There are a lot of things that can make me smile. More than events, it's people who make me smile even more. Some because of their innate stupidity and some because the situation they are in is genuinely funny.
I am starting to become a really big fan of FM radio. They play the latest music, some of the RJ's are quite witty and funny and some of the topics, these RJ's talk about, are outrageously ridiculous.
One of the topics merits special mention. Y'day, I was driving to office. I was listening to 94.3 FM. This RJ called Suchi was on and the topic being discussed was "Which side dish tastes the best at TasMark?". For all you people who don't know, wine shops in Chennai are called TasMark.
It's about 9:30 in the morning. I am trying to understand what kind of reaction the radio station was hoping to get from people who were listening. Who listens to FM radio at 9:30 in the morning? Obviously people like me, who are stuck on the road. Housewives, preparing lunch for their kids and family. Roadside tea kadai, obviously and etc etc etc.
I thought it was insane. What I found even more interesting was, listeners were expected to call in with what they thought was the best side dish at TasMark and there were so many people calling. I really don't think getting people to think about alcohol as early as 9:30 in the morning on a working day can possibly lead to anything productive.
It gets better.
There I am, wondering what the producer of the show was thinking when he came up with the topic for the show. Just then, this listener calls in with his opinion. His response, translated to English, was something like this:
"The best side dish is pickle. If you look at movies, most of the heroes and comedians like Vivek are always drinking with pickle."
Once I stopped laughing my guts out, it hit me. The producer of the show is one smart guy. He's put his faith on the one constant that has faithfully accompanied human evolution - stupidity.
We, as a race, are good at doing stupid things. Any and all addicts, adrenalin junkies, petrol heads, politicians .... the list goes on - the world is filled with stupid people. Of course there are exceptions but the problem is, everyone thinks they are part of the exception.
The producer of the show is stupid because he successfully managed to distract a whole bunch of people early in the morning. The caller is stupid because he actually fell for that crap and called in. I am stupid because I just wasted 20 mins of my time writing this crap.
So, all in all, the point I'm trying to make is - My faith in the human race has been reinforced, at least for the time being.
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If the radio stations were really interested in audience response, they would give quality programs leading to enlightenment - that means they have to work hard.(Probably they know that our people will be more happy and decide to keep it that way rather than going thru all the statistics and stuff to target the audience. In my experience, I completely stand by the point: Reasoning is a hard work - equivalent to working their butt off for something void) for our makkal. Same as private satellite. Same as politicians being transparent. You want to know the root cause for all the funny things that our people do and stupid things that happen to them and the dim-witted stuff they bring for themselves??? LAZINESS. Laziness to reason and laziness to work is embedded in the Genes of our people starting from the pre-imperialistic period.
And the Laziness has gone thru sevral stages of evloution before what it is now..
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