I know more about you than you think I know!

Question: What do you do when you are in school and you have 5 hours to kill??

Possible Answers (in no particular order):

- SLEEP
- Prove E=MC^2 is bullshit
- Ponder about the famine in the deepest jungles of Africa
- Work on your next Vector article.
- Get cozy with your girlfriend/boyfriend
- Sit with a book at the Campus Center lounge and pretend to read a book when you are actually gawking at the zillion beautiful girls walking past you that makes you curse yourself for not being able to execute option 4.

Sleep is always an option, but if you just got out of a database class, going back to sleep may not be an easy exercise.
The man is resting in peace; let him continue to rest in peace. No point in digging up old graves.
I do not have any aspirations of getting the Nobel Prize, at least not in the near future. So I will let the ones that think they have a shot at the prize to ponder about the famine.
Working on the article seems like a good option. But who the hell bothers if you submit your article at 5pm on Friday or at midnight on Sunday? Surely, not in the Vector that I am familiar with.
Getting cozy…ah I wish! But then who will get cozy with me?? Maybe that’s why Kevin refuses to put my picture alongside my column-he fears a drop in the readership.
So realistically, I am left with only the last option. Sitting on the well cushioned couches (that’s one thing you ought to thank the administration for) and gawking endlessly on the babes as they walk by, hand in hand with someone they can get “cozy” with is all that I can do. Infact, that’s exactly what I do every Friday afternoon. Every single Friday afternoon. Perhaps some of us are destined to do only that. Perhaps some day things will change.

However, it is only at times like these that you get an opportunity to observe people and appreciate the fact that each one is unique in some way or the other. You get a feeling of knowing people and their mannerisms, their thought process, their inner self. All this from only the physical appearance. On the face of it, this might seem like a pretty thin theory to pursue, but from my experience of watching people (remember what I do on Friday afternoons?) I have to a large extent been able to satisfactorily predict behaviors.

This may be a question of perception and so by that token differs from one individual to the other. But what I perceive about you has a direct relation to what you want me to perceive about you. The way one moves, dresses, talks and in general behaves are all an exterior of the inner self. You appear the way you are because it’s just you. Since each one is unique, we have different personalities. Of course, it is a given that some people can camouflage their behaviors to represent someone that they aren’t, but these are the few exceptions. Exceptions don’t become rules.

Like I know that the beautiful ones (and there is no dearth of them here) are more confident, gregarious and outgoing. They have a sense of surety about them. While the not so pretty ones are submissive, low on confidence and generally shy. The smartly dressed men are conscious about their appearance and the shabby ones are rebellious in nature.

While I am constructing my theory, I am also cognizant of the fact that I can fall into the pit of stereotyping. But isn’t the way the world operates? Indians are smart (I am the proof of the exception though), Chinese are smarter (nay!), the French are uptight while the Brazilians are fun and the Americans are… (Let me not jeopardize my stay here). So how did these originate?

These theories are an accumulation of general observed characteristics over the years. It is not possible for everyone to know everyone on a personal level to discover their real self. So they are only a reflection of the outward appearance, however, not limited to physical appearances. What you see is what you perceive (WYSWYP).

So does that mean that if you wanted me to perceive you in a certain way you want me to, you behave in that manner? Yes and no. Yes, because some people are dumb and fall for an affected visage. No, because some of us use our common sense. And especially if you have a Friday afternoon experience, you sure can’t get fooled!

Man…what started off as a means to kill time has ended in a competition to the brilliance of a Sigmund Freud.

Until next time.