My famous friends have a poor opinion of me :-)
Also called “The three things I learned thru Robin William’s death”
Lesson 1.
Going thru the Facebook posts showing up on my timeline, I am convinced that my friends believe I suffer from Alzheimer’s. Even after “n” people have informed me of the unfortunate and untimely demise of the great stand up comedian, some of them multiple times I must say, that has not prevented the “n+1” person from re-informing me a few minutes later. Or “n+2” or “n+3” for that matter…. I know my Math friends are going “Dude. That is called Mathematical Induction”. However, unlike Mathematical Induction, the starting point of “n” is not very small. In fact, it is an unconscionably high number. I can only be concerned and grateful at the same time at their sensitivity to the condition I apparently suffer from.
Lesson 2.
Many of those reminders to me come in the shape and form of direct exhortation to Robin Williams to rest in peace or thanking him for all the laughs. I certainly hope Robin Williams is paying heed to my friends’ wishes but I have to admit that I did not realize he was going to check his Facebook page from his afterlife. To be honest, I did not even know that you are allowed to carry your smartphone to your afterlife. I need to remind myself to check into that data plan before I hit an advanced stage of my memory condition. But I am absolutely proud of myself that I am surrounded by friends who are Facebook friends with Robin Williams. Maybe there are a few degrees of separation here, but I feel I am justified to show off my very well-connected friends to every body else. Especially those riff raffs who did not know Robin Williams well enough to instruct him to rest in peace on their Facebook page.
Lesson 3.
Wait..
Dang it! What is the other lesson I was thinking of?
My God! Maybe my famous friends are right about that Alzheimer’s thing, after all!!!!
🙂
Hey Rajib – did you hear that Robin Williams died? So sad…
He did? OMG 🙂
Do you need me to send you some video or do you remember him?
Oh, and have you sent your posthumous message?
Rajib, this was funny and creative! Now I may have to take my phone with me when I go, just to see the FB messages!
Kerry, for a guy who has taken stand up comedy classes, he was absolutely one my heroes. Amazing spontaneity and ability to modulate voice. Perhaps continuing with that humor was my way of saying Good Bye.
Oh I agree, Rajib. He had a great gift, and he would enjoyed your comments!
True!
I am certainly not “famous”,BUT I AM your “friend”, BUT I do not have a “poor opinion” of you :-)……
I occasionally forget to brush my hair before I leave the house, so telling you multiple times about Robin Williams seems perfectly normal to me 🙂
Bob,. I too forget to brush my hair. With far less pronounced effects than yours , though !!
“My famous friends have a poor opinion of me.” Fairly neutrally posed.
Rajib Roy, do you think that when people post RIP in memory of someone not among us anymore ,with the expectation that the person will feel good from his/her afterlife reading the post. Sorry I missed your sense of humor in this post. Are you saying that people actually sent a private message to you informing his death or just posted on their timeline? In the later case, not sure what bothered you. Again I am sorry if I did not catch the subtlety of your post and overreacted. Personally I liked Robin Williams ( have to admit I am not a FB friend with him) and felt really bad when I heard the news. My post was just a humble way to show my respect to the departed soul.
I have a famous name, so… Hey Rajib, did you hear that…
Supriyo, I had not even seen your post till now. Unfortunately, FB these days decide whose posts I get to see. I did go to your timeline to see your post after reading your comment. And I believe we are on the same page on that missing on the sense of humor in this post part….
Right .. not so sure Robin Williams would’ve attempted similar humour, because just as a matter of convention and respect humour does not attack grief (I would be surprised if any friends whose posts you read said RIP without some sense of grief).
On a separate note, you end by saying “My God” .. not sure God is indeed your facebook friend. Yet what you were doing was not addressing god, but all your other friends.
I have seen RIPs posted for the death of even the most obscure celebrity (obscure celebrity is a bit of an oxymoron, actually)! I had to google to find who they were and I wondered if these people really felt impacted. For some, it could have been the need to be the first to break the news to the FB audience. Not very different from other media wanting to scoop and outdo competition!
Only now, I understood. When I heard of robin Williams, I was shocked and saddened. For a moment, almost gave into the need to post and share my sorrow. But then, decided to silently handle it. Others may not have been so resilient 🙂