Friday, March 20, 2009

Dont spill your beans !


On the way to my native place all alone, i thought music on my phone would be my only source of entertainment. But i was a little more fortunate when the person next to me was trying to strike a conversation. He was a guy around 5 years elder than me working in some reputed firm.

Back from vacation in Singapore, he was a very happy person with lot of stories to tell. By looking at his face, it was quite obvious he wanted to be heard. He started describing his tour from the beginning. Right from which airline he chose, what does a plane look like from inside, everything including minor details. I kept asking him questions from time and again and he kept replying them. Never did i give him a clue that i have been to Singapore and ten other countries, to the extend that long distant flights make me sick.

But why kill someone's enthusiasm, why kill someone's story? If i had said i'd been there, the story would have been over and my journey would once again depend on the songs in my mobile. Sometimes, you just should not spill your own beans. Besides, i was also making someone happy by listening to his story. Why would i stop that? Maybe i'll learn something new from what he says, maybe i'll not, but that didn't really matter. After that i also got to hear his version of the "Life in IT industry".

At times lately, i'm trying to implement this 'not spilling of beans' technique more often. I missed my college trip for this year. When someone comes to me and says that "Have you heard of a certain story that happened on the trip." I reply saying 'no' or 'i've heard in parts' so that i get to hear the different version of the same story from the other person. It makes the other person happy that he's got something to share, and i too get twists in the tales if any.

Hiding your story and keeping your mouth shut also leads to entertainment in some cases. Take for example this one. Now, I don't really believe in Astrology, Numerology, Palm Reading, Handwriting anaylsis and other such crap. To believe that the position of far-off plants like mercury, saturn etc at your time of birth determines how your future's gonna be doesn't seem logical to me. Stuff like adding or removing letters from your name to favour fortune...Wow!!(I have nothing agains't people who believe, just a personal opinion)

Neways coming back to what I was writing, i've been to reputed astrologers with friends who trust them for generations and listen to what they say. I go to them and ask only one question, when will i get a chance to go abroad. I've got answers like at the age of 30, after 45, one of them said never. I looked worried in front of them, turned around and laughed!

This incident in my junior college i'll never forget. During the college chess tournament for seniors, there was a guy who was telling time and again that he went upto the quarterfinals of the university tournament. He apparently lost with some guy in round one. Later on, when i talked to the guy who won, he said to me that he had won the same tournament in which the other one was in quarters. Sometimes better to keep your mouth shut and laugh i guess!!!

13 comments:

el_idioto said...

shutting up has it's benefits...
but not by all.. else there'll be no one talking...

anand said...

loved the line ..why kill someone's enthusiasm?...people usually have lots of stories to tell-some really entertaining and trust me there's usually lot to learn as well...

abt astrology and lesser known sciences..u might well have trigerred a debate here .although i personally believe its just a question of individual beliefs...

cant really term it as one of ur best works ,a good one though..

Dimple Nangia said...

nice thoughts!

now we know the reason behind your smile :)

lovely line like anand said - why kill anyone's enthusiasm ?

that just said it all. :)

Anonymous said...

well said saar...very true...
keep smiling :D

Gaurav DobhaL said...

true its always an open window that way isnt it?..so much to learn from everyone arnd. Plus it keeps everyone smiling. A word of thought well described. good references and yes do keep smiling:)..
cheers

Sanket said...

@Rishi--Very true.

@Anand--Yes it's a question of individual belief, no intention of starting a debate

@poisonivy, Pratap --Thank you.

@yes it's very much an open window

Neha said...

One thing great about your writing is you give good number to examples to illustrate what you wanna say rather than just plainly saying it.

True that sometimes keeping what we know to ourselves helps in lot of ways.

And just as all others above say, do keep smiling!!!

Pratiksha Mainkar said...

true why spoil the enthusiasm and never unnecessarily spill the beans...bt then there r sum ppl who never shut up!u got 2 tell them to and moreover conversation can b a little boring if it is entirely one way!nice post tho...keep posting.

Sanket said...

@Neha...Thanks and I do like to include many examples

@Pratiksha...Yes one way traffic gets annoying after a while

Anonymous said...

Socket, your writing is nice. Glad I accidentally come on your blog to read nice articles. You din't temme that you did blog.WOuld like to see more such interesting articles coming. Aur next trip kab hai? Korea one was good!!

omkar said...

sirjee....bhari likha hai...really nice attitude 2 hav..n trust me sumtimes it may be embarassin 4 others n lethal 4 u if u carry on dis attitude...
keep writin..

Sanket said...

@Tejasvi...I dont like to publicise my blog that much...hardly very few people do know about it..I dint knew you would've liked to read it. Neways thanks and welcome to my blog!!

@Omkar...Thank u. flattered again!

ricky said...

gotcha
nw i cd understnd why you always wanted me to narrate the whole story
n as usual i use to fall in ur trap
anywyz its good post
keep scribblin