Sunday, April 24, 2005

I shall narrate an incident that took place last week. A family well known to us visited with their 14 year old daughter. Let me tell you a little about them. The wife used to teach at my school and is a very good friend of my mother's. The husband is well.....one of those dynamic types. He preaches what he practices and practices what he preaches. He is one of the most intense people I've ever met. He also harbours some very strong opinions and is permanantly on the lookout for someone to debate his ideas with. Dont get me wrong, I'm not trying to be negative about him. He is an idealistic man....but he tends to put his ideas across rather forcefully.This usually does not go down so well with those at the receiving end of his lectures.

Anyway, when the doorbell rang that evening, I left my room to open the door. I welcomed them in, asked them to make themselves comfortable on the sofa and tried making some polite conversation as I waited for my mother to come and join us. The daughter had just written her 10'th board exams and I was asking her how she'd done. The girl looked at me, smiled sweetly and said "Dinesh, if you dont mind, could you switch off the light and fan in your room? While you are here, there's no reason they should be kept on..."

I like to think of myself as a principled person. When someone points out a rather blatant error I've made, I do my best to rectify it. I try not to get annoyed with the person who pointed the mistake out. However the moment the words left her mouth, I could only feel indignation build up inside me. To have an outsider, a teenager, a precocious girl telling me what to do in MY house! She had some balls!

Undoubtedly the kid was right. I had left the lights and fan on when I should have switched them off. But I just couldnt hide my irritation. I grunted and asked her switch them off. She smiled and complied. When she came back, no further reference to the lights were made but I stewed inwardly. I labled her as headstrong, just like her father. She'd have a tough time making friends, she'd be a person who got results but someone who failed miserably with people.....these were the only thoughts going through my head during their visit.

Later I had to endure another lecture by the father. He feels that the Dravidian parties who have governed in the last few decades are a disgrace to the state. He wants to start a youth movement, spread awareness and ultimately form a more responsible government. He wants to spread his message using yahoo groups. He's been after me to register with his site...and I've always avoided doing it.

So why do I feel this way about them? The girl was right about the lights and the fan. The father is certainly right about the current state of TN politics. I should be admiring both of them for trying to make the world a better place.

Except I dont. No matter how hard I try to listen to the voice of reason, I can only feel irritation when I think about the two of them. I dont like to be told right from wrong by a kid and I dont like to be forced into doing something I'm not very clear about.

So I let the matter rest. I've not troubled myself like I usually do..a battle between ideals and desires. I've let the desires win this time...I must be growing up.

5 comments:

Kroopa Shah (Kr00pz) said...

I think its the way they communicated their ideas that annoyed you. Even though what they were saying was right, they didn't put it across in the right manner.

Anonymous said...

I know you won't appreciate what I'm about to say because I'm a girl and I'm younger than you and apparently you don't take constructive criticisms too well from this particular group.

"I like to think of myself as a principled person. When someone points out a rather blatant error I've made, I do my best to rectify it. I try not to get annoyed with the person who pointed the mistake out." - That's bunch of BS. You proved that you are not capable of being objective in this case.

"To have an outsider, a teenager, a precocious girl telling me what to do in MY house!" - So, what's wrong? You gave her the chance.

"I grunted and asked her switch them off." - Shows your immaturity.

"She smiled and complied. When she came back" - Shows her maturity and elegance.

"no further reference to the lights were made" - Shows that she is not trying to put you down, but she just wanted to conserve energy.

"...but I stewed inwardly." - Do I need to say what this portrays?

"I labled her as headstrong, just like her father. She'd have a tough time making friends, she'd be a person who got results but someone who failed miserably with people.....these were the only thoughts going through my head during their visit." - Shows how narrowminded and ill-tempered you are.

I do understand that you might base your opinions based on other incidents and past history with her. But, objectively judging this once incident, I belive, as a third person, you have some balls to make such drastic nasty comments about her social life...she is just a teenager. Giver her break.

You are one of the most arrogant persons I have ever read about. Kroopa is blatant and honest in all her postings. But, you have this sly way of writing things merely with the objective to get your readers to admire you and like your style of writing. Even when you try hard to write honestly, it is obvious that you try harder to make the honesty come across to improve people's perception of you. It is not advisable to be that self-centered.

PS: I know you would be wondering why I'm signing off as anonymous. You don't know me. None of your friends know me. So, there is no point.

Anonymous said...

I know you won't appreciate what I'm about to say because I'm a girl and I'm younger than you and apparently you don't take constructive criticisms too well from this particular group.

