Pressing a Button and making things go Beep.

This was the first time I ever voted.

Yeah, I know...I was never at home whenever we had elections.

Voting was held in SDM Law College, five minutes from our home.As I was parking my scooter, an aunty smiled at me.I couldn't recognise her.So my smile was hesitant and half-formed by the time she moved ahead.

Once inside, I found out that the entire college had a placid atmosphere. Only a handful voters had turned up at twelve in the noon.The rest were smiling and courteous electoral officers and other officials.The sight of Government officials smiling and courteous and helpful was inapposite but certainly welcome.

I gave them my entry chit and stood in the line with about ten people in it.They checked my card, announced my number (816) and another official ticked me off on her list.I went further up the line, where I had to show my Voter ID card and sign an attendance register.Further ahead a gentleman asked me to extend my hand.I extended my right hand, to which he asked my left .He marked my index finger with indelible ink that was produced in Mysore.The ink left and ugly dark line on my finger that would not wash off for months.The gentleman next to him reset the EVM (Electronic Voting Machine) so that I could vote.The EVM itself was a few feet awayon a wooden desk, and covered by a cardboard enclosure.

Voting itself was an easy task.

The EVM is a simple white plastic box which displays the list of candidates and their symbols(for the illiterate)There was a  red light and a blue button. I had  to press the blue button against the candidate of the choice and a red light  appeared on the pressing of blue button and there was a sound like whistle  which indicated that the ballot was cast.

That was it.This was what voting was , for those who cared to vote.

'Pressing a Button and making things go Beep'

This was supposed to be exercising my right.This was my part in deciding the future of my country.This was my role in bringing about a change in things that I don't like about now.'Pressing a button, and making things go Beep'

Felt like what I did was trivial,insignificant.It felt ridiculous.

Most of all, It felt like I should do more.

More than just 'Pressing a button and making things go Beep'

Exercise your power to Vote!

 

Tomorrow is the elections.

Although I've turned eighteen a long time ago, I could never vote as I was never around, never in the same country to exercise my rights.

This time though, everything has come into place...the planets have aligned favourably,the wind is blowing from the right direction.

So I'm going to vote this time.

 A good friend of mine had stumbled upon a theory that practically explained the unexplainable...well at least it made it palatable.

Stephen Hawking would have died to know that someone could come up with a theory that was so simple, so elegant.
Freud would have waltzed across Vienna in joy for his question was answered in such precision and sparse economy.

Four words that would make history (and her-story to all feminists)
Four words that would resolve the irresolute.
Four words that needed no proof just as we need no proof of the invisible air we breathe or  for that matter the non-existent god we believe in .
Four words that spoke the truth.

Four simple words that got you going  AHA!

"All women are crazy"
Proof:Just look around you.

                   Recently my uncle stumbled upon another universal theory, which again defied conventional thought, yet in its simplicity reduced everything to ground zero and explained the unexplainable.

This theory did not deal with women, but with snakes in the grass and wolves in sheepskin, and it made your choices simple and the bitter truth just a bit palatable.

He said "Ellaru Kallare.Nimage yaawa kalla ishta awaranne aaike madi"

He said this with reference to the upcoming elections.
Simply translated it meant "They are all theieves...simply choose the one that you like"

A cynic forever, he said that it didn't matter who it was.They were all theives.Simply chose which one you want to rob from you.

He says further that this applies to everyone...mega corporations,brands,politicians,god-men et al.

Kurt Vonnegut said"Humour is a way of holding off how awful life is"

or making you realize its inevitability.

"They are all thieves...you're gonna be robbed anyway.So why not get robbed by someone you like?"

 

What's in a Surname?

It is time we posed a few new questions.
So let me do the honours.

What's in a surname?

(Flashback to when the author was in a hostile hostel...)

"What is your name?"

"Vikas"

"Full name?"

"Vikas"

What?

"It is just Vikas "

"You mean your full name is 'Just Vikas' or is it 'Vikas Just'?"

"I mean my name is only vikas...er, what I mean to say is that I have no middle name or surname"

"Is that so?"

"Yes"

"Yes what ?"

"Huh?"

REPEAT AFTER ME, "YES SIR"

"YES SIR!"

                     "Just vikas...you will address your seniors as Sir.You will not speak unless spoken to first.You will not breathe unless permitted.And most of all, you will treat your seniors with utmost respect"

"SIRYESSIR!"

Good Just Vikas...now join the others for your initiation pledge...(Fading into the present...)

What's in a name?What's in a name?What's in a name?What's in a name?What's in a name?

Every Tom-Dick and Hari  (Harry's job was bangalored and outsourced to Hari from Bhatinda)...

                      So every Tom-Dick and Hari has posed this question and had the temerity to answer it as if he were the first person to have a shakespearean epiphany to the age old question posed by the Bard of Avon in the immortal tragi-romance 'Romeo and Juliet'.

  What every Tom-Dick and Hari forgets is that the great Bard has himself answered the question with the inventive sensory use of a thorny flower by evoking its very familiar olfactory properties.

So lets ask new questions.At least I'm qualified to ask such questions.

What's in a Surname?

