That core native animal instinct of following the herd, falling in line - have we progressed too far ahead of this? May be not.
Scene 1
The Real: Girl in her 30's ( something wrong - that's surely a woman in her 30's) walks in to meet a random city group -
#contemporary'meet up' to join a set of like minded strangers, looking to hit the dance floor in a bollywood club in London.
She skips the dinner date but turns up well in time to put names to faces of her new mates in crime through to the wee hours of the night.
The herd: She is a party animal. She cares for nothing but the booze, the dance and the glitz of clubbing. And ofcourse she must well be in her
20's - for who graces herself thus beyond that age.
Scene 2
The Real: Girl (but you must get this right this time) joins her work folks to bid a warm goodbye to a colleague.
They do it with a 'Cheers' or two. Leaves the party with grace riding back to her abode, being a responsible mate,
checking on the safe return of some of her happy-high colleagues.
She drafts her thoughts of sheer amusement that there are none to check on her.
The herd : The party animal (yet again), only always back to her den at the unearthly hour, wasted in spirits.
Scene 3
The Real: A guy asks a girl out, treading the turf with utmost precaution, lest she scars his ego.
Pleasantly amused, she declines the invite in favour of a 'Rock Show' with her mate. Offers a choice for another date though.
The herd: The party animal (yes again) is all about glam and glitz, pomp and show, all things material and pretentious.
3 events suffice enough material for a blueprint of 'The Real' or as the bucket she is adorned with by the herd.
Isn't this how the patterns are mapped in our psyche?
And yet, isnt there so much beyond the correlations?
The natural instinct for grouping and lining up, may just have gone overboard to lead us towards the path of naturally programmed animals
who are gradually losing the sheer ability to identify 'anomalies' - yes you call them so, because you skip noticing the plethora of
variations around you, in the attempt to align everything to the known threads.
The overwhelming increase in instances of intolerance to views different from the herd is just an acknowledgement of this native animal instinct.
But wasn't evolution supposed to alienate us from the rest of the animal fraternity or have we made an U turn back to where we began.
Why have we stopped reveling in the beauty of incongruity? Why are we heading towards a monotone target of similarity?
Why do we still aim to fall in line when we have evolved enough to be different?
Why is it so threatening to accept and celebrate that our neighbours are indeed a different flavour of what we have known to believe and
that keeps the stream of possibilities open at all times?
In the backdrop of an urban city life, it isnt an unlikely sight to witness some scenes as follows.What we however take away is either the real or the herd's voice. Does that define which side of the line we choose to be on.
Scene 1
The Real: Girl in her 30's ( something wrong - that's surely a woman in her 30's) walks in to meet a random city group -
#contemporary'meet up' to join a set of like minded strangers, looking to hit the dance floor in a bollywood club in London.
She skips the dinner date but turns up well in time to put names to faces of her new mates in crime through to the wee hours of the night.
The herd: She is a party animal. She cares for nothing but the booze, the dance and the glitz of clubbing. And ofcourse she must well be in her
20's - for who graces herself thus beyond that age.
Scene 2
The Real: Girl (but you must get this right this time) joins her work folks to bid a warm goodbye to a colleague.
They do it with a 'Cheers' or two. Leaves the party with grace riding back to her abode, being a responsible mate,
checking on the safe return of some of her happy-high colleagues.
She drafts her thoughts of sheer amusement that there are none to check on her.
The herd : The party animal (yet again), only always back to her den at the unearthly hour, wasted in spirits.
Scene 3
The Real: A guy asks a girl out, treading the turf with utmost precaution, lest she scars his ego.
Pleasantly amused, she declines the invite in favour of a 'Rock Show' with her mate. Offers a choice for another date though.
The herd: The party animal (yes again) is all about glam and glitz, pomp and show, all things material and pretentious.
3 events suffice enough material for a blueprint of 'The Real' or as the bucket she is adorned with by the herd.
Isn't this how the patterns are mapped in our psyche?
And yet, isnt there so much beyond the correlations?
The natural instinct for grouping and lining up, may just have gone overboard to lead us towards the path of naturally programmed animals
who are gradually losing the sheer ability to identify 'anomalies' - yes you call them so, because you skip noticing the plethora of
variations around you, in the attempt to align everything to the known threads.
The overwhelming increase in instances of intolerance to views different from the herd is just an acknowledgement of this native animal instinct.
But wasn't evolution supposed to alienate us from the rest of the animal fraternity or have we made an U turn back to where we began.
Why have we stopped reveling in the beauty of incongruity? Why are we heading towards a monotone target of similarity?
Why do we still aim to fall in line when we have evolved enough to be different?
Why is it so threatening to accept and celebrate that our neighbours are indeed a different flavour of what we have known to believe and
that keeps the stream of possibilities open at all times?
