Herd Mentality

I read this post on Freakonomics blog that talked about the herd mentality when it came to boarding a bus… if you think about it people usually board the bus from the stop nearest to them. And its quite logical to use a bus stop that’s nearer to you. But when a lot of people start thinking the same, that bus stop becomes overcrowded. And somehow people still don’t realize that if they just go a few yards away to another bus stop that’s less crowded they have better chances of boarding a bus than they had earlier…

Something quite similar I experienced when I went to a mall beside my work place. The thing is this mall has nearby commercial offices. Thus, during lunch hours the food court and lavatories are the 2 places with long lines.

One day, instead of waiting in the line, I took the escalator to the next floor’s lavatory. It took me precisely 47 seconds to move up to floor 1 and find the men’s room there. And it was completely empty. Not a soul was there, and since no one used it, it was far cleaner than the one on the ground floor which probably was being rummaged by a lot of people at that time.

This is where herd mentality gets to you. Same goes for checkout counters in supermarkets. The checkout lines to the extreme end are more or less empty, while the checkout lines towards the middle are heavily crowded. Why? I mean, isn’t that common sense to move towards a line that’s not too crowded so that everyone can checkout faster!? Herd mentality again!

There and back again

Back to Malludom. The land of the brown and the crazy, where people drive Bajaj Pulsars as pizza delivery vehicles and where the roads can change directions overnight… Dubai!

To be honest it’s quite fascinating to see how things have been evolving in this city. I came here 6 months back, and still a lotta things look new to me. But even more than that has been the changes in my living, my lifestyle.

6 months back, I had all the facilities given to me. Food, shelter and transport. But now, all these things are to be managed on my own. But most importantly the matter of fact is I’ve never felt so lonely in my life till now. I thought it would be easier to settle in since I know the place around. But frankly it doesn’t seem to be happening here. There are a lot of things which need to be done, and I seriously wish I had someone around me.

It’s not really a time of distress or dire straits. But perhaps it is now that I’m living the experience of ‘really’ living away from home and abroad. Maybe while I was in the MBA, everything was kinda given. People around me were Indian, the food, the shelter… all these things were given to me. I really didn’t have to worry about things. Here, that’s not the case. Right from finding a decent and affordable place to live in, to getting the bank accounts in order, and perhaps the most daunting task of all… to find a good and ‘sustainable’ mode of transportation which is ‘economical’ too.

I’ve been asked to eat properly and stuff like that. But seriously, you don’t even feel like eating here when you are alone. I think it’s a matter of time before things might settle in, and I really wish that is the case.

Until that time, I’ll be smelling perfumes and applying glitzy powder on my arm and stuff like that… ;-)