Friday, July 23, 2010

Say no to gossip


To some people, one of the greatest forms of entertainment and recreation is gossiping. Chilling out with a friend and sharing juicy tit bits of "news" or even rumours about others gives them great pleasure. Such people feel emptiness in their lives if they do not get a regular dose of such sessions. No wonder that there are so many magazines and periodicals dedicated to sharing such stories about celebrities.

If we think about this, is there any purpose being achieved by such chit chat? Is it helping us in any way? Are our lives becoming more fulfilled or are we progressing towards our goals? For everyone it is a waste of precious time other than people who have made it their career to indulge in this.

I do agree that networking is important and am in no way suggesting that it be done away with. So, even when we network with our close friends, we can always choose interesting and important topics for discussion. Instead of talking about others, we can talk with other on how to make a positive impact on ourselves, our environment etc.

We are all blessed with the same amount of time in a day. How productively we use this time is all that matters. Moreover, our lives itself is uncertain and one never knows which moment is going to be ones last moment. Under such circumstances, we cannot afford to while away our time in idle or malicious chatter.

We need to make a list of our priorities and ensure that adequate time is spent or invested in it. If at all we find extra time in our hands and do not know what to do with it, we can use it to reflect on our lives and ways of improving its quality. If we are keen to improve things or people, let us start with ourselves. I personally feel that praying and contemplating on God is a good way of spending ones time. It can be done anywhere, anytime and anyhow.

Free time is a blessing. Use it wisely. Do not fitter it away.

9 comments:

Unknown said...

GOOD WORD, But most of the people life runs with GOSSIPS, very few like you and me wnt talk about others vish sir, find out me

Latha Nair said...

I plead guilty! :)
I start reading magazines from
the last page -where the
entertainment/sports section is!
More the gossip, the merrier!!!

Seriously, of course, when most of
us wish for 48 hours in a day,
such non-productive activity is
a drain on our precious time.
Good thought indeed, but I for one,
will need a lot of will power
to implement it!

Sonal Raisinghani said...

This topic reminded me of a small game which we used to play as kids - Chinese Whispers/Telephone (Group of persons sit in a circle and then one phrase is whispered in first persons ears.. which is then passed on to the next. When the whispered phrase reaches the last person it is completely transformed) This is how gossip works. It gets completely changed till it reaches the last person. Stop gossiping and you will find a new self within, you will be able to use time in a more productive way. Rightly said by you sir "free time is a blessing. Use it wisely. Do not fitter it away"
Infact there are religions like Islam, Judaism etc which consider gossiping to be as good as a sin.. hence we should refrain from gossiping.

Pramoda Meduri said...

For somebody, if it works as a tonic let it be..

for somebody, if its a poison, lets not do this..

Its up to the individual, i think..

any ways, we need to know the things, but w shd not come to a conclusion on anything so soon..

Rakesh Vanamali said...

Wonderful post, as always Sir! Among the first things I learnt on setting foot into the corporate world is that one's career faces no other impediment as potential as gossip, and hence have always stayed away from it!

Apart from creating a great deal of peace while abstaining from gossip, I've also noticed that someone who does not engage in it is also happy - ignorance is bliss, after all!

Besides, gossip creates only a negative situation where one's opinions become prejudiced based on information that is most likely to be false!

arvind said...

gossiping?

ok..
if me try to coment on this subject - even from the story of Ramayana - washerman - ok.. leave it..

no time is a wasting time in this world.. no time.. till we breath..

Anonymous said...

People love to gossip, usually they start with an idle talk about someone else behind their back and it passes on..All those who tell it to others add something new and all those who hear it also make their own versions..

But one thing we need to remember is that 'Whoever gossips to you will also gossip about you...'

Tyaagi

arvind said...

just felt -

people had a name for gossip in olden days:

"naradha!!"

Shanthi Krishnakumar said...

Wonderful article. I used to tell value based stories to the children in children club and the first stroy I told them was "not to gossip"