The Dopi Effect

A strange phenomenon has been observed in Human Society which originated a few years ago and has been on the rise ever since. Normal human beings, especially teenagers and young adults are being converted into Dopi’s. Now, I would like to assure you that Dopi does not have any relation to drugs, but it will be a while before I actually reveal the true meaning of who Dopi’s are.

A few years ago, Apple released the iPod, which caused a revolution in a way, and created a rage among the young generation. I don’t know the exact figures but Hundreds of thousands probably bought the iPod. Initially when it was just launched, it was quite expensive and very few people could actually afford it. Then they came up with the Photo iPod, the Mini, the Nano, the Shuffle, and then finally the Video iPod, Classic and Touch.

The iPod craze started picking up, at least from where I could observe around two years ago and you could see people moving around with their white earphones stuck in their ears everywhere they went. This created a new species, so to speak, of iPod Dependent People or IDP’s as I used to call them, for whom iPods were an extension of their body, and formed an essential requisite for their existence. The strength of IDP’s continued to increase at an alarming rate and they became a frequent sight everywhere. The word Dopi soon came to replace IDP for several reasons. It had less syllables, was easier to pronounce and made more sense. Dopey is a term normally used to describe Drug Addicts while Dopi refers to iPod addicts, so it covers the addiction part really well. But the main reason why the name Dopi was chosen is because it is iPod spelt backwards.

How to Identify a Dopi??

It is actually very easy to identify Dopis, they are the people who can always seen roaming around with the typical white Apple earphones which you get with every iPod. They will always have the earphones plugged into their ears and it is assumed that if someone removes them, they will deflate and die just like letting air out of the valves in a giant balloon. An alternate possibility is that they might feel out of their elements and behave like a fish out of water.

Dopis are constantly mutating and the longer they remain in the plugged in state, they continue to lose their ability to interact with humans. They start making the devils sign and continuously bob their heads up and down. Eventually the volume starts increasing and they feel that despite using earphones it is their moral duty to ensure everyone within audible range gets to understand what song they are listening to. Interacting with a Dopi in his plugged in state is actually a very difficult task and can take its toll on the person who attempted this act. One has to raise his voice significantly to be heard and gets a very loud response as well.

One common trend that has been observed among Dopis is that the cheaper the iPod is, the higher is the probability that the owner will become a Dopi. As the iPod will be concealed during times of usage, an observer cannot possibly discern which model is being used, but over time it has been seen that Nano users are most likely to become Dopis compared to Video or Classic users. I am yet to come across a Touch owner, so I can’t comment on their kind yet. Also, owners from certain geographies are also more likely to become Dopis in a shorter while.

There are different types of Dopis which can be found in the world, or at least in my observations. The following are some of the classifications that can be safely made :

1. The Infantile Dopis– These are the ones who have just purchased an iPod and are just excited by their newest acquisition. They can get overexcited and cling on to it everywhere they go. Some might not be very excited and hence have a lower probability to become True Dopis in the future.

2. The Potential Dopis – These are the ones who have finally started getting addicted to their iPods and it is slowly but surely becoming an extension of their body. Amount of time spent plugged in determines how long it will take to cross this stage.

3. The Past The Point Of No Return Dopis – These are the hardcore addicts who just can’t live without their iPods. They will probably die if someone unplugs their earphones and find it very difficult to go through extended periods of times without being plugged. They avoid human interaction and are very happy listening to music at all possible moments.

4. The Wannabe Dopis – These people aren’t purist Dopis but they want to pass of as one. Normally, they are the ones that don’t have an iPod but some other mp3 player with white earphones and they try to pass it on as an iPod. Their antics and actions closely resemble The Past The Point of No Return Dopis but as they lack an essential requisite, they cannot really be considered true Dopis.

5. The Anti Dopi – These are iPod owners who consider the portable device as an accessory, rather than an essential requisite for life and use it only if they feel the need to do the same. Purist Anti Dopis may also go ahead and buy earphones and headphones which are not Apple and aren’t white, putting them in the bad books of The Past The Point of No Return Dopis.

Dopis may be a relatively new species that has come to traverse God’s Green Earth, however the unreal growth rate has been a cause of concern for humankind as it may eventually lead to an alternate evolutionary pattern. There is no present threat from these creatures, but it cannot be ascertained whether they will be an imminent root for chaos and anarchy. Observations of these species shall continue to know more about them, and to determine the state of alert for the rest of humankind to live in. Keep watching this space for the latest updates. In case you have any information regarding this species, please post them below as it may help in the research.

phe·nom·e·non [fi-nom-uh-non, -nuhn] 

–noun

1. A fact, occurrence, or circumstance observed or observable.

2. Something that is impressive or extraordinary.

3. A remarkable or exceptional person; prodigy; wonder.

4. Philosophy - an appearance or immediate object of awareness in experience.

A Picture is Worth A Thousand Words

“A Picture is Worth A Thousand Words”, this is a very common saying but it never made much sense to me. However, not too long ago, I finally understood what the saying probably means, or at least my interpretation of the same.

