Another WhatsApp joke forward on Aamir Khan’s comment find its way to my phone today. And I got upset, again.
Yeah, he said what he said. Does that mean that the whole of India should hold him by his neck? Don’t we all make one or other comments like this in a day, when we have a relaxed conversation with a friend or a heated debate with our spouse or just another passing remark! Of course, Aamir Khan is a celebrity. So he should have watched his mouth because we Indians won’t just let it go if a celebrity is to make a remark that we don’t like. And of course, he should have known that we have WhatsApp and FaceBook now at our fingertips and we would make him a daily joke in our inboxes if a celebrity is to mention anything, anything that we, the tolerant India, can’t afford to accept!
Why are we mocking about a remark again and again? Why are we taking our time to forward these insensitive jokes? And who are these people ready with another WhatsApp joke? Are we turning into inconsiderate Indians, who laugh out loud at silly jokes made on others expense? Are we losing our compassion quotient so much that we forget to think before making jokes? Are the people who creates these silly jokes and spread in WhatsApp taking over our thought process to that extent that we laugh when they want and we accuse someone when they click the send button?
Isn’t it time to think before we hit the send button? Isn’t it time to think which matter deserves more of our attention before we argue?
Void Thoughts 
I am happy to not get into such discussions (voluntarily) and don’t even read such silly messages! We are also emotional fools, who get swayed easily.
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I usually ignore such messages and facebook updates. Still, it is irritating to see my feeds flooding with incendiary messages. Let us not forget the fact that social media has started to have a huge impact on our lives. There are people who believe any thing and everything that is being presented to them on a medium. At times like these, I sincerely doubt whether social networking is turning out to be more of a bane than a boon.
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It is ridiculous. I too got a lot of forwards but never even bothered to read. Why waste time on something as useless? People are too quick to judge.
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The pros and cons of social media dear! Everybody has an opinion on everything, celebrity or not. And everyone uses public events and incidents for their own advantage.
Hop on to my blog and grab your Liebster. It shall be a pleasure 🙂
http://blahblahofthemind.blogspot.sg/2015/11/to-my-dearly-beloved.html
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Not sure what it’s about, but in general- I think people are to quick to judge online – always …. These online trolls – do not like at all:-( good write up!
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I agree with you . We should learn to let things be rather than go on and on and on….but then I suppose fame has its price…
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I think its ridiculous. As a citizen, Aamir has every right to voice his concern and debate must have happened in a healthy way, which is not happening, by the way!!
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Awesome post, Vinitha! Echoed my thoughts. A celebrity cannot tell the truth about the current state of the country. The whole country now has to make a joke of it!
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Yeah! It is saddening to see this! I don’t get why these forwards are circulating so much!
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By these jokes and statements, people are just proving that Aamir is indeed correct. The country has become intolerant. If he said something like that, so what? Have we never thought about similar stuff? I wonder how it makes him ungrateful, unpatriotic or whatever.
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True, Lata. People are exaggerating the remark made by him with no sense whatsoever! It is disappointing, not mention that they are only proving his point, loud and clear!
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Absolutely, Vinitha! I have seen some extremely offensive and insensitive things being forwarded on whatsapp and since I know the people who might be involved in these forwards, I keep clearing my chats and refuse to have anything to do with them. I definitely don’t think that those people on whatsapp who are there 24/7 only to keep doing these forwards have anything worthwhile to do with their time. One is better off avoiding them.
As for the comments made my Amir, well, just because he happens to be a celebrity doesn’t imply he forfeits his right to speak as a citizen of India about something that he feels so strongly about. I have seen the interview and don’t see anything wrong in it. In fact, we relocated to India some 8 years back but now, under the present climate, my thoughts wouldn’t be very different either!
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I know, Esha. I have heard every other person I know talking about the difficulties to live in India either because of the crime rates, or the living expenses, or the politics, or some other reason. And yet, a celebrity made a comment and all hell had to break loose!
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Honestly, Vinitha, you said it!!! I get so irked by those forwards. It’s not just the jokes, I get messages demanding that we boycott products endorsed by these celebs. Have we become a nation of imbeciles! He said what he said, but the reactions to it are a lot worse and immature, like the work of school bullies!
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Yeah!! Immature bullies sounds about right! I say come down to earth and try living with us mere mortals, then they will see what real problems are and then they will learn to take these as just another passerby comment!
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I too want to know who are these people who are always prompt to come up with jokes on anything and everything current. Are these people specifically employed in this business? Who pays them or do they do it for free? If they do it for free or leisure then what work do they do really? Your post just saw these questions tumbling out of my mind. Does somebody have answers?
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It’s a pity to see these forwards making rounds after rounds. Earlier it was just media doing the post mortem of the words and it got only so much reach. But now, with whatsapp and facebook we are the media propagating these unworthy news and it’s sad that we letting them to do so by lending a space in our phones! And it’s sadder that we are laughing because we are supposed to, without actually realizing if there is a joke or not! If only everyone asked these questions to themselves before hitting forward!
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