Monday, July 14, 2008

Treading the overlap

You know how when you walk into a bar and it takes a split second to adjust to the altered light? And when the haze clears, you see the place is swamped with teeny-boppers in bad clothes, and it's still you thinking how dare they charge a cover for this rubbish ambiance. Why am I here? Look at these puppy boys, pleading nascent facial hair, wearing some run-of-the-mill black tee with a rocker's mug slapped on, a band name under -- embossed in redder, softer plastic. There are girls too. Emaciated, skimpy, peripheral, with hair sweeping across one fourths of their forehead and eye.

This is not fun. I'm holding my drink over their stubby little heads, minding the glowing cigarette ends. The music is bloody loud. What is this anyway? It's not hormonal. Just being young, and saying excuse me too often while moving sideways through the crowd. I reach the table, see familiar faces and exchange demented updates. Can't believe even having a good time has become this predictable. As have the two drags. Alright, three. Give me that.

You're not the adult. Not even the kid. You can't possibly be Lois Lane, so you just end up being a tidbit of a generation that overlapped. Like those Venn diagrams. Remember those? A union B, B intersection A. An inverted U for A intersection B. Easily felt intersection: neither here nor there. Just sort of fluttering on the in between clothesline.

20 comments:

Miss P said...

Really? you feel like that? lucky you. i just feel like i'm too old. you know? like here are all these kids and yes, i like to think im above this, and them, which is probably why i can't relate, but bleurgh! why can't i just chill and soak it in and have some fun. i ramble. i shut up now.

Yohan said...

This is a very interesting post! In fact, you should elaborate on this generational issue.How big (or small) is the overlap between your Venn Diagram and the teeny-boppers?

Mister Crowley said...

Pip, you're a woman after my own heart. Does this also include irritating FMS kids?

Nimpipi said...

Pix: I know what you're talking about ya, even when I feel I'm above it, I'm aware that that is just such a bloody condescending way to feel!

And the 'why can't i just chill, soak it in and have some fun.': BINGO. Why can't we just?! :D Are we really that sure we're cut out for bigger, better, greater, less demented surroundings?! Although, here's a thought: maybe WE are the gasbags, and the teeny-bopper airheads are the truly wondrous...!!)

Han: I don't know, you know. I do know this is up your alley though:). But sometimes there's not even that little bit in common. So then venn diagrams become wonky planet alignments. The more the distance, well, that's your gap.

sigh.

I don't know what I'm saying.

Will mull over the generation thing a bit and possibly elaborate.

Crow: I take it you mean you identify, considering you're the one who's surrounded by twits when you do your console grooving. But yeh FMS kids kahaan se aa gaye? It includes the whole bloody lot, I say!
...
On second thoughts, and crucially so, they might be a separate kettle of fish. Older, wiser, studying to get somewhere type fish. Commendable even, nahi, in some hum drum way?

Mister Crowley said...

Had the, er, pleasure of a large FMS gang at Blues last night. Loud, blonde (metaphorically i.e.), requesting repeatedly for..ugh..'In the End', when everyone else was having a fine old time listening to Steppenwolf, Joe Cocker and Stevie Ray Vaughan.

If they were indeed the 'older, wiser, studying to get somewhere type fish', then they certainly weren't behaving so :)

Scarlet said...

I like how u just suddenly made us such marginalized beings in the set-system. I think it’s the worst thing when you are neither there, not here, but in the overlap. Overlaps are nice in cushions and quilts, not in generation gaps and relationships – there, an overlap is…well…so unfair. No?

Nimpipi said...

MC: Will you stop being so snooty -- judging people by the songs they request?! :D Weird occupational hazards you got there, my elitist chip-on-music-shoulder friend! :D All you rocker types are like that. ALL of you!!

Mayo: Lover, I could just spiral bind all your comments and read when still. I'm not sure what an overlap in relationships is, but I shall agree with whatever you say.

Anon: Tad extreme, no? Unless I came off sounding like that too. In which case, it's all good.

Mister Crowley said...

