Anamika......

How do I start this - ok, lemme try. I have a confession to make - i have not been reading ::Gasp, Horror!!::

Well, not "no reading" exactly, but just no "me reading"...know what I mean?

I'll explain - most of us like to pursue some leisure activity, right? Its part of being human, de-stressing, yada yada yada. Well, till a few months ago, mine used to be reading - yup, I was one one of those who used to read for pleasure ::sigh....::

Woh bhi din the. But fast-forward to the present, and after a day spent reading reports, research papers, IMF documents, FT, and more reports, somehow I seem to have lost the enthu for reading beyond work. Somewhere, in all those reports, lies a "illuminatus triology" half-forgotten, a "history of the world" unstarted and in-numerous Vikram Seths, Agatha Cristies, and Joanna Harrises unfinished. The last book I started was "Sisterhood of travelling pants" and I have yet to progree beyond the 1st chapter! Per my facebook bookshelf I am currently in the process of reading atleast 6 different books - I dont know how!

To be honest, the last book I read was Sayed Mirza's "Ammi-letters to a democratic mother" but it was only thanks to an extended long break at home that I think I managed to do so.

So what is it that makes us lose touch with hobbies/activities infact even people, places that at one point in time we saw as crucial to making/defining us. Is it plain ennui, or is it a sheer reluctance to push ourselves? I mean, you can take it easy since its only you who is going to know it in any case! what is it?

I dont know...but I would like to know...

Laziness seems too simplistic. The other standard fave is "lack of time". However given that I've had weekends in the past few months wherein I have literally forced myself to go out or watch TV or whatever, naaaaaaaaaaaah. I mean my motto has always been "read whatever possible, even if its 2 lines!" One of my personal faves is "saturation" - u know you tend to read so much as a part of your daily routine that by the end of the day/week when u think its your "me" time or zone-out time, u've literally had enuf! But saturated at 26 - take a hike lady, that is so not gonna pass the litmus;-))

Ok, here's a last attempt, but probably they dont make them good any longer! I mean what in recent years can compare to the pathos and drama of "The tale of 2 cities", or the intense pain in "MacBeth" or the magic and wonderment in "Alice in wonderland..."? call me old-fashioned but I m pretty sure the new-age aficionados will be screaming "off with her head"!

Hmmmm...m stuck!

Lost!

Confused! ::again????::

till later...

P.S. The title holds coz i dint knw what 2 call this one - "Anamika" translates into "without a name":D:D haha gotcha!!

P.P.S. I just realized that I have of reading to catch up on apart from all the writing that I need to pen down! M totally screwed man!! Bhagwan, please bachao!!!

The stereotyping of a typically-reluctant-non-vegetarian!

Ladies and gentlemen (as a young girl I always used to spoof this as general-men but that's a digression that warrants a stand-alone entry!:D), this is the story of a boy and a girl - actually some 2 boys and 3 girls and a typically academic discussion. For most occasions, the group under consideration loves food - eating, talking, cooking, talking, debating, talking, sharing, talking (u get the general drift) FOOD. Infact, food is such a universal conversation-"starter" that it is the only true competitor to the weather and bollywood(? !! ahem!). No wonder some of the best chef designed experiments are called "starters" - probably they are referring to loud/subtle but in any case vocal verdicts/debates/discusssions. However, unfortunately this entry is not about food (sigh, i do have a lot of catch-up-on-my-writing to do but promise loads on food later:D). This one is about stereotypes!!

What is a stereotype? Walter Lippmann answered this question metaphorically by calling a stereotype a "picture in our heads" typically about people based on certain common characteristics....(italics mine) To extend the definition further, one could theretically have stereotypes about places, cultures, books, etc coz its just another form of categorization - though I could not find any evidence of this in literature, however, it sounds possible logically - "a typical pagan culture", "a typical quaint-little irish town" and so on. Please note that I am no expert on the topic and speak only from my limited knowledge and reading. However, in the big-picture context, sterotyping is an extremely simplistic way of profiling people across disciplines - beyond the obvious examples, econometrics uses demographic profiling to generate results based on representative sample-sets, advertisments are simplistic expansion-oriented tools based on demand projections again from target audience sets..Nice, vairy vairy nice. Also extremely convenient to bucket people and use the "common" charateristics for "uncommon" good;-)

Unfortunately, does that not make all of us conformists? I mean, by moving from individuals to sterotypes to groups, as rational thinking beings, do we necessarily want to conform? all of us? as someone else chooses to define us? Think about it, its a bit scary. But more importantly it proves a bigger point - man is a social animal. We all like to belong - even though we may be the "typical rebels"!!:D:D

Therefore, I may scream from my roof-top about my lack of deep deep love for non-veg, when it comes to eating I choose to conform to a stereotype - that of a non-vegetarian who can happily cross over to the other side yet is reluctant to do so...

still confused,

the reluctant you-know-what by now!