8.5.06

Of Culture

Firstly, for all the reasons I get dumped by hot chicas refer to RT's link, here.

Next, as I was explaining to someone last night. Information is power. Last uttered by Senthil in BOYS, you remember the scene, where he has his 'magic' book of exactly what free prasadham is given out in which temple, such that he never goes without a meal. Eat and sleep lifestyle. That's his power. Generally, information is power. That's credo no.1 The second motherhood statement following that closely is definitely, "2 people can keep a secret, if 1 of them's dead". You choose la, who should die.

Otherwise, just to follow a certain fiasco that is occurring in the undercurrents of certain circles. I'd like to discourse today about culture. This whole idea of what makes a "cultured" person.

I was kinda browsing thru the Friendly service a few days ago, and I saw something that piqued my interest. Greatly. Something was shouting out to me. Like "Shanker shanker..come here and take a look and be apalled and comment on me". So, I answered the call.

Consider this a KLKilling. Cos, no matter how much it tries and convinces us that it belongs to the anti-thesis of a KLK, i beg to differ.


Schools (Other):
St. ***** Primary School, CHIJ St. *****, C**** Junior College, NUS FASS

Occupation:
Undergraduate

Affiliations:
anythin singaporeans.. [note spelling error, from an Arts n Soci student no less]

Hobbies and Interests:
slackin whenever possible.. sleeping, lazing around.. slammin imports [made in Singapore girl? Fair enough. Patriotism. Throw away all your shampoos and hair conditioners now. Last I heard, Thailand was producing them by the truck loads]

Who I Want to Meet:

But no clubbers. no smokers. no drunks. no walking profanities.

No converts (one's own culture and OWN religion is an asset. it aint a toy for u to just discard and exchange for another, just cos a new one makes u happy. tts de epitome of immaturity & shallowness).

Someone who's simple, with strength in character and principles.

Someone who doesn't fall prey to vices as easily. Meaning someone who's not fundamentally stupid in the brains.

This the portion I take such offense at. In one swooping paragraph, I as a human being have been degraded to being immature/shallow/weak and stupid. Damn! But, also my grasp of the English language was fundamentally rocked.

One who clubs = clubber, one who smokes = smoker, one who drinks = drunk, one who swears = walking profanity.

Ideally, shouldn't this be worded differently. One who swears is someone who goes "Fuck!". One who is a walking profanity, IS a fuck. A dumb fuck too, since he fell prey to vices. Right, the carrion are circling over my corpse waiting to prey on my final sticks of Viceroy and drink off the last drops of Stout I have dribbling down my chin.

Did I miss the converts bit? Choosing one's faith I feel is one of the fundamental rights of a human being. A day old child is born Muslim/Hindu/Catholic/Jew cos he just doesn't know any better. And with information and the understanding of the pillars of the respective faiths. Anyone has a choice later to switch as they please. Isn't the idea to attain Nirvana. Or is the idea to just profess yourself to be a Shiva/Vishnu/Brahma fan and publicize it.

I personally am faithless. Church, mosque, temples, synagogues: Been to all, prayed at all, confessed to all, follower of none.


Possibly, someone has taught this girl wrongly. About tolerance. About being a human. About professing a very irritating condescending attitude towards all that don't share her view. Sad, really. This entire idea of what makes a "cultured" person or a "classy" Indian. Do you wake up at 6am, sing the Gayathri Subrabatham, put vibuthi, hop into your Punjabi suit and then traverse to school or wherever and back home, observing your curfew just in time to do 6 pm prayers? Or do you still shop at This Fashion, hang out at Far East or wherever people of your age group go, discriminate against particular religions and at the end of the day proclaim your "classiness".

I'll tell you about class. I have no idea if I possess any. If someone says I do, then I do. And I'm happy. But class is not about your Ferragamo suit or your Tag Heuer watch. About your vibuthi or your godliness. Class is from deep down inside. It's from the heart and it forms your character.

Bitching behind people's back [someone you don't even know personally]: Not classy.
Non-physically pointing out the utter non-classiness of a deranged undergrad: Talented class.

So, take a step back. You is still young. Observe your innate inherent qualities. You are not all perfect no matter how people have convinced you, that you are. As an observer, you is not there yet. Long way honey. For starters, stop your goddamn discrimination. I think it's pretty sick when you have this hate for a particular religion after schooling in 3 christian schools till you hit cosmopolitan NUS.

And my timely response to this elegant/classy/cultured person's profile [paraphrased cos of my bad memory]:

Shanker has just smiled at you.
Smoker, drunk, walking profanity. All this, I am and much more. =)
Ay Caramba!
Late addition: Due to feedback that I am not the most tolerant person around. Lemme set things straight. I am intolerant of stupidity and character flaws and most of all the lack of integrity. However, discrimination against race/creed/religion is unheard of in my circles. If you still don't believe. I think Yusoff, John, Ravi and Ah Seng of AMK will be able to put things right.
We, the citizens of Singapore, pledge ourselves as one united people, regardless of race, language or religion, to build a democratic society based on justice and equality so as to achieve happiness, prosperity and progress for our nation.

2 comments:

nAl said...

"One who swears is someone who goes "Fuck!". One who is a walking profanity, IS a fuck. "

This is possibly the best quotable quote I have read in this blog yet!! Keep up the good life, Shanker..lets piss the holier than thou pricks of the world as much as we possible can!

nAl said...

"One who swears is someone who goes "Fuck!". One who is a walking profanity, IS a fuck. "

This is possibly the best quotable quote I have read in this blog yet!! Keep up the good life, Shanker..lets piss the holier than thou pricks of the world as much as we possible can!