Random Rambling #1

Twenty minutes.

Twenty minutes was all it took me this time to escape from the shackles of the real world and wander in the boundless imagination of the restless mind. The burly lady’s voice smoothly resonates in the otherwise noiseless background, with no more significance than a hum of a song or the purr of a kitten, and her words fade away even before they fall on my ears.

As I jumped gaily from one thought to another, held only by a very thin string of connection, my mind was active and wandering, though, the body was still and seated in a classroom of 50 ambitious young MBA students.

I nod my head, put on a profoundly quizzical expression on my face and look down in to the notebook, penning my thoughts- at least on those that don’t drift away before I make a mention of them. To someone on the other side of the classroom, teaching with all their might, this simple act is enough to convince them of my sincerity and interest in the subject.

Deception? Yes. But where did this come from? Why did it have to come at all?

When I enrolled into this course, it was with the hope of learning it well, not with a conscious decision to deviate from the main line. Then why, why would I do something that isn’t logically or morally expected of me? Why did contemplating become more necessary than concentrating?

I don’t know the answers to these questions, or may be deep down I do.

Or may be, asking the questions and seeking the answers is not the prerogative this moment.

I enjoy bouncing on the thoughts, creating them, pondering over them. And with each thought, I evolve. With each thought, I develop a new perspective and may be it is this that truly matters.

I think of the summers and the flapping of a butterfly’s wings. And I think of the winters and the snowflakes dancing in the crisp chilly air. I think of life and death and whether one is part of another. And I think of the color orange and if it suits me well. I think of my grades and I think of inner peace. I think of truth and lies and matters beyond the control of human heart or mind. I sometimes think of the past and other times of the future.  And though not all these thoughts make sense, they do make me happy.

So the thought that today enveloped my mind, occupied it completely was-

Seven Billion people on the Earth and only Seven basic archetypes for stories??  

The thought began when I was in a train to Hyderabad sometime back and couldn't stop myself from overhearing the conversations of my co-passengers (No no, I wasn't eavesdropping- They were just too loud!!) And I was immediately struck by how everyone had the same stories to tell- A pair of young siblings (twins presumably) were traveling together and rumbling over how their Aunt mistreated them in their short vacation, a newly wed was conversing on phone about the atrocities of her sister-in-law, an old couple discussing about the inappropriate behavior of their daughter-in-law, parents of a 10 year old pampering him to an unreasonable extent and many such family circus stories...

Isn't it amusing that the problems you have are shared by all those around you at some stage of the life? You lose your job today and feel the universe has conspired against you. Tomorrow somebody else will lose theirs while you may have comfortably settled in a better position by then. Today you’re the unruly child, tomorrow you’ll be the unrelenting parent.

And as these thoughts formed and evolved, there was a flashing memory of “The Lion King”, the concept of “Circle of Life”. Yes, that makes sense now!

As Hunter S. Thompson simply put it- “As you were, I was. As I am, you will be.”

So we all pass through the same stages, go through similar problems, faced with the same choice- fight it or succumb to it, and in the end we are all determined by the choices we made. The stories are the similar, so are the happenstances and yet we feel unique and different. Unparalleled and special… Such vain species are we…

My train of thought is pulled to a halt when the students noisily move the chairs and heave sighs of relief at the end of the lecture.

As I walk out 2 hours later, there are some that wonder why I look fresh and happy, little do they know it all begins and ends in the mind.