Saturday, March 29, 2008

Identity

We often hear people talking about their 'identity'. They seek identity without knowing what it is and without even knowing whether it existed. Some get tired after sometime and get busy in life. Others think and make themselves miserable.

Identity is defined in contrast to surrounding, and so it separates one from one's surrounding. The more pronounced the contrast, the more defined the identity. Man loses his identity when he mixes with surrounding. Identity is not defined in isolation.

The understanding of identity is accompanied by rather unpleasant realization - of irreconcilable differences with others, impossibility of communication with others and an intense feeling of loneliness.

Man is conscious of his identity when he is placed in an unfamiliar surrounding. Even the most philosophically challenged man starts thinking about the question of identity when he finds himself in a foreign surrounding. He looks more visible to others, and to himself as well. And the more conscious he becomes of his identity, the more unfamiliar the surrounding looks to him.

Sometimes we assert our identity and sometimes we hide it from others, depending on situations and their payoffs. When our attempts are thwarted, we shout 'Identity Crisis' or 'Marginalization'.

I wrote so much without intending to do so. All I wanted to share was that I suddenly realized that I am rural in nature. I feel out of place in cities.

Monday, March 10, 2008

Stock Market

I found this forward interesting. Read On :-

Once upon a time in a village, a man appeared and announced to the villagers that he would buy monkeys for Rs10.

The villagers seeing that there were many monkeys around, went out to the forest and started catching them.

The man bought thousands at Rs10 and as supply started to diminish, the villagers stopped their effort. He further announced that he would now buy at Rs20. This renewed the efforts of the villagers and they started catching monkeys again.

Soon the supply diminished even further and people started going back to their farms. The offer rate increased to Rs25 and the supply of monkeys became so little that it was an effort to even see a monkey, let alone catch it!

The man now announced that he would buy monkeys at Rs50! However, since he had to go to the city on some business, his assistant would now buy on behalf of him.

In the absence of the man, the assistant told the villagers. Look at all these monkeys in the big cage that the man has collected. I will sell them to you at Rs35 and when the man returns from the city, you can sell it to him for Rs50."

The villagers squeezed up with all their savings and bought all the monkeys.

Then they never saw the man nor his assistant, only monkeys everywhere!!

Welcome to the "Stock" Market!!!