Skip to main content

Seven little things...

It is hard to convert a random amusing incident into a blog post. But if there are seven, there is a chance that atleast one will elicit a laugh from the reader. Here is a collection of seven funny things that happened to me this week:

1. The Mystery of the Disappearing Duster:
This is a common phenomenon is most classrooms. Every other day, the teacher comes to class to find that the duster is missing. Dusters, therefore, have become a highly valuable commodity. There was a golden era when our class had three- we were rich. It lasted until one of our teachers walked out with two. Ah the indignation we felt! But here is the thing that intrigues me the most: where do the dusters go? It seems that every school has a kleptomaniac with a duster fetish.

2. The day I wore my shirt backwards:
I was on my way out when I realised I had my shirt on backwards. It wasn't noticable unless one looked carefully, and I was already rather late, so I walked on anyway. But no one threw me any odd glances and the people I interacted with said nothing either. I learnt through experience what my mum had been trying to tell me for years-'Don't be self conscious, because the world doesn't care enough to scrutinize!'

3.Being late:
I was five or ten minutes late for school and I found myself wondering what excuse I would give if someone asked me why I was late. 'I was caught in traffic' was the easiest excuse and I  found myself wishing simultaneously that the traffic  would move faster so that I wouldn't be very late and that it would move slower so that my excuse would have some truth in it. If there was a God up there listening to people's wishes he must have been very confused about mine!

4. The Cream Bun:
I ate my first cream bun last week. I had wanted to try one for years, but somehow or the other, I hadn't gotten around to doing it. It was after school and I needed something to eat, and then I saw it. In five minutes, I had the bun in my hands  and I was feeling a little stupid. I was a seventeen year old behaving like a five year old with candy.  Then I figured, 'So what?', giggled and ripped the cover open.

5.Dreaming:
My dreams are almost always similar to real life (except perhaps the time I dreamt that Voldemort was chasing me with an axe). I usually forget them soon after I wake up, but for the first half an hour, I'm not sure whether I dreamt something or whether it really happened. My poor mother is now used to my, 'Oh, I didn't say that? I must have dreamt it then.'
6. New words :
I was strangely moved when a friend of mine told me that I had taught her how to spell 'elephant'  when we were first grade.Last week another friend told me that I had introduced her to the word 'ventriloquism'. The funny thing is, I have little or no memory of either incident. But it felt nice to know that I had helped them learn something new.

7. Being a senior:
As our line walked up the stairs, I saw the little prefects of middle school watching us go past without a word. One boy's quiet, almost submissive demeanour stirred an old memory. I had also stood there once , watching the twelfth grade file past. I was now seeing the the same thing from the reverse perspective. I resisted my impulse to grin at the little prefect. It would probably freak him out more.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Thoughts from lonely days

Some nights before I started to write this in mid-2022, I dreamt that I was in an aircraft that was plummeting to the earth. I was not surprised by this dream - less than a week had passed since a tragic plane crash in China. What did surprise me was that I had continued to hope that the plane would right itself until the very end. So when I woke up, breathing hard, still alive, what upset me the most about my nightmare was not that the plane had crashed, but that I had not made peace with my death in those final moments.  I've spent a lot of time thinking about death in the last two years; many of us probably did as we anxiously watched counters on dashboards, each uptick marking the end of another human life. On nights when my overactive imagination conjured up terrible scenarios, I protected myself by taking a mental step back and reminding myself that death was inevitable. But creating distance made me feel guilty. Was it not wrong to feel anything less than all the sadness I...
Post a Comment
Read more

Hot Potato

 _ ____ is like a hot potato  I don't want to hold it  It's too big to throw away ____ is  like a hot potato  I hold on to it  So you don't have to  ____ is like a hot potato  Watching you hold it Still hurts somehow ____ is like a hot potato  I throw it at whoever's around When I can't hold it any longer ____ is like a hot potato  It will cool in time If ____ really is like a hot potato  Maybe we should pass it around  So when it cools,  Our hands are reddened,  but still whole  And we could make a salad  - Ananya  10th December 2024
Post a Comment
Read more

On Bangles and Car keys:

We remember and register the strangest things. Lots of  Indian women who drive wear bangles and own a set of car keys. When I was younger and anxiously awaiting my mother’s return from wherever she’d gone- the sound of those bangles and keys was what I would listen for.When I heard the sound of her fumbling for the keys, I would rush to the door to greet her ( as I grew older I would do the opposite- turn the TV off or shut the novel I was reading and run in). But whatever the response was to the keys and bangles, I would always know they were my mother’s.  I may hear other keys and bangles, but somehow, they always sound different. To this day, that sound means ‘mum’s home’ and thus, even today, I cherish it.
1 comment
Read more