Trouble in Everything

                                                                image:pexels.com

Things just keep disappearing around the house pens, for example. No matter how many of them there used to be-red , blue ones , green ,black ,funky gel ones ,purple ones, sooner or later they all disappear . I never understand this bizarre vanishing act. Where do they go? A pen parallel universe? And why does this keep happening to this particular object? It would be fine if it happened to other unwanted objects all over the place –but that is not to be. What you don’t want stays there, and what you need disappears. Murphy was right-things always go wrong.

But you have to admit, the absence of pens are especially noticeable. When you need them you just need them. And needless to say, when you do, you cannot find a single one in sight. A typical occurrence is when someone calls. I was hoping to get hold of so and –so .She says, I need not say that the call is not for me. So it is my job to play secretary. When she asks in a sweet voice if I can pass on a message, I reply with a reluctant yet ebullient sounding “yes” She says her name is so- and – so , it is very urgent  , and leaves her numbers. She tries to reaffirm, “Do you have this down?” She inquires. Of course, I have not written down any of what she has said because I have neither a piece of paper nor a pen anywhere around. I somehow manage to get hold of a pencil with a very blunt tip and grab it and start writing down the message on the back of the nearest piece of paper which may well be something important. I ask her to repeat what she said as if I just want to reconfirm what I’ve written , when I really intend to just write it for the first time ! I just don’t understand where all the pens go, I really don’t.

But who cares about disappearing pens when there are such bigger problems in life. There are problems like having to go through meals and sleep at the right time, toothaches, backaches, headaches (courtesy of well –wishers at odd hours), nail polish, nail polish remover, the whole nine yards. There are the bigger worries of course, work, marriage, funeral services (since death in inevitable –as known from empirical evidence).There are more important and crucial –to –the –moment problems: when these happen, all others take a backseat. I’m talking about the immediate problem of caramel getting stuck to your teeth , the need to go the toilet when there isn’t one in the vicinity, and the urgent need for a pen when the one you have doesn’t work .Didn’t I just say there were bigger problems than the pen thing? Yes, I don’t make sense .I realise that. There’s trouble in every-thing .The magnitude of trouble does not know of consistency.

Everyone is always in trouble of some form or another. When one problem is solved the next biggest problem takes the hot seat and so on. It is impossible to be totally free, it is impossible to be totally free, it is impossible to find all the pens that you are looking for (just let me try and get my head around this analogy).But it is possible to savour the fleeting moment of pure exhilaration when you cross off priority Number I and are free from one problem even though an infinite number of problems wait beneath it .I’m talking about the joy after removing the sticky caramel from an inaccessible region in your mouth and being happy at that moment even though you still have to pay off a housing loan. Let me tell you a Nasiruddin Hojja joke that always makes me feel really good. A wretched looking man sat with a sack tied to a rope when Nasiruddin walked up to him. Nasiruddin asked the man why he looked so miserable .The man replied that he was extremely poor, and of what he had, just about everything had been stolen and the sack he carried contained his only remaining possessions. He was so unhappy that it was almost as if he had nothing to live for as nothing could every make him happy. After hearing this Nasiruddin picked up the man’s sack, and stared running away with it as fast as he could. The poor man frantically chased after him, pleading him to give it back. After a long chase, Nasiruddin stopped and returned the man his sack. The man, who was in suicidal despair a few minutes age, was now ecstatic at being reunited with his possessions. Nasiruddin smugly said, “This is a way to make someone happy.” just getting it back makes it all so much better.