Monday, January 19, 2009

AUTOBIOGRAPHY IN FIVE CHAPTERS
Portia Nelson



1) I walk down the street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk
I fall in.
I am lost...
I am hopeless.
It isn't my fault.
It takes forever to find a way out.

2) I walk down the same street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I pretend I don't see it.
I fall in again.
I can't believe I'm in the same place.
But it isn't my fault.
It still takes a long time to get out.

3) I walk down the same street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I see it is there.
I still fall in...it's a habit
My eyes are open; I know where I am;
It is my fault.
I get out immediately.

4) I walk down the same street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I walk around it.

5) I walk down another street.

:) Found it here http://buddhism.kalachakranet.org/resources/poetry.html

Tuesday, January 06, 2009

Full Circle

It all started in December of 2005. I was at Bangalore airport with Ganju. We were standing in a queue, and both at the same time happened to notice a handsome young man a little ahead of us. Immediately after seeing him for some bizarre reason I am still clueless about, I looked down at my feet. Lo and behold! there I was staring at Viyer's blue bathroom slippers adorning my feet. I tried to remember how I ended up in those slippers instead of my floaters. Surprise turned to ruefulness and I felt a little bad for Viyer, imagine having to wear floaters to the toilet every single visit. I called and spoke to her; she was kind enough to let the slippers travel to Mumbai and also assured she will return my floaters when in Mumbai. While all this was happening Ganju continued to ogle at the handsome guy.

Since then such lapses have been occuring much to my inconvenience and my friends' entertainment. My friends still warn Viyer to guard her footwear when I am around. Last year I forgot to call almost everybody I know on their birthday, and considering the number of times I asked Rascal, 'Holi kab hai?', he was convinced that Gabbar's spirit had possessed me. Some times I even forget to carry my laptop or mobile to the office. As I take the laptop home only occasionaly I used to reason that that's why I seem to forget to take it back. But yesterday's incident takes the cake. I forgot to carry both my laptop and phone to the office and had to go back home to get them. Never appreciated having my office close to the house so much. Here's the icing on the cake. In the evening, yes I forgot something again, this time to wear my sandals, and left the office wearing slippers. Looks like I have come a full circle.

Now what could be the reason for these memory lapses? My preoccupation with the numerous bubbles in my head or is it that the fat accumulated around my midriff is slowing down my brain?