Self-Depreciating Humour

Everyone likes to have a good laugh.  Jokes and humour are part of our daily life and vital for our wellbeing. We seek it by spending time with a cool gang of friends and through different modes of entertainment such as movies, stand-up comedy shows, humour clubs, cartoons or comedy TV channels.

Generally, in all these, we see two types of humour. One type of humour is in which, one person is the bully and the other is the victim.  Tom and Jerry cartoons can be a good example, where the little Jerry is the bully which keeps nagging Tom, who ultimately gets victimised. Similar example could be of the Goundamani – Senthil comedy in Tamil movies.

And there is the other type of humour, where the person makes a clown of himself. Some examples can be Charlie Chaplin, Mr. Bean and in Tamil movies, comedians like Chandrababu and Vadivelu, use this type of humour. This type of humour is what we call as self-depreciating humour.

While there is a mild element of sadism, in the first type, the second one doesn’t offend anyone. We can see similar examples, in the stories of the famous characters, Birbal and Mullah. I am sure you all know that these humour stories and anecdotes, have a moral behind it, but have you ever pondered what is the basic contrast between these two characters. If you observe closely, you will find  that in all the Birbal stories, Birbal ends up  making a fool of someone else, (which is mostly the king) whereas in the Mullah stories, the joke is often on Mullah himself. While Birbal stories sound more appealing to kids for its witty twist, it is Mullah stories that is more popular with adults, because as adults, in a number of occasions it reminds us of our own fallibilities, and we are able to relate with the Mullah stories better.

Now, the question is how many of us have the capacity to laugh at our own mistakes? Well, not many. It is because we are conditioned to believe, that as an adult we should not be looked upon as a fool. But I have a different opinion. Humans are vulnerable and fallible to errors. None of us are perfect. All of us make silly mistakes and blunders, no matter what our age and it is not something to be ashamed of.  In fact, a person who is able to laugh at his own mistakes, is generally looked up as a practical and level-headed person.

Have you noticed, that while we share our life experiences or travel experiences, with someone, what looked like a serious stupidity at that point of time, has become a humorous part of our narration? For instance, when we narrate the incidents of how we got cheated or how we made a wrong decision which resulted in a problematic situation. We might be adding lines, like “I was such a fool to do that”, “I flopped terribly” or similar statements. And whatever is shared from our personal experience connects well with the people who are listening to it.  So, self-depreciating humour is in a way something that humbles us and not degrade us. However, too much of the same, might feel like a overdo to the listeners.

So, I feel self-depreciating humour is a valuable quality, we can all imbibe. It is a sort of an emotional immunity, we can build to tide over life, without getting affected or offended. Self-depreciating humour in no way diminishes our self-esteem. For people, whose self-esteem is intact, they know their own worth and they don’t need any endorsement or approval.

To substantiate this, we can look at people from the Sikh community, who are called Sardarjis. Some of the common jokes, we hear is that of the Sardarjis in the form of Santa- Banta jokes. These Santa – Banta jokes are written by the famous writer and cartoonist, Khuswanth Sing, who is a Sardarji himself. This shows their ability to embrace self-depreciating humour in a positive spirit. And in spite of all the fun made about their intelligence, they are some of the most hardworking and intelligent people, we can see in the country. So, along with their sense of humility they possess great amount of dignity too, which really talks high about them.

Humility is a great strength. It takes a lot of courage and maturity, to embrace self-depreciating humour in our life. However, the rewards of doing so, is something we can enjoy only through experience.

  D. Senthil Kannan,

  Managing Trustee, PALMS, Tuticorin.

  Author of "Transformational Thoughts" - A Journey of learning 

  Email: senthilkannand@gmail.com

Knowledge Dashboard
for the Online World

In today’s world we’re flooded with so much of digital information that we cannot effectively store, process and effectively take decisions. Social scientists have a name for this. It is called INFOBESITY. While we are faced with abundance of information, which seems to make us more knowledgeable, it is also a big drain of energy and time.

Internet is often called a "rabbit hole", because people start searching for some information and end up somewhere else, by clicking the many associated links or ads, only to realize that they are nowhere close to the information they need, but have wasted considerable amount of time.  

It is now common to hear in business, something called a Business Dashboard, which is probably the new age name given to “Management Information System” which has been in existence for quite some time. So, the purpose of a business dashboard, is for the top executives to take quick and effective decisions, based on the periodical reports and checking for multiple vital parameters, for the effective functioning of the business. It is even used by some progressive Governments, where the head of the state or country, has all the vital information made available to him in a clear and crisp form, which makes  it easy for him to take the right decisions at the right time. 

Similarly, we too can create a knowledge dashboard to be more productive and effective. 

Knowledge dashboard comprises of gathering information from tried, tested and trusted sources, giving you the comfort of quick access to the information you are searching for. 

 

For instance, there are a number of newspapers in the market, yet we subscribe to one. There are 100’s of TV channel’s but we watch only a few. Similarly, amidst so much of online resources available, we can choose our favourites too, by creating a Knowledge Dashboard. This knowledge dashboard can be your "go to place" for all your requirements. There is no need to google every time.

 

For example, these are a few of my “go to” websites, when I need some information. “Brainy quote” for quotes; “Blinkist” for audio book summaries; “Lifehack” for training related articles; “WebMD”for medical advice and so on.

 

So, how can we do this?  Here is a simple process, you can try.

 

Define your objective – Ask yourself what information I need and how periodically I need it. This will give you an idea of what are the things you would like to have at your fingertips.

 

Scan for available resources – Once your objective is clear, you can start searching in a more effective manner. You will find a lot of related resources, that will match your interest.

 

Try and analyse your experience - Once you have a number of choices to choose from, check out the content of each website, in a relaxed manner. Take into consideration the credibility factor. So, by browsing through a number of websites, you will feel a sort of conviction over a few of them, that matches your requirement.

 

Decide–Once you have analysed well, decision making is easy. You can add these websites to your favourites folder, bookmarks or tool bar. Few websites are paid services and if you feel it is worth it, just go for it. Don’t hesitate. You will surely end up saving your precious time.

 

Just like how we can create a list of favourite websites, we can also have a curated list of mobile apps, which best serve the purpose and uninstall all others.

 

In today’s scenario, we access online information mostly through our mobile devices, so it would be a good idea to sync these websites or apps across all devices, so that no matter which device you work from, you will readily have the information that you need.

 

By taking some initial effort, which might feel time consuming, you will actually end up in a more productive state, having your own personally curated knowledge dashboard.

 D. Senthil Kannan,

  Managing Trustee, PALMS, Tuticorin.

  Author of "Transformational Thoughts" - A Journey of learning 

  Email: senthilkannand@gmail.com