Then and Now...

There was once a time when my face said it all,

Be it happiness or grief, be it jealousy or relief

There was once a time when what I said was what I wanted to say,

Be it to a close friend, be it to a complete stranger.

There was once a time when everyone seemed pure,

Be it the class topper who befriended you just for doubts or be it that friend who never meant what she said.

There was once a time I believed people for what they appeared,

Be it anyone, just anyone.

That was the time when my mom said I will not survive in the world.

That was the time when friends told me to grow up.

That was the time when I seemed innocent to a few and a fool to the rest .

Now I think I have grown up.

Now I might just survive in this world.

Now probably I don’t seem as big as a fool as I seemed before.

But now I wonder why people needed a mask in the first place

Now I wonder why we tend to not let the simple things be.

Now I see the phrase “Life’s just a play and we are mere actors” in a whole different light.

The thoughts revolving around an elephants pee!

Chain of thoughts is a fascinating phenomenon. The human mind thinks and correlates incidents, facts, observations etc in the most amazing and unpredictable manner. There is no way to calculate what thought one’s sight/speech might trigger. It is even more interesting to figure how these thoughts originated and traveled. For instance, while standing in the mess queue one afternoon, a friend of mine commented on the sheer volume of an elephant’s urine (approx 5 liters/urination!!). She went on to talk about this documentary she had seen on some channel which made me perceive the bladder of an elephant as a humongous reservoir with a broken valve!

While I was shocked at the topic of the conversation I was involved in, right before my meal, what I was more curious to know was why she had suddenly pondered over this particular topic. I could see no relation between what we were talking about earlier and an elephants pee, and I could not resist finding out how!

This is how it ll started - The basins at our hostel are such that we tend to make our shirts wet while washing faces or performing any other activity which requires us to slightly bend towards the basin. To avoid a watery patch on our stomachs we have to consciously perform all our basin activities in a posture which involves tucking one’s stomach in and balancing the body in a not-very-comfortable 60-70 degree position from the hips onwards. I, in an attempt to avoid unnecessary complications in life, prefer the watery patch to early morning gymnastics. My friend, on the other hand, ends up getting her shirt wet invariably :P

This particular afternoon was no different for her. We were happily chatting away while waiting for food and for some unknown reason (probably the wind), she noticed the dampness (that’s an understatement!) of her shirt. This led her to wonder how people would have reacted if the patch had been on the other end. And observing the size of the patch she contemplated that it had to be some large creature (elephant) to have left such an impression ;) And then she remembered the documentary :D

Now what prompted me to write on this topic?? I was reading Shana’s post a few days back and the first thing which came into my mind was Hypnotism. What looks like a leap, is in reality just a continuation.

Why hypnotism? This, I will write about later :)