Are You Judgemental?

What if I started talking about Anu Agarwal? You’d go back to checking out other NewsFeed. No news about her is breaking news. She came, gave a hit, did a couple of crappy films, and vanished. She might be hooked /single, working/piling on, for all you care.

Selected as a top post on Blogadda!

When she did the disappearing act in the 90s, just like most of you Bollywood buffs, I presumed there were no takers for her kind of acting prowess, or the lack of it. All of us added her name to a list of one movie wonders. And then Shift+Delete or even Ctrl+Alt+Del.

The Real Story:  Fame & sudden Limelight = Bit of Britney Spears, some of Matthew Perry and the likes. Life became a tipsy roller-coaster, and then one day, a brutal accident and a coma state for a month. In went a frivolous immature girl and out came a mellowed reponsible woman. Today, shes a Yogi, preaching Yoga around the world.

And why am I blabbering about Ms Agarwal today? Cos this data about her triggered some nodes in my brain. A convenient attitude of jumping to frivolous conclusions. You and I, we are all judgemental souls. We don’t spare anyone. We don’t wait for explanations. We don’t give second chances.

You think you’re an exception? Try this out.

a. You are on a bus. A boy’s talking, a girl’s smiling. They are merrily chitchatting, oblivious to the world around.
b. A new friend on the block. Not really reciprocal of your messages and calls lately.

c. An old acquaintance just broke up. 3 boyfriends in 5 years.

Do your own analysis before you read further. No cheating.

If you’ve been true to your natural instincts, then this is what you would’ve derived. Case a - Boy and girl are doing it or are wannabe doers! Case b – The new friend is either ignoring you, or worse, is acting pricey. Case c – The girl is a slut.

What could very much be possible is this. The girl and boy are buddies, in a healthy relationship. The new friend is superbusy or maybe going through a rough patch. The old acquaintance has a knack of bumping into a wrong guy or is just downright stupid.

But given how analytically blessed we think we are, we tend to believe we’ve got it all figured out.

Labelling a Woman:

Fat – Must be Overeating.

Thin – Gotta be Anoerexic!

Skimpily clad -  Ooooo, Chhammak chhallo.

Fully clothed – What a Behenji!

Sizing up a Man:

Shy - So Arrogant.

Friendly - How Despo!

We have a tag for everything. And its all ok, until one day you realise that somebody’s been making cool tags for you too! Now what? Simple, breathe and let breathe. Lets try to memorise this. No its not ok to be over-critical. No they are not excellent assessment skills. And everyone has a story.

PS.  If its superfacial and temporary, you can still live with it. But if you’re overly judgemental, time to play ‘Statue’. Remember that kiddy game? Freeze, think, look around. You’ve got company or you walking all alone?