Wednesday, July 21, 2004

Man is a social animal ?

Brings back memories of 6th std Social studies chapter, doesn't it ? Well, yesterday was my day to defend this with all my strength.
Got into this big argument with this friend of mine which resulted in a skewed analysis by him which goes like this - "You are not at peace with yourself" :-))
I didn't know where the argument finally landed and which direction it took but before I knew it, wham ! :p
Anyways, what I was trying to tell my dear friend was that I cannot do certain things because well, I just can't. These include eating or drinking in a public place all by myself. I cannot go to a cafeteria and have lunch all by myself, I cannot go to a coffee place an just sit there all by myself or what the heck, go to a theatre all by myself to watch a movie !
I actually thought thats how most of the world is, well, mainly coz none of my close friends don't do these things as well :-)
But guess what, there are lots who do..
My contention was that I have a mindset against things like these, the actual physical capability is questionable as I have never tried it. Maybe if i really set my eyes on it, who knows, I might just go to the nearest coffee shop an grab a cuppa :-))
But I digress. So, yeah, as I was saying, when i go out an see someone sit at a table next to me all by himself (male version as I somehow see only guys doing this), i actually feel sad for the person. I mean, for me eating all by yourself and not even having a company for eating is the pits ! I dunno , maybe I am wrong, shoot me ! But thats the way my mind works..
I see a guy at a movie theatre all by himself an in my mind i go awwwww.... soooo saddd ...
Guess what ! Turns out, some people actually 'like' doing this !
To me its kinda weird coz all this I need my own space funda is fine, but doing things like these all by yourself is taking it a bit too far..
I will not say that I have a very co-dependent existence because I always do things in a group or with friends, but I just feel thats nature. Man has always done things in groups, packs, circles ..
Wonder when all this changed ... hmmmmm..
Am I at peace with myself ?? Totally :-)))))))

2 comments:

Rajesh J Advani said...

You might notice that this "I'd rather be alone" thing is more common in the US, than in India. In our country of a Billion people we're so used to having people around us all the time that being in a place where you can really spend some time by yourself, tends to be a little hard to accept.
Some of us can't adjust to this loneliness, while some of us decide we actually like the experience.

Some of us, of course, as you rightly think, have no other choice...

Either way, next time you see a guy eating or having coffee alone, try joining him. You just might make his day :)

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Isaac Asimov's "Naked Sun" is an interesting drama/detective-story that analyses your question. Of course, his opinion is that lonerism (to coin a new term when so many already exist) makes us less than human.

Anonymous said...

Hey Rads,
Just started reading your blog.
And i realise that we share quite a few thoughts in common.
:-)
-DS