Sick Lit

Not to be confused with Chick Lit which was a genre in writing in the late 90’s early 2000’s and was popular fiction targeting Young women and hence it took a Sexist turn and I do not want to even tread that path within 72 Hours of celebrating the International Women’s day.

Sick Lit can be more interpreted as Sick Literary sense exhibited by a tribe, but then again, I would be branded a stereo typist if I call them a tribe. Stereo typist is not related to listening to the Stereo and Typing.... a bad Dad Joke is what they will call it, Wish I could understand the Gen Z language to call it good or bad.

This is an effort to compile a ready reckoner to all parents of Gen Z to understand their language and effectively communicate with them. This language sounds like a hybrid born out of the collaboration of the escapees of the Tower of Babel and illiterate native English Speakers.

So, brace yourself for the crash course and I will be around to pick you up from the crash.

Sick: Sick is no longer the sick you and I knew about, it is so good that its sick. Got it? No? Don’t Worry Neither have I, but simply follow the tribe.

Vibes: Every experience these days is prefixed or suffixed with vibes. So much so, that a humble Vegetarian joint with such a spiritual name like Kailash Parbhat have suffixed their name with Vibes to christen one of their outlets. Wonder what Vibes Kailash would give one? Vibe is a short for Vibration which is a huge topic on its own delving into resonance and natural frequency etc. I’m yet to tune into their frequency and resonate with the vibes.

Bae: Before Anyone Else is what it stands for...Unfortunately a friend who eats my daughters’ lunch at school comes before her parents who manage to pay her fees BLD (Before the Last Date). I made it up, If they can so can I. You will see many more of mine at the end.

Drip: Being in the Pump industry for over 2 decades the first thing that comes to my mind is Drip Irrigation, sadly if I wear a dapper jacket they say Drip, Drip and I end up looking down to check if I’m suffering from some bladder incontinence. I later came to know Drip meant I was looking cool in my jacket.

Dope: Hahaha...I know what you thought, that’s not what it is. Dope is a close cousin of Drip, they mean you are way too cool. Those days it used to mean cool and high...Now the altitude is gone only attitude remains.

IYKYK: This is brilliant, it’s an abbreviation for If You Know, You Know. Wish I knew what you know anyway what You and I know is no great know how. I’m happy that they did not abbreviate it as IUNUN, they sure know how to spell You & Know, Else It would have been an I followed by 2 UN’s...Sadly even 1 UN is powerless today.

Fam: They hardly need their Family these days but address their friends as Fam. The fam stays with them while the Family is too long and boring to stay close.

No Cap: Honestly all what I wrote above was true...No Cap, I wasn’t lying. With or without a cap one can lie. Wonder, how this came about.

Lit: We belong to a Christian Denomination called the Mar Thoma Church. The motto of the Church is Lighted to Lighten. Today the Gen Z uses Lit to express anything and everything that is amazing or brilliant. Wish, I get to see a day when our Gen Z kids would say the Church is Lit!!!

And finally, my favourite

YOLO: You Only Live Once, they live like there is no tomorrow. My worry is that if they see through the once and are still around to see the morrow they might not have enough to live YCLTT....You Can Live Twice too!!! So, in order to prepare them I coined, SYBAO (Slog Your Bloody Ass Off) If you want to YOLO

So, people be kind to me and post your comment below and please don't forget to say how Sick this blog was!

Meta, Delta, Crypto, Deivam!

 Oh, My Cron...Sorry! meant to type Oh My God and auto correct prompted it to Oh My Cron. The title of the blog and the blog itself is inspired by the hierarchical people to be revered in life, which is imbibed in Indian traditional values which goes thus, Maatha (Mother), Pitha (Father), Guru (Teacher), Deivam (God)

The title kind of sums up the journey each one of the inhabitants of planet Earth went through the last year. I will try and present my perspectives from the New Normal Point of view here. Not necessarily in the same order as the traditional one.

Delta: I slowed down on my blogs after I wrote two on the Covid19 virus and then felt that this was becoming monotonous and there was nothing else interesting going around to write about. Since then Covid 19 has moved on to 20, 21 and 22 versions eclipsing the likes of Windows, iPhone and Samsung launches and, in the process, taking along with it half a dozen Greek alphabets too, at least the names of the virus took us back to some elementary high school algebra. Waiting for versions named after Fourier and Laplace, guess they have reserved that for more severe mutants. As the virus continues to hold us at where it matters the most, humankind (to be gender neutral) has been brought to its knees praying to God.

