I Dunno what to Title This

Whenever we have a friend or any relative visiting us from abroad, we’ll have to play the role of that sweet host who’s ready to show around the city anytime and who can put up with “oh wow! Dis is so cooool”, ” This place has never changed even after so many years”  (Though it must be just 2 years since they visited last  ) and listen to their made-in-foreign stories 

As soon as my best friend told me that she’ll be visiting India, I made all possible arrangements to remain free during weekends (and weekdays if possible)… When I met her, we had lots to talk about, lots to tease about and after laughing for hours together till our stomachs hurt for the silliest possible jokes, we decided to make a plan for places to be visited and things to be done within this 1 month… Her first aim was to visit T.Nagar and to shop or atleast do window shopping on the roads of Pondy Bazaar.. (T.Nagar is the shopping center of Chennai… We can get anything and everything at any price… Just the window shopping done there  will consume the entire day as we’ll have to find our way through the gaps between the crowd  )

So on a fine Saturday morning, we started out along with 2 other friends to the most busiest place in Chennai. After a lot of munching and a little of shopping, we stopped for lunch. Topic about movies came up and Zindagi na Milegi dobara became the discussion. My friend immediately piled up charges against Farhan Akthar for copying the prank idea from us. In school, during annual day or sports day there will be many preparations going on. Many places had  ropes tied preventing us from entering the area. We used to reach a little early the next day, my best friend and me used to walk casually through the entrance gate and when we are few meters inside the campus, we used to bend down and carefully walk to the other side as if there is a rope tied in between. My two other friends who knew the plot used to walk in, after sometime. When 1 of them was about to cross the area, the other used to shout “Hey careful… Are you blind? There is a rope.” Both of them bent down and crossed the place. Seeing them do that, people started following the same. The entire school while crossing that area, bent down and crossed….Even if somebody doesn’t, we used to shout out “Hey careful careful careful” and hearing our shouts their head used to bend in immediate reflex… Thanks to the imaginary rope discovered by us  We used to have a hearty laugh seeing it from the balcony 

Recollecting this incident, made the  me come up with an idea. I asked my friend why not we try the same prank now. The wink in her eye told me that she was in…. We had to do a gyaan transfer to the other two as they were not our school friends… I explained the plot and instructed what each one should do.. So here goes the plan… The platforms had cement tiles and thanks to our super maintenance, every platform had 2 or 3 cracked tiles… 2 of us will go in the front and casually take a big leap as if the tile is broken… The next two will follow us in sometime and when one of them accidently tries to put her leg therem the other has to shout “Hey be careful” loudly and make her leap the tile which is actually in good condition… This girl should do a Thank-God-You -Saved my life kind of acting… 

Roles: The first 2 who’s going to go are my best friend and the recent friend 1 … followed by me and recent friend 2 (The idea was to have a proper mix of Elt and experienced resource in the plot  ). It was decided that I should play the role of the girl who’s about to keep her leg there and then do a You- saved-my life acting as all others where damn sure that they’ll laugh out 

Time for action: My best friend and the recent friend 1 led us and carried out their roles successfully… Our recent friend 2 and me where walking a few feet away from them in order to show off that we are no way connected to the 2 people who went in the front. When I was nearing the place, I asked my friend to get ready to shout out “Be careful” . So within the count of three, I tried keeping my leg on that planned tile and my friend shouted “Oh my God” (instead of Be carefull… she changed the dialogue  ) and pulled me away to the other side… I did that Thank God You saved my life act and kept starring at that so called broken tile… My friend added on “These people never maintain anything properly… If anybody trips on this tile what will happen”  ( This was another addition to the screenplay as it was not planned  ) Soon people who were coming behind us started avoiding that tile by either walking down or leaping that tile. Mission accomplished 

My friends who were watching this from a distance where having a hearty laugh and we joined them soon. So after we were done the shopping and masthi, we took an auto and were returning back… We had to cross the platform where we played our prank in the morning … We still found people taking a big leap there. I was shocked. Though I laughed at the moment, I had this question “Are we so dumb?”

This is a simple incident but goes on to prove how we blindly follow others without even thinking… We never question why? We do it just because others in the front did it. This applies to the career decision, stream we choose to study… We are easily influenced by what others do… I don’t blame anybody for this… Right from schooling, the idea of questioning is curbed by answers like “Its out of syllabus”, “I’ll get back to you later” (That doesn’t come even after we leave the school), “We can reserve this question… We’ll have the answer in the next chapter” So ultimately the art of questioning is lost and when we finish schooling and enter college, we become that machine which blindly writes down whatever is told in the name of lecture…. Before night of exam, it is read and re-written in the form of answer sheets… Those who have the capability to re-write the entire lecture and text book verbatim becomes the topper… This continues even in our work place…

Same happens while choosing a leader… We just blindly take decision without appropriately questioning and later regret and complain we don’t have a good leader…

Whys and Whats have completely disappeared… We do it just because he or she did it… We still fear to choose a path that’s not chosen by others… It was a simple incident, had even one put their feet on that tile, they would have known its fine and not broken. But nobody really bothered to do it. Their ultimate aim was to cross the place and reach their destination as soon as possible irrespective of how they reach…

Is this attitude that’s pushing us back even though we try going ahead? Are we really that dumb? I know its a rude question… But truth is always bitter.