The Absent Pride

People in their day-to-day lives mistakenly take a lot of other unrelated parameters to gauge pride. What they do is jump to conclusions regarding them and never even put a miniscule amount of effort into getting to the depth of the person’s character. A lot of these misconceptions can be cleared by just having a harmless chat with their victim. This willful ignorance is character assassination at its best.

Here are a few of the misconceptions that may hide a number of these listed perceptions of the victim.

• Self-sufficiency Because of this, many people reject others company and is largely found in businesses and their dealings. For example, why would a person with a prestigious clientele want to accept incompetent offers? This will be harmful to the reputation of his business. He has got all the things needed to sustain him and can never want more. Needless to say, this is not pride.
• Fear of bad company This fear becomes a barrier in healthy friendships. A friend of mine was rejected another’s company because the person thought of him as a ruffian. The misfit trait he found out was that my friend used first names to address his professors. This was not a gentlemanly conduct in the person’s eyes. So, he kept a distance from him. My friend took this deterrent for pride.
• Indifference This quality largely effects a perception in many people. I was constantly taken for a haughty person by a relative because of never engaging in a talk with her. The truth was that I was wanting for her to make the first move and ignorant of this perception she developed. Gradually, at the behest of a family member, she made the first move and found me out to be a warm, gentle person. Obviously, I was not proud in this case.

These qualities are mistaken because of a lack of effort to know people. Putting to rest the doubts in their minds, people should soften their defenses inflicted by past wounds. These prejudices can result in otherwise courteous individuals’ character assassination. So, never judge a person without knowing him. The result would be a forfeited healthy relationship. Keep your hasty judgments in check.

Big Bangalore

Life in Bangalore is not at all difficult. All one has to do in order to survive among the populace is just a lot of ‘big’ things. Here are three things to emulate Bangaloreans and survive: say it big, talk big and the last, be big. I say this, being a Bangalorean myself.

• Saying it big Bangaloreans, when asked about their acquaintances’ and friends’ work information, always add the adjective ‘big’ to the employer. So, people’s relatives and friends always work for ‘big’ companies- whether you like it or not. All of them work for ‘big’ MNCs, ‘big’ German engineering firms, ‘big’ corporates and so on. This fad is so deep into its people that even a famous FM Radio channel makes big money here and is named ‘Big FM’.
• Talking big Here, whenever people get stuck in traffic snarls and flout rules, there comes a ‘big’ factor into play too. When the law enforcers catch them, they talk ‘big’ things and the officials let them go out of fear. Once, I was caught with my friend by a traffic cop. Being near to an Air Force area, my friend talked ‘big’ that he was from Air Force. We were not apprehended and let go scot-free. His well-built physique played the trick.
• Being big This is an added advantage. One need not do the above two things and lie, if you have this trump card. Life can be like a lion here, if a person is big- needless to say. As it is said, ‘Lions rule, dogs dither’.

Hence, everybody in Bangalore should strive to make it big. Only then, life is more colourful and easy here. Being big makes a big difference in my city and no one can chain a lion. That’s for sure.

The Tyranny of Unearned Respect

People in various families have an inherent tendency to entrust their care into villainous individuals’ hands, who don’t deserve the spot. These undeserving people rule with an iron hand. Most of their antics are related to favouritism and manipulation. Many gullible people have fallen prey to their whims.

Rather than regretting their deliberations later, the best a victim can do is to handpick these candidates thoroughly. Leaving no lacunae in this process, all should be done well to ensure the presiding elders are worthy. These can qualify to be those who have earned their respect among the family members- preferably, popular ones.

I remember a man who was duped by a haughty lady. The eerie nature of the dupe amounting to a few lakhs of rupees was that the victim considered her a mother, when in fact, she was just a relative. After this heist, it was impossible for him to recover the money. All her vile tactics had been implemented and the thoughts she had put into his mind had bore fruit. What resulted was a tremendous mess of relationships. All he could do was detest the vile nature of the woman.

Absolutely nothing can be done to preempt such type of fraud. All a person can do is to understand that the ‘motherly’ nature of the woman is not biological, and hence, is a reason enough to reconsider the overdependence on her decisions. Having blind faith in her deliberations is not a good thing to do. He should hear other kinsmen and not blindly trust her. It would do good for him not to remain objective in his opinions about trustworthy people throughout- another trace of this dupe.

People should welcome others inhibitions and benefit from them.