How's Life?

Why oh why do all of us ask, 'hey dude, how's life?' Or 'Hiiiii, long time no see. How's life?' Or 'Hello. Surprise surprise...you're looking different',usually taken to mean, you're looking like Dracula's side kick, but you're of course supposed to smile through the implied meaning and pretend to be equally pleasantly surprised at bumping into this acquaintance and come up with a smart and quick witted repartee to the comment, but before you can deliver a crushing blow with, 'you've put on weight', comes the clincher, 'so how's life treating you?'. Guaranteed to elicit a standard and safe response.

But serioulsy, what is one expected to answer to this question when asked? Should one just say, 'Yeah, life sucks' and leave it at that? What of the curious enquirer, waiting to be fed morsels of the non-standard and hopefully exciting reply? You are supposed to substantiate that response with how, why, where, when and other evidences that it does mother fu^&*ing suck! And feel like the Liberator when the beatific smile tugs at the corners of the mouth that dared ask the question in the first place. Bless you for making him/ her feel 'hey, my life's not so bad after all. Cool, thank God I asked him, my day's made'.

Or is one supposed to look down, scuff one's shoes, mull over the question and then answer, 'Yeah, Life is good. It's cool man?' So 'what is cool' or 'good'? Is the fact that your EMI is shooting up like mercury in a thermometer encountering a warm body, or your boss at work is really proving to be anal, or well your girl just upped and left because you didn't tell her she'd lost weight, or if your friend just upped and left with her all supposed to add up to the loaded question?

I mean what is it that one is expected to answer when one is asked, 'how's life'? And how do we sum up such a deep but succinct question into a 2 second response which is supposed to be equally deep and succinct and of course socially acceptable? Oh! I have a doubt. When I'm asked, 'how's life?' am I being asked about life in general or is it my life that they're asking about? This important point of differentiation would colour my responses and they will be customized to deliver the right impact and thus up the acceptability quotient and my standing in the social matrix. Hmm....!

Aww well...life is cool, so chillax. Why worry so much about such a simple question. And questions needn't be answered.

Here's another classic that you needn't answer. So wassup dude?