"What else...?"

Weekends are generally the days to catch up with friends over the "phone" - esp. if it happens to be a long weekend. AT&T's weekend and night hours allow me to be vocal. It was the long weekend because of Labour Day and I was chilling on a beautiful Sunday eve. After getting tired of aimlessly staring at the repeatedly announced "Gustav" news again and again, I finally gave up on TV and got myself a drink. (Its ironical that TV was on mute and subtitles were "on")

As the evening went by I kept dialing the numbers. Predictable answers from them not only didn't go unnoticed but also it gave me a hint of monotony taking over in their lives. I hate to answer "What else" type of questions and the degree of my peevish dislike can also explain me how much would they hate to answer this question.

During my corporate communication subject in second year of graduate course - I learnt about a term called "Semantic Gap." People feel a little odd but I find it a part of basic courtesy to say "Hello, how are you doing" to the person I am sitting next while traveling. This is normally a good ice breaker and helps me fight boredom while I converse. I have experienced "Semantic Gap" in real life very much and I think its natural that two new people who have just met, will run out of subjects soon.

I think the a phrase in any form that can be interpreted as "What else?" depicts semantic gap. The question normally pops up when two people run out of a common subject to talk about. For a second I was asking myself a question - am I talking to my friends or are they the fellow passenger sitting right next to me?

I think this could be attributed either to disconnect at my end with my friends which happened over a period of time in a gradual manner OR it can be attributed to the cocoon they have developed due to the nature of circumstances when they were fighting so far away from me AND the life style they have adopted.


Probably this is the price we are paying for urbanizing ourselves and as Bashir Badra precisely describes in his Urdu Sher -

Kuchh na bacha kahene ko, har baat ho gai;
Aoo kahin sharaab piye raat ho gai.
Suraj ko chonch me liye, murga khada raha;
Khidki ke parde khinch diye, raat ho gai.

(I cannot avoid using native indian language(s) when it comes to describing, please grant me - here is the translation)
Everything has been said and done - nothing is left,
Lets go and have a drink - looks like its night
Rooster woke up with when Bright sun meets dawn
But if I close the curtains - its still night for me

I feel Petty for our lives how it has turned out to be. Drinks define the evening and if you pull down the curtains, we think its night. In the metros life pumps in 24 X 7 and now people have come to terms with time where they take liberty to define their own day and night.

I am not an exception - I work long hours too. I have been the culprit to prioritize my work over calling up my friends and asking their how abouts. I have missed attending their weddings and engagements. The only thing I am feeling glad about is, I didn't let this observation just go. I promised myself to take it more than seriously and ensure to come up with a mitigation plan :-) On that brighter side, its already 3:05 AM (EDT) here and I will hit the hay.