Monday, August 18, 2014

Intolerance?

I may not be the sharpest knife in the drawer - and, in fact, the only point of surprising unanimity in my friends is that I really have no competition in being the dullest knife - but I do have some ideas. You know what, I really think that I know the reason for increasing intolerance in Society.

You see, all people have certain ideals to which they expect other people to adhere (note that they are never stupid enough to try to adhere to those ideals themselves). In the past, when others fell short of these ideals, people sort of took it in their stride because they have had experience of people being less than perfect in most things.

Just as you think of life as a bed of roses, a whiff of hydrogen sulfide from someone's armpits puts paid to the notion. So, when you run your finger over someone's skin, you are willing to accept it as soft as long as it is not sand-papery enough to draw blood from your fingers. Now, you not only want the armpits to smell good but also are very particular about what sort of good smell you prefer, failing which the person just fades away. And as for skin, it just cannot fall even a wee bit short of velvet, 24x7. When your levels of tolerance as so low in these things, how do you expect them to be any higher in others - be it scores in exams or the deities you worship or whatever?

Time was when you used to see only two options in hair - present or absent. Now, so nitpicking have you become that you see five problems in them, all of which the poor cosmetic industry has to rush to address. So much more nitpicking have you become about the face that there are TEN different problems for the soap and face cream guys to solve. As for aging, it has ceased to be a problem caused by time and has become a problem that, again, the cosmetic industry (not the pharma guys, as you think) to correct, and no less than seven signs of aging to rub out. The way you guys keep at it, it seems like you consider yourself to be some sort of examiner setting various problems for the cosmetic industry to solve.

Above all else, I cannot understand your total intolerance of anything less than fair skin everywhere over the body. First you just wanted it on the face, next you wanted it on all exposed parts of the body AND, then, you started thinking of all parts of the body that you could possibly expose in various activities and wanted every single micrometer rendered fair. NOW, you want the whole thing to not only be whitewashed but you also want the whitewash to stay on all day. You are so intolerant of the color black on your skin, that it would be a wonder if you can ever be tolerant of anything in life.

Women of my times also dreamed of tall, dark and handsome men riding white chargers and sweeping them off their feet. Men of my times also dreamed of doe-eyed damsels with hour-glass figures swooning over them. It is just that both sexes used to wake up from their dreams and realize that (a) the man was more likely to be short, balding and not particularly ugly (if you were lucky), and come riding on a second-hand Bajaj Chetak and (b) the woman was more likely to be....(In the interests of my health I will leave this blank for you to fill). NOW, it seems like people never wake up, and feel that they can complain to the Consumer Court if their dream wish-list does not get filled.

There is no harm in trying to be perfect. To expect your version of perfection in others is what breeds intolerance.

26 comments:

  1. Right on, Suresh! I admit I have really become intolerant. Intolerant of all the stupid movies, silly songs, super-silly slang in written stuff, SMS lingo, and certainly all those advertisements for fairness creams, shampoos meant to solve five problems, 1000 rupees cream that will take away wrinkles.

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    1. Ah! So you refuse to take care and do not think you are worth it? :P

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  2. Bull's eye! It just doesn't end, right? Gone are the days when being cheerful and confident was enough.

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    1. NOW being cheerful and confident are irrelevant. OR, rather, you can be cheerful and confident ONLY if you have lost those seven signs of aging, ten problems of the face, five hair problems and are fair all over. :)

      Nice to see you back, Akanksha!

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  3. Uff I am sick and tired of the ads and the expectations that they fulfill or create for people. It really is a crazy world these days.

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  4. So much intolerance! Tauba tauba!

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  5. It is all just unwanted and undeserved expectations...
    Advertisements are going way out of hand....

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  6. Oh yes same here... recently I have become rather intolerant about people cribbing about what they do not have in life, just ranted out a post on that.
    Come to think of it, this behaviour which tests our tolerance levels, wonder if its one of the many flavours of Kalyug...

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    1. Must be - how else does one explain the widespread stupidity of thinking that you become happier by collecting more money, much like a child thinks it will become happier by collecting marbles :)

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  7. True Suresh. But leave aside being intolerant to others.. we are not even tolerant towards ourselves ourselves. we want perfect bodies, perfect families, perfect careers... if given a chance we will surely have one or two things to tell God as well :-)

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    1. Haha! AND, considering that He supposedly made us in His image, we may even offer Him "Fair and Handsome" :P

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  8. I don't know why my comments dive into the spam bin every time--are they not fair n handsome? :(

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    1. Not even in the Spam bin, Indu! I check there too every time.

      I think that they are so fair and handsome that they get abducted by some other blog while they are en route to mine :)

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  9. Bull's eye Suresh! Yet again you are so right! I am sick and tired of all these unfair expectations for perfection! It's becoming an epidemic! The need to be perfect right down to your cuticle! Anything less is not acceptable

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    1. We seem to specialize in giving ourselves a bad time :)

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  10. i'm intolerant towards imperfection in work,my work is to wash vessels,keep house clean cause i'm a stay at home mom, laundry etc and i take immense pride in the fact that no one can do household chores like me :) i guess everybody's intolerant in some way but appearances shouldn't matter much,it reflects our superficialty

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    1. That sort of perfectionism I too have. And, yes, intolerance is objectionable mainly when it concentrates on superficiality and on things that the other person cannot help being.

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  11. True. The world seems to drive towards homogeneity.

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    1. Yeah - we will end up resembling a race of Androids :)

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  12. btw i like the last line in the above post, its great.

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