I love photography. I waited for quite a while before I bought my first camera a couple of years ago because I wanted to make sure I buy a good one, not just one which is slim and looks nice. That is what I normally call a girls camera – slim and sleek with very few features. I finally purchased a semi professional camera, or what was mentioned as one in the prosumer segment, and have been on a clicking spree ever since. When I write this blog, I have over 22 GB of photographs on my computer and almost all of them have been taken by me. I never really liked taking videos, so I chose not to buy a video camera, which I could easily have. Somehow videos leave very little to the imagination, and for me it is a lot more fun to appreciate the beauty of a good picture because you get a long time to appreciate it and the minor details that may come with it.

I officially finished my Engineering around 5 months ago, but as our final semester involves project work, everyone had split up by the end of last year. At that time, when I would browse through the many snaps that I had, I finally realised what the above mentioned saying meant. Every picture tells a story, and it is up to the people who look at the picture to understand what the story is. Looking at a picture you are flooded with memories and can recall, vividly if I may add, the events that were taking place when the picture was taken, as well as the situation immediately preceding and succeeding what is shown. To the person who was not involved in the situation, it could be a normal scene with friends, but those who were actually there, who had experienced it, looking at a picture sends a spark to your brain cells and you are transported to the time and place where the event actually took place, and you relive the moment as an observer.

The pure, unadulterated emotions of agony, ecstasy, pain, pleasure, humiliation, malice, innocence, pride, fury, relief, desperation etc are all on display in a single frame and depending on what kind of mood is depicted, have the ability to bring a similar emotion on to your face. Watching these pictures with someone who was there as well, inevitably leads to a long discussion of that time and place, and then to a general conversation of the yesteryears and the differences between then and now. You can also see the transition and the passage of time through which a person has travelled. The different fads he may have been involved in and the different experiments that he carried out.

A single picture tells a fairly vivid story, but a montage of images of a single event ensures that you relive the event in its entirety without missing a single detail. Digital cameras and mobiles with cameras have provided a medium with near infinite storage capacity as well as ensured that you almost always have a camera with you. So, the number of pictures taken has increased hundredfold. This way almost every moment is caught which can be used for several purposes.

This brings me to another meaning of the phrase that I am discussing. You can have very long discussions on a single photograph provided that you are jobless enough. So I am assuming that it was a little exaggerated and it became a thousand words in order to depict the length of the discussion. Different people have different interpretations of photographs and so there are many variants of the same that come to the front. These variants ignite a chain of thoughts and you get several points of views and the actual meaning of the photograph might just end up being overshadowed by something else entirely. Looking at pictures with friends or family is an extremely time consuming and fun activity. Hearing the descriptions of images from someone who was present there is really entertaining, but sometimes pictures are quite self explanatory and you just look at it and understand everything that was probably happening despite no one actually explaining the details. What actually happened may be different from what you perceived though.

One more interpretation that I thought possible was perhaps the number of words that could be used to describe a picture or a scene. The adjectives that could be used in order to laud or loathe a picture. Every human being walking on this planet is a critic and has an opinion which is either original or influenced by someone else. So whenever they see a picture there are a few words that come to the fore and are sort of attached to the image. A thousand words may be quite farfetched but then again this is my opinion and understanding of the phrase.

I had once thought of putting the phrase into a test using its absolute literal meaning. I had intended to use a book which had been converted into a movie, provided the movie was loyal to the book and check if the phrase was actually true. I would assign say ten seconds as an image and then consider it to be a thousand words then try to equate whether the movie was actually equal to the number of words used in the book. Thankfully, I never went about doing this, but if I did, the movie would the ‘The Godfather’.

Just to give you an idea of just how many words constitute A Thousand Words, this sentence contains the thousandth word of the post and it should be a sort of an indicator of how many words they associate with an image. Of course writing a thousand words takes a lot more effort than saying them out loud.

Honestly speaking, I think a thousand words is quite exaggerated but then, everyone has a tendency to exaggerate, so it actually makes sense. Besides some pictures have very few words that you may want to attach to them but on the other hand, some images talk to you and have a long story attached to them. A picture may not be worth a thousand words, but it is definitely priceless and can spark off many conversations.

pic·ture [pik-cher] –noun
1. A visual representation of a person, object, or scene, as a painting, drawing, photograph, etc.
2. Any visible image, however produced
3. A mental image.
4. A particular image or reality as portrayed in an account or description; depiction; version.
5. A tableau, as in theatrical representation.
6. A person, thing, group, or scene regarded as resembling a work of pictorial art in beauty, fineness of appearance, etc.
7. A visible or concrete embodiment of some quality or condition.
8. A situation or set of circumstances.
9. The image on a computer monitor, the viewing screen of a television set, or a motion-picture screen.