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||Opinionated Much?..



Hello readers! :)
Care to drop in a comment sometime? The number of pageviews, and not knowing 28 out of the 30 people who read the post, creeps me out!

Anyway, day before yesterday, I boarded a train to come home. Three-tier AC is still the worst on my list, this experience didn't help much. The congested middle berth and a bunch of talkative, always-up-for-debate elders, who could ask for more, eh? [For people who do not understand sarcasm, right at this moment, I feel like being Leonard and holding up a sign for your 'Sheldon Cooper brain' that says 'SARCASM'] :|

Sorry for that one but I'm kind of getting tired of having to explain my jokes every single time. So the journey, right. There was this working lady who sat beside me and had the berth above mine. Being an avid reader, the kind that cannot travel without reading, I had bought a little something to read. Since campus romances are all that you find these days, frustrated I thought of giving up on the genre altogether and bought "What Young India Wants" by Chetan Bhagat instead. Now, mind you, he is one of the authors whose writing I admire considering that the youth connects well with his words. And this is what I told the lady beside me when she asked if I liked CB.

Her next question, "Do you want to speak the kind of English Chetan Bhagat speaks, or do you want to improve your English?" For a quiet person like me, that was the last straw. People who know me even the slightest bit know that I prefer writing over speaking for the simple reason that I am a lazy person who finds talking, especially on useful subjects, a lot of work! So here is what I replied, "With all due respect ma'am, I have many other options for improving my 'English', but when I read, I like to read about things I like." Plus, I mean, it wasn't even the conventional stuff that CB writes about. Its a compilation of essays (sort of) on social issues. And I was actually enjoying reading it.

Now wasn't that irritating enough? Well, apparently not. Turns out Auntyji had taken up the job of picking up any sorts of mistakes that my almost-favorite author had made. She was reading along side me, over my shoulders. I mean, imagine the plight of the situation! There was a reference of Mark Zuckerberg in the text, there was a line that referred to him as 'a boy of 24 years', and dear ol' Auntyji said, "Look! He says the guy is 24 but still calls him a boy!" On that, I actually had a straight face and my expression screamed "Seriously? SERIOUSLY!?"

What really is this prejudice all about? CB is one of the 100 most influential people in the world for crying out loud! Just because an author mentions some kids making out at some point in his books, is it really fair to ignore all the other social issues that he brings up too? Five Point Someone entails the hidden tragedies of an IITian (Yes, for me, IITians are sad, sad people. Do not bring this up with me. I will probably never change my POV on this one.) One Night at the Call Centre also focuses on the youth, the call centre generation, The Three Mistakes of My Life is about secularism, 2 States targets intercaste marriages and Revolution 2020 questions business ethics. Now isn't that serious enough for kids, or teens rather, to be reading these days? Well, I guess our respected elders need to broaden their minds just the slightest bit more. Just because we like reading love stories doesn't mean we're not serious enough.

PS: Excuse me for all the moodiness that has crept in. The book makes you a little aggressive. :P

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