From Dawn to Dusk, “Did you know?” is a habitual conversation starter and it is fairly obvious, what follows that, would not be an exchange of a science or a mathematical fact. Quite often the “Did you know” we encounter in our day to day life, is nothing but a conundrum, followed by a hearsay of something, people ought not to disclose to others. The art of gossiping comes with certain traits, that enhances the information itself, for example the excitement accompanied with it and also do not forget that gossip and smirking goes hand in hand. One naughty smirk with some mischievous title-tattle would make anyone a show-stopper amidst a gathering. We cannot say that we picked this habit today or just yesterday. The evolving humans and the art of gossiping, a constant prerogative of being human, it is right there from when humans and history existed.
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Wind back the time turner, the early humans, who were merely trivial animals among the other species, survived, thrived and stood out with some specific skills like hunting and bonding, in a society. Just like how they used fire as a powerful weapon, they used the technique of tattling or more or less passing information in layman’s term to bond and stick together as a community.
We humans prosper and flourish in the society through mutual cooperation, and to cooperate, gossip is a powerful aid. It is also a common fallacy that only women tend to gossip, but believe me or not, it is in our history and it is never gender specific. Fast forward to today, We might walk on the moon, we might even start giving birth to a child without a man, but also, amid all this blooming technological advancements and fast paced lives, all of us do expect a teeny weeny social bonding at the water cooler or at the coffee table or in the queue, now and then, to wind and unwind the human characteristics. Life is a melange of good and bad, but good comes second and it is always exciting for people to know who has managed to do some mischief, and that is how trust and relationships and also troubles have been budding amidst our society.
Society thrives with all sorts of data, information, fiction and half-truths. To move and to live amicably in a community we have been doing this since time immemorial, is it not? But does it not come with a price, it would not be long before the tables are turned. We indulge in talking about everything from pillar to post, and at the same time, we do have a nagging voice at the back of our head, that we have to keep up and quite often it becomes hard to keep up in the game of behaving like a pristine being and not becoming a subject of analysis in a round-table gossip conference. Does it all end at fear of being accepted or being wrong or to project ourselves as an ideal human??
Now on a personal note, when do you think all this started getting on to me? Being a 25 year old lady, when I deviate a little or a lot, from the way of life, of a perfect Indian women , it is like the wolves descend and the whining never stops from all directions. It is not that am only concerned about me, or obsessed about myself, but too much of anything will do no good, ain’t it?? Leaving all this behind, all of us do have a personal space in life where we are, really who we are and many of us know we certainly would not fit that skeletal image of flawless human that is roaming about in the society. So as far as me, I would not call it a rebellion or a way of battling out those tattles or being a loner, but I can say that, finally I have learnt to Live, Laugh, Love truly and tell no one, because sometimes just sometimes people do ruin beautiful things. Don’t they??
As lord George Gordon Byron says,
There is a pleasure in the pathless woods,
There is a rapture on the lonely shore,
There is society where none intrudes,
By the deep Sea, and music in its roar:
I love not Man the less, but Nature more.
Mathu's Blog 