To be cool or not to be, Is that a question?

Ragamuffin maan ya! I’m just listening to this Apache Indian track called 'chok there'.It's alright. Now before this randomness takes over like the weeds have taken over half of Killinochchi I’ll try hard to get to the point.

What is Cool?

We are swamped down and bogged up with definitions of cool. Im walking to work today with my tattered gym bag on my shoulders right? and im thinking i need a new bag cos the one i have right now is ripped so much that the only thing holding it together is probably the dirt.

I was thinking of spending for an okayish Field bag, about 1.5k. A bit hardier than the regular stuff at Emperor (MC) so kind of worth the money. Then the back of my mind pipes up with the crazy notion of shelling out for an Adidas or a Nike instead. Subtle, black, 4k and as cool as a guy of my social standing can afford to get without pawning his left testicle. I dismissed the notion. After all, it's no point getting a bag like that and then going to just a regular gym right. People are gonna think you bought it off the World Market anyway.

But I am not averse to such extravagant purchases. There are some things that I feel the tendency to splash on. Shoes, some clothes maybe. Yes i am pretentious and part of the rest of society wanna-be bunch. Let's get that out of the way.

But Hwhy?

Reading through my last paragraph, my eye fell on this definitive statement; "People are gonna think you bought it off the world market anyway"

People are gonna think.

Hmmm.

I mean would I want that bag if every Somey, Siri and Ratnapala at the gym had a svelte Adidas of their own? Or would I wanna go even higher up the market in search of commercial offerings in the sports bag market that probably exist but which i am not aware of like maybe Versace Sport? I am just postulating here. But I think Nike will cut it anywhere, I’ve always had a preference for Adidas though.

But coolness does not only relate to 'stuff'. it relates very heavily also to attitudes, who we hang out with and where we live. But location of residence doesn't matter that much when you're young. It’s your school that matters when you’re young.

You're safe in the cool-o-meter if you went to a 'leading school in Colombo' or an 'International School'. You're coated in a mysterious aura, which is also uber-cool, if you've 'studied abroad' as well. If you're doing you're higher studies, it’s always cool to say that you're 'down for the summer' or 'taking a winter vacation'. Local higher education has it's own cool-o-metrics and whatnot, differing between the different institutes and courses, but I can't properly put my finger on it cos i am myself embroiled in it, and will probably be heavily biased to my own coolness if i tried :D

Its uncool to put a nose in a smiley, a fact which I found out from Jerry’s blog. when Fallen most kindly pointed it out to him.

My last post was apparently cynical yet aloof-ishly cool, according to Makuluwo. Thank you for that by the way, I was trying really hard. You’ll find out why in the para after next.

Cool is a phenomenon of society, it’s tied to what we aspire to and want to be. It often hits hard into secret places of our consciousness, taps into things that we won't even admit to our closest friends that we like, or want. You can probably tell a lot about a man if you knew what he exactly thought was 'cool'.

It’s also cool to be cynical. It’s cool to be aloof. To hold yourself above the massess. to be different. Hell it’s even cool to be a social outcast, but not in an un-cool way of course.

Cool-ness is a universal concept. And like all universal concepts, you can’t really explain what it means until you immerse yourself in it. And this post probably didn't teach you anything about it anyway either.

Today's post brought to you by, the local (oligopolistic) supermarket industry, Gedara yamang.