So What's Your Coolness Quotient?

Maybe you are the "cool" generation If coolness means a capacity to stay calm and use your head in the service of ends passionately believed in, then it has my admiration.
Kingman Brewster, Jr. (A 20th Century Dude)


The above-mentioned statement exemplifies the image of a 20th century cool person. He was someone who cared little about the worldly things, someone who always appeared to be confident, someone who loved to be liked and liked to be loved, who had goals and almost always achieved them. .


Now, it's 2010. And the cool dudes of today are so much different than the cool dudes of the last century. It's not just what they are- its how they talk, how they walk, their interests, their hobbies et al. Today's cool dudes are more about presentability than personality. More about sound of their voice rather than the contents of their speech. So who is today's cool dude? And what is today's coolness quotient?


From a kind perusal of some of today's hunks, it can be said that the coolness quotient of today's dudes is directly proportional to:


1) Length of the hair
2) Curliness of their hair
3) Closeness of their jeans to their ass (or how less it's covering their ass!)
4) Number of intellectual sounding words they use (per minute!)
5) Number of highly popular, but hardly meaningful words they use ("whack", "yo", "bro", "sup" and "*uck" et all)


The definition and description of coolness has changed gradually over the decades. What people considered cool then, is so uncool now. Take this conversation from The Simpsons:


Homer: So, I realized that being with my family is more important
than being cool.
Bart: Dad, what you just said was powerfully uncool.
Homer: You know what the song says: "It's hip to be square".
Lisa: That song is so lame.
Homer: So lame that it's... cool?
Bart+Lisa: No.
Marge: Am I cool, kids?
Bart+Lisa: No.
Marge: Good. I'm glad. And that's what makes me cool, not caring,
right?
Bart+Lisa: No.
Marge: Well, how the hell do you be cool? I feel like we've tried
everything here.
Homer: Wait, Marge. Maybe if you're truly cool, you don't need to
be told you're cool.
Bart: Well, sure you do.
Lisa: How else would you know?

Ages ago, a cool person was someone who had lot of friends, who was attractive, intelligent, witty, and had a projection of self-confidence. He did not just appear confident but was actually a one-man-army. Now, this one man always needs an army with him! He had muscles of steel and a heart of gold. Now, muscles are rotten and the heart and lungs are fed tobacco and nicotine dozen times a day!


Now, coolness is doing what your parents never wanted you to. Having a killer pickup line (preferably with >10 letters). Having a cool nickname, which has no relation to the person you are, the person you want to be, or even the English language! Going to a coffee shop and NOT asking about the contents of coffee, composition, amount of caffeine. . Its about ordering the coolest sounding coffee! Its about not listening to anybody! Or not letting them know that you did listen to them! Otherwise that'll be so uncool!


Be Cool. There are so many cool sounding jobs, cool sounding people out there. So many cool places. Being cool is entering a whole new world. A world with a new language, where there are so many intellectual sounding, looking, walking people (though not necessarily intellectual people). Cool world will be a perfect cure for global warming!

Its Raining! :D

Mumbai (or for that matter any city) in June-July is a paradise. When beautiful raindrops fall from nowhere, and drop everywhere around me, i can't help thinking "Come on, they can't be God's tears". This is one season when even God asks us to 'take it easy', go out, dance in the rains. There's a reason why God fitted this season between the scorching summers and ruthless winters. Its his way of fitting fun and happiness between sadness and melancholy.


So what is it about the rains? It's not just the picturesque rocky shores or the dewdrops on the leaves, or that sweet fragrance that refuses to part its way. Its also how you feel. The feeling of droplets on your face, and body. The feeling of looking outside the window, a cup of coffee in your hand, at the most scenic and pure sight. The feeling when you love everything around you, even about your enemies :) The feeling when you go off to sleep listening to the falling droplets outside, or waking up to it.

The legend, Charlie Chaplin, is quoted to have said "I Love Walking In The Rain, So That Nobody Can See Me Crying". That's what rains are all about. Pour out all your sorrows. Dont hold back the tears. Remember what rains were like when you were a little kid, oblivious to what people would say or think. Be yourself and relive those moments. Try making the most of the season of love and happiness.

There's something about Mumbai!

"... I believe that one person's experience, honestly captured, even on the sidelines, not only is unique but is the only certain data of history that we possess as human beings (Gurucharan Das, India Unbound, Pg x)

So here i am, narrating my experiences to be read as "history" for generations to come. Provided the oncoming 2012 massacre spares cyberspace, and that the first generation in the post-2012 era quickly discover internet (perhaps even before wheel or fire).

My first post. And what instigated me to write it? Its the city i love the most after Bhopal- Mumbai. Lets start with the so-called "public perception" of Mumbai. Reader's Digest in a 2006 poll rated Mumbai as the rudest city in the world, many of my friends liked Delhi over Mumbai and would prefer it for jobs, shaadi et al. So why do i love Mumbai like anything? Why i'm forever excited to come to this city for whatever reason?

I think the answer lies within. Within the city, within the people living here! Last year, when i asked a random person on a street the address of a travel agent, i was surprised when he almost guided me personally over there, and even more surprised when he gave me a visiting card of another agent just in case i'm not satisfied with this one. The other day, i was guided to a vodafone store(where i wanted to go)when all i asked was where a particular street is!

Its also the city, where walking on marine drive even in this weather gives you goosebumps(good ones!), where even the names of streets and stations show the chilled out attitude of people, which was divided by political parties but united as a result of terrorist activities, where you just can't hate travelling in a local train even with all its pitfalls and lastly, but not the leastly(?) its a strange city where even the millionaires dont mind travelling in taxis and locals..

Perhaps i'm biased towards Mumbai, perhaps i ignore the traffic rules violations, bad roads, the water level problem that arises every year and so on. Yes, and happily i ignore them. Coz perhaps nothing can defeat this city's biggest strength- The never say die spirit! Come what may, the city will never stop or die down!