on a big mistake

everyone makes mistakes. i do too. but the one that sticks out the most is from my first year in university. i joined the debate team. with sheer lack of information, excessive belief in my abilities, and a huge crush on a guy who was on the team, i signed up. no other decision ravaged my nerves as much as that one.

i regretted it from minute one.

the debate was made up at its core of people who were primarily from the law faculty, and some super-intelligent economics and engineering students, with huge storage chips somehow transplanted into their brains. they could spout current affairs, history and expert analysis all at the same time—in a debater’s tone, mind you. they would wag their hands, flash trump points, thump their fists or go low and dramatic. even their ‘jokes’ were so intelligent that you would have to know the 2nd clause of the 3rd article of the Geneva Convention to understand the pun.

so there i was, week after week. made to join a team, take up some silly topic, and then talk about it. standing there, all i felt was sheer terror. at one time, i imagined all the debators to have hideous fangs and claws that would suddenly appear and rip me apart for my lack of solid political opinion. it also made me understand the phrase—”have you for breakfast”—much better. and the most torturous part of all this—the debate sessions were held on saturday, which effectively meant burning up a significant part of my weekend for no worthwhile cause.

so i decided to leave the club. there was a lingering sense of feeling that i wasnt good enough to last out the challenge. but looking back, i wish i hadnt been so imtimidated. i could have had a good laugh at their pompous act— as i do now!

on the oba-ma-nia

everywhere i turn, everyone is (still) talking about obama.

i was at 7-11 yesterday, browsing through the magazines, when the reader’s digest caught my attention. the magazine had the obama family on the front cover, with the feature article on how the obamas raise their kids (and hence, telling us how we should raise ours). on the news last night, there was a segment on how obama slapped off a house-fly that bothered him during an interview. the US president’s attempts to ward off the fly and his oh-so-accurate slap that decapitated the bug was clearly documented, and repeated for the viewer’s benefit. and as if that wasn’t bad enough, the reader crooned over how she found his razor-sharp reflexes so amazing.

so, obama looms larger than life in all possible contexts. he is the ideal man, the leader we all want to look up to, the embodiment of the qualities that we see exemplified in movies that have the ‘US president’ as a major character. i wouldn’t be surprised if marvel comes up with a comic character that is modeled on him.

no, there ain’t no analysis going on here. this is just another instance of how humans always like to overtly praise other humans for no other reason except that they may have more media appearances than the rest of us.

i prefer batman.

p.s. shortly after i wrote this post, there was a news item on a cartoon character modelled on obama, and shown at some dinner graced by the first citizen himself – it was complete with obama at this white house, tearing open his shirt to reveal his superhero costume underneath – and contiuing to save the world. while i pat myself on the back for predicting it, i still stick to bruce wayne as my choice for superhero.