Sympathy is an emotional affinity in which whatever affects one correspondingly affects the other, and its synonym is pity. The Greek translation of the word sympatheia, is to suffer together also. The true meaning of this word was manifested in a wholly opportunistic moment from some friends of my mine who seem to share my sob stories. Initially it really felt good though the magnitude of the anecdotes was apprehensive. In hindsight it seemed like a desperate attempt to recuperate to my own dysfunctional ties.
Empathy on the other hand refers to the ability to perceive and directly experientially feel another person's emotions as they feel them, but makes no statement as to how they are viewed. Sympathy, by contrast, implies a degree of equal feeling, that is, the sympathizer views the matter similarly to how the person themselves does. It thus implies concern, or care or a wish to alleviate negative feelings others are experiencing.
I heard a few sob stories in the past few weeks from some friends and temps. The aspiration was to invoke the above two emotions and it did. When you talk to people of the darker side of your life you pretty much create a bond of trust and the listener does feel special. It is a sounding board, an outlet to express pent up emotions. But the strangest thing happened when I heard the sob stories told to me had been around to a lot of people’s ears. It made me feel used. It was because that specialness of being an agony aunt wasn’t that special after all. It made me feel like I was just there and then, an object to talk to!
You are bound to do such deep analysis to make people feel you understand the magnitude of their dark experiences, but only to realize that it ain’t worth it. I am not using this platform to criticize some somebody exponentially. For me personally it talks about a person’s loneliness. The reason why people talk about their dark phases is to find about what exactly the other person has gone through. I myself have felt so lonely even while in a party talking a wholla lot of people. You try to compensate it with personalized experiences. I had this done to me when I heard about a friend who told his/her story to whole a lot of people, I sort of felt they told me their experiences because they sort of felt a connection with me but it seemed more like a desperate attempt to be accepted more than anything else. More than anything else I felt pity for them. It seemed like an outcry to be heard more than anything else, or a desperate attempt to be accepted.
Empathy and sympathy seem to be the two most exploited values in establishing a relationship. It seems like a lot of people take it for granted that these are the two attributes in establishing and sustaining a relationship. It seems shallow that people do so. As humans is it a necessity for us to connect on an emotional level as such? At the risk of sounding maimed in the head ‘keep it simple, silly!’
Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
Media: Ideological eunuchs?
Media is a huge shaping factor on the fabric of any society. It shapes the public perception on a plethora of issues thus influencing the very dogma of society. As even a comic caper can tell you, with great power came great responsibility. But the mass media has exploited the fore said powers left, right and centre. News deliverance from the media houses is based on trust. It is supposed to be unbiased, objective, fair etc. and it should help the subscribers form their opinion based on content. In these days with sensationalism the difference between fact and opinion seems quite blurry. The pioneer of the sensationalism, commercialization and the birth of lobbyists like Nira Radia has been the Times of India (TOI) in our country.
This biased based reporting is rampant in India especially; but the very first company to plunge into this dark phase has been TOI. The TOI kicked off the trend with its eyeball garnering supplement called ‘page 3’. With the advent of this phenomenon people desperately wanted be in on this. More so the celebrities as their livelihood depended on garnering these eyeballs. So, to accommodate the needful TOI began milking this cash cow and page 3 space began to be auctioned. The evolution had just begun; soon TOI began to actually receive equity shares of companies in exchange for redundant barrages of advertisement in their papers. Today the Bennett Coleman group stands to be one of the largest private equity investors in India. Then came the actual conflict of interest. As a major chunk of their revenues depended on these companies it only made sense for TOI and Economic times to publish favorable reports of these companies in their paper. Only when SEBI saw a dangerous pattern emerging it was guide lined.
But in doing so the revenue model was transgressed onto another feasible platform. A platform that was proven and productive for any earnings through corruption. The Indian political sphere. Today, as I experienced even a common man sipping chai in a tea stall can tell you, which news channel is affiliated to which party. What better ways for these political parties to advertise than to have the disguised ‘ideological eunuchs’ on their payroll.
The political parties pay the newspapers to print glowing articles about the party in exchange for money and the reader is duped to believe the article as a fact when in reality it is just another paid advertisement thus influencing the proletariat. The Radia tapes have actually broken the credence of our business trust spectrum as well. We thought the Ambanis and the Tata’s were on two different ends of the spectrum but only to know that they were actually quite close. It shows how well the media has toyed with its reporting to form public opinion. Not since the days of emergency (at least to public knowledge) do the media have such a compromised poise.
And now with the political connections of the media being exposed, the TOI has evolved into a new avenue; it has sold its masthead, the paper jacket too to companies. Can’t wait to see what is next. While the rape is underway, I will stick to DD News as it seems like the only boulevard where facts are not compromised for opinions.
This biased based reporting is rampant in India especially; but the very first company to plunge into this dark phase has been TOI. The TOI kicked off the trend with its eyeball garnering supplement called ‘page 3’. With the advent of this phenomenon people desperately wanted be in on this. More so the celebrities as their livelihood depended on garnering these eyeballs. So, to accommodate the needful TOI began milking this cash cow and page 3 space began to be auctioned. The evolution had just begun; soon TOI began to actually receive equity shares of companies in exchange for redundant barrages of advertisement in their papers. Today the Bennett Coleman group stands to be one of the largest private equity investors in India. Then came the actual conflict of interest. As a major chunk of their revenues depended on these companies it only made sense for TOI and Economic times to publish favorable reports of these companies in their paper. Only when SEBI saw a dangerous pattern emerging it was guide lined.
