Gossip, the unproductive.

I was all engrossed in beauty of Sundarbans as portrayed by Amitav Ghosh when Netra entered the room in full swing, showed the bag its place and popped up, 'So whats up with Diya and Abhi?' To give you the context, Diya and Abhi are our colleagues from office, and my good friends.

It took me a few seconds to get my mind off Sundarbans and comprehend Netra's question. I asked in a sincere factual tone , 'What?, I did not get you!', to which she asked again, 'You know!, Give me some gossip, what is going on between them?' and I looked at her in confusion. What exactly is the content of answer to a question like that!, my mind wondered. I kind of knew what she was soliciting but for all the time I spent with Diya and Abhi, there was nothing that I wanted to pass on as a gossip. Naturally so, my answer was ‘They are cool! And you know that I don’t gossip!’

To be honest, I did not know if they were going around and though I spent considerable time with them, I was not curious to know ‘what is going on between them’. Hence, I failed miserably in meeting Netra’s expectations and knowing me, she went on to advise me in favor of gossiping and how its in nature of girls. I was not convinced but nodded still.

The thing with me is, whenever I am in a group where people like to talk about lives of others to just talk and distorted facts have no basis, I tend to find myself out of place, lose interest and leave.

But now that it was about Diya and Abhi, I found the conversations, even on a lighter note, could be offensive and it bothered me. I thought a lot about what, other than giggles, a gossip could translate into or what consequences it could have on lives of Diya and Abhi. I knew that like a virus, the baseless conversations would spread and may be soon enough other colleagues would also join the giggle gang. None of them would have the guts to say anything on their face but may be they don't even intend to do that. It could easily be a harmless source of cheap entertainment. Other than that, it could lead to Diya be looked at differently, not in a good way and it mattered, because she is my friend. But at the same time, the important thing is, will she stop talking to Abhi because people talk? Or talk to any guy because people would talk anyway? Or should she? I would not suggest her to and while the thoughts in my mind leave me indecisive, I am reminded of a quote that I read long ago:

"If I have curves, I'm fat..If I don't then I'm straight.. If I wear makeup, I'm fake.. If I dress up, I'm a Show off.. If I say what I think, I'm a #!@%*#. If I say nothing I have 'attitude problem', If I cry sometimes, I'm a drama queen.. If I have guy friends, I'm Fast. If I stand up for myself, I'm mouthy. Its like you can't do anything nowadays without being labeled. So what !!!!! Give a Damm !!!"

Sums it up well, right?