What's up ?

Or you may take your pick from the million other alternatives

sup?
whazza?
what plans?
how are?
whats the POA?
kaisa raha?
aur suna?
what's new?

The list is endless. What is up - hmm, gotta think about that - its noon while am writing, so the Sun for one thing is up, and there are another million things I can define as being up, but am not going to bore you with those wisecracks.

You can expect such questions to be the order of a mail, a casual chat or a phone call when you have been away for too long. When the other person has no clue on what is going on in your life, and eventually really has to know what is up ! I would not mind replying to such a genuine query about my whereabouts and preoccupations - come on, give the person a break, he cannot possibly imagine what I have been "up to" ;)

However, consider the case of a lazy few, those who find it a very convenient way of minimising effort and finding out what's up in someone's life. Fine, you tell them what has been up one time. Cut to two days later, you sign in and are greeted with a "hi .. ssup?" - Reflex action - you sign out! I do not know how many people share my thoughts on this, frankly I couldn't care less :) But the truth remains, if you keep asking the same arbitrary ambiguous generic question every single time, there is no grandpa on the other side of the phone or computer waiting to tell you a story on what has been happening. And after a point the laziness gets so irritating that you just simply have to cave in and say "just the usual" :P I love this reply - kind of makes the other person go "okaaaaay .. now that was not expected" ;)

Honestly, in today's time, people try to stay involved and friends with a casual attitude that all I need to do is mark my attendance and ask the other person what is up - the interpersonal factor of asking them specific questions about what they have been up to has lost its value. Its become like distributing swill in prison - everybody is given some, but why bother being happy bout it - it was made with the least effort and a "couldn't care less attitude" ;) This does not imply that the person asking you the question is cold or indifferent - it just shows that certain people need to realise that it takes more than just a casual drop-in into someone's life to keep a friendship going :)

Its become difficult in today's world for people to make time for each other - family, relatives, friends. Standard excuse. But a lame one too. It takes a mere 5 minutes to shoot off a mail asking people about their health, any new hobbies they picked up on, to build on the last conversation. It takes 2 minutes to message someone and ask them how they have been and if they went any further with the application they were making. To show you care takes more than just a general enquiry of "what's up" ;)

If nothing more, it just brings a smile to someone's face who receives such a gesture. ;)