Life is never about war and peace. We are not warring every minute but simply rushing from one task to another, one place to another, one moment to another, and… well, one relationship to another. We’re the ones where rush and peace needs to converge, or let me just say that we need to use all the smartness within us to squeeze in as much peace as possible.
Look at a travelling salesman. He disembarks and knows he needs to rush into a meeting and has barely enough time to shave and smarten up. Nicks and cuts on his face are the last thing that will help him conclude the deal he has in mind. Look at the doctor who gets up in the morning to find patients queueing up in front of his clinic or OPD. The last thing his patients accept is a doctor howling in pain because his razor did not follow the way he had contorted his face for a nice smooth shave.
‘Well, these are professions where a person is in a hurry. How about a man who has all the time to woo his lover? Aha! A lover with facial stubble is no longer in demand. Look at our lit fests and you’ll know how well presented the poets are. Lips brushing against their cheeks know that they #OwnTheFlexBall… and believe me, this is the new technology metaphor that the world is talking about.
A technology metaphor?
Yes, a creatively reimagined handle that allow your hands to be like the conductor of an orchestra, leading the ensemble from one rhythm to another flawlessly. They do have the assistance of the flexball, of course, that helps one master the J-Stroke shave, a complicated manoeuvre in shaving as it moves close to 80% of the time when in contact with the skin… obviously doing away with any of the funny contortions that are necessitated in a normal shaving performance. So it isn’t the person who needs to perform… the razor is there to regale one with a smoothness that can only be possible if there are five super thin blades. The rest of the populace has to bear with a terrible tug and pull which isn’t the right way for a lover to begin his journey into the heart of his paramour!
Stuff that works
For every one person talking in favour of technology, there will be another who will need to be guided to the right technology. So the truth is that everyone believes in technology. Let me quote Arthur C. Clarke when he wrote: ‘Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic’ and thus confirmed that technology was nothing short of a super achievement. However, the world will always have those who will keep using old and out-dated technology and conclude that it isn’t as great or upbeat as it is made out to be. Douglas Adams reflected this sentiment when he wrote: ‘We are stuck with technology when what we really want is just stuff that works.’ I think Adams hit the nail when he talked about stuff that works because it isn’t as if to say that old technology doesn’t work… but we need to realise that old technology works fine with old perceptions. With new-age perceptive pressures, it is new technology that is always ready and poised to take over.
So when the world talks of the new Gillette Fusion ProGlide with New FlexBall Technology, it is talking of a technology conceptualised to synchronise with the expectations of the new-age perceptions. It is what stuff that works really means in our times. I know this will soon be unusable, unlikeable, and not worth being given the preferred status in just a few years… but then this is precisely what lifestyle technology is all about.
The way I see technology is that it is aimed at making life comfortable as it effectively matches steps with the acceptable lifestyle norms in the prevalent social matrix of a period. In an age where rush and peace need to coexist, any person will benefit if he understands what #OwnTheFlexBall really signifies.
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#OwnTheFlexBall is helpful if you are the newage multi-tasker
Gillette Fusion ProGlide with New FlexBall Technology
Gillette Fusion ProGlide with New FlexBall Technology
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Arvind Passey
31 October 2015
