Celebrity - How? Really??

I have always wondered what makes a celebrity?? With all these shows like Channel V popstars and some other channel's Indian Idol, can anyone become a celebrity or does it take something really special to become a celebrity?

For too long, celebrities were an alchemic creation, taking a mystical combination of ability, timing and blind luck to suddenly pop into our midst. We marvel at these Godpeople, who seemed to be one of us while being so utterly celestial. It was never clear how exactly one turned from flailing duckling to cruising swan and that was part of the mystique surrounding celebrities.

A consumer society needs two opposite powerful forces to pull against each other. We must believe that celebrities are impossibly distant and yet know that anyone can become one. Just like fashion, which makes us feel uniquely individual while making us conform rigidly to the current notion of what's in. This tension between apparent inapproachability and the manifest accessibility propels us in an ascending spiral of desire. We want more because there are things we cannot have, but people just like us have managed to get.

Be that as it may, as a country we have certainly made progress. We are now our own hypnotists - we have found a way to publicly collaborate in manufacturing a god-like being through all the shows possible and still retain some belief in this God of our own making.

Googled??

There are search engine companies, there are some more search engine companies and then there is GOOGLE! I am impressed by the way this company is growing. Google Search, News, Groups, Blogspace, Scholar, Maps, toolbar, Watch, directory, Picasa, Keyhole.. and ofcourse GMAIL!! The phrase "I am going to Google" or "Have you googled for this?" is quite common these days. They are beating every other company in the field.

Yeah Yeah Yeah. I am happy. I had been googling and regoogling and reregoogling stuff on the internet ,and today finally I stumbled onto a pretty useful chunk of useless data required for my job. In fact, on a philosophical note , the more I live life , the more I become aware of the importance of "Google" in supporting the human race.

When we guys were on the brink of a nervous breakdown making our assignments, it was "google devta" which came to our rescue. We downloaded a decent amount of information from the net and ended up making something which we still have got no clue about . During my MBA course, google was used more than any financial or economic model ever devised. Be it a report on the cigarette industry of India , a survey on the bicycle usage in Finland , or an outlook on the undergarment industry of Zimbabwe - every burning need has the one and only Lord Google to satisfy it.

And not only the professional life , google has had a pretty divine imprint on the personal aspects of my life too.I still remember that "kaali amavas ki raat" (too much of scary hindi movies ?), when as a nervous 18 year old, I typed down "britney spears pics" on the sacred google bar , leading to a very informative and educational online session. Then there was the sunny afternoon , when a frustrated friend of mine , tired of carrying around the "single-ready to mingle" tag line, angrily punched in "how to get a girlfriend" on google's website. I still occasionally google the names of girls I've had a crush on in my short lifetime , hoping to find them somewhere ,with the culmination being a happy and teary reunion , with the girl telling me how much she admired me secretly.

But even our newtonic genius called google fails at times.Recently , I had to find out about the acquistion of "Ruchi Biscuits" (where do these sell?) by "Shyam group" of companies(what do these guys sell?).So I googled about it, but it so conspired that I ended up reading the review of a South Indian flick with a hero named shyam and the lead actress called ruchi. But this can be classified as an off day for google ,the knight in the shiny armour for students , engineers , summer trainees , sex maniacs , parted lovers around the planet.

May the Great Google live on!!!

Finally...

Finally, after a lot of confusion, deliberation, discussion (oops...Dialogue, my HR Prof would kill me), I have joined HDFC. Thats about my employment and since the major issue is resolved, I would like to get back to serious blogging business.

I was just thinking...why did the confusion arise in the first place? One point clearly hit me, clarity of thought...one value I hold very close to my heart, yet, I did not follow it this time. I think this is where they say that Wisdom comes above Knowledge. I was confident of my knowledge, yet when it came to taking a critical decision in my life, it failed me. I feel this is where Wisdom comes into play. I started talking to senior people, various points were being raised, yet one common thread in all the discussions pointed to their clarity of thought.

Taking this discussion(oops again...dialogue) further, I think the experience and the character of a person decides how and what you think. Many of you might differ with Helen Keller as to what she has to say, but I strongly believe in it.
She says
"Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired and success achieved"

Thats a statement made by a person who actually went through all the sufferings in life. Learn, Learn and Learn...this is what my parents continously emphasize. The past one month has broken down some of my misconceptions, taught me a lot about various facets of life reminding me of one of the beautiful quotations I ever read -

"Play the game of your life such that when the master referee scores against your name, it is not whether you have lost or won that counts, but how you have played the game".