Unobtainium aka Happiness – ramblings on happiness, hate and other things.

Of course, Unobtainium is a figment of man’s (esp. James Cameron’s) vast imagination. The element is apparently hard to procure; is vital for survival of mankind; is expensive and man by all means will try to obtain it- even if it involves murdering hordes of fluorescent-blue skinned Na’Vis. (with reference to Avatar, folks)

He's just showing off his bling.

And happiness? It shares most of the above mentioned characteristics of Unobtanium. Maybe not expensive for everyone and mostly, doesn’t involve killing (God forgive me for the ant-hill stampede the other day). 

In our pursuit of ‘happyness’, we have

• turned into monks
• sold our Ferraris
• saw Kate wed William
• welcomed the non-monopolization of Maggi noodles.
• cheered the literal transformation of Kamal in ‘Vishwaroopam’, 
• watched Modi’s acceptance speech
• infinite scrolled our Facebook newsfeed.
• dished out 83 bucks to enjoy the “magnum” royalty.

And there were things that hindered all our happy moments and happy meals as in -

• the disappearance of the comic book seller behind Annapoorna.
• the near-death experience of swallowing a few ml of dilute H₂SO₄ via pipette during Chemistry practicals.
• the realization that Snape was a good chap only trying to help.
• the bus ticket fare being raised from rs.3 to rs.7
• the worm found in KFC chicken bucket.
• Kejriwal-who??
• losing your java phone of 5 years (it happened to me last week ;()

my lost Samsung Monte

There were of course, sadder more catastrophic-sounding events over the course of our growing-up years but to dwell on them or not is more of a personal choice.  

Now on a more serious note…Where do we measure the happiness quotient of young Indians exposed to multiple cultures and having diverse interests? Perhaps the Internet..? We Indians are awash with Smartphone savvists,  Meluha lovers, EPL followers, snicker bingers, tech prodigies,paperback readers, vigilant politicos, literary big-weights, uncanny businessmen, off-beat movie buffs and more- who are not hesitant to update their views online.  Unfavourably, we are also witnessing a surge in those who spew HATE like never before – the Netizen gundas who never realize that using words of profanity on fellow netizens isn't COOL.

Memes and trolls were created so that all of us can ‘ho ho’ at others’ expense. (The only thing that surpasses the number of trolls shared everyday must be the number of tasty and hearty oats variants released by every other company in recent days.)  Most of them are harmless and are lively examples of one’s wit and humour.  The rest of the comments, tweets and memes are biased, abusive or obscene.

Censoring of online comments is almost non-existent and makes lives easy for cyber bullies.  There is no substitution of cuss words with ****  or  %$&*%&! in sites like YouTube unlike those done in the  subtitles of television-aired movies(!)  Giving a comment ‘downvote’ or ‘mark as spam’ is a good option but is opted based on the views that it contains and not the vulgarity. Using a profanity-remover tool (if it exists) would be futile if words of any regional language gets typed in English.

why You so Mean?

 The music industry isn’t far behind with some singers coming up with two versions of the same song – one opening with the F word and one without it. (‘Tonight I’m Loving you’ -  Enrique Iglesias) Call me old fashioned for a twenty year old but I can't stand the sound or sight of the word, even if it’s misspelt as fcuk and sold as luxury watches.

Life will be pretty amazing if things on your ‘hate’list are less than the ones on your ‘love’list.  It doesn’t make sense to hate Justin Bieber but definitely makes sense to ignore him (that is, stop listening to his music). Opinionated people don’t make the best of people to hold lively conversations with. They may sound great on a talk show or a debate forum but never on a dining table. When you are with such sort of folks, you tend to feel the eeriness in the air (and sometimes lose your appetite).

Try hating less actors, authors, singers, serial artistes, acquaintances, politicians and see your life taking a turn for the better as you learn to look at the world in an unbiased way. Okay I’m sounding preachy but less hate is how I learnt to love life. Remember the platinum-coated words, it never hurts to be polite.