To show or not to show

I have been trying to wrestle with a dilemma. It’s not something deep or basic or wide like nationalist issues or who to vote for or which girl to marry ;-) neither as fickle as what movie to watch or which coffee to have (though a lot of people will disagree about choice of coffee’s impact on everyday life). I don’t know what level to class it at actually. The question is probably deeply close to the heart for someone like me or perhaps not even worth considering for someone who hasn’t yet been born in cyber-space or someone who breathes, eats, drinks social networking.

It is actually about how much of detail to reveal and what not to reveal. I would like to be present in the cyber space. I would like to be searchable so that if a well wisher (that is taking it too far isn’t it?) if a curious self wanted to find me, then I should be a valid destination, reachable by clicking links or going to URLs. On the other hand, I don’t want to be searchable by a someone harbouring malicious intentions – hackers who can build an entire identity by searching for address, picture, email address, work place, work address, mobile number, landline number.

Symbolism

I was appalled the other day on seeing displayed in the window of a sanitary hardware store, a toilet seat cover. It was an in-your-face blatant display that you couldn't miss. Not that it was in any side road or something, this shop is right at the end of a pedestrian area attached to a high street – no less! You can imagine a town with a sanitary hardware store on the high street – but anyway, thats not the point. The point is the toilet seat cover. I know a lot of people want and like designer gear – but never thought it would include something like the national flag for the country! This toilet seat cover with the design of the union jack proudly sat in the window waiting for a buyer to pick it up.

I was wondering how it would be treated back home. In a similar circumstance, I am half sure that the shop window would have long been demolished by atleast one person who chose to make a public display of his/her anger. Maybe a group of people would get together and resort to trashing the whole place, then the police would get involved, journalists, TV cameras would jostle to cover the event. Some soul might possibly register a police complaint against the shop owner for blatantly insulting the national flag in a country so steeped in symbolism that flying the national flag except on Independence and Republic days on non-govt properties was illegal till some year ago. Maybe the incident would be on the front pages for some days until the next hot incident came along.

Nothing like that here though. Nobody seems to mind. People seem to want to adorn the national flag anywhere and everywhere from prints on under-wears and shorts to dog collars to toilet seat covers. Makes me wonder... Is it about the people's definition of dignity for objects of national symbols? Or Is it the cultural difference in definition of dignity itself. Are people not bothered that their dog will probably roll around somewhere soiling the national flag or that the national flag will be intimately close to gobs of turd? Is it the 'who cares?' attitude? Or the 'we are so proud that we will have our national flag EVERYWHERE' attitude? UK is made of England, Scotland, Wales and NI. So is it that people from these regions hate the union – by association national symbols – or love their own over the union? I certainly haven't seen any such flags being used the way that the union flag is used/displayed. It certainly is because of lack of patriotism or love for the country. I wonder if it will be offensive to ask a true-blooded brit for an explain.....

Necessity is no longer the Mother Of Invention.

Long long ago in the nowhere land kuku sat thinking about moving a big rock he wanted to gift his wife as a chopping board. He had found the rock with smooth surface while grazing his goats. The rock was a tad heavy though and he did not want to spend time gathering his brothers to lift the stone. He thought about it and rolled the stone on wooden logs home. His wife was happy with the gift but the village was happy with the log - something like this invented the rolling machine out of necessity.

Several births later, kuku-VII wanted to carry his seriously ill grand mother to the village quack for ash-therapy. All his brothers were out at his 4th cousin's bachelor party. Out of necessity, he decided to use the same concept that was used to get the chopping board for his wife. Placing a wooden platform like slab on logs of wood, he rolled the gm to the quack. For the next time, he concocted the platform tied to the slimmer logs which turned and became inventions called wheels.

Some more births later Kuku wanted to travel to the neighbouring village in time to reach his wife who was about to deliver his 14th baby. The gods had blessed him and he wanted to be at his in-laws in time. Trying to direct activities of building a dam for his village though, he got late. The need for speed spurred him into trying tying his horse to the platform wheel contraption and probably thus was invented horse driven carriage out of necessity.

Kuku is now in 19th Century. He rides more advanced inventions called automobiles which do not even require horses to pull them. His life has been made simpler by a number of inventions. Shoes on his feet, laces with egglets for tying shoes, warm jackets for winter, cars for travelling, a telephone for conversing with people, a watch on his wrist for telling, even date and day of the week, a shaver to speed up shaving, even styling gel so that his hair remains in a particular shape!

A new circular invention is puzzling him though. The circle which has been the foundation of all inventions has come up in the form of an automatic toothbrush. The puzzle is that there is nothing automatic about it. The toothpaste still has to be applied, the brush still has to be moved over the teeth (and maybe gums) and all nooks and crannies in the mouth. All it does automatically is rotate like the first wheel rotated. It gobbles up some electricity for the motor to turn or for its batteries to charge, thereby adding, bit by bit to the carbon emission and it rotates for no possible purpose that is not already served by normal toothbrushes. It needs parts to be manufactured, some plastic, some metal. Each goes through production lines, each one adding and adding to the waste and carbon of this world. Everytime an old one is dumped there is further addition to non-biodegradable waste.

Kuku cannot imagine why or how people are convinced to get one of these rotating brushes! Its not like polishing shoes where a lot of effort (comparatively speaking) is required for the polishing and the surface area to be covered is more. Its like selling snow polishing brush to eskimoes for their igloo ice bricks or using a B52 bomber to nip down to the daily needs shop round the corner to buy bread. This did not mean that kuku under-valued the importance of brushing teeth ;-) all he wondered was, was it necessary to spend oodles of money to invent and use an automatic tooth brush. Is necessity the mother of invention any longer?