Meta: As Delta was raging and reigning over the world there came along another Greek alphabet to establish absolute supremacy over humankind. This time it was man made, and there was no ambiguity on the origins of this unlike the Delta. Meta promised unparalleled joy and experience. An avatar we could take and express and enjoy ourselves and yet do not be ourselves at the same time. As it is, I’m yet to understand the difference between a Story and a STORY and Reel and REAL, for me story was all about emotions, the truth and real flesh blood experiences and even if it was a fictitious one it was well within my realm of imagination. Unfortunately, the stories of today are so ephemeral and make believe and false smiles and laughs and those that ‘influence’ you and others around. The meters and meters of reels were rolled around several spools to create magic that captured emotions. Today a 30 Second snapshots of 100’s of images whizz past you that you almost go blind or a twirl or even a laugh is a reel and they garner more attention than the real-life stories around. Stories of people, passion, poverty, purpose, they all go unnoticed. What I realized was that they wanted the aesthetics of the yesteryears to narrate the stories in 30 seconds...A filter that is most popular is the old grainy VCR filter with the date and time covering half the screen.

Crypto:

a combining form meaning “hidden,” “not perceived immediately or with certainty” 

As the definition of the term goes it is not perceived immediately or with certainty. I am no authority on this. But people say it’s the next big thing in the Digital Financial world. Move over equities, bonds, derivative and the likes, the big boys of the town are here. The real reels to rake in money are through cryptos. To know less about it and how confused I am, you can read a blog I wrote a while back here about a close cousin of Crypto called NFT. Rightly so, the Greek root to it means Hidden.

So, after we have revered the Meta, that means transcending (to what, we are yet to figure) and Delta that is simply shaped like a triangle and denotes a difference mathematically and to Crypto that means hidden, life has been all Greek and less of Latin which means we have understood it partially. Sadly, Crypto takes the place of the ‘Guru’ in the traditional hierarchy, Unlike the Crypto, a Guru knows all and shares all and does not hide anything.

Now finally it’s only the ‘Deivam’ part of the traditional Indian value Hierarchy that has not found a replacement yet. It might / cannot be replaced by the antecedents in the original version but in the new normal version each of them is trying to be the ‘Deivam’ or the God. Meta plays God that promises happiness and joy in a Virtual world. The Delta happened because someone tried playing God the creator and Crypto is the hidden God of wealth. Irrespective of the caste, creed, religion or region one is from, there is one power above us all that make us what we are collectively, Human.

As a wise man once said....” We might not know what the future holds for us, but we sure know WHO holds the future!”

Wishing Your Families & You a Blessed Year filled with Good Health (sans the influencing ‘STORIES’) and Happiness in real life (without the help of Meta)V

The Star who saw Stars!

 A fleeting glimpse of an elderly couple desperately trying to peep through the cracked open gates of the infamous Arthur Road prison just minutes after Body guards with packs in multiples of six swooped a celebrity kid (kid? No, not anymore, but will refer to him as that throughout this piece due to his naivety) from the very gate into a swanky shiny Range Rover made me write this piece. Fortunately, that image just caught my eye for a fraction of a second as the byte hungry media vultures were packing up and getting ready for their flight to keep pace with the horsepower of the Turbo Charged Range Rover.

Now, let me make it clear, this is not about taking a stand on the case and analyzing the rights and the wrongs, this is just a rant on the two malaises that haunts the Indian society, the Judicial system and the celebrity sycophancy. The rate at which the celebrities are being pulled up for drugs and other related offences, it makes sense to open an Arthur Road Annex in Bandra or Juhu as that would spare the commoners using the Artur Road and the infamous prison the inconvenience of road blockades etc.

Call it vendetta, targeting, framed, stereo typing etc. I believe in the old adage there is no smoke without fire, pun not intended, as these days you don’t need a smoke to create that ecstatic fire. It’s a fact that he was picked up under suspicious circumstances and was in jail for a good 28 days. Given the power and money involved, had it been a framed event it would have been exposed much earlier. But again, if the framing was as good as Plan B of ‘Casa De Papal’ then I have no arguments nor did the former Attorney General for two full days. I’m not sure I can call it a travesty of justice as the matter is Sub-judice. If it was a mistake to call it that, I hereby render my unconditional apology as I cannot afford the former Attorney General to bail me out. It is here, that my heart goes out for the elderly couple at the gate of the Arthur Road Prison. I just hope and pray whoever they were waiting for and whatever their crime was, he or she was out to celebrate the festive season with them today. Hopefully Justitia’s  (Lady Justice) Blind fold has not gone loose nor have the scales tipped due to the winds of change!

