How would a much hailed cook feel when after spending much of the day’s time in preparing a dish, with colourful ingredients, to satiate his guests gets a facetious remark as to how the bacon could have been boiled for a few more minutes? He wouldn’t care much, it wouldn’t disturb him much considering the other guest liked it but would sadden him nevertheless. The remark would not change him but spoiled what could have been a perfect dish.
I think some of us would feel that way if some unknown force snatches away the humour from our lives. Not that it’ll deeply impact our lives, not that it will disturb us, but it would take many smiles away from us, it would sadden us, that unknown unquantifiable force which gives a smile on our faces would have made our lives perfect.
Shashi Tharoor, for one, must have felt that after this ‘cattle class’ joke. It was a good one, an educated one but hugely misunderstood by a section of ‘goat men’ (yes, that’s one from me, men who continue to live in Stone Age and living the lives of the cattle).
I had to come across a similar feeling of rejection after my joke recently with a stranger was met with more awkward glances than what I get in an hour. The conversation went this way
Myself (sitting in the aisle seat): Long flight (from Kolkata to Mumbai
Co-passanger (window seat): Abhi utharenge? nahin tho hum yehi per reh jayenge aur plane nikal jayegi
I: Why don’t we wait for three more days, am going back to Kolkata then. We can take it for free.
It tickles your spine a little, no ? Worth a smirk, no ? All I got was a cold glance, a look that I didn’t get since my librarian in school caught me flicking a comic book.
Really what is wrong with us? Where has our humour gone? George Bernard Shaw wouldn’t have been able to sell a single laugh if were in this age in this country. Seinfeld wouldn’t last an episode. Are we taking ourselves too seriously? Well I think the answer is obvious.
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