Baby Boomers

Who are they?

Baby Boomers are the generation of humans born between 1946 and 1964. This term has come from the western countries where Child birth rate expanded altogether, principally due to post world war 2 conditions.
Not sure if this same name and reason can be applied to the generation born in India during the same period. But it is noticeable that most of our parents do belong to this generation.
Our parents in India, of this age, have seen perfect and striking range of changes in the course of their life.

Circumstances

They were born during the time when the country was just learning to take toddler steps. There was confusion, chaos in admiration and corruption and hence the poverty was inevitable among most of the families.
We have all heard of the success stories of our parents who not only endured the terrible times but also thrived with it.
They have been a part of a completely different education system which was not of much money oriented. Most of them didn’t have much fortune to spend on education. Going to school itself was a burden on their family, as they would lose an earning hand.

Technology revolution

There were hardly any good means of communication. Be it by road or telephone or electronic media. Their world was so small.
Then the slow revolution happened.
Trees were cut to make an ever-increasing need of houses for the growing population.
Houses turned from paddy grass roofed to tile roofed to concrete roof.
Communicating with the Letters faded with the arrival of landline phone, and then cell phones
Entertainment became a major part of their life with the arrival of Radios, which were soon replaced by Monochrome TVs and then color TV to wall sized flat LCD HD TV.
Commuting got easier with bicycle, faster with Motorbike and luxurious with cars

Race lost

Many were able to keep up with the changing times pace. Very few were left behind.
It is when the entire world began to rely upon computerized devices and tools for everything, this age nearly lost the race. Apparently, they became too tired y the race to keep up with the constantly changing, evolving world.
At this time, out of frustration, they started to fantasize about the early phase of this change.

The coping mechanism

They started comparing the lifestyle between generations and started exaggerating the ‘tougher times’ they faced in their more youthful days.

They failed to remember that the change happened constantly and not dramatically. Human emotion was always the combination of blissful and miserable state. He always compared self with the people around. Time to time there were different levels to compare with. There were always a set of individuals underneath our benchmark of happiness by comparing with whom we felt happy and the set of people over our level to whom we desired to be.

Life has always balanced, the happiness and satisfaction by constantly adjusting between these two levels.

May 31, 2022 by Society 0

Shelter

Shelter


Have you ever paid a close attention to the ad billboard, or brochure of any housing projects?

They are almost sure to have a non-native, pale skinned model exercising in a gym.
Or a happy white family with blond haired kids playing around.
Or a healthy elderly couples (non-local) walking in the exotic mini park within the premise.

I have hardly seen any middle class, dark-colored humans, in the advertisements of these concepts yet.

What is it that these builders and promoters are trying to convey here?

Are they exploiting the upper middle class mindset of society, which has assumed the superiority of the western lifestyle on self? By having western essence in the advertisements, is promoter trying to deliver the lie of comfort and delight to the deluded individual?

Hundreds of projects around Bengaluru are in shambled state within 10 years of the erection. They stand, as the sheer evidence, for the false promises imposed on the fantasy of ownership.

January 13, 2022 by Art of Noticing 0

Road

Road

The road is the reflection of the vivid differences of different lifestyles. Everyone with different form, style, speed, luxury, pain, and purpose. Some on two-wheels, some on four. Many share their journey, few on their own. Someone going slow and some in crazy speed. A few enjoying the journey, some hoping for the end. Road is like time.

Though the journey of each start and ends at some point, the road itself doesn’t end.

January 5, 2022 by Thoughts 0

Monkey Trap

Monkey Trap

Monkey trap is one of the simplest method to catch monkeys and somehow it has proved to work every time.

Method is simple. Take a hollow enclosure, a can, or an empty tender coconut shell and make a hole of size enough for the monkey to put its hand inside it. Place a banana or any eatable inside this to lure the monkey. Keep it accessible to the monkey.

Eventually a hungry monkey comes, sees the food inside and puts his hand inside. Holds the banana and tries to take its hand outside. Alas! The hole isn’t big enough to allow the monkey’s fist holding the food. Monkey doesn’t realize this and goes into panic mode. While the focus of the monkey is to escape the trap, it forgets that it has to let go of the food it is holding to save his ass.

Monkey trap is highly relatable to the human clinging to that single idea and believing that solution should be around it and getting trapped inside it forever.

Maybe the real solution is to empty the cup and let go of what we already think is true. Looking at the world with the fresh perspective might be the only way to escape the monkey trap.

January 4, 2022 by Confirmation bias 0

Driven by Rewards

candy

First day of the month is the day of payments for me. To pay all the credit cards bill at one place, I use the service called CRED. In turn, CRED uses me to sell its products to me. Here is how.

