Is this the other side of me?
It happens to everyone. If you are a guy or a girl (ladies, kindly replace girl with guy and guy with girl henceforth), its happened! The phone rings, you answer it to hear the most wonderful female voice ever, asking for Jinesh! Oh well... wrong number. But that voice. It just remains. Lingers on. Its the most captivating voice you might have ever heard. As a matter of fact you have already drawn a mind-blowing mental picture of how this person looks. Some have probably even changed their name to Jinesh.... or Jigisha!
Somehow Sexy-voice calls you again (thank you MTNL) and you guys hit it off. Karina sounds all fun over the phone. Its the perfect gel. Its the feeling of hitting jackpot. And you decide to meet.
Oh, I forgot to mention, but the good soul in you meantime makes a humble donation to MTNL for routing the right person to the wrong number (twice). Without anyones knowledge, MTNL had been trying matchmaking since years!
So Jinesh meets Karina at Cafe Coffee Day and Karina ends up being the complete opposite of what she "sounded" like on the phone. Silent, weird, made that slurp noise when she sipped the coffee and didnt wipe the cream off her moustache... I wont go further into looks, since beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder. But lets say Karina ends up being someone you never want to Be or Hold!
Its happened. Not the above mentioned. But we have drawn a mental picture of someone and been totally blown off (in the opposite direction) when we met them. I, for one, draw mental pictures of almost everyone. Irrespective of visual knowledge. When you tell me about some friend of yours I have an image in front of me. Thats the human mind. Rather, thats my human mind.
Are you a Two Face?
But thats not the point of this post. Yes, I can hear everyone say that the point of this post is to put us off to sleep. What you guys dont get is the point of every post of mine is to put you guys off to sleep. Thats always been the primary focus. But there are secondary end-points too.
When I read someones blog I have a mental picture of that person. His/her personality, how the person might look etc. Its there... right up in the grey cells. So here's an experiment I was trying. I read through blogs of some friends of mine and tried to make a mental image. Only pre-requisite: imagine you dont know who they are.
Geez, I did end up with a very weird picture. Take Abbs... talk to him on messenger or just read his blog and half the time you are laughing your arse off.... amazed by this mans creativity. Meet him in person and if you dont know him up close and personal, you will be hit by a wall of silence (at least a few years back).
Bird. Read his blog and you have the impression of him being a braveheart who travels second class on the harbour local. Real life, its a very different picture - a very "happy" picture. Silent chap sipping tea and eating Good-Day biscuits.
Alap. From his blog I would never know he is as wild as he is in person. A pure blood fellow Jamnabite. I mean, who else, beside Alap, Abbs n myself can be crazy enough to burn an Imperial Blue bottle on our terrace at 4 AM.
I could go on... I am sure if Pals would blog (he is all into spirituality and stuff), the blog would probably be on Drugs and rock metal. Farro would probably write on mutation.
I think personalities change over the internet. Or maybe the real you comes out. Something which is not supressed. Does your blog relate to the person you are? Or is your blog the other side of you?
"
But on the telephone line I am anyone, I am anything I want to be
I could be a super model or Norman Mailer
And you wouldn't know the difference
On the telephone line I am any height, I am any age I want to be
I could be a caped crusader, or space invader
And you wouldn't know the difference Or would you
"
- Santa Monica, Savage Garden
OK, I know I am shooting myself in the foot by saying this, but do you think my blog gives out the right traits of my personality (ok, how many of you said "Apoorva & Personality??? HA HA HA!"?).
Go ahead... humour me!
Somehow Sexy-voice calls you again (thank you MTNL) and you guys hit it off. Karina sounds all fun over the phone. Its the perfect gel. Its the feeling of hitting jackpot. And you decide to meet.
Oh, I forgot to mention, but the good soul in you meantime makes a humble donation to MTNL for routing the right person to the wrong number (twice). Without anyones knowledge, MTNL had been trying matchmaking since years!
So Jinesh meets Karina at Cafe Coffee Day and Karina ends up being the complete opposite of what she "sounded" like on the phone. Silent, weird, made that slurp noise when she sipped the coffee and didnt wipe the cream off her moustache... I wont go further into looks, since beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder. But lets say Karina ends up being someone you never want to Be or Hold!
Its happened. Not the above mentioned. But we have drawn a mental picture of someone and been totally blown off (in the opposite direction) when we met them. I, for one, draw mental pictures of almost everyone. Irrespective of visual knowledge. When you tell me about some friend of yours I have an image in front of me. Thats the human mind. Rather, thats my human mind.
Are you a Two Face?
