Sunday, November 15, 2009

Emptiness

Everyone knows that empty vessels always make a lot of noise. But the world needs them. It needs to drown itself in the din and be surrounded by their sheer vapidness. There is a queer comfort in being drenched in such emptiness. It gives the freedom such as dancing like a silly ninny amid glaring psychedelic lights; identities are lost, thoughts are expunged and the mind revels in numb pleasure.

The art of such noise making requires a special talent. One needs to be totally empty, but at the same time should also be positively confident of completely brimming with ambrosia. It follows that one shouldn't care about humility. Yet, how does one showcase their nothingness in a package of imagined ambrosia just through confident noise? Ah, there comes the next important quality; to possess the art of being "bubbly". It sort of reminds me of a child filling a glass with Coke; the bubbly effervescence froths up so joyously to the brim cascading rapidly down to the sides, that the child thinks that the glass is more than full and stares with amazement at the sparkly bubbles. Of course, less than 30 seconds later he realizes that the glass is barely filled and the bubbles dwindle to fizz and then to nothingness. But what he remembers are the bubbles... the empty little pockets of air, and he craves to see them again. The charm that the bubbles wield is incomparable to some mundane-pulp full-nutritious juice. Blurghhh....

In today's information-overloaded, Internet-crazed world, the two qualities are alluded as PR and promotion. With information being thrust on our face every single minute, it makes sense that one needs to sell themselves with much more vigor...attracting mindless attention through tooting and blaring horns in a dance of "bubbles". This translates to 90% bubbles, 10% drink. Well, one gets carried away with the deceptive and bubbly entertainment that one hardly stares down at the cup to notice its sparse content. This of course means that the genuine, albeit boring orange juice needs to do something to get noticed! After all, it is surely unrealistic to expect people to hunt down for a plain cup of juice. So, well, aren't carbonated orange juice much popular? Of course! Even sparkling water exudes more panache! Add a hint of artificial flavor to the same sparkling cup, viola... pure water is officially out of the competition. No wonder zero-caloried-zero nutrition-artificial drinks make so much money!

That's the future of our world. Empty bubble makers who can make hypnotic noise to perpetuate mediocrity. Is it wrong that I'm disgusted with such conniving superficiality? Well I better not be. The old ladies in my family often drawl when there is a new-born, "Doesn't matter if the child is fair or dark. A child who can talk his way through the world, will be a successful survivor". Amen to that.

2 comments:

SecondSight said...

My two cents- Despite the drawbacks of superficiality, when its combined with intelligence, humor and a sense of perspective, it can be extremely useful..

In the right hands, bubbles are a tool, as much to entertain another as to amuse oneself (even if its just being amused at how easy it is to entertain the other person ;) )

Neeraja said...

I don't argue against that, but sadly I have hardly come across those with a combination of substantial content/intelligence and bubbles..