Let's begin with a little philosophy. Philosophy's totally the 'in' thing nowadays anyway. (Has been so for a long time, as a matter of fact. Refuse to digress.) People are (in general, always exceptions) considered to be quite a few rungs above animals in the evolutionary hierarchy. For most of us, this is true just because we exist. Some of us are not so lucky and have to work very hard to put up a decent show. But you know, some things will never change. Some basic functional similarities, just because an organism's heart beats. What I'm talking about is(and don't tell me you were expecting this), is the need to look cool.
Every organism does what it thinks it's cool to do. A moth dances around a light for no apparent reason, a dog licks its own ass, a person(being at the pinnacle of evolution that he/she is) does a variety of things. Since blogging about animals is no fun as they can't hit back, let's focus on people in India and list a few, shall we?
- People and music : Some music by definition is cool. Some on the other hand...Auto wallahs listen to item numbers, people sitting inside the autos listen to Metallica. Both pump up the volume when a hot chick walks by, no idea why. Some just pretend to be U2 fans.
- People and books : Half of India thinks Chetan Bhagat's cool. The other half, have actually read his books. Books based on movies are cool too. You can claim you've read them and none the wiser. For example, for people who think they've read The Lord of the Rings, you wouldn't happen to remember who Glorfindel was, would you?
- People and blogging : The less said the better :P
- People and movies : Now this, depends on the people you hang out with to a large extent. For example, claiming to have watched 'Gunda' might not be cool everywhere. Hardly anybody understood Inception, but everybody facebooked(and/or blogged) about it, just because they thought it made them cool. Another example, watching a Hitchcock movie might be cool with your Saturday morning movie club, but your friends will call you a stuck up ass. (They usually do anyway so it mightn't matter.)
- People and sports : Ah, finally. For the average Indian college goer, tell me you're not guilty of claiming to support a certain club in the EPL, and I won't believe you. Girls can be pardoned I guess. (You know how it is with girls and footballers ;) ) Supporting Mannu just because it's the only club you've heard about is well, lame. Supporting an Italian or Spanish club just because you think it's exotic, ergo, it's cool, is kinda stupid too. You might say you genuinely think they're good, but it's not as if anybody's gonna believe you anytime soon :P
- People and facebook : A large percentage of attempting to look cool on facebook includes shortening words. The question is who decides what's cool and what's not? As a general rule of thumb, if it looks lame to you, it is(duh!). A couple examples, 'ma' is generally used as a term of endearment for one's mother. Generally speaking, never use as a short form for 'my' because it's not, and if you're genuinely missing your mom, give her a call or something. '\m/' is often abused to the extent that it becomes redundant. Most people know when to use it, but I've come across, 'Had a horrible day :( \m/' too so you never know. 'Oh and 'Suppalike's' gay btw. Just so you know.
- People and the World Cup : Just in context you know, so worth a mention. People do everything, from supporting England to wanting Argentina to win just so because of the Maradona thingy(Maradona's thingy? I dunno.. ;) )
- People and popular culture : Probably encompasses everything already talked about. You've got to be cautious when you make references to something. Say for example, the retort you make to somebody on facebook, doesn't remain witty if it's not caught. Making references to loads of things, eliminates a large part of your audience, (given there's any to begin with of course.) If you've heard of Venn diagrams, the idea should be pretty obvious.
Some would say looking cool is in your own head. You do what you do best, you do what you feel like. If you don't give a damn about what people think, everything's hunk-dory right? Wrong.
So you've gotta be very careful about what you do and refrain from doing anything that looks even remotely out of place right? Wrong Again. Go figure :P
