What was it?

One of the poorest jokes that somehow manages to bring out some laugh runs like this - "There was this really absent-minded person who suddenly dies. After some investigation, it was found that he forgot to inhale after exhaling." Though this might be the unattainable height of forgetfulness, what we still manage to do is also no easy task.

Imagine this - I called a friend who was about to leave for the airport and was in a hurry. After talking for sometime, she started sounding very tense and restless. It went on increasing when I was forced to ask if something was wrong. Her reply had me - and when she understood, her as well - in splits. What she had told me was, "I am not getting my mobile phone. Where did I keep it?" No wonder that whoever is out with her keeps gathering her mobile, wallet and other things from a gamut of unimaginable places. (Ever imagined that the door-key had to retrieved - just because she came home carrying some eggs - from the refrigerator?)

I also remember my father looking for his glasses - it's in him not to tell what he is not getting unless asked repeatedly - all around the house in vain. We could not fault him much - how could he find them if he was looking through them?

Like any other human behaviour, I am sure much research and studies have gone into tracing absent-mindedness to its roots. But what is the point? We will still keep forgetting. For example, when I started this post I had something interesting in my mind which is totally out of mind at present. I do not want to keep this draft for later since I am sure I am not going to recall what I was thinking. So pasting this anyways, however incomplete and incoherent it might read.


P.S. - I tried recollecting what I had actually intended to write for 10 minutes before publishing this post. But the only thing that I vaguely remember is that I thought of writing this post this morning as soon as I put the brush on the side-table and started stroking my shoe with my mobile phone.

The Tangent off the Spiral

It's that time again - and I have never spared much of a thought when it came to changing jobs. Not this time though.

One of the reasons for this can be that I have spent most of my career at this job (2.5 out of 4 years) and it has grown on me. Another reason could be that there is nothing really new or exciting in my next profile (which was not the case in each of my earlier shifts) that would keep me hooked on to the prospects ahead. And so, when now I know that the days are among the last few here, I am back doing something I love to hate - looking back.

When I came to Hyderabad in May 2005, it was as much of a change of place as it was a change of profile. All my colleagues in Chennai, where I was before this, who were from this city concurred that Hyderabad is the most happening place in India. And they brought out before me the experiences of their lifetimes in the city (which ranged from 'the roads are fully covered with pamphlets in Ameerpet' to 'the biggest Cafe Coffee Day outlet is out there'). "Not quite" - I thought, as I walked in a feverish daze (105 degrees) under a blazing sun (45 degrees) the next weekend looking for an accommodation.

"Quite alright" - I say now after knowing the city well enough to help settle any newcomer. And why not? I have made friends here who are as good as the ones I made anywhere else. When you have friends (and not colleagues and acquaintances) in and outside office, it does not really matter whether you are working in Manhattan or Mangalore. If I were to give an account of our escapades here, it would surely need a series of posts. I am not even trying to summarise them here - let it be for some other time.

At the end of it all, the reason why it evokes the mixed feelings is the fact that the association has imitated life to a great extent. It could well have been the story of someone in a rich and famous family - living with your siblings and cousins and reared by loving parents and scheming relatives. There is love as much as there is hatred, but then no one owes anything to anyone. And the feelings are always mutual. No big news when a gamut of emotions silently co-exist. No big news when someone walks out of the house one day. The attention gets more than divided among the new members of the ever-expanding family. And for the one who is making the new beginning, adjustment is just another extra life-process like breathing.

Nothing changes and nothing clutters your mind. Unless you sit down to think.

"I opened my eyes to glamour and sheen
Then closed; and wiped them clean."

View of Kolkata from the Landing Plane on Durga Astami Night

Heavenly!