Angst or Ads?

I want to write about both, but I'm afraid if I wrote just about angst, it would meander into a meaningless nothing. Because I'd rave and rant about everything and you'd just go, 'so what is she so mad about? This is normal everyday living.'

Anyway, I need to vent my spleen, grind my jaw, grit my teeth, pummel someone or something, kick, pull, scream, in short, go ballistic! Where else can I take recourse but here? So let me get down to writing about this thing. Angst? Qu'est ce que c'est? To me, the word represents a lot of simmering anger. Just under the surface kinds. Where it's dying to get out, brooding, restless, intense. But my dear old friend, in a new avatar, the www.m-w.com, (check it out, it's really a great site for all those who're interested in phonetics and etymology), lists angst as a word of German/ Danish origin meaning apprehension, anxiety or insecurity.

Well I don't know about the above listed meaning, however I do identify with the feeling of excruciatingly intense disturbance, akin to rage, pure unadulterated RAGE! This could of course some day lead to a coronary or murder or both if I don't do something to manage it. Yes, I admit I have angst. Am certain most of the world at large would also nod their heads in agreement. So why do I have it or what is it against that I'm raging so?

If I start enumerating the reason, it'd be a never ending saga. Suffice to say that everyday mundane stuff that should never even cross one's mind let alone merit a post about it, causes the blood to rush to my extremities and I feel that I'd do very well as Xena the Warrior Princess, with a sabre in my hand, a short armour and flying mane. I do, very frequently find myself wanting to run over someone sometime, or just blow up a few cars, and basically resort to arson and rioting. What is the underlying reason for this unreasonable, blinding rage?

It's the traffic, the insensitivity of people, people's self-centredness, uncouth behaviour, the ingenuity of cheats, self-serving SOBs (sons of b*&#%@s) who are running amok in this city, in this country. I'd like to light a torch under their f^@&%*g arses and see them run for their life. I hate the b@#$&*ds! I hate them. Who's them? Just live in the city for a few days, deal with the louts on the streets, the insane drivers on the strips of tar (that's what roads are really) and you've got to find your road. Yes, I'd like to just... AAAAARRRRRGGGGHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!

Now to come to something more pleasant. Ads. 2 recent ones that I've seen recently aired on television.
- Sony Bravia - for their LCD TV range. The commercial is nothing but sloping streets like the San Francisco streets, awash with floating balloons of all hues. Myriad colours, airy, soft, and very refereshing. No voice over, dialogues, actors, nothing. Just a soundtrack and the super at the end. Talks about the clarity of every single colour of the new Bravia LCD. Different and quite memorable honestly.

- Nike. The Indian urban milieu. Traffic jam (won't they ever leave me?). Vehicles askew. Group of young boys get up on the top of buses and trucks and the ensuing game of cricket captured by the fast paced camera is a treat. It's the age old adage of 'think global, act local'. It's lovely. Truly. And innovative. Trust Nike to come up with such an idea. Remember their football, played across the wall by 2 boys who're neighbours.? Superlative.

Right. On that note, let me see if I can dilute some of my angst among the covers of Maximum City.

PS - Just received an email from a bookstore and one of the books that I think might be an interesting read, 'Games Indians Play - Why we are the way we are' by V Raghunath.

Why are we a nation that is individually so smart and collectively so naive? Why do we mistake talk for action? Why is our self-worth massaged only if we have the ‘authority’ to break rules? Why are we among the world’s most corrupt? Why do we jump red lights? Why do we dump our garbage at the neighbour’s doorstep? . . . Can it be our climate, population density, poverty, colonial past or even genetic encoding? In a rare attempt to understand the Indianness of Indians—perhaps the most intelligent people in the world, but also, to a dispassionate eye, among the most baffling—V. Raghunathan uses the props of game theory and behavioural economics to provide an insight into this most difficult question: why are we the way we are? Raghunathan tackles the question by putting under the scanner our attitudes towards rationality and irrationality, egotism and selfishness, our penchant for antagonism and competition, and our aversion to collaboration and cooperation. Drawing examples from the way we behave in day-to-day situations—from our attitude towards a cheating vendor to our attitude in a joint venture; from our tearing off a page from a library book to the way we leave our public toilets—he shows how in the long run even the most self-serving of us—businessmen, politicians, bureaucrats, common people—stand to profit more if we were to adopt a little self-regulation, give fairness a little more credence and cooperate instead of cheat.

Very interesting synopsis, wouldn't you agree?

Thank God Tomorrow's a Sunday. Day of rest.

Be still my restless heart, rest easy I say!