Just Another Halloween Post

I know this will not sound cool but I write down my dreams. Not everything but the interesting ones. I am anything but observant however, in my dreams I always see very specific details and most of my dreams are about places. Don’t worry I will not share my dreams with you. Am not the type. Why I am mentioning this is because one needs some string worth living for. I mean see, there are so many things that one can be….. young, rich, smart, intelligent, gorgeous. If I had any one of these things I would not be noting down my dreams.

Why? Let me now explain. When one is inexplicably innocent of any talent then there has to be a reason. And I know why. I am destined for something very big. I could be chosen to save the world or simply solve a riddle about my past life. Come on, there has to be something. One day I will see the place of my dreams and ‘know’, ‘Mere Karan Arjun wapas aayenge’….I was killed unjustly and I will avenge it.

Jokes apart, we always feel this can’t be it there has to be more to life. Why do we like someone instantly and become friends? Why do we feel this has happened before? Why do some places seem so familiar? There are thousands of answers, from reincarnation to diffusion of energy, take your pick. You see, all of us need a story. Something more than our daily grind.
Fiji mermaid, Piltdown man - we believe in hoax because life is a bigger story. At least we want it to be. That’s why just one day we dress up like imagination……. ghosts, witches, ghouls, nymphs and go out asking for candies from strangers! And just this one day, the joker watches on and says ‘AH! Carpe Diem my darlings, carpe diem. BOO!’

Sweet Dreams are Made of These

Application for a loan to buy land for a farm:

Farming Experience:

I have successfully cultivated rice, wheat, artichokes, eggplant, strawberries, spaghetti squash and pumpkin. Raised livestock like cattle, goat, sheep, pig and some poultry. I have been exceptionally successful. So much so that in three days I was able to expand my farm.

I am aware that there are differences between virtual farming and actual farming but the experience is almost as good as real. For example I know rice requires more water to grow. I can only grow bell peppers when I have some experience. Artichokes take longer time than raspberries. If you ask the makers of the game Farmville that one can play on Facebook they will assure you how the experience is as good as real farming.
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Of course this is far fetched but so is satire, particularly satire mixed with cynicism. So where is all this coming from? See, I landed up in this ‘Outbound’ Program designed for Management students where games and similar activities will gear you up for corporate life and teach you strategies so on and so forth. Not just that it will help you to know yourself and evaluate yourself. Now before you tear me apart and say ‘Who are you to even comment on this you irrelevant, unknown historian and a small time rarely read blogger!’

First of all, both the remarks about me are correct and second, sometimes outsiders may bring something useful. And isn’t it a Management Mantra that one must listen to all however irrelevant they are, you never know what you are losing! Gotcha! Now listen to me.

I was there as an observer to study the students during the games. I know, I am slightly sick I always link the word game with the movie ‘Saw’ no it’s not that kind. These are the real stuff very much like the ones we played as kids. Blind man’s buff, Catch-Catch, Lock and Key and so on. There are games like Minefield, Blind Sheep, Cobweb all designed to simulate situations that one is likely to face in the corporate jungle and in real life. I have to admit that they are immensely enjoyable and it is a great way to involve the team in activities. Another delight is to observe the change in people’s behavior. All that is fine. I am only a cynic when it comes to ‘learning your lessons’.

My amusement and cynicism stems from the fact that people do take themselves very seriously. In academia we are often like cats guarding territory and obsessed with the idea of specialization. We are a strange lot with so many limitations, sigh! But we do know we are odd and whole-heartedly accept it when someone calls us nuts.

Somehow the ‘others’ are not often so flexible, as in yes if you come with a serious face and say yes ‘I have a plan’ they will listen but if you come like the Joker and say ‘Why so serious?’ it’s not going to go well. Here is my point why does everything have to be about practical applications and ‘knowledge you can use’.

Can we simply not say that I am in this ‘Outbound’ because I immensely enjoy watching smart alecks goof up and blame the rest. It’s purely my enjoyment and not a study of behavioral pattern of smart alecks. Fortunately, I happen to be a cat with my territory so if I am asked ‘Do you have a better plan of engaging students?’ My answer will be ‘No, but if you want people to have some simulation there is nothing better than a 4D movie, or a haunted house in Halloween. I have perfect knowledge of what to do when a ghoul chases me in a corn maze with a chainsaw. RUN. It was of course once ‘simulated’ for me and I am certain I will be apply this knowledge if the need be.

Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte

Family secrets, those dark things that are locked between family members, things so dark that even some family members are kept out of it. I have often wondered whether every family has secrets or not. I understand that families like the one in Poe’s ‘ The Fall of the House of Usher’ are rare, in fact, so rare that family came out of Poe’s imagination, and what an imagination! But this is not about Poe. I am thinking of seemingly ‘normal’ families who now come on T.V and let out really dark secrets to public, of course, for a fee.

Go ahead call me old fashioned (I am even using a cliché) but family secrets are immensely attractive in fiction and movies but disturbing when laid bare to the masses for money. No, I don’t watch that show ‘Moment of truth’ or ‘Sach ka saamna’ and this post is not about critiquing the show.

Your family, you get rich… tell your story. Who am I to disagree? May be my criticism stems from the fact that I will never make it to the show. No, there are no dark, worth paying for secrets just regular stuff like fights over mundane issues, me lying about trivial stuff and so on. Believe it or not we are genuinely dull and uninteresting, which may be a good thing in this case.

What attracts me about family secrets is when it comes from so called ‘commonplace’, ‘regular’ families. Agatha Christie’s short story ‘The Companion’ has a beautiful beginning. The narrator, in a tourist destination sums up his fellow travelers. He sees this exotic Spanish dancer and concludes that she is a woman whom trouble will follow everywhere, his gaze then shifts to two totally dull English women. The typical English women who never ever had anything out of place in their entire life. Yet, the mystery happens to the two dull women.

See, often when people say ‘You don’t know a thing about me!’ they may be telling the truth. You don’t. You never know who will surprise you when and how. The good thing is when skeletons come out of the closet leprechauns come out too! Just talk to the media about how you stole from your neighbor.