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How opinions are formed

There are people with opinions and some without. Among the ones with opinions, some have their own and some borrowed. People with their own opinions are great as long as they can justify their side of the argument and also stick by it. The problem really lies with these pseud people with borrowed opinions. These people go by the mob mentality. Their opinions are a twisted compilation of the majority junta.

Even worse, some of them think that by just putting down a new idea or going against the mob makes for a great opinion.

Gandhigiri – To be the change you want to see

I believe Citizens are mostly of 5 kinds :

(I am going to take a very Astoma Satgamaya (bad to good) kind of approach)

1. Those that are not in the system. People who are indifferent to governance.

2. Those that are in the system and realize there are problems.

3. Those that see these problems and complain about them. Just complain since they seem to have all the time in the world to complain but not to do anything to rectify them.

4. Those that see complain and wish to do something about these problems, but unfortunately either don’t know how to counter these issues or just do a bad job of it. But, potential are there.

5. Those that are the change they want to see.

I want to share one of my experiences with mentoring children for a civic project 2 winters ago. We were getting 7th standard kids to understand the concept of our neighborhood while most of us grown ups can’t even spell the word right!!

For one, I liked the topic better than the previous years’. It was very diverse & vague which meant a lot of freedom to experiment with ideas, etc. The project guidelines in reality could set fewer boundaries.

These children were given 3 months to work on their project. Each team consisted of 7 kids and there were 15 teams or so from 3 different sections of the Grade 7/8 from one school. Then the best team from each of the 8-10 different schools (different income level schools, aided & private) was made to present its project at the grand finale.

All these schools belonged to different wards of the same zone, mostly from North Bangalore.

You could see each of the above 5 kinds clearly among these groups.

There were ‘had no clue what the topic is’ group (but great presentation skills), cut copy paste group, ‘for the heck of it’ group, great research work group & ‘action with impact’ group.

It wasn’t surprising to see that schools from Malleswaram were the ones that stood out since there is a strong resident welfare association that has done considerable work in keeping the citizens well informed and driven by community work. Rajajinagar schools also did well since my team had worked with them very closely and we knew exactly how to get the expected results. The children didn’t let us down either. I guess I would classify them as type 4.

Anyway, there was this one group that particularly impressed me. Being a high income group school was an added advantage which meant that the worldly exposure & quality of education they receive is superior compared to the govt schools.

What impressed me about them : This group had walked the entire stretch from Navrang circle to Malleswaram circle surveying the impact of Metro & Underpass on every house/ shop on that road. Since most people felt that dust and traffic congestion took a toll on them, these kids did a cycle rally on that road and distributed hand made paper bags to every shop on that road to encourage pollution reduction. It was probably a one day effort and might not have contributed in such a big way to reduction of pollution in Malleswaram but I see it as a strong belief that they can make a difference and just a desire in every kid’s heart on that team to be the change they want to see!

Denial – The price you needn’t pay for.

As strange as it may seem, this is very true. Be it physical intimacy or work!

“What makes him come and bug us so much for the data?” That’s because we don’t give him the data. That excites him. That challenges him.

All of us love challenges.

If you were to make a pass at someone and they were to give in immediately, your first thought would be on the lines of either the woman being a nottie or you making a bad move.
And, if she didn’t give in immediately, then the woman’s a hottie and you wouldn’t stop trying till either she gave in and you gave up!
Here again, the enjoyment level is directly proportional to the amount of denial. Denial builds a false price around everything.

Now, if a kid was to ask for a lollypop and he/she was given one immediately, it’s no fun! If the kid were denied the lollypop and then after he/she pushed its luck far enough after crying and rolling all over the floor, then its seems like a major high for the kid.
The child feels like he/she has achieved something. Then there is more incentive to enjoy the lollypop.

How about a more adult situation like bargaining on the streets?
You want a lemon. It costs 3 bucks. You earn a million. Yet, you are not satisfied till you make him sell it to you for 2 bucks. The sense of achievement one might get for saving that a buck is higher than earning a million!!

And guess what, you would absolutely hate it if he agreed to sell it for a buck lesser quite easily. What we really enjoy is being denied, and not saving that 1 buck!!

This is also the underlying principle behind sexual harassment.

Why most married men make boring bloggers

Sri. (Something I write on top on the first page everytime I start writing in a new book. Its probably because of how the letter curves in Kannada)

I’ve heard enough complaints about the deteriorating quality of this blog over the last one year and I simply couldn’t help not thinking about it.

First of all, what made this blog so interesting was the occasional sprinkling of posts on women, relationship & love amidst the interesting fundaes on eco, politics, finance, etc which is not the case anymore.

The way a guy writes about a girl when he is single is so different from when he is married to her. The style of writing changes from starry eyed, inquisitive to mundane & cynical. The girl seems like a closed box of treasure to an open one now. Nobody cares about the box once you’ve seen what’s in it no matter how interesting it is. You get the hang of it, right?

When a guy says very sweet things about his wife, male readers know the truth in it and the female readers like to simply believe it and see how differently it works in their lives and don’t want to read anymore of it. Hence, you lose most of your readers.

P.S – The title is taking generalization a bit too far.