A blog of my feelings…ranging from commenting about other's blogs to commenting about stuff which happens in life and from posting mails which I like, to ranting on stuff.

Unwanted honking is something that is very very common in Bangalore. And guess what? Honking would be also done by the so-called techies who would have visited the USA and would lecture every colleague or friend or even a casual acquaintance about the “wonderful roads” and “the honking to swear at” others on the road. Well, I have discussed with a few of my relatives in the USA who confirmed the fact that in the USA, a person honks only if he wants to swear at others on the road. Else, the roads are silent, the only sound on the roads being the continuous whirring of the wheels of the vehicles.

As a car / bus / cab / truck driver, you would definitely have a larger view area than that of a two wheeler. So, when the two wheeler driver is silent and not honking his balls out, why would you honk? Does it make any difference to the traffic? Does it ensure that the traffic moves faster? What would you achieve other than creating some additional noise pollution? Nope, you would definitely not realize this and would love to bang your steel balls with each other and continue to honk.

Honking is also known as sounding the horn, which makes me think that any bugger on the road who honks unwantedly, is really horny!

Another thing that drives even my nuts wild is the way everyone from two wheeler drivers to auto rickshaw drivers and even the 18 wheeler trucks jump lanes and jump signals.. and the traffic cops would wait for a seemingly “innocent bakra” to make funds for their evening booze and food! I have been the “innocent bakra” twice and I am not gonna allow myself to be conned by a sweet talking cop again!

The “so-called” worst part of Bangalore, which, unfortunately, our city has become notoriously famous to is the attitude of the auto-rickshaw drivers. I have been a part of many a debate about Northie v/s Southie about the callous attitude of auto drivers and I can actually vouch, the auto drivers would not bother if you are a northie or a southie.. they just are the same way. And not all auto drivers are the same way.. it is just a few of them giving a bad name to the entire family of auto drivers.

Talking about auto drivers, I am sure auto drivers in Bangalore are better than those of chennai, who swindle you right then and there. 100 bucks for a distance of 7 kms??? Wow!!! That is swindling. Even in Bangalore’s worst auto-driver’s terms, the amount would be less than 60 (going by the one and half rate!).

Why are Bangalore’s auto drivers like this? Coz they are innately lazy and also coz it is the town of Sir. Vijay Mallya. There is an adda at my house corner and the auto drivers converge there right from the morning till the evening, playing a game of “chowka – barah” but actually gambling all their money away. Try calling them to any place in Bangalore, they would not even bother to respond. They would continue the game, and the gambling. Invariably, at late evenings, there ensures a fight and a scuffle and the arrival of the police jeep to set things right.. What did the auto drivers gain? Nothing…. Zilch… Zero! What did they lose??? The opportunity to earn atleast 300 bucks on that day and the trust and happiness of their family members who would be dependant on the sole bread winner of the house aka the auto driver.

One thing that one of my friends / colleagues pointed out to me is actually strange and true. Most of the traffic jams in Bangalore happen either due to a breakdown of a huge vehicle in the middle of the road, or due to the fact that some stupid guy would be fighting with some other stupid guy about some minor accident in the busy roads of Bangalore. Both the bastards would not realize that the fight / argument can take place even on the side of the road and not necessarily at the spot of the accident. This is not a crime scene which has to be taped and left alone.. for chrissake.. this is just a small scratch on your vehicle. Also, think about what you are going to achieve from the argument / fight? You would lose your patience, happiness, time and also gain high blood pressure. You cannot even gain a single paisa from it. Then, why argue and fight and shout and swear and even come to blows.. why not just go with the flow of traffic and chill in the AC blast in the sweltering heat of Bangalore??? God only knows!!!

I wonder who brought about this word “misconceptions” into the English Dictionary! Probably, there were no misconceptions earlier. Or they might be, but the misconceptions were not highlighted earlier.

Whatever it might be, lemme think why there is a misconception? Does this mean that there was supposed to be a conception that was missed? If so, why was it missed? Ain’t this similar to a miscarriage? This means that the parties involved in the conception were healthy, but due to some unfortunate circumstance, it so happened that the conception got missed. WTH??

