From
“asl...pls” till “wtf” and “fuck off”, the metrosexual youth has gone a long
way. I met a lady who lives in most modern yuga, but still surprised about its
life style. Here I am going for an analysis of some words which she has seen
and listened to through years of her life. Taking an anticipatory bail that it
may differ in opinion with you, I narrate her in indirect speech …
Years
back, on a vacation, when she logged in
to the chat room of yahoo messenger for the first time to drive away the
boredom which was killing her in all the possibilities, she first saw those two
words “asl…pls…”. At that time, she
didn’t know what they meant, not even “pls” means “please”. A girl of a small
village who didn’t visit the cities even once in a year, least bothered about
what is happening around. An engineering student now- a-days unaware of nil about
what drives the world, due the technology on the lap. She was of the same genre
but a little knowhow about the western monopolies banging our society and the
young minds. The logical person in her wanted to know what those words are, and
you know what she did!!! To the next pop up window she typed “asl…pls…” The
reply was somewhat like this “25m kerala”. Still the confused girl took a long
time to realize “a” for “age”, “s” for “sex” and “l” for “location” and later
on the “pls” means “please”.
When
she watched a recently released movie, the friends whom she had taken along
might have cursed for the monotonous theme of the ‘same old love story’. Apart
from the old wine in the new bottle, handsome hero and gorgeous heroine, they
didn’t happen to feel the underlined theme. May be it is because they haven’t
gone through similar periods in life, as she had.
She
did live a childhood and teenage where she hardly tasted what the real person
she is. The weekdays from home to school in auto, she hardly saw the outside
world. On the evenings, when the auto uncle came late to pick up, they -she
with her brother- used to walk towards the autorikshaw stand. The intention
behind doing so was an interesting word which influenced her, “TV” as they didn’t own a TV at home.
There was an electronics shop near the auto stand- the only one which is still
there in the town- where they watched TV standing outside the door steps even
in the rainy days. During one such day, she watched the movie “lalsalam” and
the hero in the character “Nettooran” became her favorite; the passion for
movies born right there and still going on….
She
didn’t ever witnessed any school day or college day, those days where the
gifted extra days for studies as per her parents. Slowly she used to be like
what they wanted her to be. Not a “bookworm”
but studious in their eyes. She still remembers, on school days, during exams she
used to take books even to the toilet, while bathing. The wet pages of the book
looked at her pathetically, when she uttered “I am not a bookworm!” And it
continued till the 3rd semester of her B.Tech. Afterwards,
everything had become show offs. Till the last night before the exams she
hardly studied one or two pages of each text and that night remained sleepless
one, not for study but to switch on and off light and see whether the clock has
ticked morning. When everyone looked at her as an intelligent, hardworking and
studious girl, in short “bujee”, she
never was after schools. The laziest person she ever came across in her life is
herself.
Being
brought up in a family where money has been spent extravagantly for food and
travel, she dressed up with the low cost tops and shirts, with no accessories
matching or mismatching; obviously she loved school uniforms. Because “uniforms” were the royal wears which
helped to hide the scarcity of dressing up like fellow beings. Once in a week
with colour dress, she managed till Onam or X’Mas or Birthday or on the school
openings came and got a new dress. She never went on a pleasure trip which we
call “excursion” in school or in
college as a student. She never got a chance to understand the reason behind it
also. She had never gone for a “movie” till she passed out as an engineer!!! So
the word “theatre” was a known, but
unseen word. She wished to learn dance, and her mother has arranged a teacher
for that too, who agreed to come home and teach her. But the ugly face of
social look up on dance like that she is going to become a Devadasi, had engulfed her joint family also and the ashes of the
burnt wings still she bear on the back. You all know what a “bulls eye” is when you order it in a
hotel. She never knew till she joined college and had the same from a friend.
Many such words…
Now
almost all school going boy/girl know what the word “prostitute” means, from movies or from the family soap serials. Her
ears had got tired of different synonyms of the same without even knowing what
it means for years from when she started understanding language, in the age of
3 or 4. She can’t recollect when she understood the meaning of that word and
after knowing it, for around ten years, her ears were being filled with it like
burning coal. The mental status of a girl who had gone through such situations,
if became strong is magical. Now-a-days, the above said word seems lost its
meaning, because of the so called life style of today’s generation. Not all,
but not few too, is in a go to utilize the urge for physical/sexual needs provided
it will remain behind the screen.
