Taming the time-Rest the clock

He was reclining in his ‘lounge’ chair. It had depth & ample cushioning to comfortably sit, work and even enjoy a catnap.  He took great pride in getting it custom made – with swivel arms, reading lamps and all. He never allowed any one to trespass and the only exception being the Madame of the house or otherwise she would occupy the chair anyway!

This reticent behaviour earned him the sobriquet “idiosyncrasy of intelligentsia” from the clan and friends.  Criticism apart, this label allowed him to rule over the kingdom with none daring to intrude for fear of steaming verbal attacks. The chair was not simply ‘the furniture’ for him but a portal from which he cast the net to catch and stay in touch with the clan, a few friends and their families also.

He had burnt his tongue many times over by speaking aloud and now had found a novel method – PPP.  His friends were the channels through which he funneled his thoughts. Agreement or disagreement with them happens in silence after the reader gets time to deliberate the issue before responding. His reverie stopped at this point as it reminded him of pending issues with his friends.  He disliked getting “silence” as an answer and liked the surgical approach – ‘Yes’ or a ‘No’. Muser became annoyed with Bystander and Tom on account of their indecision, one way or the other.

As this low pressure was building up in a distant city, Bystander and Tom experienced a dilemma – how to explain to Muser that their respective preoccupations prevented them from completing the assignments given to them? They concluded, after a detailed tower talk, that any explanation they might come up with would only portray them as friends who took things casually.

They were aware that Muser would cross examine them like a criminal lawyer, if even an iota of doubt enters his mind. Muser had become too personal in finding fault with them - his characteristic one track mind always managed to place itself first over the rest. When frustrated, he never liked to hear excuses. They decided to act in the hope of defusing the tension that had started to build up in their own respective minds when this dilemma threatened to become a deep dilemma.

Scared of the boredom of spending the week long holidays in listless activities, Tom offered to visit Bystander. This decision of Tom and the idea to clear the backlog of pending papers sounded like music in the ears of Bystander.

Immediately after Tom’s arrival, they started to work on the stack of pending topics. Each hard copy was read and marked in pencil. The reason: Muser did not like the flow of language to change style; corrected them himself after going through the penciled notes. Suggested modifications were written in a plain sheet, topic wise, with line numbers indicating change. Because of the cumbersome rules in play, the reading was slow and in some places, a passage had to be revisited after reading a portion in some other place of the text.

Many of the author’s thoughts appeared familiar by now but their lurking confusion made the revision as new as the first reading. They silently appealed to the master of confusion to be little more attentive while writing – in many places the thoughts are found straying like a sleep walker.

Like the returning officers on poll duty, they checked, verified and rechecked what they had verified. By nightfall they had come to a point from where they hoped to start the real work of making notes for Muser’s attention. They never realised that reading a draft would be so demanding. But it presented them an opportunity to pause and bash at Muser, of course in absentia and silence!

This was an engaging exercise and they felt like examiners correcting answer sheets fearing a retotalling request! At an opportune moment they wanted to tell Muser to drop some of his obsessions or get slowed down. Mercifully, a steady stream of snacks and refreshments kept them going.

It was Bystander who first drew Tom’s attention to some of the stand-out passages he had just read: 
The life: A foot ball is helpless and even after smashed around still comes to the play ground. There is a lesson in this: let life play foot ball with you but show the resilience of the ball.

Mind over matter: The cricket ball gets punched, cut and crash-landed beyond the boundary. The player accumulates runs and the ball looses shape and sheen. Out of form and pale, the ball gets to play a few more times but the player becomes a spectator. The important thing to understand is the ball cannot reverse its state, but the willing mind can.

As the words flow: The author should not breakdown and cry on account of a fictional character suffering the trauma of an extreme emotional stress. Wisdom or enlightenment without this practical utility is like speech without sound.

Tom fell silent for few minutes after reading the marked passages and in turn showed Bystander some of the same kind, from his reading list:

The thought: Thinking and thoughts go hand in hand. Thoughts are either “living” or “martyred”. “Living” thoughts surface in conversations and speeches from a podium. They have the freedom to come out, not necessarily in a logical order as the presenter manages to put them in perspective by referring to them back and forth.

“Martyred” thoughts are those that get written down to be read in the absence of the presenter. If they are not in logical order, the reader gets lost in his or her own thoughts – lack of clarity confusing the thoughts.

Myriad Thoughts:  Thinking aloud is a transparent thought. Talking to oneself is a confused thought. Thinking within oneself is an opaque thought. Organic thought is non-polluting where as an inorganic thought pollutes. Chaotic thinking is extempore and harmonious thinking is a manufactured thought.

They fell in to a sea of dilemma – whether to declare that they understood what is meant or decide that these passages are to be taken out of the texts. When they have not understood, they cannot exorcise it. Defeat and despair awaited them with each stand-out passage. If anyone wanted to experience the real feeling of a ‘candidate’ breathing down the neck of an ‘evaluator’, they were ready with the invitation – such was their exasperated state.

But they were clear about one thing: Muser must have stretched his imagination to its elastic limit while writing and in estimating the time required to read one of his drafts. Probably he did not understand or chose to ignore the mental convulsions that are to be undergone to grasp the essence and then work on the editing process. They decided to pose questions on all these sour-thumb sentences at a later date. Yet they could not refrain from admiring the titles chosen by Muser. At the end of the exercise, the friends felt like having come out of a boxing ring – battered and bruised. They resented Muser for drawing up the time table but conceded failure in making it for themselves.

In the meanwhile Muser had discretely found out, by employing a cloak and dagger method, his friends had finally started working on his long pending request. Feeling bad to have goaded them like this, he wanted to surprise them in person!  He had no difficulty to guess where both of them would be – in Bystander’s house.

He cautioned her to remain silent as Mrs. Bystander opened the doors to admit him in to the house. Straightaway Muser went to the study room on tip-toes. As expected he saw his friends at work like students preparing for an entrance exam. The table cluttered with print outs, pencils, tray with coffee mugs told him the story of a marathon session in progress. Compassion and admiration washed over in his mind, “If this is not friendship then what else it could be?”

The force of this thought must have alerted the friends to turn around and break in to a surprised smile. In that one instant the countless hours spent over Muser’s drafts seemed like a dream, a fascinating dream. A look at the clock told them that have been working for the several hours, non-stop! The tired eyes, knowing that a dear friend has come, did not mind staying energetic for a few more hours. Such was the confluence of thoughts among the three; the synergy communicating in place of spoken words.

Explaining, as if to clear their incomprehension regarding certain passages, Muser said,” The foot ball alludes to the determination we should show, the cricket ball assures us that there are opportunities out there - till we call it a day. The writer can show emotion after finishing the work and not before. This is a self addressed message! Martyred thoughts are those that need to be dressed up for presentation; classification of thoughts is a reflection of our own state of mind during all these sniping and skirmishing is a collective exhortation not to give up”.

The friends heaved a sigh of relief on having gotten through the work and escaping the post script – Muser’s sermon! Mrs. Bystander watched in silence and wondered – “Oh! What a bunch of nitpicking friends and when they will start doing something serious?”  She was sure there will be a heavy demand on the items she had painstakingly prepared for dinner.