Heart goes out to the father, for whom I have huge respects, as someone who made it on his own in an industry flush with nepotism and familial rights. He was truly an embodiment of the great Indian middle-class common man making it big in the glitzy world of Bollywood. His affluence to get his son temporarily out of legal trouble might not compensate for the pain he might go through at the guilt of having been partly responsible for it to happen.  Sadly, the father fell into the trap like many middle-class parents of his generation, and it was very evident from the interview he gave when his son was hardly 3. He did mention a lot of things in jest, that are being attributed to the situation his son has found himself. However, I will definitely not concur to those nor hold that interview against him, as some are doing today. But will certainly hold him responsible for one statement he made in that interview. ‘He should do everything I have not done!’, this is one statement from a parent that spells doom for many a kid of this generation.

If this case can become a case study on parenting irrespective of, if you are a celebrity or not, the one statement you should refrain from when bringing up your children is “He or she have/should do everything I did not have / have not done”.

The celebrity sycophancy is another malaise that needs to be dealt with in this case. We had Bollywood divided right at the middle on this case. Virtually vociferous statements of support from people appearing ‘close’ to the celebrity, followed by a few journalists and media houses who rode on the closeness to the celebrity went all out. The noise was, as deafening as the silence from the other half which included the erstwhile Kandhans of Bollywood (not to be mistaken with the Khan-dhans of Bollywood who came out in full support) who refrained from making a statement / tweet of support of the celebrity.

I just hope and pray as the kid made his way back home, the name of which meant a Solemn Vow or a Pledge, made a vow / pledge himself sitting on the leather upholstered seats propelled by an 8 Cylinder engine to not to let his offspring have or do what he did not.

While the intention of the statement from a parent might be good, the execution of that will is not in their hands, just as it was not in the hands of the Super star father who saw stars before he saw his soon-to-be star son after an entire Lunar Cycle of 28 days.

A celestial disorder of sorts!

The Lost art of Public Speaking

 

Public speaking was one art that had the power to stoke revolutions, create nations and also transform people. Sadly, this art like many other yester year artforms is going through a disruptive phase. Disruption is the buzz word these days and those who refuse to be disrupted will fall by the way side. 

 Today public speaking is taught as a skill in schools, and by Life Coaches, Communication gurus, 100-Year-old Non-Profit Organizations etc.  But has the essence of good public speaking been diluted overtime? Content and Language were the quintessential elements that went on to do all things mentioned in the first line of this blog.

Unfortunately, today content and language has been replaced by histrionics and drama and the speeches have been diluted to glorified mono acts on stage. We were taught the importance of the stage dimensions, gesticulations, modulation of our voices and emotional expressions. But all these acts were done only when absolutely necessary and only when the content, the timing of the content and the language warranted it.  

In a good speech the emotions and the drama came from within the deliverer spontaneously, while today the emotions, voice modulation and drama are being practiced during the run up to a speech. Drama was confined only to declamations in those days where one needed to enact the Protagonist of the speech and not just deliver the passage. Growing up I was fortunate to witness some great declamations, a few gems I still remember for the quality of deliverance was a rendering of Francisco's Money is the Root of all evil from Atlas Shrugged, and Shylock addressing Antonio in the infamous Pound of Flesh court scene in Merchant of Venice by acclaimed speakers of my era. The associated drama was a pleasure to watch. Not when a 12-year-old is delivering a Speech on Gandhi on his Birthday, voice modulation yes but no histrionics please as the subject/topic does not warrant it.

We take pride in our knowledge of English and wore our vocabulary skills up our sleeves. We were taught young to pronounce words correctly and write the cursives neatly. The post Industry 3.0 and Satellite television era with exposure to western sitcoms Indians started to imitate the western accent. Children took on from Pokemon, Spiderman and the likes, Teenagers from romcoms, MTV and VTV, desperate housewives from Desperate Housewives and the working executives from Bloomberg, CNN and BBC.

The emergence of BPO’s and Call centers legalized this new found love for western accents and that rubbed on to the Gen Z and their public speaking adventures. So today if you attend a Speech competition you see histrionics, mono act delivered with a borrowed accent swallowing the Ts’ and R’s in the process, just that the native accents make its appearance frequently like the intruders from across the borders. If the topic is humor throw in some clownery too with the rest.

I am no great orator myself, but my advice to thousands of speaking coaches / gurus out there involved in creating a tribe of good speakers, please train them up as speakers who can research and write well on a topic, deliver it with passion not drama, let them pace the stage in a measured way and not run or jump around the stage and for heaven’s sake they don’t need cardboard boats, swords and other paraphernalia  as props to get their message across. Forgive them if they do not pronounce a word right, as long as they can spell it right they are all good. A well delivered speech should stay in the minds of the listener much after they leave the auditorium and the two declamations I mentioned above were heard 31 years back.

These days I get to hear the great ‘I have a Dream’ speech delivered in multiple styles, and soon after, I have Nightmares!!!