Pages

Monday, October 17, 2005

Bloopers

I read in one book ("How Winners Do It") that the maximum amount of time humans can bear silence in a conversation is one minute. You’re guaranteed that at the 59th second, someone is going to burst into talk. So, to get your way, all you've got to do is make a proposition, shut up and wait for the other person to say something. Sounds easy? I don't know about that.
One of the bad things about being more sensitive than others around you is that you are forced to cover up for other peoples’ bloopers. And mostly, you do that by rushing into speech. Bloopers are anywhere there’s a big crowd. Even a gang of good friends has its awkward pauses at times.
You are at a wedding or a big gathering of relatives. There’s always this one Uncle, Aunt or a second or third cousin who is going to give everyone at least one awkward moment. It might be a rather bawdy comment, a very correct but ill-timed observation or plain undiplomatic frankness. And the blooper people (people who make bloopers) and most of the audience are quite oblivious to the level of discomfort permeating around. They’ll happily act like nothing happened till the silence grows. 20 seconds. You shift feet. 30 seconds. Still none breaks the ice. 40 seconds….
And if you are the rather sensitive kind, you sense the discomfort in the atmosphere and immediately hem, haw and rush into speech to cover the moment. The thing is when you embarrassedly rush into speech, you don’t make sense. You just say whatever comes into your head: pretty random, off-topic stuff. And people forget the blooper but (and here’s the caveat) remember your well-meaning nonsense forever. And the very same blooper person, who was the cause of all this in the first place, will thump your back and roar with laughter at your gaffe. And you’re the toast of parties and the whole-hearted roast of the gang. Hmph. The worst part is that some people take the liberty of shooting their mouth all the time expecting/knowing that you’ll be around to fix their verbal mess-ups.
Well, I used to be the sensitive kind before. I used to feel compelled to make everyone feel comfortable and happy. Then I got annoyed. So I figured I would let people solve their own verbal gaffes. So these days, I sit back, relax, tap my fingers and enjoy the comedy until someone decides to crack...:)

13 comments:

mathangi k said...

Subha,
Happens to me all the time..to the extent of being the butt of jokes after the blooper has made a meal out of me!!!!

These days I am trying to be the blooper and not the blooped(the peacemaker or the sensitive one, as you said)

Why not have some fun!!!

;)
Mathangi

Jeevan said...

very nice. first time hearing about Blooper.

Gnana Kirukan said...

Subha - count me in! I am a BIG blooper :))..

I have an uncle living next to me. I seldom go to his house - and when I go - his entire family sits quiet in front of me and listen to me! When I stop talking - everyone just stares at my face for some period of time - so to break the ice - I end up talking again!!GOSH!! Like this I end up being a chatterbox in front of them!!

But when I have ppl who chat well -I end up being the silent listener (even though I never listen to them!!) LOL

Ram said...

gud observation...

Ganesh said...

well I just sit back and observe as how people are commenting on this one ;)

Anyway I am just recovering from a weird incident that happened to me this weekend.
hmm...

Krish said...

The "pregnant pause" :-) (there is an abundance of literature on it)

Anonymous said...

go ahead guys, speak wat ever u want, and subhashni is goin to give u a big bloop at the end lol just kiddin ... nice blog ...

Rags said...

Wedding gathering is one of the best crowd to enjoy as long as you are not the center of action.

Every marriage will have one athai and one mama who never shy away from passing sarcastic and sometime nasty comments...

Narayanan Venkitu said...

Interesting..It happens to me too...!!! I didnt' know these words Blooper etc..Until I read you today.!!

Anonymous said...

lemme tell what i thought when i read this blog. i was in a weird mood when i read.

Sridhar: idhu pOdhuvaa ellaarukkum nadakkuradhu thanE, idhukku oru blog-aa...hmm.

Sridhar's inner voice: aana naanum idha thaanE paNNurEn, blog-oda one of the purposes idhu thanE, thappilla.

Deep inner voice of Sridhar: oh! nee paNNurangradhu naala thappillannu aayidumaa? inga matter indha blog thappa illayaannu illa aana adhu thappillannu nee mudivu paNNina premise thappu.

Sridhar: aiyO saami aaLa vidu. i'm sorry,

naan patta kuzhappam neengaLum padavE, after a contemplation i posted this here. :)

Prashanth said...

hehe...
i constantly find myself on the recievin ends of teases...but i never find bloopers around to take the momment away...they re simply elusive...

neat post..

The Doodler said...

Mathangi,
like you said, why not have some fun? :)
Jeevan, thanks for stopping by.
Arjuna, LOL
Ganesh, what's your weird incident?
Thennavan, more than the "pregnant pause", it is the aftermath that gives me the jitters..:)
Ramchi, just because we shouldn't care too much about what others think doesn't mean that we can say whatever we want regardless of whoever gets hurt..:) Whew! that was a long sentence

The Doodler said...

@Rags, yeah you can't avoid those.
@Venkitu sir, I just made up my own name for those nasty moments "bloopers"..:) I don't even know if such a word exists...hehe
Sridhar,
neenga enna solla vareenga nu enakku kadaisi varaikkum purlai..