It’s a fairly annoying thing as to how people expect us to behave in public forums. And the most annoying thing is faking joy or happiness for another person when the person is either someone you don’t know or is someone who is a competitor. I don’t mean to sound like a Grinch, so allow me to explain the scenario. I was recently at a raffle draw where the prizes up for grabs were ipod, iphone and blackberry in that order. Now, lady luck as always was rotten and well…putting it quite plainly, I did not win. The entire audience was cheering for the dude who won a blackberry and the bimbo who won the iphone. And I don’t get why one would even do that. It’s not like there was a’ duel to the death’ sort of thing where one must applaud the victor’s effort, or acknowledge the loser for putting up a good fight. It was a matter of chance and chance favored someone else.
And I wanted the Iphone. I am not happy for you and see no reason why I must applaud your winning the iphone… that too in a game of chance. The same applies to things like award ceremonies. I sort of understand why actors practice their ‘loser-clap’…you know …the one where they sheepishly smile.nod politely and clap for the winner as though he/she deserved to win and they did not want the prize. (Thinking the episode in F.R.I.E.N.D.S where Joey is up for some TV award and expresses his displeasure at not winning….that ladies and gentlemen is the way it should be. Given a chance, you stab the winner in the back alley and run away with their phone. I would not do that, but just a thought worth sharing for the really poor and desperate types.
So I will not clap for you if it was not a fair fight. Okay! If there was a race, we ran…wait…I ran???? Okay…bad example. There was a tandoori chicken eating contests and you beat me by about 5 seconds, then yes…I have every right to acknowledge your superiority, and I will clap for you at the felicitation ceremony. I can even share the joy of a friend winning at a competition where I never participated. I am not emotionally involved. But I still don’t get why I must be polite just because society expects me to clap for you winning an Iphone in a lucky draw contest. I WILL NOT BE HAPPY FOR YOU! I DON’T CARE ABOUT YOU AND I DON’T KNOW YOU!!!
PS: For those trying to read between the lines, I want an iphone. 3G model will be alright too. Will clap for anyone like a baby sea-lion if they were to gift me one (foreign based friends....are you listening?).
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