If petrol was not found, this blog would not have existed!

Zapped by the title of my blog? Don’t be as it will get clear to you at the end of the blog. While the title of the blog is quite long, it is pertinent to what this blog wants to talk about. 

Discoveries and inventions are an on-going process, which started since the time mankind evolved and will continue till the time mankind stays, as finding something new to improve and make peoples’ lives better is the wont of human beings. 

There have been a number of discoveries and inventions that are counted amongst the most relevant ones to change the lifestyle of human beings. But if one takes a step back, lot of these would be of no relevance if another invention or discovery had not taken place to complement or support these. 

Let me explain this further with a few of these examples: 

1. The invention of automobiles would have no utility had petrol not been found. 

2. If electricity was not developed, we would not be enjoying the confines of an air conditioned rooms in our homes and offices. 

3. We would not have been enjoying the gramophone, tape recorders, Walkman or iPods over the years if there would have been no invention of musical instruments to create music. 

4. A thermometer would not show any temperature had mercury not been found. 

5. Pens and pencils would just have been show pieces had ink and graphite not been available to make them. 

6. There was no question of the existence of something called the Internet if someone did not invent the computer first. 

I could go on and on as this list can have numerous such examples of discoveries or inventions that don’t enjoy the same status as the discoveries and inventions they complement. 

So coming back to the title of the blog and what is the connect? 

Well, if petrol was not there, there would have been no automobiles. Because there were automobiles, people decided to spread out across the world. To survive anywhere in the world, they had to work hard day and night. To be able to see in the night, they needed light, leading to the invention of electricity and the light bulb. Now that people were staying far away from each other, they wanted to communicate which led to Alexandar Graham Bell’s invention of the telephone. As people started working more and more, they wanted to make life easier for themselves, which led to the invention of the computer. With computers being present, Internet came into existence for communication to take place. Once the Internet was there, this blog came into existence. 

So it is fair to conclude that discovery of petrol led to the existence of this blog!

#55wordstory - Themes: Week 8

Theme: Captive

Salil had visited so many countries, but there was not a single picture to show.

Many people asked him the reason, and his response always was "Nature is meant to be enjoyed with your naked eyes. You cannot make them captives of your lens and think that you would be able to enjoy them later" 

Theme: Free
Rajan invited his secretary Rita for lunch at the Taj and asked her if she would like to get promoted.

“Sure Sir” replied Rita

“But you know Rita, there are no free lunches” grinned Rajan.

Rita knew he was another one of those creeps to be avoided at all costs. She decided to quit soon. 

Theme: Catharsis
As a kid, putting pen to paper was like a catharsis for him. It allowed him to escape to a make-believe world from the stress of his boring life.

But things had changed nowadays, as all the writing was happening through keyboards and screens.

Who had the time to find a pen or a paper?

Theme: Consequences
The liftman closed the lift even after noticing her come.

As soon as he came down again, she shouted and abused him a lot.

He didn't say a thing. Two days later, her body was found with a slit on her neck. She didn't know the consequences of a small incident would be so fatal. 

Theme: Lost
The year was 1995. Rajeev's father had got him a CD player from his US visit and Rajeev wanted to show it off in school.

In all the excitement, he forgot it in his classroom that day. He tried checking the 'Lost and Found' section next day but he knew it was a lost cause. 

Theme: Risque

Shoaib trudged back home after a tiring day expecting another emotionless session at home as usual.

Simar looked different today and was very sweet to Shoaib, surprising him. After dinner, she switched off the TV and called Shoaib to the bedroom.

Shoaib did not notice that the book on Simar's table was '50 Shades of Grey'.

Is Social Networking feeding our Narcissism?

I have been wanting to blog on this topic for weeks but the very topic I want to blog about would suck me into its whirlpool every now and then so strongly that getting out of its hold would be next to impossible. Yes, social networking has that power! 

Research after research throws up the same thing – every person loves a few words of appreciation, a pat on the back, an acknowledgement of the great work he/she is doing. When one does not get this, one’s motivation levels tend to go down, whether it is at work, home or any other place. 

Enter Social Networking. A phenomenon that has taken the world by storm. Why is it so? Is it because it allows people to connect with each other? No, there are phone calls for that. Is it because it allows one to give work update to others? No, there are emails for that. 

Then what is the reason? 

It is simply because social networking is an ego boosting mechanism, which allows your narcissism to grow manifold by feeding it regularly and yet making it crave for more and more. 

Every like that your status message generates on Facebook, every comment that your picture gathers and every new follower that you accumulate on Twitter are nothing but food for the narcissist inside each one of us. 

No wonder after every post that we upload, there is this constant urge to check the network regularly to see if anyone has liked it or not or has it generated a conversation or a mention or not or has it been retweeted or not. 

It is once again the veil of narcissism that allows us to celebrate every new follower, who most of the times is a stranger, who we do not know but yet are happy to have him or her follow us. This is the same reason bots are seen as useless but yet relevant, simply because they add up to the numbers and make us feel important in this crazy world. 

Today, even our styles of holidays and vacations have changed completely. It is more about capturing the right kind of pictures that can be shared with friends and get comments rather than sitting back and enjoying the view available to us. Every picture that is clicked is also checked and evaluated to see its potential to be shared and is deleted and clicked again if it is not worth sharing. 

The reality is that we may get bored and move from one social network to the other as we had done from Orkut to Facebook, but as long as the narcissism in us exists, social networking will continue to thrive and dominate a large part of our lives. 

Now I need to rush and quickly upload this post, so that the link of the same can be shared with all. My narcissistic hunger beckons!