But thats not the point of this post. Yes, I can hear everyone say that the point of this post is to put us off to sleep. What you guys dont get is the point of every post of mine is to put you guys off to sleep. Thats always been the primary focus. But there are secondary end-points too.
When I read someones blog I have a mental picture of that person. His/her personality, how the person might look etc. Its there... right up in the grey cells. So here's an experiment I was trying. I read through blogs of some friends of mine and tried to make a mental image. Only pre-requisite: imagine you dont know who they are.
Geez, I did end up with a very weird picture. Take Abbs... talk to him on messenger or just read his blog and half the time you are laughing your arse off.... amazed by this mans creativity. Meet him in person and if you dont know him up close and personal, you will be hit by a wall of silence (at least a few years back).
Bird. Read his blog and you have the impression of him being a braveheart who travels second class on the harbour local. Real life, its a very different picture - a very "happy" picture. Silent chap sipping tea and eating Good-Day biscuits.
Alap. From his blog I would never know he is as wild as he is in person. A pure blood fellow Jamnabite. I mean, who else, beside Alap, Abbs n myself can be crazy enough to burn an Imperial Blue bottle on our terrace at 4 AM.
I could go on... I am sure if Pals would blog (he is all into spirituality and stuff), the blog would probably be on Drugs and rock metal. Farro would probably write on mutation.
I think personalities change over the internet. Or maybe the real you comes out. Something which is not supressed. Does your blog relate to the person you are? Or is your blog the other side of you?
"
But on the telephone line I am anyone, I am anything I want to be
I could be a super model or Norman Mailer
And you wouldn't know the difference
On the telephone line I am any height, I am any age I want to be
I could be a caped crusader, or space invader
And you wouldn't know the difference Or would you
"
- Santa Monica, Savage Garden
OK, I know I am shooting myself in the foot by saying this, but do you think my blog gives out the right traits of my personality (ok, how many of you said "Apoorva & Personality??? HA HA HA!"?).
Go ahead... humour me!
posted by APOO at 12:01 AM
6 Comments:
I still can't picture the baldness ... is it your blog or is it my blind self?
I'd say its a persona...something we create, which doesn't just materialise out of thin air...it is probably an enhancement (or minimalisation) of who we are. Then again, who we are in the real world is also who we portray ourselves to be. If ur talking purely looks...how can u possibly imagine that based on a person's words unless he/she described his/herself and then again, do you believe that???
"Then again, who we are in the real world is also who we portray ourselves to be."
Very interesting thought!
And of course, I was not talking only about looks.
i think actions/re-actions of all humans are based on their surroundings (which also includes “studying” the person whom he/she is interacting with). Its the only natural thing to do when 2 people communicate/interact, possibly that is the way we have evolved since stone age, when only "direct" communication/interaction was possible.
All the above non-sense leads me to conclude that:
a) In an "indirect" communication/interaction all humans are prone to assess the qualities of the person with whom they are interacting with (to size him/her up, so to speak) as that is how humans & humans societies have evolved. I guess by picturing how the person may be helps in better communication as humans have not evolved to interact in a void & any communication/interaction needs the second personality which is not available while speaking on the phone or writing a mail. And therefore the mental image of the person on the “other” side of the phone is required to interact in a better fashion.
b) All the assumptions in an "indirect" interaction may not necessarily be wrong. As the personality traits, eccentricities would be present in their indirect interaction as well. I feel people can suppress or accentuate some parts of their personalities (for eg. Abs would have to be creative in order to write creatively, but he probably suppresses it during “direct” interaction & chooses to accentuate it during “indirect” interaction, this choice may even be at a subconscious level). Probably such people cannot maintain the same level of confidence when under scrutiny whilst interacting directly or they feel it may be wrong to do so with people present around them or maybe they have been brought up to behave in a certain fashion when directly interacting with other people. I am sure psychologists would be able to profile people accurately based on any indirect communication.
Looks are based on various factors & not just personality traits that you are trying to picture when talking on the phone & hence large variations in the outcome are possible. It is also possible that you picture the person on someone you have met before who has same voice pitch and/or other characteristics.
Lastly appoo we need to meet on MSN to go into details, this Saturday 10 Am IST, what say?
"you picture the person on someone you have met before who has same voice pitch and/or other characteristics"...u got a point there. We try to explain and 'fit' anything new (person/experience) into our known frame of reference.
Ah! Bird, will try to catchya on messenger this Sat morning. But dont wait up for more than 10 mins. Its gonna be Friday night here and I am trying to get a life (read: do other things than stare at my computer screen).
As of now, you are on! Be prepared for some Bird-Bashing!
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