Scene 1:
"911. How may I help you ?"
"Yeah..I just met with an accident. My car is wrecked."
"Are the passengers injured ?"
" No, we are fine....but the car is in a bad shape"
.... ..... ...
"Ok sir, We shall send the help out to you within 1/2 hour. Have a good day Sir"
Have a good day....My car is wrecked, it's 33F and it's snowing, and I am shivering here wearing shorts and T-shirts waiting for the stupid tow truck to arrive.....and the lady finishes the conversation with "Have a good day". You bet I am going to have a great day....infact it's going to be the best day of my life. I just can't wait to get a ride on the cool tow trucks that you have, and talking to "ever-ticketing" cops and the money extorting insurance agents. I will surely have a great day M'am.
Scene 2:
People do stupid things, and I am no exception. A friend of mine overtakes a cop car (yes overtakes a cop car doing 60 mph on a 55 mph zone ...I told you people do dumb things). No points for guessing, the cop pulls us over.
The cop walks over to us, and as my friend lowers the window, the cop greets my friend " How are you doing today, Sir ?
How the hell do you think I am doing. I just got pulled over for doing 67 on 55 mph zone. You are going to slap me a fine of 100 odd dollars, give me points and make sure that my 4th July weekend is totally ruined.....You bet I am feeling great...this is the best long weekend that I have ever had.
Scene 3:
I am on my hike down Verdugo mountains in Burbank, there aren't many people out hiking at 6:00 am on a Sunday morning.
I come across this stranger and make an eye contact...and he goes "How is it going ?"
But even before I can reply, that things are going great on this fine morning, he has passed me on his hike up the peak.
It feels great to be greeted by strangers. It's only whenyou realise the fact that most of the times these are empty words, churned out from a dormant part of brain devoid of any touch of emotion or feeling, then you realise the superficial nature of these gestures.
You land up in a bank, and the counter girl doesn't even have a second to give you an eye contact, when she says "How are you ?". I guess these phrases have simply lost their meaning and effect, and people should probably start using short forms (HAU - How are you, HIIG - how is it going, HAGT - Have a great day.....or just say Hi..thats close enough), so that they dont dispense their energy in some futile effort to exchange heartless pleasantries.
Final word:
A friend of mine is walking in DC downtown.
He makes an eye contact with a guy who looks poor and unemployed, neverthless my friend asks him "Howz it going?"
The poor man replies "Can't complain. Nobody is listening "
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8 comments:
Nasty experience at the bank eh? You are a fighter man pointy.don't give up just because she didnt say Hi..or didnt mean it when she said Hi. One day..it is gonna happen..when you will walk down LA downtown and each stranger you pass by wil stop and say "How is it going?" and will mean every syllable of it. They will enquire your status in-depth and analyze each and every freaking word you say. Following, you will have a heart-heart talk with every person walking past you.I think sometimes a quick smile and just a greeting thrown across is good.You are not expected to open your sorrow/joy reservoirs to answer the question of "How is it going?". :-)...
Hey Totti's team got thulped by the biggest ever margin at PCG yday. have a good day Sir :)
I thought in two years you must have got used to it. Of course they are empty greetings. You are not even expected to answer. Once at Walmart, the clerk at checkout blurted his programmed "How are you doing today sir" and I replied "Do you really want to know?". I guess he was taken offguard as he was like "Um... what? No. Not really. Uh well yeah..um no". He was forced to snap out of his zombie trance for a second and I laughed my evil laugh inside. Guhuhahahahaaa!! Its great to mindfcuk with people, :-D
:-))..classic!!
There's one thing I really like though - ur day mite b as bad as one in hell.. u dont even receive junk mails...u mite wish u never woke up to that day n cant wait to get back into bed to finish it..BBBUUTTT... some stranger in the street smiles at u..sometimes mumbles 'how u doin'...now u r forced to smile back...now for some of us, that mite b the only smile u see that day...the only reason that day y that ugly scowl turns into a smile ...coz when ppl u know ask u 'Abe,kya hua?' We jus tend to shirk it off by saying 'Expt ..gf..thises...n... thats.." we never smile when they ask us.. we jus tend to tell them the problem...
But here's the thing - have u ever genuinely looked back into the eyes of the old lady who hands u a cart in Walmart and smiled bac as if u meant it? A greeting meant never goes wasted... a genuine smile never goes unnoticed...
Hi Dee,
I agree with you that a smile from a stranger leaves you a tad happier. Infact even I make an effort to smile at anyone who makes an eye contact (and the breadth of smile increases, if it's a girl :) )
But I wanted to bring out the incongruity of the greetings in 4 scenes above.
So if people dont wanna waste their energy is a exchanging futile pleasantries...I think a smile would definitely do the job!
Douglas adams had an interesting take about humans...ford prefect thinks that human beings just have the tendency to say some obvious things..this is just to keep their tongues occupied or otherwise their brains would stop working..!!! i guess some people have to greet!!! likeways i need to comment..doesnt matter what crap i write !!
You are right about that. You do write crap.
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