Learning to have fun...

I have been attending too many training programs lately. What with my employer deciding to become a bank, and suddenly realizing that the people need to be trained for that. I guess it's safe to say that I don't particularly love training programs, unless I'm the one giving the gyaan. 

I have attended 2 weddings and an engagement in the past 3 weeks. What with my cousins, and my friends, and come to think of it, everybody in my social circle, deciding to 'settle down', and suddenly realizing that people need to be married for that. I guess it's safe to say that I love weddings, as long as someone else is getting married. 

I love the way a well thought out, carefully planned, and painstakingly scheduled training program mysteriously descends into chaos, with meandering questions which have no relevance being answered with jargon filled cliches which don't address the point. 

I love the way the utter chaos of dozens of relatives, squabbling and cribbing and gossiping and whining, magically transforms into a picture-perfect, ever-smiling, 'happy family' look on the day of the wedding. 

I keep observing, and struggle to understand, how well-educated professionals, seemingly focused on the training, with mobiles phones switched off, laptops unplugged, struggle to remember a single thing about it just days after the training.

I keep observing, and struggle to understand, how confessedly not-so-smart people, distracted by a thousand different tasks, manage to retain a lasting memory of how well the function went, like who was wearing what (in case of the maamis), and how the payasam was too watery (in case of the mamas), many years after the event.

I am constantly surprised at the way the HR folks think they can make the training programs 'fun', usually by compelling a bunch of super-drowsy folks to stand up, laugh out loud, shake their leg, raise their arms and do other such random stuff, which the otherwise cheerful attendees do with great reluctance, making them look awkward.

I am constantly surprised at the way wedding functions have now metamorphosed into 'fun' events involving a bunch of super-drowsy folks performing choreographed dances, where they stand up, laugh out loud, shake their leg, raise their arms, and do other such random stuff, which the otherwise grumpy old folks do with great enthusiasm, making them look awkward.

And sometimes I wonder, whether the best way to learn is when you don't realize you are learning, and whether the best way to have fun is when no one is telling you to have fun.