As usual, I paid a card bill. Alas! Bravo, it’s a task to pay the bill, so here is your reward for completing it: CRED gave me the game to spin the wheel (A skeuomorph of a typical casino game) 10 times. It promised that if I get 7- 7- 7 on each wheel, I will get something big.

A free game! Why not. I started spinning. For each spin you have to pay 1000 Cred coins (Yet another useless reward coins you get whenever you pay credit card bill. 1 rs payment = 1 cred coin). Each spin is designed in such a way that during round 5 or 6 you will be rewarded with something smaller of what you get if you hit the jackpot.

At round 5 I got some pattern matched and wow! Congratulations to myself, I got 8 days free membership at Cult fit!. Then I noticed, this game was sponsored by Cult fit- A fitness organization.

According to Cult fit: I got totally satisfied with the reward of 8 days free membership to their classes. Definitely I will try that. They can influence me in those 8 days to enroll me into their annual or monthly plans. After all, fitness is what we all worry about. ‘Taking care’ of myself is what matters in the end in this polluted, contaminated and adulterated world.
Oh! For 8 days, shouldn’t I shop for some workout outfits? After all, I must look healthy lifestyle enthusiast. Wait, Cultfit has their own clothing brands to satisfy my needs. They can’t be more good to me!

Meanwhile, CRED: See, you got a reward of 8 days of free membership just by paying a card due amount. We are so charitable. Would you like to try some more spins sponsored by other companies? If not, we have some more games and rewards for you. After all, keeping you glued to the app is utmost important to us so that we can sell more ads and attract more potential sponsors. Don’t you believe us? Ok, let us give you real cash backs of 2 Rs. Hope you believe us now. We work for your welfare.

Damn, I am uninstalling CRED.

January 1, 2022 by Society 0

Restrictions

Poop board
No poop please

Recently, when we were strolling around the streets of BTM Layout, we spotted a dog pooping in the middle of the road. The owner of the dog picked up the poop and immediately dumped it inside a plastic bag which he had carried along. Having witnessed too much of weirdness in this era of social media influenced society, we were wondering if any new trend has started online! Within a minute, we spotted the above board. Felt relieved, realizing that the world has not gone completely insane yet. But are we in the beginning of it?

Clearly, the above rule applies only to the house dogs. Street dogs give a damn about this dog shit.

As a part of cultured and educated society, we too have bound ourselves into set of rules and regulations, which applies only to the domesticated humans.

Instructions are everywhere. Follow traffic rules, wear masks/ helmet/seatbelts, pay taxes, don’t litter the place, No parking, No honking, Go slow, No billboards etc.

Those who are concerned will follow without imposition, and those who are not will not abide by them genuinely anyway.

What if you had authority to put your own sign boards over the places, what would you have written?

Below are my choices:

  • Queue please : At each bus station
  • Wash your hands: Male pee stations
  • No entry: for late comers in movie theaters
  • Behave responsibly: at tourist places
  • No cake cutting: At weddings / public places
  • No phones: Inside a theater
  • No Music: At Restaurants

And the list grows…

December 30, 2021 by Art of Noticing 0

Fun, Defined

mark manson
From the blog post of famous author Mark manson

Found above interesting quote from one of the blog posts of famous author Mark manson.

Since the revolution of social media, it has become a trend among all generations to mandatorily have fun or at least express that they are having fun.
People of our age have suddenly become wanderlusts.
WhatsApp has brought out many naive singers and dancers out of 60+aged parents.
Dancing and performance at a family event has become a ritual.

Doesn’t matter if they know how to dance, you shouldn’t judge them because they are having ‘fun’. They are ‘living their life to the fullest’.
If you are shy and introvert, you are ‘missing’ too much of life.

It is sad how measures of ‘having fun’ is being defined by social networking and agenda driven, commercial embedded cheap media contents.

Sitting on a rock bench, and quietly observe the leaves rustling, listening to a random tune from a bird hidden inside some invisible nest, calmly hearing all the chaos out there in the world can also be fun.
Spending the whole day doing nothing but lying on a couch, reading a few pages of a book, can also be fun in its own way.

Things we do on any typical day need not be labelled as ‘fun’ ‘boring’ ‘mundane’. They are just the way they are.

December 29, 2021 by Society 0

Unheeded

St Mary's Island
Natural Rock Formation at St Mary’s Island

The above images are of the stone structures formed naturally at St Mary’s Island, Udupi, India.

Even though they seem perfectly symmetrically and artificially sculpted, there is no humans’ contribution for this beauty.

Strange and sad thing to note here is that most of the tourists visiting this island, ignore this very beauty, for which this island is famous for. As soon as they enter the island, they swarm into the water and spend time playing in the beach.

December 28, 2021 by Art of Noticing 0
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