Why So Serious?

Source: Indiblogger

If you are faced upon a question like ‘What kind of a person you are – serious/funny?’

Many of us would say, ‘I can be both funny and serious, depending on the situation. Some situations such as work or my college call for a mature demeanor, social situations are of course okay to have a sense of humor!’

But some people are never funny at all, they are over dramatic, level headed and serious all the time; when you look at them you feel, ‘Yeh banda, kab zindagi khulke jeeyega?!’

Eric Morcambe once said, ‘You don't have to be miserable to be serious.’

Some people fail to understand it however!

They say ‘Laughter is the best medicine.’

We cannot really laugh at life nor can we always be serious at life. Since we do have many serious people all around us to help keep our morals up, then I would have to say I would like to see more funny people to remind us to smile much more often. Laughter helps us to age more graciously!

I have met a few serious people, I wish to cite a couple of incidences, although serious and sarcastic, it taught me some serious lesson, while the other kept me wondering and laughing at the kind of people we are surrounded by!

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A friend of mine had to host an American lady, she was busy so had requested me pick her up. ‘She has toured the whole of India. My office has asked me to take her to a tour of Mumbai! She is a serious type, won’t take any nonsense, so I request you to be serious too. No silly questions to her,’ she had warned me.

I landed up at the airport well in time with her nameplate, searching for her!

There she was, geeky spectacles, all grim look on face.

I realized when I saw her, iski #ConditionSeriousHai!

As a part of exchanging pleasantries, I began a conversation with her. ‘Hello maam! My friend is busy in some office work; she will be meeting you directly for lunch.’

‘Okay,’ she replied.

I wondered, ‘She just has an ‘okay’ to tell me. Duh!’

To keep her involved I asked her, ‘So maam how did you like my country?’

The American replied, ‘oh, it’s a great country with solid ancient history and immensely rich with resources.’

By this time I realized, here replies were pretty crisp. She was in no lighter mood. 

I further interrogated her, ‘How did you find Indians?’

Immediate came her reply, ‘Indians? I didn’t meet a single Indian!’

I couldn’t take her behavior now. I snapped at her, ‘Maam, you’re in India. People here are called Indians! Who else did you meet here then?’

She said, ‘In Kashmir, I met Kashmiris, In Punjab, I met Punjabis! I met Muslims, Hindus, Christians, Jains and many more, but not a single Indian I met.’

In her seriousness, a foreigner told me the stark fact about my country. My head hung in shame. It was a very thought provoking experience; we are scattered into religions, castes, sub castes, all the way forgetting that we are Indians first!

However she later said, ‘You have a very diverse nation! And you people still bind it and preserve the heritage. Hats off!’ She took exit with a smile!

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We always need the comforting aural cue of laughter, sometimes silly people provide it to us!

I had a friend Saloni, extremely serious always, placing serious questions before me. I would end up telling her, ‘Oye, Saloni, please excuse me! Don’t torture me!’

I still remember anyone having got to talk to her would repent it later. People would literally run away when they would see her approach.

She would ask questions like:

‘Why is the third hand on the watch called the second hand?’

‘Why do you press harder on the buttons of a remote control when you know the batteries are dead?’

‘How come abbreviated is such a long word?’

‘If a word is misspelled in the dictionary, how would we ever know?’

‘Seriousness is a very serious disease; you will make me like you, one day! People call you sadoo - a bore! Why do you have to be like this ALL THE TIME, Saloni? Your mind isn't so much twisted as badly sprained. Teri #ConditionSeriousHai!’ I would often tell her!

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“Who made the rule that life has to be so serious?

Seriousness is the last refuge of the shallow!
Get a life, smile broadly, sing loudly,
Paint your rooms in bold colors,
Search every rabbit hole for a magical white bunny,
Wear a purple coat with a red hat - dance lightly with life.

The moment you start seeing life
As non-serious, a playfulness,
All the burden on your heart disappears.
All the fear of death, of life,
Of love - everything disappears.”

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If we do not have humor, laughter and fun in our lives, it looks just like sweets with no sugar.  Jokes provide us broad vision to see the events of our daily life in hilarious way. Sometimes very serious situations convert into humorous situations like; worse political condition of country, financial problems etc. We can use humor to convey our view points on very sensitive issues. This laughter helps us to lessen the pain. People use humor to drop the light on hidden truths of the society in a constructive manner too which sometimes is not possible in a direct way.

***This post is exclusively written for ‘Condition Serious Hai!’ Contest powered by Cadbury 5 Star and Indiblogger. Details here: the Cadbury 5 Star Facebook page

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