Friday, February 24, 2006
THE RED SEA
In the modern world, there are innumerable assumptions, hypotheses, predictions and premises that one does need to make in order to get by. These i.a., h., p. & p. fall true to character in a majority of the cases and hence the world moves on. In the rare case that they do not, play is halted for the nonce.
When one is lugging a heavy piece of assorted garbage clothed in a suitcase in one hand and a book wrapped in the mangled remains of newspapers in the other, Life had better be hands-free. On encountering the glass door at one of the terminals the other day that stood between me and safety, I reached the paneling like I do most times, without looking up. And long having convinced myself that the glass excrescence would see the folly of its ways and part to leave me the three feet of space that I needed to egress, I waited.
Nothing stirred!
Concluding that this was a mere delayed response on the part of the frazzled nerves of the overworked glass door, I did what I do when I get a wee bit of time. Snug in the knowledge that nobody would notice or care, I shut my eyes..
Characteristically enjoying the repose of the moment, I did not hear the swarming multitudes behind me as they shuffled their feet, grumbled and growled in that order. Only when I got a polite but firm poke in my back did I relapse into consciousness and obeying the entreaty of the passenger to look ahead find that the door had remained obstinately shut. And then the bloke pushed past me, elbowed the door open and walked of my life.
On making sense of the increased intellectual demands of the situation and after having realized that this was not an automatically opening door but one that had to be clawed open with one’s bare hands, I left too !
In the modern world, there are innumerable assumptions, hypotheses, predictions and premises that one does need to make in order to get by. These i.a., h., p. & p. fall true to character in a majority of the cases and hence the world moves on. In the rare case that they do not, play is halted for the nonce.
When one is lugging a heavy piece of assorted garbage clothed in a suitcase in one hand and a book wrapped in the mangled remains of newspapers in the other, Life had better be hands-free. On encountering the glass door at one of the terminals the other day that stood between me and safety, I reached the paneling like I do most times, without looking up. And long having convinced myself that the glass excrescence would see the folly of its ways and part to leave me the three feet of space that I needed to egress, I waited.
Nothing stirred!
Concluding that this was a mere delayed response on the part of the frazzled nerves of the overworked glass door, I did what I do when I get a wee bit of time. Snug in the knowledge that nobody would notice or care, I shut my eyes..
Characteristically enjoying the repose of the moment, I did not hear the swarming multitudes behind me as they shuffled their feet, grumbled and growled in that order. Only when I got a polite but firm poke in my back did I relapse into consciousness and obeying the entreaty of the passenger to look ahead find that the door had remained obstinately shut. And then the bloke pushed past me, elbowed the door open and walked of my life.
On making sense of the increased intellectual demands of the situation and after having realized that this was not an automatically opening door but one that had to be clawed open with one’s bare hands, I left too !
