Yo!! - ism

It all started with an inoccous question while i was being ragged during my first year at college.
"Ninakku odukkaththe JADA- anallo ...pakshe nee onnnum oru Ma....-um ondakilla JADA
kanichchal...JADA de spelling ariyavo??..." it went on for some time then...and the only ex-pression that i could manage on my face was one of total blankness and bewilderment...my mind was meanwhile racing away to figure out what or who exactly this JADA thing was...and my friends who were more educated in worldly matters opened my eyes that night...and in i stepped into the wonderful world of JADA..
I picked up the tricks of the trade fast, identifying JADA in its different forms..The info that i gained then was to prove valuable..i would soon be using it on my Juniors ....The HUNTED had just become the HUNTER..
And from then on it was a saga of tolerating JADA for 2 years...JADA that ppl put on in front of chicks...The "Echchuse me" kindo JADA...JADA that has been programmed into the brains from child hood..and then the most irritating kind of JADA...DEMO..JADA just for the sake of JADA....
Shifting the scene of action back to Chennai, I was mentally prepared for JADA now..after all how much could a place have changed in 4 years...As it turned out..a lot indeed..
Beasant Nagar beach, saturday evening..a few of us were staring at the Elliots memorial and cracking a few onliners...For ppl who are not familiar with chennai...Remember the small memorial on the beach in Naadodikkaatu...(saadhanam Kayyil indo..:-) )
A couple of bikes screetchingly pull up near the beach...the "dudes" and their "Chicks" get off the bike...and then out of nowhere comes a baritone "YO!!!"..and i was like YO???
For all i know these ppl could have popped straight off a 50 cents video...but then YO is not what u associate with these types..
"YO" is how an Auto driver begins to address u when u piss him off..usually followed by carefully handpicked expletives in chaste tamil...enough to ruin a week for u..
But this YO was different..The dudes remove their helmets and with a deep baritone the first YO was followed by a "YO!!!! maynnnnnn"...i guess that was man in a Texan accent...
"People ..Welcome to the world of Yo!!ism"
For people who have not been introduced to this phenom...u might tend to mistake this as JADA..this is not JADA...JADA is more like show off...
"Yo!ism" is more about being "YO"..sorry people cant find a better definition..with experience u will learn to differentiate..
YO!ism has now permeated into every level of society ...

traditional Mamis wearing Nike sneakers and going jogging...
dudes wearing pants thrice their size and tying it up with a long "Naada" at the waist
Dudettes wearing pants half their size ...T shirts 1 quarter their size ...BTW..i am not complaining bout that though..and then pulling the pants up and the Ts down...this i do dissapprove of
Guys wearing socks and sandals...yes have seen this a few times around
asking for coke for lunch at Andhra mess
Kids, barely heads popping out of the windows of the Scorpios and safaris..rolling down the windows at signals...just so that we can hear EMINEM foul mouth in the car...make eye contact..convey that u r useless and then roll up the shutters...this is one thing that really pisses me off
the list goes on....

The peer pressure too can be amazing...friends u knew in college are no longer recognizable.."Aliya" replaced by "Hey dude"...
a cotton shirt now replaced by Leather jackets....
may be this is what they teach u at those cross-cultural adaptability classes which i have been lucky enough not to attend..

But Yo!!ism does have its advantages..ppl who have already gone yo in a secretive way want borderline cases like me to join their ranks..and they sometimes do end up doing the most wild of things ..like getting me my new mobile..yes i got an L7...
and to top it my company inches me even closer with a video ipod....

But then even as i fight a losing war, It is comforting to see that there r ppl who even in times of extreme pressure, despite earning the right to go YO!!...have managed to hold their dignity...even when lesser mortals, some of whom r called sanoop have gone berserk...a simple unwashed pant, a reusable shirt and a RS.160 saandak...
I would like to call them the Anti-YO club..
PPl who r balancing out all the YO in the world so that the Entropy in the world remains constant!!!

I dont think people realise that we are at a turning point in the history of this country...
A war is being waged out in the open as well as in your brains..the battle between YO and Anti YO...
Let us wait and see how the story unfolds...