Miserable Misfit

Off late, a few visits to such cosmopolitan establishments as Pizza Hut, KFC, and City Centre have got me thinking…well, yet again. Whenever I find myself amidst such “happening” and “cool” crowds I feel miserably out of place. I get clumsier than usual, more conscious of how much I stand out like a sore toe in this place, my knees begin to buckle and my already meagre articulation skills take a downward dive almost as steep as the one the Sensex did a few days ago. A friend has often tried to impress upon me the fact that “Someplace Else” in Park Street plays quite delightful music…I however have never been able to summon up enough courage to go and do what they call “check out the place”. Long live MP3’s I say…
Somehow I have never been able to figure out the formula to incorporate the “cool quotient” into one’s outlook…well, not that I’ve tried real hard but I’m sure I wouldn’t have succeeded had I put my heart into it. Naturally, such frigid locales as I mentioned before have never formed part of my regular haunts (and am positive will never). For me the best place to enjoy a pizza would be at home where no one’s going to give a damn whether I abide by the proper table etiquette and where I can dig into the chicken and cheese without fiddling around with the silverware…
Not oddly enough, I wonder if any or all of the above has anything to do with my inherent inability to mingle freely with others…I have always been somewhat of a loner…and more often than not, labeled a snob. Not that I have anyone but myself to blame for that. Whenever I’m in a social gathering I harbor a steadfast belief that not a soul would be interested in indulging in a conversation with me…naturally when people earlier did approach me with a topic I used to get caught totally unawares and mumble such incomprehensible gibberish that the person at the receiving end would lose all propensity to further the banter. To save myself from such embarrassment I started pretending that maybe I wasn’t interested in a conversation at all. Whoever said “Man is a social animal” sure didn’t anticipate my existence...or maybe he did...whic could explain why he didn't say "Man will always be a social animal".
My earnest request, to the people who have a serious enough lack in life to read this blog ,would be, to drop in a word regarding how they feel about this syndrome of mine and promptly share with me if any of them have had such mundane thoughts themselves. Peace be with whoever can find some…