Wait a sec… How could I have a misconception about the term itself? Miscarriage might happen due to some medical reasons and if misconception happens, the carriage itself might not be there to have the misconception! And misconception would be due to the simple use of some protection, be it of data or be it of anything else.. Oh Jeez.. how much similar is the misconception that happens wrt the physical being to that of a communication. My thoughts are now going haywire.. Need to get them back to why I started this blogpost. Yes, Misconceptions!

Misconceptions are a dime a dozen in normal life, but in my life, it is a bit too obvious. Or may be, I tend to notice it and make it a bit too pronounced that there has been a misconception. There have been umpteen numbers of situations where there was a misconception and that has led to unwanted arguments which then, led into some situations ending up with me and the other person not being able to even face one another coz of Ego Issues. We would not like to apologize, the reason being that we would have the fear that if we apologize, it might so happen that it might be my mistake that I am apologizing for and it might also seem that I have made a mistake, which is normally not so.

Lemme start my rant by giving a small and insignificant example.

A friend who was really close stops being in contact suddenly. And it so happens that our last interaction was not our usual friendly interactions and, though none of us had made any mistake, there was a mutual assumption about the other person. So, this was a misconception. Now, where has it led to is the part that worries me the most. I have not sent an apology per se, but I have taken the first step to get back in touch by sending messages and mails. However, there is no response from my friend yet. Now, what does my friend expect? An apology? For no mistake of mine? And since I have already taken the first steps, should it not be human for my friend to respond? It might be so that my friend might be very busy or might feel that I am not a part of their life or might be ill or might be held up with something. But the misconception that I have in my mind is that I might have actually lost this friendship, which was once really nice.

The reason that I have always referred to this person as “my friend” is that it is not only one friend but this has actually happened five times with five different friends. So, this also makes me assume and think that I have made the mistake coz 5 different people might not be wrong about the same person (me). This also makes me think that it might be the circumstances that caused this and that they would definitely realize my (right) intentions and get back in touch with me.

I hope my friend reads this on my Twitterfeed / FB / Google Reader / Buzz and realizes that it shows the pain that I am undergoing due to the misconception / lack of communication and gets back in touch with me.

Another aspect in life where I have to strive hard that there is no misconception ever is my career / daily bread earning part. I am in a customer facing role which has a direct revenue impact to my employers. Since this is such an important role, I do not want any misconception creeping into the minds of anyone who is a stakeholder (be it my customer or be it my employers or be it my team or be it any third party). If there is any minor misconception, it would wreck havoc in my career and I don’t want myself to face what I had faced a couple of months back.

A third angle to this is also coz of my age. Damn! Now, everyone is looking at me to be of the age of marriage and this makes it a lot difficult to even interact with any friend of the other gender, no matter if she is unmarried or married or even has a kid. The thoughts that stray into their minds are highly unethical and cannot be posted on my blog. The everyone, whom I am referring to here, include friends, family members, distant relatives, colleagues, ex colleagues and whomever I have ever interacted with. At times, I wonder if it is really worth listening to them or even paying heed to their thoughts, but then, I realize that “Man is a social animal”. Though you do not need to live for the sake of the society, it is always advised that you live for yourself keeping the society in one corner of your mind. It is also always advised that “Live Life Kingsize”, but keep in mind that the King too, has a lot of stakeholders to please.  But you know when it hurts the most? Coz when you were royally flirting and interested in all these mundane things like marriage and relationships and were willing to enter long term relationships, none of your stakeholders even bothered about you or your intentions. Now, you are in the spotlight and whatever you do, it is being looked at through a microscope. WTH?

I did some analysis of my persona w.r.t misconceptions and discovered that telephone conversations are the main reasons for whatever misconceptions that have happened in my life till date. At times, even if they are not the main reasons, they would add as a catalyst to the already bubbling concoction of misconceptions and would escalate matters out of control. Is this coz I might not be able to speak on telephone as convincingly as I would do in person? Or is it that the external noise that happens during the telephone conversation hampers and adds fuel to the fire of the misconception? Whatever it is, it does not make me feel comfortable to have a telephone conversation.

Thanks to my job, I have the good fortune of being able to meet 1000s of people and interact with them, something that I’ve always wanted to do. God has been fair so far… with me, and so has life. Just praying that it continues to be so green and fruitful and worthy of living it KINGSIZE!