Sunday, July 17, 2011

1. Whatever goes around comes around

  • Not giving sufficient attention or thought to avoiding harm or errors

  • (of an action or its result) Showing or caused by a lack of attention

  • Not concerned or worried about

  • Showing no interest or effort; casual
  • These are the various meanings of the word careless. I like the one that says not concerned or worried about the most, but it is actually best defined by meaning no. 2: lack of attention. This lack of attention can afflict me at any given point of time, in whatever I do, irrespective of my proficiency in it. Truth be told, now that I think about it, there is no such thing as a careful person. Every person is careless at something or the other during any given day, its just about how the plot unravels - explains the seriousness of the carelessness.

    I tend to bunch up my visiting cards in my shirt pocket. So if a card that is similar to mine ends up being clubbed with my cards there is very high likelihood that I could hand over someone else s card as mine. Sometimes I end up meeting foreigners. Sometimes these foreigners are are of chinese origin. Sometimes such chinese people hardly understand who they are meeting, will not ask questions and will stick to e-mail for correspondence. Sometimes, I could hand over my card to one of them. Sometime that card could have a woman's name on it.

    And you know what the consequences could be. In India, you possibly still keep your job. But out of the various careless things that I can and do, like stepping onto a manhole while reading a book or banging onto a pole while walking, I begin to wonder which of the carelessness will eventually turn out to be harmful.

    I have a very common name with a different spelling. I have handed thousands of my cards. Sometimes my cards are with foreigners. Sometimes these foreigners are of chinese origion. Sometimes such chinese people hardly understand who they are meeting, will not ask questions and will stick to e-mail for correspondence. Sometimes, they mark me assuming it is someone else. Sometimes it ends up being the same person I gave the wrong card to.