Disdain's the fashion, dear!

We, close friends at office, have a very quaint and refreshing habit- an after lunch interlude of non stop conversation.And oh boy, is it non-stop!I have the rather unsettling reputation of being a chatterbox,which has stuck despite my denial.But I can assert that I am matched word for word,catchphrase for catchphrase, sarcasm for sarcasm by some of my pals there.

I was mentally going over the topics of discussion -and they were as varied as religion and atheism,music and cacophony,unbridled capitalism and equally unbridled communism.

I must mention some of my pals who have outstanding characteristics-a guy who's nice hearted but terribly anti-establishment.A gal who's got an amazing sense of humor and a wicked desire to kindle a controversy a second.Another gal who is emotional to such an extent that I sometimes expect to see billows of smoke issuing from her ears someday.

There are some other friends who are mostly silent spectators with a remark or two, but they do seem to really enjoy the arguments and the rush of emotions involved.

Today was just another of these conversations that started on the note of Raj Thakeray and the MNS ruckus which is the 'in' story right now.But I know not how,the talk first veered to different blogs and from a particular blog ,ostensibly by Rakesh Jhunjhunwala which has scoffed at Arindam Chaudhari(Planman Consulting), and then we started discussing various self help books by authors like Deepak Chopra,Robin Sharma,and the entire genre of 'thought' and 'self help' writers.A couple of us asserted that what they wrote was mostly trash and muck.

My emotional friend came out with the strong statement, "You folks have got used to sneering at everything from organized religion to North Indians to thought writers!Mujhe ye baat bilkul samajh mein nahi aati."

Hey vehemence floored us all for a moment .I was also partly floored by the phrase 'thought writers'-I could almost feel its double edge.One meaning-writers on thought or thinking.The other, much more amusing one-writers thought to be writers.

But the talk became a little serious with me wondering aloud whether it has become a habit with us to generally scoff at everything,peppering our sneers with holier-than -thou remarks.And the conclusion was -yes dude, disdain is IN!

Today's valuable talk led to a few conclusions:

1.Yes, we revel in disdain and love to scoff at something or the other simply because its considered really cool.

2. Every thought writer worth (or not worth) his salt has a fan following.

2.We are heartless people in a cushy job looking down at lesser folks from our heights.(This sentence was characteristic both of the emoter,who pronounced it,and the anti-establishmenter,who did not)

3.We are going to be better (read more politically correct) citizens from now on.

4.Every thing in the world has some value to someone, including trashy,no no, obscure writers.

Uff-enough gyan gained for a day,methinks.I will keep informing you whenever more such gems arise.