Skip to main content

Unending Surprises

The first one was titled "The Common man". It was a short story set in India that narrated the story of an not so well to do man who goes for a haircut at an upscale hairstylist. There he witnesses some incredulous sights and ends up paying probably his month's salary only to have his hair washed and snipped. I sped through it, clicking at sections further down the video bar, for the video was slow and I knew how it was going to end. I scrolled down. "Watch what happens when a lion startles a Hippo". The caption gave it away and I clicked the link with the expectation of a Hippo breaking a lion into two. Unfortunately, the website was only willing to revel its full contents in return for me disabling my ad blocker. Fat chance so I closed that tab and scrolled down again. "Giant Ramen. Only in Japan", caught my attention. This one was quite cool. The ramen was huge and they showed a foodie digging into it bit by bit. 

That is how most of our days are wasted. The internet is a wonderland of surprises, full of videos that astonishes, shocks and keeps us rooted to our seat. once we are done with one video, the internet is ready with the next. Slowly, what little time we have is burned and before we know it, the day is over.

And we wonder why real life, regardless of how far we go, what we see or who we meet, is so unfulfilling, boring and routine. Maybe because we have lost the capacity to be surprised, because everything there is to see, we have seen, behind that bright little screen.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Journey to the West : Mind Your Language

"Lettuce, tomatoes, onions and spinach", I pointed out to the lady wearing the apron behind the counter. She looked at me questioningly. "LET-USE, TOE-MAT-OH, OH-NION, SPEA-NATCH", I repeated with better enunciation. She looked back down at the the multiple compartments of colourful mix of vegetables, leaves and fruits and methodically grabbed some from each, while repeating the names of the ones she grabbed. "Let-us, Toe-mado, Ah-nion, Spee-Nuch", she clarified. I shrank a bit in embarrassment. With every passing day in the country, my belief that the English education that I received in a former British Colony, that set high and rarely achieved standards in English for its students, was of substandard quality, strengthens. In a well intentioned effort to assimilate, I have over the past couple of months tried to mimic the pronunciation of the Texans. "Howz'it goin man?" "Ye'no"   "Can I ha...

An Eye for an Eye

"Something that three or four years ago you told me was one of the touchstones of maturity: being nice to people even when they’re not nice to you…" - William Styron It was an plan that came out of nowhere. Perhaps half depressed by the winter and half depressed by the inactivity at work, there was sufficient turmoil in the mind to create these type of plans and then let it fester, until something that started off with a what-if turned into a why-not. It would have been the perfect revenge for the past hurt and humiliation that was yet to completely heal.  The circumstances were similar. On one side, an eager visitor who had traveled far to say "Hello" and on the other side, a host, bewildered and surprised by this visit. In the first case, the host would not receive the visitor, who would turn back humiliated and vowing never again. Now the roles were reversed and I was the host. What if I agreed to receive? What if in reality I did not plan to receive? ...

Another Day at the Office

"I am sorry, but are you good at IT?", she inquired with the most apologetic of expression. I gave her an incredulous look. Seriously? This was the second time I was being asked that question in one month and I took offense. It was almost as if the world judged that the only reason my race would be allowed to venture overseas was to fix other people's computers. "No. I am a production engineer", I replied, half wondering if I should clarify it had nothing to do with human production, which my people are also well known for. "Oh. That is a pity. Our printer broke down and we were wondering how to fix it", she said pointing to a piece of contraption that lay on the table nearby. Men being men, I offered to help. On walking over and looking into the inside of the contraption, I saw what most millennials see if they were to ever see the inside of the multiple devices they are perpetually holding onto; abyss. I doubted she would give me a discount f...