Brag-Ended Skrewts :D

I hope u know what the title means, but in case you don't, it relates to people who can't stop bragging about themseleves :P

Okay, so I have this "friend" , who I have known since a really long time and who I run into not so often but not once in a blue moon either. Many a time, in our college days, we used to take the same train to college. So in the 20 minutes of my train travel, all I had to do was nod and say things like "Hey that's nice", "Good re", "Awesome yaar" , while she used to go yak-yak-yak about her college, her friends, her internship, her new job, her assignments etc...

I have this distant cousin, who had been to the US a couple of years back and is now in high school, preparing for her SATs to go to the US for her undergraduate degree. So whenever we meet, all I hear about is how superb the US is, and how wonderful the colleges there are, and what superb jobs she is going to get and how much she will earn, and how superb will be her lifestyle and things like that...

I know this aunty in my building and both her sons are abroad and extremely successful in their respective jobs. Aunty visits both her sons once a year, so she is abroad at least about 4-6 months a year. So whenever I chance upon meeting her, all she can talk about is how her sons are doing very well in their jobs, and how they have superb cars, and how they have a lavish lifestyle and blah-blah.

And all the time I am forced to appreciate their "awesome" life, in my mind I am wondering "God!Why is this person so self-obsessed?!!!"

Sad but true.

I wonder what is wrong such people? Are they so childish and naive that they don't even know that it is improper to go on and on about yourself?Or are they plain arrogant, that they consider everyone else below them, and consider their lives to be totally

un-"happenning"(Is that even a word??!!!) and boring? Why do they feel the compulsion to talk about themselves, when the other person is not even remotely interested? When I was a kid, I remember my grandfather telling me, that people who brag about themselves, become donkeys in their next birth :|

In the beginning, I used to get really frustrated and annoyed at such people. I had found ways and means to avoid them. So whenever I used to meet Bragging-Aunty I used to pretend I am busy on a phone call. And whenever, I used to meet my cousin at family functions, I used to purposefully avoid her. But to no avail!

I researched a lot on this topic on the net(Ya!that's how frustrated I was!) and learnt that such Braggarts are usually very insecure about themselves and more often than not, are too naive to realize that others are not interested. And the best way to handle these guys is to pay little or no attention to what they are speaking. If you ignore them, sooner or later they will get the point and buzz off! Another way is the TIT FOR TAT strategy. Well, call it shamelessness, but then only a diamond cuts diamond right?

However, if its a really serious case, then you could try Sarcasm. This, I believe, is the most effective tool, but it is a double-edged sword. Some thick-skinned and empty-brained idiots may take offence at what you say, and you are at the risk of spoiling your relations with them forever. If you are to resort to this tool, I suggest you use it carefully. A little caution always helps!

All the best. Hope you find a way to deal with such Brag-Ended Skrewts!

P.S. I used this tactic of subtle sarcasm to handle all the three cases mentioned here. The most hilarious one was with my "train friend"(friend1). I had already told one of my friends(friend2) about her. And one day, I happened to be with both of them at the same time. This was around the time I got a job. So when friend1 started yak-yaking about herself, friend2 interrupted and went on and on about how we both got a job, and our job profile and blah-blah. To any non-engineer, it would really be frustrating to hear about this job in excruciating detail. And I don't know whether friend1 was smart enough to get the point or whether she felt offended

about her own policy being rebounded on her, but she accepted the fact and after this, I have never ever been the victim of her bragging. Sometimes, I do feel sorry for her, but then, serves her right doesn't it?

P.P.S. It may not sound all that funny when I told the above story, but it was really funny when it happenned, all right??!!!