Curiosity

Your mind always has an insatiable hunger for interesting information. It could be scientific facts or workplace gossip. The key emphasis of the sentence was the word 'insatiable'. Some saints once said - Curiosity kills. Your mind desperately seeks answers to a lot of questions, but you feel like you can't find any. You try running in different directions hoping to find a meaningful path somewhere. But what are you left with? Nothing! Infact if you're pretty unlucky, you might just end up with more questions. Let's check your BP - 150/100 - Phew!

Ok how did we come here? Where did we begin? You might have pretty much lost track of the path - what brought you here is the force that drives it all - curiosity. If you weren't curious, you wouldn't be moving at all. Your movement might be forward or sideways, but you're moving nonetheless. Sometimes, the same saints also say - Ignorance is bliss! The only instance where that sentence might be true is when curiosity has no effect on you. Let's check your BP - 120/80 - the doctors would probably agree too!

It's a little complicated. To understand what I've been saying, you need to be either one of the following:

• cursed with too much intelligence or 
• bored out of your wits! 

Anyway, I have realized that curiosity is visible in all walks of life. You can be curious about information, about material goods and funnily also about people. Sometimes when you observe a couple of people, you tend to learn about how they behave in different situations. You try and discover their personality and make a lot of assumptions in the process. The very reason why you are in this pursuit is because you don't have the answers. If you did - they'd just be normal people. There wouldn't be anything about them that interests you - and to put it simply, you wouldn't care two hoots about them! 

The only inference I can make from all this is that - we love the chase! We love seeking answers even if it drives us crazy. We love running behind things or people hoping everyday that we would learn something new. With every new ounce of information, we build our knowledge wall ... but the architect in your mind never tells you its limiting height. This hunger to learn is insatiable. 

What makes you stop then? Let's assume you do stop at some point - does that mean you're no longer interested? Have you got all the answers you needed? Or is it pointless to probe further because you aren't going to achieve anything meaningful? As I said, it's complicated. My BP is at 150/100 again - the doctor isn't going to be happy!

If you're reading this - you've reached a point where you have more questions than you did when you began reading this post. I never told you I was going to give you the answers either. We are all thinkers. We are all curious. We may not be obsessive and compulsive - but then again, that's a choice you'd have to make. So what do you do when you get obsessively curious? The only solution is to let go ... but ... How?

This is a weakness of the human mind. It can be easily tricked if it goes to the point of curiosity - it has reached a vulnerable state. Anything you say or do in this state will penetrate easily. This is true even for the most guarded people. But can we really use this to our benefit? Or should we? Hmm.... I think not!

Rather, let's follow 2 simple principles to keep the curiosity alive:

1. Never tell people everything you know.

2.

Popularity

All through your childhood, you listen to the broken record of "Hardwork brings Success". Over the years, Success has become synonymous with Fame and unfortunately Hardwork with Stupidity.

You don't need Talent to become a known face. You can achieve the same with Stupidity. Make an incredibly useless video of yourself and put it up on YouTube. Share it on all the other networking sites to get a wider audience. The catch is that you would need to do all the stupidity with a straight poker face. Make others believe that you seriously think you are talented. You get people's attention, they laugh AT you (you play to the audience saying 'they are laughing WITH you') and you lose every last ounce of respect in the process.

What is this dire need to become popular? So what if you're a Nobody? Isn't that what every famous person wants to be? How is it that you are absolutely OK coming off as a complete idiot? 

Sigh! 

#Things I will never understand!

10 things about the 5 steps to make 3 points in 1 story.

That is probably my longest post title yet. But its easy to read. Why? - its because you find a lot of numbers in it.

Our brain processes words better if they are in the form of lists or points. It helps us remember what we read. Readers get a sense of accomplishment if they remember what they read - else it feels like a futile exercise.

You have a staircase in front of you. Right beside it, is an ascending slope. Both begin at point A and end at point B. If you want to enjoy and appreciate the journey, rather than the destination, you would choose the staircase. You know beforehand how many steps it would take to reach point B and at every instant, you are aware of which step you are on.

Let me give you 5 ways to understand what I just said:
1. Your brain understand crisp points better than long sentences.
2. If you remember what you read, you appreciate the reading process.
3. A good read is a well-written flight of stairs.
4. My three paragraphs are in the three crisp points above. You now remember the flow of my story.
5. You know I'm going to conclude here because you are aware I said "5 points" in the beginning.

Ofcourse, such lists are easy to remember only if the number of points are < than the number of fingers you've got! Its the best way to summarise and emphasise the important messages in your story. Also remember that people are afraid of long sentences - they fear that it would put them to sleep! And more often than not, it doesZzzz...

So basically I'm saying - Bullet, number or star your short and crisp messages because...

Packaging is as important as content!

Konfused Kolkata

India's first capital. This city has a charm that's appealing in most cases. But it is quite confused. There's always an old and new to everything here.

The name. Drape a red and white saree around 'Calcutta' and stuff its mouth with a few roshogullas - you'll end up with 'Kolkata'. Here both names are quite commonly used.

The bridges. Our dear Bongs love the concept of bridges. You'll find two Howrah's along the Hooghli river. Although they've been christened differently, popularly they are referred to as the Old Howrah and the New Howrah.

The city. Time travelling exists in Kolkata. In a few sectors, if you aren't paying much attention to detail, you'll feel like you've travelled from the 1920s to the 21st century. There is such a drastic difference between Old Kolkata and New Kolkata. The older version of the city has elements of the colonial era, but the British aren't here to maintain it and neither did they teach us how to. Hence, you might find it noisy and dirty.

The buses. Public transport in this city is quite colourful. All the taxis here are yellow. But the buses? You'll find a few buses in red, a few in green and a few in blue. The Govt was too confused to limit the buses to one colour.

The weather. In winter, the sun sets around 4.30 pm. I agree that this is due to India's decision to standardise time in the country, but this causes a lot of visual confusion. The city is completely dark before the clock strikes 5.15 pm.

The people. Here i'm only talking about the people on the roads. Drivers of trucks/buses/taxis/cars are quite restless and confused - the roads become one-way/two-way based on the time of day. Pedestrians are quite confused - the signals fluctuate and are quite misleading. Most others seem like they are on a race against time. They want to reach some place urgently, but they don't really know where they want to go.

This konfusion is quite kontagious. If you're kaught in the middle of it, without intending to, you know you're in Kolkata.