But in doing so the revenue model was transgressed onto another feasible platform. A platform that was proven and productive for any earnings through corruption. The Indian political sphere. Today, as I experienced even a common man sipping chai in a tea stall can tell you, which news channel is affiliated to which party. What better ways for these political parties to advertise than to have the disguised ‘ideological eunuchs’ on their payroll.
The political parties pay the newspapers to print glowing articles about the party in exchange for money and the reader is duped to believe the article as a fact when in reality it is just another paid advertisement thus influencing the proletariat. The Radia tapes have actually broken the credence of our business trust spectrum as well. We thought the Ambanis and the Tata’s were on two different ends of the spectrum but only to know that they were actually quite close. It shows how well the media has toyed with its reporting to form public opinion. Not since the days of emergency (at least to public knowledge) do the media have such a compromised poise.
And now with the political connections of the media being exposed, the TOI has evolved into a new avenue; it has sold its masthead, the paper jacket too to companies. Can’t wait to see what is next. While the rape is underway, I will stick to DD News as it seems like the only boulevard where facts are not compromised for opinions.
Thursday, January 13, 2011
The IT Boom/Doom
Chest Congesting News: Infosys hires 26 employees from my college for an annual pay packet between 7.5-8.5 lac p.a. I sincerely hope people regard this article as more than a mere justification of jealously (is it at a sub conscious level?), I’m sure my close friends who have been hired by the above firm will approve! I have nothing against the company whatsoever; I think Infosys is a company that is extremely proficient and competent in our market and a pioneer of the Indian MNC revolution. Why the chest congestion then?
I am not singling out Infosys alone but a lot of these IT companies in India. What these IT companies end up doing to their employees is program them to be mechanical (follow orders) than be thinkers. How many engineers we hear of who are from non related fields like mining, environmental,civil being captured by these IT companies and are turned into IT professionals in a non related field. The saddening part is these IT companies always employ the crème de la crème of the targeted colleges. Moreover, these companies are purely judged on their profit making capabilities, their contribution to the GDP and immense hiring capabilities. Looking at the IT space right now you could see barring a few exceptions, companies have stuck to being basic off shoring companies and doing the needful for their onshore clients. They haven’t moved onto the next level. They are happy catering to Microsoft, GE’s needs without an entrepreneurial drive. Can these IT companies become the next thing? YES THEY CAN, both as a start up on a individual level and for a company! We are blessed with all the resources sans spirit. Their objectives is achieved through charging clients on the basis of hours put in and rake in the moolah, without the client knowing what the quality hours that have been put are. They slog to work for the profit and net worth of a company and then it is absorbed. Every other week we hear an IT firm being bought over.
A brain drain is usually addressed to emigration candidates for a plethora of reasons as may be, but here I would like to lay emphasis on this phrase on a different level. I think it as an antidote for the entrepreneurial spirit because of the high pay packets and security offered by the software industry. Some of my very own friends who have been employed by Infosys are very enterprising young men. But by stifling them with the pay packets and security (mans most primitive need) they have them be penguins in the industry. Every time I meet IT guys from the industry everybody wants to talk about the menial jobs that they have and how they do not feel appreciated at a humane level and also with regards to abilities explored. I guess it is the monotony that gets to them. There are quite a few who break the shackles after a few years, make their money and move on. But the majorities of us are creatures of habit and tend to get habituated in our accumulated comfort zone.
I sincerely hope people become aware of the other side of the success story. We do not need these self destructive penguins setting a precedent in the market. I am aware of the loan repayment objective of students. But hope they don’t get too comfortable. If we want the next big online presence from India like Zuckerberg, action stemming from awareness is the key!!
Note: Chest congestion is a redundant ailment of mine!
I am not singling out Infosys alone but a lot of these IT companies in India. What these IT companies end up doing to their employees is program them to be mechanical (follow orders) than be thinkers. How many engineers we hear of who are from non related fields like mining, environmental,civil being captured by these IT companies and are turned into IT professionals in a non related field. The saddening part is these IT companies always employ the crème de la crème of the targeted colleges. Moreover, these companies are purely judged on their profit making capabilities, their contribution to the GDP and immense hiring capabilities. Looking at the IT space right now you could see barring a few exceptions, companies have stuck to being basic off shoring companies and doing the needful for their onshore clients. They haven’t moved onto the next level. They are happy catering to Microsoft, GE’s needs without an entrepreneurial drive. Can these IT companies become the next thing? YES THEY CAN, both as a start up on a individual level and for a company! We are blessed with all the resources sans spirit. Their objectives is achieved through charging clients on the basis of hours put in and rake in the moolah, without the client knowing what the quality hours that have been put are. They slog to work for the profit and net worth of a company and then it is absorbed. Every other week we hear an IT firm being bought over.
A brain drain is usually addressed to emigration candidates for a plethora of reasons as may be, but here I would like to lay emphasis on this phrase on a different level. I think it as an antidote for the entrepreneurial spirit because of the high pay packets and security offered by the software industry. Some of my very own friends who have been employed by Infosys are very enterprising young men. But by stifling them with the pay packets and security (mans most primitive need) they have them be penguins in the industry. Every time I meet IT guys from the industry everybody wants to talk about the menial jobs that they have and how they do not feel appreciated at a humane level and also with regards to abilities explored. I guess it is the monotony that gets to them. There are quite a few who break the shackles after a few years, make their money and move on. But the majorities of us are creatures of habit and tend to get habituated in our accumulated comfort zone.
I sincerely hope people become aware of the other side of the success story. We do not need these self destructive penguins setting a precedent in the market. I am aware of the loan repayment objective of students. But hope they don’t get too comfortable. If we want the next big online presence from India like Zuckerberg, action stemming from awareness is the key!!
Note: Chest congestion is a redundant ailment of mine!
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