I know....I'm even proposing a Rock Music Appreciation(Protection of Rights) Bill, 2008 :P

Anonymous said...

Sigh... I feel old. The skanks are everywhere, the yo boys too... and they aren't even pretty.

Anonymous said...

i sort of always never understood the NEED to go a nice place to drink. my favourite drunk memories have been in residential areas. and is there anything worse than throwing up in public?

and no, i will not pay 5 times the price of a beer to "enjoy the drink".

going to a bar means getting pissed, and becoming public embarrassment.

hence, bars suck.

and yes, people deserve to be judged by the music they listen to. why not. you have just judged by what they choose to wear.

so the best thing to do is not judge. but like kurtz said in heart of darkness, it is judgment that defeats us.

and, grammar sucks. i shouldn't even be putting full stops

Nimpipi said...

Anon: That's alright, you're allowed to harbour all this anger towards places that charge five times the MRP for a beer, but going to a bar does not mean getting pissed/public embarrassment. (Hear the killer dialogue that Khosla Ka Ghosla song is peppered with: hold the drink!:)

Agreed, tipsy residential area memories way better; little subjective, but I'm with you on that.

And fair enough, I do judge by clothes -- somewhat, why not music then. Okay, conceded. (you listening Crowley? I just made a little margin for rock-upstarts:P)

Not a Conrad fan, but a Kurtz quote never hurt. What's your beef with grammar though? You think fulls tops are implicit just because you're done talking?

Mister Crowley said...

Upstarts indeed :P

Anonymous said...

I know man!

the only answe is to take over one of them nice places and make sure teenyboppers get scared thinking its for "older" people :)

Anonymous said...

has anyone ever seen a half stop?

also, has anyone noticed how a lot of people are beginning to non-capitalize their letters? by a lot, i mean me of course.

well, i dont always get pissed at bars, but honestly wtb* am i going there for? the company right? so why not enjoy company in private place with freedom to do whatever you want?

when will the world learn i ask you

*wtb: what the be**hod

Anonymous said...

@Anon: Sometimes, its nice just to sit there and enjoy your drinks and cigarettes and not worry about who will clean up after everyone's had "fun". Hehe...

House parties equal to - is there enough ice?? are there enough glasses?? order in - serve the damn food! make sure of this and that!?! Sooooo... we go out to enjoy a drink and relax after work... (not necessarily to get pasted!) but these havens have been taken over by the idiots to do salsa to house or bhangra to rock... they also dress up like barbies and kens to go pubbing, which is drastically different from clubbing (they don't get, they just want to parrrtteehhh with Daddy's money!). So, it is IRRITATING. Nimpipi rightly feels miffed and displaced (hehe, love the ven diagram!). I do too.

More importantly, we are all allowed to JUDGE. It makes life fun and easier to deal with. And pop culture judgements are much less harmful than what 'Heart of Darkness' deals with....

PS, a half stop could well be a coma (,) if you please.

Nimpipi said...

pfffhahaa! :D

how i love a little scuffle! makes me feel like a hostess. or a referee, except entertainment ranks higher than what's fair.

chandni: that should work. pub for budhaus. shoo pipsqueak syndrome:D

anon: agreed, non capitalisation sucks. other than that, you're allowed to say behenchod. the world's not learnin' nothing this late, it is us that shall gradually de learn.

ranting, gtg.

sirop: phew. danke!

(and the enough ice bit: i feel you woman!)

Anonymous said...

not buddhhas darling...

mature well dressed people still on the right ide of 30 :D

Anonymous said...

all i can say what the behenchod.

what the bloody behenchod, in fact. (not in fiction).

see -->. full stopp.

Rambunctious WhipperSnapper said...

And just a few years ago it was us who was bitching about the "adults" taking over .....

*sigh*

time i came out of denial ...

btw, err.. hi ..

Nimpipi said...

omg how many syllables is that??!
ram-1-bun-2-ctious-3 whip-4-per-5-snap-6-per-7?? 7??!

*returns hi,

also the sigh*