Help Me Pls

Returning to this empty word template after a long time. This feels strange. Anyway.

“Help will always be given at Hogwarts to those who ask for it” – Albus Dumbledore

This particular line keeps coming to my head from time to time and so I thought I would write a little bit on this.

Every day three out of seven people complain. They whine about how something or the other needs to be changed, why their life is a mess, or how they can’t survive the extremities of this world. While this stat is made up, it might be real close to the truth. Everyone faces problems. Some talk about them openly and some keep it quiet but nothing gets resolved on its own. If you are facing a problem then seek out the associated people and ask for help. Yes just ask for it.

This Smartphone era has made people really self reliant. It is so easy to Google something and bam there you are, problem solved. People have forgotten the art of asking people for help. At times one thinks “am I asking too much”, “I should be able to do this on my own”,  “I might appear vulnerable” etc. and thus instead of asking for help we end up taking the easier route of complaining.

I thought of a doctor-patient analogy that might fit here but ended up erasing it.     :p

People like helping others. It’s like this weird default feature in everyone. Even if you go ask a murderer for help with something that he is good at he will end up helping you, provided you make the request politely. It feels so good when someone asks you for help. Asking for help is like saying “you are good at this” indirectly and everyone likes to be appreciated.

I am a day scholar at my university. The distances between departments are huge and I have the blessing of a car. Often I find myself driving inside the university and the students walking on the footpaths staring at me. They stare and stare endlessly. When people did this, I used to stop and ask if they needed a lift. Most of the times, “Oh thank you so much, we really needed that” used to be the response. Every time that happened, I wondered why they refused to put their hand out to signal that they needed a lift. Why is it so hard to ask for help in such small matters? One can’t expect help to land itself from the skies above magically. You have to atleast try and ask for it.

This part is off topic. Sometimes however people used to tell me that they didn’t need a lift. ‘Then why were you staring at me, creep’. Therefore I eventually stopped stopping the car. I end up waving instead when someone stares me. Smile and Wave.

Ego. This negative negative word often gets in the way of people approaching others for help. Trust me its not important. Let it go.

 I am not a huge Spiderman fan but

“Everybody needs help sometimes Peter, even Spiderman” - Mary Jane

PS. This might not have been as good as my previous articles but its been a long time, so, sorry about that. 

Actors and Their Demise

Recently a famous actor who featured in the Fast and Furious series passed away. Taking the social media by storm, Paul Walker’s death triggered different kinds of responses. You could see R.I.P. everywhere. Some people were trying to make puns at his expense while some were clearly annoyed by the importance being given to him. I kept wondering why this was happening and jotted down a few reasons.

Note: This is not a rant. If it is possible then please read till the end.

·    News channels try desperately to get you any possible alarming news before their counterparts. This race now features on Facebook as well. Some people cannot resist the impulse to get any such news across to their friends, first.

·    Fitting in. When you open your home page and you see that 50 to 60 percent of your friends are sharing a post it gets difficult to not do the same. “If so many people are doing it, then I must too” whispers a tiny voice in your head.

·    Complete and utter boredom

·   A few likes maybe. Getting “likes” on Facebook is becoming a daily necessity for the regular social media users. So why not use someone else’s (an actor in this case) popularity to your advantage?

·   Looking cool. Oh my gawwwdd. I watch such coolsss moviexx you knowxs. He wax my b3st frand.

However, I think there is a very genuine reason why people share such stories. Bear with me please. 

·    An actor, singer, sportsman or anyone who gets famous affects us in a way. We are not related to them. They usually don’t even know that we exist. But somehow or the other they have made us smile. A movie scene that we really liked, a football goal, a brilliant song. A song can comfort us, put us in a good mood. likewise a movie can reflect on our lives, at times teach us a few lessons, or just be the source of good entertainment. This connection between someone and a character (fictional at times) is not meaningless. 

Brian’s real name Paul was not known to many while he lived. But those who had seen his movies had developed a connection with him. For me this is a reminder as to how you can affect someone’s life without even knowing they exist. It also raises one important question.

How often do we make an effort to make strangers smile?