw Laissez Faire opportunists!")

This article is partly my undigested and very frenzied thoughts on gossiping and partly something I wanted to write after I read an article written by my friend Tina, which you can read here.

It doesn't take much to get my neurons and tongue fired, often in quick succession. One such thing is the word, 'gossip' and any faint strains of an argument justifying it. It gets me kicked inside, I cannot stop myself from making myself heard - loud and clear. So I've decided to write it all down and get it thrown out from my system once and for all, so that the next time I hear that odious word, I'll just give them the link to here. (Narcissus and I seem to share an awful lot of genes)

If talk is cheap, gossiping is free of charge. When we gossip about something/body, we're doing the least amount of separating-rational-from-rubbish kind of discretionary thinking possible. Some people like to say gossiping brings about a little magic in their lives. I really don't agree with this. Seeing dust particles dancing in Medusa-esque frenzy, suspended in a beam of sunlight cutting through a dark room seems more like magic, in case David Copperfield is not on your speed-dial. The sense of 'magic' these people are talking about is delusional and borrowed because we don't create anything, we just propagate water-tight, compartmentalized thinking. Adjectives are thrown around like used recharge coupons and prejudices become as convenient as disposable tissues. Agreed, it takes effort to convert something mundane in to something magical. But the satisfaction in doing just that is Premium A-Class. And who's asking you to be Superman? Go for a walk. Watch the sunset. Turn over stones and see what's below. Doodle. Listen to RHCP. My cousin-brother's favourite - give your boss a sudden smile, just to see his expression defrost.

Some people like to sugar-coat gossiping by calling it, 'expressing an opinion'. Bullshit. Gossiping is a dirty word and you can't canonize it. If gossiping is an expression at all, it's an expression of unconformity to what you think is right. She doesn't walk talk dress eat think like you do. Big deal, sweetheart. I don't think we realize just how much we're limiting our ability to embrace and find beauty in things which at first appearance may look a little off the graph's co-ordinates or just plain crazy. Me thinks crazy is good, real good. (Ahem. About this unintelligible piece of gibberish here - I don't apologize for it, but you have to meet me to know this)

One universal element in gossiping is the presence of an air of collective agreement (thus eliminating the possibility of alternate opinions). Everybody nods their heads like they're all in some Very Serious Seminar For The Upliftment Of Humanity. I'm very sure there are atleast a few people who have had no exposure to the kind of things being discussed but nod their heads they will. And we talk about rebellion and being teenagers.

Sometimes life is labourious, grey, boring, empty, pendulating in vacuum. I give you all that. But how on earth does tracing the trajectory of somebody else's life give you a purpose to your own? Maybe George Clooney's life is labourious, grey, boring, empty, pendulating in vacuum. Who knows? (Apologies to Sonal). I'm still waiting for my illuminating moment of insight here. Because there is so much ignorance, so much naive realism involved when we juggle thoughts and speculations around like that. It's all a question of personal bias vs. personal experience or knowledge.

These severely perpendicular views aside, my indignation here is not meant for people who may have indulged in a word or two against somebody. Heck, I do that too. But if your indulgence is similar to that of a desperate diabetic's, you're sadly just another drop in the ocean.