I once had only a first name.(This was prior circa 2003)

Vikas.

Short and sweet.Five letters,two syllables,two vowels...unfortunately rife with pun,mispronunciation and obscenity.

What's in a surname?

Why do people ask your surname?
People think it is a subtle way of asking your race,religion,caste and creed (and soceital position)

                      You know Shilpa is a Shetty, Sunita is a D'Souza,Kabir is Khan, Karthik is a Gadiyar...but without their surnames, they are just Shilpa,Sunita,Kabir and Karthik, and now you cannot use your vast knowledge of generalisation to guess who likes seafood,who celebrates Good Friday,who fasts on Ramadan or who likes DaliThoi.

But for all you know, Shilpa is a vegan,Sunita & Kabir atheists and karthik a mashed potatoes and peas  kinda guy.You know that there are always exceptions to general perception, but you can safely hedge your bets.

But Caveat Emptor my friends.There are stumbling blocks on the road to Surname.

My liberal parents did not want my surname(and my caste) to be highlighted anywhere.Thus I had only a first name.

                         For some people, their last name is their father's first name.Most of my cousins are named in this manner.It is challenging to make assumptions based solely on two first names coined together.

           Also think of all the hermaphrodite surnames ;Singh & Kumar in particular...These people can be from anywhere ranging from Kashmir to Timbuktu...

           For example,one is pretty sure that Rajbir Singh is a Punjabi, and there is a high probability that he is Sikh, but what about Deepak Singh...you don't know if this Singh is king .For all you know, he is from Bhilai.

What about all the Kumars ? For starters the Prajwal Kumar I know is from Nepal, while Pavan Kumar is from Karnataka.

Couple these hermaphrodite surnames with hermaphrodite first names and witness the confusion and hilarity that ensues.

Kiran Kumar? Mr ya Miss ?  Male ya Female ?

Hey Bhagwaan!

(a more popular example- Drew carey)

As an end note, I'd like to add that I have legally changed my name as of 2003, because of the mighty US of A, who rejected my visa application on the basis of an  incomplete name.

Now Vikas is no longer Just Vikas.

He is (I Am) Vikas Keshava Rao.

Stuck in my head.

And

 

 

 

And

 

Frog-Twins?

http://community.livejournal.com/ohnotheydidnt/27350111.html
http://community.livejournal.com/ohnotheydidnt/27350111.html

Lonliness and Surrogate-Relationships

                                     Illusionary relationships with characters and personalities on favourite TV shows can provide people with feelings of belonging, even in the face of low self esteem or after being rejected by friends or family members, says a new study.

 

                      The research by psychologists at the University at Buffalo and Miami University, Ohio, has been described in four studies published in the current issue of the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology.

 

                                   "The research provides evidence for the 'social surrogacy hypothesis,' which holds that humans can use technologies, like television, to provide the experience of belonging when no real belongingness has been experienced," says one of the study's authors, Shira Gabriel, Ph.D., UB assistant professor of psychology.

 

                      "We also argue that other commonplace technologies such as movies, music or interactive video games, as well as television, can fulfill this need," the expert added.

 

                       Shira's co-authors are Jaye L. Derrick, Ph.D., postdoctoral associate and adjunct instructor of psychology at UB, and Kurt Hugenberg, Ph.D., assistant professor of psychology at Miami University

 

                              The first study, of 701 undergraduate students, used the Loneliness Activities Scale and the Likelihood of Feeling Lonely Scale to find that subjects reported tuning to favored television programs when they felt lonely and felt less lonely when viewing those programs.

 

                              Study 2 used essays to experimentally manipulate the belongingness needs of 102 undergraduate subjects and assess the importance of their favored television programs when those needs were stimulated. Participants whose belongingness needs were aroused reveled longer in their descriptions of favored television programs than in descriptions of non-favored programs, the study found.

 

                           Study 3 of 116 participants employed the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale, the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule and an eight-item measure of feelings of rejection to find that thinking about favored television programs buffered subjects against drops in self-esteem, increases in negative mood and feelings of rejection commonly elicited by threats to close relationships.

 

                                       Study 4 asked 222 participants to write a 10-minute essay about their favorite television program, and then to write about programs they watch "when nothing else is on," or about experiencing an academic achievement. They were then asked to verbally describe what they had written in as much detail as possible.

 

                           After writing about favored television programs, the subjects verbally expressed fewer feelings of loneliness or exclusion than when verbally describing either of the two control situations (essays about programs watched when nothing else is on, academic achievement). This is evidence, say the researchers, that illusionary or "parasocial" relationships with television haracters or personalities can ease belongingness needs.

 

                                          It remains an open question, say the researchers, whether social surrogacy  suppresses belongingness needs or actually fulfills them, and they acknowledge that the kind of social surrogacy provoked by these programs can be a poor substitution for "real" human-to-human experience.

 

                              "Turning one's back on family and friends for the solace of television may be maladaptive and leave a person with fewer resources over time," says UB's Derrick, "but for those who have difficulty experiencing social interaction because of physical or environmental constraints, technologically induced belongingness may offer comfort."

 

i'msobadatsex - because we all are

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