Ok, I got a serious bout of writer’s block & I hereby suspend the Singapore series until further notice-so the latest thing from the blogger’s wok is a “10 series” Each day (don’t count on that-I’ve had a few false starts) I’ll try to put forth a candid take on life’s elements-today, its 10 types of people I would like to stay away from: (in no particular order of repulsion)
a) Feigned Familarity seekers- These are the types who met you yesterday and proclaimed themselves as your best friends day before-easily recognizable with the pretentious smile, heightened encroachment of personal space and those attempts at sharing laughs & just that hint of a private joke (when none exists) , especially when someone else is around. I find it easier to hug (cute) strangers than to breathe the same oxygen as these characters.
b) Talkathon Tyrants- They love talking about various subjects, as long as those subjects start and end with themselves-be warned, some of them might be funny in the beginning, but as the minutes wear off, so does your patience. They somehow missed the gazillion trainings on how to be a good listener & how to read body language-loss of eye contact, yawns…nothing works-so unless you want to put yourself through a torture test or practice exclamations like “really!” or “how interesting”-Stay away!
c) Acquired acquaintances- These are the friends’ friends or relatives’ relatives who happen to have one common variable as you- age group, location, marital status, work place, language, nationality, what-have-you. Obviously an evening based on one common variable can get pretty dull and full of those pregnant pauses when people are wondering what to say or when dinner would be served.
d) Hypocrites- No explanations here. People who say what they don’t mean and are opportunistically double faced get nothing but severe condemnation from me.
e) Steal the Thunder types- These are the guys who try to one-up you each time, even when they don’t have anything to supersede your achievement-the intention is to just steal your moment and shift the spotlight on to themselves. Remember Boman Irani in Waqt? “yeh to kuch bhi nahi hai”-“asli so and so to tab hua tha jab main…”
f) I-told-you-so- This is probably the worst your support system can do-take the moment to gloat on their judgement rather than the predicament facing you. What’s annoying about this variety is that they are not unequivocally bad-just too enamored by how right they were and how you should have listened to them-but then again, isn’t it always easier to be smarter in hindsight?
g) Wannabes- This variety can manifest itself in many ways- trying to pass off a false American accent, wearing tons of garish gold, flaunting material possessions to unsuspecting guests, not watching Hindi movies coz they are oh-so-passé, laughing in spite of not catching on to the joke, speaking in a deplorable version of English (despite being fluent in another language),….oh the list is endless. Being something other than yourself is the worst sort of dishonesty & maybe the most damaging thing you could do to yourself.
h) Fair weather friends-its quite a misnomer to call those who are there by your side when things are hunky dory but do the vanishing act when things are no longer great. How can you count on someone who is opportunistic enough to synchronize their appearance in your life with the crests & troughs of your life? I’d rather send these parasites to a loyalty boot camp.
i) Activist relatives- You know I truly support the wise guy/girl who said that “you can choose your friends, but not your relatives”-The amount of interference & interest in your life that your relatives exhibit & exercise tends to be exponentially proportional to your age (e.g-time to get married?) and income (why do you want to do this kind of a job?) and inversely proportional to your distance from them (both physical and emotional). Nothing to discount the well meaning concern that does shine through on many occasions, but when you know the other person actually doesn’t know zilch about you nor does he/she take pains to understand what you really want, you just wish this was an independent variable you could drop off life’s calculations..!
j) Anyone who doesn’t respect people- This includes making fun of physically challenged people, sexual harassment, racism, discrimination on any pathetic basis-anything essentially that you wouldn’t want for yourself or your near & dear ones. Seriously, it maddens me no end if people don’t treat others with the same dignity and compassion that they’d expect from the society.
Btw, this is not a comprehensive list of the people I want to stay away from-its an indicative list ;) 10 just seemed to sexy to resist. Watch this space for “10 more types of people I would want to stay away from :)
a) Feigned Familarity seekers- These are the types who met you yesterday and proclaimed themselves as your best friends day before-easily recognizable with the pretentious smile, heightened encroachment of personal space and those attempts at sharing laughs & just that hint of a private joke (when none exists) , especially when someone else is around. I find it easier to hug (cute) strangers than to breathe the same oxygen as these characters.
b) Talkathon Tyrants- They love talking about various subjects, as long as those subjects start and end with themselves-be warned, some of them might be funny in the beginning, but as the minutes wear off, so does your patience. They somehow missed the gazillion trainings on how to be a good listener & how to read body language-loss of eye contact, yawns…nothing works-so unless you want to put yourself through a torture test or practice exclamations like “really!” or “how interesting”-Stay away!
c) Acquired acquaintances- These are the friends’ friends or relatives’ relatives who happen to have one common variable as you- age group, location, marital status, work place, language, nationality, what-have-you. Obviously an evening based on one common variable can get pretty dull and full of those pregnant pauses when people are wondering what to say or when dinner would be served.
d) Hypocrites- No explanations here. People who say what they don’t mean and are opportunistically double faced get nothing but severe condemnation from me.
e) Steal the Thunder types- These are the guys who try to one-up you each time, even when they don’t have anything to supersede your achievement-the intention is to just steal your moment and shift the spotlight on to themselves. Remember Boman Irani in Waqt? “yeh to kuch bhi nahi hai”-“asli so and so to tab hua tha jab main…”
f) I-told-you-so- This is probably the worst your support system can do-take the moment to gloat on their judgement rather than the predicament facing you. What’s annoying about this variety is that they are not unequivocally bad-just too enamored by how right they were and how you should have listened to them-but then again, isn’t it always easier to be smarter in hindsight?
g) Wannabes- This variety can manifest itself in many ways- trying to pass off a false American accent, wearing tons of garish gold, flaunting material possessions to unsuspecting guests, not watching Hindi movies coz they are oh-so-passé, laughing in spite of not catching on to the joke, speaking in a deplorable version of English (despite being fluent in another language),….oh the list is endless. Being something other than yourself is the worst sort of dishonesty & maybe the most damaging thing you could do to yourself.
h) Fair weather friends-its quite a misnomer to call those who are there by your side when things are hunky dory but do the vanishing act when things are no longer great. How can you count on someone who is opportunistic enough to synchronize their appearance in your life with the crests & troughs of your life? I’d rather send these parasites to a loyalty boot camp.
i) Activist relatives- You know I truly support the wise guy/girl who said that “you can choose your friends, but not your relatives”-The amount of interference & interest in your life that your relatives exhibit & exercise tends to be exponentially proportional to your age (e.g-time to get married?) and income (why do you want to do this kind of a job?) and inversely proportional to your distance from them (both physical and emotional). Nothing to discount the well meaning concern that does shine through on many occasions, but when you know the other person actually doesn’t know zilch about you nor does he/she take pains to understand what you really want, you just wish this was an independent variable you could drop off life’s calculations..!
j) Anyone who doesn’t respect people- This includes making fun of physically challenged people, sexual harassment, racism, discrimination on any pathetic basis-anything essentially that you wouldn’t want for yourself or your near & dear ones. Seriously, it maddens me no end if people don’t treat others with the same dignity and compassion that they’d expect from the society.
Btw, this is not a comprehensive list of the people I want to stay away from-its an indicative list ;) 10 just seemed to sexy to resist. Watch this space for “10 more types of people I would want to stay away from :)
1 comment:
gosh lady, you do 10 more and I am sure you'll end up staying away from mankind .. lol.. !
by the way .. "10 series" sounds fun .. you should checkout Guy Kawasaki's blog at http://blog.guykawasaki.com - he is famous for his 10-point blog posts ... !
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