The
next word “liquor”, no explanations
required for anyone as it is a friend for many. Once it was there to colour
celebrations or victories or to burry tragedies or losses. In the present day,
Saturday night fever is inevitable for most and can see even some family get
together making the weekend boosters diminished in charm. And one more
inevitable ritual of all marriages, whether the wedding may happen or not
tomorrow, we want “bachelor party”
and a scene for many new words which still the dictionaries finding difficult
to translate to any language. To those who use liquor as appetizer to those who
consume as a habit or status symbol to socialize, she has these words: “I have
seen the worst face of this social evil for around 16 years ruining
relationships and destructing the financial stature”. Whether you had money for
a new dress to your son/daughter, every evening you are handful for whisky or
brandy. You might have seen only in films or serials men coming drunk to home
with a paper wrapped packet of vada or gillebi for children. Have you ever even
imagined whether it happens in real? It happened and happens in many houses
still with a difference of chocolates or cakes replacing vada and gillebi. She
sees many “FB” updates of
celebrations projecting the size and number of bottles. Now a part of a
peaceful family with parents and brother, the instant she saw her father taking
liquor, the mad person in her starts pulling her hairs and striking her head
against anything. Childhood incidents and memories never leave behind any
symptom of losing individuality. And the imbalance in mind started someway there
onwards…
Now
coming to “FB”, frankly telling,
took some time for her to understand it is “Facebook” and not any new polished
era word. Facebook, a place where almost all- including her- vomits the gains
and losses, “shits” the
undigested/digested things daily. There are occasions where you call or message
a friend and receive a no response while you can see that person hanging around
for long time in FB with an active green symbol. Same time, put a “smiley” like this “:*” or “:(” in the chat box, within no time
you will get a reply. She could witness through years that major bunches of
lives are interested in “spicy”
talks or others’ worries, to exploit the latter for the former. Give some
freedom in friendship, you can expect the next query “which dress are you in?”,
“is cold/hot there?”, “had bath?”, etc etc… Some are very intelligent to start with
flatter, “you are looking awesome in that pic”, “your lips are so sweet”, “what
a structure”, etc etc… Of course a lady wish to hear that she is looking
beautiful, but certainly not “sexy”.
She has less number of friends, who ask her to change the picture which projects
the curves, lucky to have those. She has the following opinion on the referred
word ‘smiley’, in short. In conversations, smses has given way to smileys-often
to hide the real emotions. Only few can understand your tears behind a “:)”
and are rare to find. At the same time as saving hand on relations, the smileys
help to hide anger/irritation by simply sending a “:)”
than calling the names.
“shit”, actor Suresh Gopi, sponsored
word for malayalees(now-a-days called “mallus”,
the ugliest word to refer a keralite in her opinion) being used here and there
without any need, of variants “bull shit”, “shit yaar” etc etc… She don’t know
the significance of a bull’s shit in anyone’s life, whereas she is well aware
that cow’s shit is being used as a symbolically purifying material in rituals.
The
introvert in her hated the feeling of “love”.
She never allowed her eyes to struck on a handsome face and physique as the
“inferior she” label had been stamped in her heart somewhere in the journey,
being a girl of no talents and a non attractive look. Or was it the disturbed
relationship of her parents those days, which never encouraged her to think
about a relationship!!! It has been caught hold on her brain that every married
life is like that and a man can be the best father but not a good husband. Meanwhile let me mention one word word in her collection, “divorce”,
and she is cent percent sure that the reader may hardly understand the mental
status of a girl of 7years old when asked “do you wish to go with father or
mother?”. Finally, when the inevitable emotion of love visited her life, the related
words of modern life, which the older generation might have never heard about,
like “break ups”, “dump”, “crush” lined up in the row faster than its creator.
How
the God’s blessing turns into man’s curse, you will understand by the latest
fashion cliché words “wtf” and “fuck off”. When she first saw the word ‘wtf’, she needed
to ask the meaning of the abbreviation to the sender. Truly tell you; even
after knowing the expansion, she still doesn’t understand what it really
implies. And the most arrogant expression of anger used in earlier days to the
best of her knowledge was “get lost”
or “mind your own business” which is
completely replaced by ‘fuck off’ currently. The interesting thing is; when she
heard the word for the first time, she ran for a dictionary. Funny the result
was, even the greatest known dictionaries of the world couldn’t help her. Then she
became a normal lady of this era and googled. Amazingly, each meaning preceded
with the word “vulgar”. Now we need
to define the extent of vulgarity as the frequency of usage increased quite a
lot. None will disagree with her on this: Except the fact that they are used
for purpose of insulting someone, the fucking words really doesn’t carry any
meaning
To
conclude my attempt to portray the insecure feelings created in her life by
some words, a final quote: Those who start with “asl…pls” when end up shouting “wtf”
and “fuck off”, I wonder, "have you ever got a thought before using them!!!"