"I like to think of myself as a principled person. When someone points out a rather blatant error I've made, I do my best to rectify it. I try not to get annoyed with the person who pointed the mistake out." - That's bunch of BS. You proved that you are not capable of being objective in this case.

"To have an outsider, a teenager, a precocious girl telling me what to do in MY house!" - So, what's wrong? You gave her the chance.

"I grunted and asked her switch them off." - Shows your immaturity.

"She smiled and complied." - Shows her maturity and elegance.

"When she came back no further reference to the lights were made" - Shows that she is not trying to put you down, but she just wanted to conserve energy.

"...but I stewed inwardly." - Do I need to say what this portrays?

"I labled her as headstrong, just like her father. She'd have a tough time making friends, she'd be a person who got results but someone who failed miserably with people.....these were the only thoughts going through my head during their visit." - Shows how narrow-minded and ill-tempered you are.

I do understand that you might base your opinions based on other incidents and past history with her. But, objectively judging this one incident, I believe, as a third person, you have some balls to make such drastic nasty comments about her social life...she is just a teenager. Give her break.

You are one of the most arrogant persons I have ever read about. Kroopa is blatant and honest in all her postings. But, you have this sly way of writing things merely with the objective to get your readers to admire you and like your style of writing. Even when you try hard to write honestly, it is obvious that you try harder to make the honesty come across to improve people's perception of you. It is not advisable to be that self-centered.

I do apologize for sounding harsh, but thought you need some reality checking in between the admiring comments you keep getting. I do acknowledge that everybody is guilty of trying to impress people often, but you just do it at a different level.

Chill out and chau chico...

PS: I know you would be wondering why I'm signing off as anonymous. Don't even dare to think I'm a chicken for doing that. You don't know me. None of your friends know me. So, there is no point.

Anonymous said...

Read the second comment that I posted. I corrected some spelling mistakes and added some more notes.

Sorry about that. I had no idea the first comment actually went through.

Kroopa Shah (Kr00pz) said...

Jeez!! Someone took this to heart!! Ms Anonymous, thanks for the comment.

However, I am not sure if I completely agree with you on Dinesh's post.

I don't think I would like it very much if someone came to my house and told me something like that. Hey, you are in my house and if the lights are on in my room there is probably a reason they are on. Maybe I won't be out for that long. As long as I don't leave the lights on for long periods of time (like when I step out of the home, a few hours) I think I am fine.

I don't think she was very mature. If you don't know someone very well you can't just go to their place and tell them things that you think are right(even if you are). They probably don't want your advice so you should keep it to yourself unless asked for it.

Dinesh did mention he thought the girl was right but he didn't like how she said this to him.

What else was she going to say about the lights? Obviously the conversation wasn't going to center around Dinesh not putting the lights out and how he was wasting tons of energy.

"...but I stewed inwardly." - Do I need to say what this portrays?
Well, anyone would be embarrassed. People don't do this everyday because like I said its not appreciated. He obviously couldn't tell her- Hey mind your own business, I am paying the bill here and I don't have a problem with the lights on for a few minutes which was probably the case.

And once more, do we like people who criticize us? How many of us ACTUALLY take criticism from strangers or from those who we don't really know very well. If you meet someone new or someone who you haven't met in a while and they say to you, "Oh my god! That shirt looks awful on you, please don't wear it!!", are you actually going to say "Hey thanks. Thats what I wanted to know. You just made my day. Lets be friends". It would be a different thing if his best friend came home and said, "Hey Dinesh, turn off those lights if you aren't using them". Even if you are right, if you don't put it across the right way at the right time, people won't like you. Thats a fact.

And lets think about this- if you go and tell your grandma (or even your father or mother)- Hey stop doing this, its wrong, do you think they are going to appreciate you telling them. Another fact- people older to you will not like being told they are wrong. You have to do it the right way if you want to get your point across.

And she should understand this as a teenager before its too late. Being Ms Perfect isn't really going to get her anywhere. People probably won't like her very much. She has to got to learn how to be tactful.
You can be right but if you don't say it the right way, a lot of people won't like you.

You will probably wonder why I am in favor of Dinesh. I don't have any personal interest in him.
Its just because I know him. I don't know how he came across as arrogant. I don't think he is. And if he is proud of himself, he has reason to be for I beleive he is a talented person. I went to the same college he went to for a year and I've seen people there and amongst so many just-a-face-in-the-crowd people he just wasn't one of them.
He thinks differently, beleive me.

Ms Anonymous, please don't be offended. I am just voicing my opinion on this; there is no offense targetted to you. I agree the girl was right but she definitely didn't put it across in the correct manner.