A Guide to the Social Circus

A Guide to the Social Circus
by Taroob J. Latef 

Societies: Pose for Me

To the majority of freshmen who are busy trying to ace the first few tests and dig in their flags for the professors to see, a word of caution. Slow down.

A. Nobody cares about the total you hit in the first sub-stage (except of course your fragile heart and self-esteem), save the sweat for the prof.

B. This is university, not your school or college. If you want a certain teacher to remember your name, this is certainly the wrong road to be travelling.

So while you were at it, let us re-wind and wonder about that certain mystery guy who attended only two lectures this week (and by the way slipped out early of one of the two he did bother to attend), has not showed up at AlKarim once in his ‘own’ break time, has no idea what his fellow batch mate is called but has been seen rote learning a list of sacred first and second names that hold no meaning to you, has been found running errands for people who are nameless faces to you, has a Facebook friend list that jumped from 200 to 255 in one day (not one of them being your classmate, mind it!) and has been caught muttering ‘Jee Bhai, Jee Baji’ in his sleep.

You of course did what seemed natural to you. You ignored!

But not for long. Around the corner comes a few society functions, a few supervising tasks, a few open admin slots or a few advertising jobs and Bam! You can’t seem to see any less of that guy. Something dawns in that mind? Ha ha. Now we know what the little devil was up to.

Life is a social circus. And in the current era, it is definitely all about the bold and the beautiful (figuratively, not literally). Both! Not one or the other.  Either you be one or you put up a good imitation of it. An introvert may just be very happy and content at the sidelines but not to somebody else peeping into the picture. Because in that picture you may 9 times out of 10 come out as a loner, an underground rodent or ‘a social retard’.

And, in the midst of all this, we forgot to tail that devil again. A couple of years from now he may be indispensable to some society, you may have topped a professional exam, he may be running for president next year and you may be preparing to top another. Two correct endings, the second one with a just a little higher bet. But the point was, if you can do the second, you can certainly do the first!

Let us rephrase. Life is all about balance. K.E. was I am sure a dream to all of us and now that we are here lets enjoy that dream a little, let us make it about balance because only the best know how to keep that measuring weight equal at both ends.

And so I say work on that circle of yours, a few extra hands to help you, a few extra words to guide you and a few extra people to turn to never hurt. In fact ‘it pays dividends in the end’!