Thursday 25 December 2008

Insignificance!

GS recently made THIS post on Insignificance and it's invited pretty strong comments from a stranger who surprisingly makes perfect sense.

I read the post a week ago and didn't react much to it because I thought he had made that post for a different reason. Sorry dude, mistook your thinking. Now, after reading those comments I feel the Insignificance myself. But then, the way I see Insignificance is on a more personal level. You, as a person, as an Individual, what have you done to change the chaotic way this world functions?

Some thoughts come to my mind as to what I was doing to change the world. First of all, the need to think that I wanted to change the world, changes the world in a way. Loads of people are satified with living their lives the way it takes them, but then again, the way their life takes them is the way they do things. It might sound like I am contradicting myself, but I was never good with words. Anyways, A person living in Tambaram may do something that might change the way my life functions, albeit in the minutest of ways. But still, that minute change might affect my life in a huge way. Butterfly Effect. It's not only about some small thing you do that'll eventually get back to you, it might be something a total stranger does.

What has this got to do with Insignificance? As I said before, I see insignificance in a personal way. What have I done to affect this world? Everybody is significant in some way or the other. Every action of yours, affects people everywhere, though you might not realise it. Exactly my point. To feel significant in some levels, you demand to see the "changes" you've made. Well, you can't see them all. But, as long as you realise that you Have indeed made a change in someone's life, you are significant in this universe. A person holds some value for the universe. The way the Universe functions is affected by each and every single individual, on earth or elsewhere. ETs do exist. I am not gonna argue on that here. That's a given.

What would your action of, lets say, walking, affect an ET on Planet X? I could stretch on to say that by walking you are creating a wave of change in Earth's mass and thus affecting it's movements in space, which in turn will affect the movements of other planets, which will affect the Planet X's gravitational field and affect our ET's life!

Again, Significance or Insignificance. It depends on the way you want to percieve it. If you agree that every person changes everything, you might want to see the change you created. On the other hand, you might be satisfied by thinking that you do change the world, whether you can see your effects or not. That's where the line between Significance and Insignificance lies.

Friday 19 December 2008

Madras JAM Association.

For beginners, JAM is Just A Minute. That hilarious competition that you've always watched from the seats during the college culturals mainly because you didn't want to participate and make a fool of yourself on stage. But, you discover the joys and pleasures of JAMming only when you do make a fool of yourself. Some people fear this "embarrassment" and never take part in JAM again, while there are others who take that mockery as an insult and participate the next time to prove a point.

Let me bore you with some personal stories. People who even remotely know me, know that I am a JAMmer. It wasn't a one day thing. I signed up for my school inter-house JAM in 10th std after watching a riveting JAM the previous year. The first time on stage was quite an embarrassment, understandably. I managed to get just 1 objection and when I got the chance to speak, I screwed up with a pretty basic Grammatical Error. That went on to be my last JAM for the next 2 years. Some Departmental Culturals at Ethiraj during my 1st year in College was the first time after that debacle at school. This time, I didn't manage to get even a single objection my way. The Moderator stopped the JAM for a moment and reminded me that I was indeed a participant! That was extremely embarrassing, in front of a woman's college! I was angry and I vowed to come back. I did and ever since then, I've been participating in every random JAM i've heard about and won quite a few. Not to be boasty, but I think I am pretty good at it.

JAM helps in many ways. It improves your English by leaps and bounds, helps you get a command over basic vocabulary, makes you think on your feet and importantly, helps you make tons of friends.

Everytime I participate in JAM in some college, there are always some new comers. It's very heartening to see this. But the sad thing is that I never see them again at any other place and that's when it becomes disappointing.

It was after such a JAM at Stella Mari's today that Francis and I hit upon this Idea of creating a JAM association. Francis is a friend of mine, who I met during one disastrously bad JAM at KMC, who's doing his Vis Com 2nd year at Loyola. This association will essentially be a place for JAM enthusiasts to continue their passion and for wannabe JAMmers to come and practice and learn the intricacies of JAM. As of now, we have only 2 members, but I am guessing that as word spreads, there will be more. The present rung of JAM moderators who've passed outta their respective colleges will also get an opportunity to sit on the other side of the table.

We plan to get together on a monthly basis, pool in some money and JAM. Winner takes all! So here's an open invite to everybody. Join the Madras JAM Association and try your hand/mouth at JAMming for money. I'll be creating a Facebook page soon and I'll post the link here. Let's see if this gets any mileage.