FC 144 prompted many of my readers to give their views on unlearning. I am happy to share some of them here.
Swati Belur makes an excellent point: “I guess by unlearning, we are simply overwriting what we have already learnt with a better or easier version of it. As a teacher, my brain usually picks on school scenarios. What is of concern is when a wrong concept is taught and a student has to unlearn that, which is a daunting task!”
Lynn Weiss from the USA says: “I would say rather than unlearning we often have to retool. Each day brings about changes, and we need to adapt to those changes. Some changes in our daily lives leave us with discomfort. But we need to find our comfort level. As we age many don’t want to retool, but I would say retooling keeps us younger!”
Tarun Kunzru says: “An open and objective mind helps adapt newer better things and drop obsolete things. Having said that, value systems and culture play a ‘checks and balances’ part. On the one hand Old traditions and faith continue to prevail while on the other man's knowledge build is a ‘work in progress’. So where Science and logic work we tend to evolve fast where belief and faith prevail we tend to drag our feet. What we know for sure is things are changing all the time (evolving) and so it's always going to be catch-up time. Renewing is basic to living!”
Ashvini Ranjan says: “When my sons were still young, I asked them to shut up and listen. When they grew a little older, it was ‘let's talk ’. Today, I shut up and listen. I learn and hence they find me still relevant. Lessons in the art of survival. Lot of wisdom in FC 144. PS. Jet lag shuts the eye but not the mind :)”
Shahji Jacob says: “The word unlearn triggers in me a lesson that I once read. A disciple of a Buddhist monk came to him for advice. The monk asked him to be given a cup of tea, along with a pot full of tea. The monk then asked him to pour the tea from the pot into the cup. Very soon the cup overflowed. He told the disciple that unless he poured out the tea in the cup, he could not pour any more tea into the cup without spilling it. So too in learning, we will need to unlearn things we learnt earlier before we learn further as otherwise, any further learning would be useless.”
🤣 Has Laughter Died?
On the 7th of May, after I posted FC 144, I came to know that the 7th of May was ‘World Laughter Day’. Apparently, this was a movement founded by Dr. Madan Kataria, and the first event was held on May 10th 1998. This popularised ‘laughter yoga’ and many laughter clubs sprung up, quite a few of which exist today. There are cynics who laugh at the laughter clubs! Dr Kataria’s famous quote is
“I have not seen anyone dying of laughter, but I know many who are dying because they are not laughing.”
I wrote on the subject of laughter and I urge you to read or re-read 🔗FC 80 and let it make your eyes crinkle and your cheeks wrinkle, at least momentarily.
Humans can smile, grin, laugh, chuckle, smirk or beam depending on the circumstances. But in the day-to-day, have emojis taken over internalising these mirthful moments? Imagine sharing a joke in person and having a hearty laugh and contrasting it with the same joke forwarded to you on WhatsApp. It may make you smile, and you may respond with a smiley and if it is a good one then LoL.
Jokes are not the only source of laughter. In fact, with the way jokes go viral on social media, if one were to narrate one of them, the people around them will more likely have an indulgent expression or brutally say that it is a stale joke. There is fun in listening to a joke even if you have heard it before, it lies in how different people narrate the same joke.
Humor today is shaped by increased sensitivity, social changes and respect for personal and religious beliefs. It's widely agreed that body-shaming, or mocking someone's appearance, is unacceptable. However, it can be tricky to distinguish between harmless teasing and hurtful ridicule. This depends on the relationship and intent of the people involved, the way the comments are received, the nature of the comments, and whether the comments include or exclude someone.
We're at a point where we need to think more about our words. Ideally, we should balance humor with respect, and make jokes that don't harm someone's dignity or self-esteem. But although sensitivity and inclusiveness matter, we also need to avoid being overly oriented to offense-taking, to the point of stifling conversation.
I have seen people reading a comedy novel and chuckling or even laughing, and some other people reading the same book without smiling even once. What exactly inhibits our ability to laugh? Our predisposition? Our preoccupation? Our moods? These and many more factors.
If you narrate a joke to a person who has lost someone or something, he is likely to bristle and say “You are insensitive and cracking a joke when I am agonising over my loss”. You had no idea that he was in a dismal mood, but his mood is such that he attributes to you the knowledge of his disturbed state of mind. I once sent a friend a joke about the ‘pink slip’ and he put an angry emoji and wrote: “Thank you for rubbing it in”. Later I came to know that he had been laid off. But there are also some who are upset or under the weather who would welcome a joke and tell themselves that the laughter lifted them out of the gloom and helped them realise that life is still liveable despite its adversities.
There are times when a friend or a relative is in hospital for not a very serious ailment. Maybe they had a cut and got a few stitches. You can go and cheer them up by cracking a few jokes which will have them in stitches! If they had a fracture, you and other friends could draw something funny on the cast, so they would break into a smile each time they saw the graffiti. Lord Byron said:
“Always laugh when you can. It is cheap medicine.”
This resonates with what Mark Twain wrote in his novel The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. It reads:
“The old man laughed loud and joyously, shook up the details of his anatomy from head to foot, and ended by saying that such a laugh was money in a man’s pocket because it cut down the doctor’s bills like everything.”
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer is a 1938 American drama film based on the classic 1876 novel of the same name by Mark Twain. The movie was the first film version of the novel to be made in colour. If you are a movie buff you can enjoy this 85-year-old fascinating movie using this link: 🔗The Adventures of Tom Sawyer Full Movie
One should be mindful of sentiments. They are like a minefield. You never know whose sentiment you may hurt by telling a joke. Humour and sentiment seem incompatible because, as I have experienced, sentiment does not always represent a happy state. It is a feeling of tenderness, sadness or nostalgia. One should be careful not to make light of a situation if that makes a person feel slighted or hurt.
Cartoons were once a source of amusement. Who can forget R K Laxman? But in today’s context, I wonder if his cartoons would’ve been extolled or trolled. However, there are many cartoonists who continue to depict the state of affairs today through a mirthful portrayal.
Let me end this in a lighter vein, as it should be given the title of this post!
I narrated a joke about a nun and a gun,
Sadly it misfired.My coworkers laugh at my jokes in in-person meetings, but never in online meetings.
When I asked them why, they said that my jokes weren't remotely funny.My wife asked me why I spoke so softly in the house.
I said I was afraid Mark Zuckerberg was listening!
She laughed.
I laughed.
Alexa laughed.
Siri laughed.
Keep laughing my dear readers. Conventional wisdom says you need 43 facial muscles to frown and only 17 to smile. But the core message is that it takes more effort to frown than to laugh. Do leave a comment if this post made you smile.
See you next week.
Some jokes can be enjoyed in its original language only and it loses flavour if translated, e.g., " Prasanna aisa jadugar hai, woh har Ithwar ko sab ko prasanna kartha hai."
In all my 45 years of marriage, I cannot predict my wife’s reaction to my jokes. I factor in all possible factors such as her predisposition, preoccupation, moods including weather forecast. Yet the probability of thunder and lightening is very high. She defies ChatGPT in her ability to access historical records (more misdeeds than deeds) That my friend is not funny ! You can laugh at my cost to keep laughter alive !!