Disclaimer: TP has nothing to do with toilet paper
Most days you are just going through life; you are happening to it, it is happening to you, like co-incidents. That is the term that I have invented to describe the relationship that you have with your life and I wonder why no one thought about doing it before, considering that there were so many people born before me and that one's relationship with one's life is the first relationship one has. For obvious reasons you cannot have any other relationship if you do not have this one. It is thoughtless of people to not name this relationship and deny it identity, to not perform what kids today call DTR (Define The Relationship). And then there are those days that are laced with magic. This is not an attempt at a sentimental sonnet about lovely whether and water drops on window sills; I am talking about magic of the aabra ka daabra variety.
So the day TP went missing
A little preface is in order. TP is a pretend professor I had in college. Now pretend professor is considerably different from imaginary friend, in that it is not you doing the imagining; it is the other person and this is somehow, inexplicably sanctioned by the institution. TP's mother did not have him tested. TP channels the ghost of Doordarshan news. I would have used the word soporific but Triazolam (Halcion) seems more appropriate (that is the most powerful sleeping pill according to ask.com. Yeah I googled it). TP could attend a Modi rally absorb all the cacophony and have you feel like you are at the library. This concludes my shining introduction to TP.
So this day TP was trying to get us interested in scheduling and budgeting for our films. And he had all the control that I have on my hair, on a sultry humid summer day in Calcutta. Blase. I was taking keen interest in the graffiti on my desk, which was making a strong case for anarchy. The fragments of conversation that I remember
TP:What is Premise
(No one volunteered to answer)
TP: Random classmate answer the question
(Random classmate wondering why would he even ask this question)
Democracy is dictatorship in a suit. I added this to make the case for anarchy more compelling, having lost interest in a class where people discuss the meaning of premise
This was followed by a detailed monologue on the importance of pre-production. Snippets of the monologue
TP: Pre production...production meet..budgeting...costs spiraling out of control...silence
The silence made me look up. Poof! TP had vanished. I was befuddled. I had looked up a moment ago, he was there, heard his voice a split second earlier and now he was just gone. No one can cover a distance of five feet in that short a time-period and it was a short time-period because it could not have been a disembodied voice that was arguing for cost control. If it were I would have been paying attention. Lingering on to every word. Disembodied voices seem wise - convincing. Remember Mahabharat.
Just when TP had redeemed himself by performing this bit of magic. Just when there was closure and forgiveness for his sleep inducing presence, by the exciting prospect of him being a wizard he was discovered by a bunch of us - who had run out to celebrate this bit of magic - coming out of the loo. He had to pee urgently.
PS: I could have been in a limbo and lost sense of time (I never have a sense of space. If u show me an empty space I will not be able to tell you whether it is 5 feet/inches/yard/km). Maybe the instant between the cost control and silence was in reality a long elaborate rant by him, trying to shame us for our lack of attention, interest and respect and maybe after that he stormed out in a fit of rage, at super sonic speed brought out by his urgency to pee . But I like to believe in magic
Most days you are just going through life; you are happening to it, it is happening to you, like co-incidents. That is the term that I have invented to describe the relationship that you have with your life and I wonder why no one thought about doing it before, considering that there were so many people born before me and that one's relationship with one's life is the first relationship one has. For obvious reasons you cannot have any other relationship if you do not have this one. It is thoughtless of people to not name this relationship and deny it identity, to not perform what kids today call DTR (Define The Relationship). And then there are those days that are laced with magic. This is not an attempt at a sentimental sonnet about lovely whether and water drops on window sills; I am talking about magic of the aabra ka daabra variety.
So the day TP went missing
A little preface is in order. TP is a pretend professor I had in college. Now pretend professor is considerably different from imaginary friend, in that it is not you doing the imagining; it is the other person and this is somehow, inexplicably sanctioned by the institution. TP's mother did not have him tested. TP channels the ghost of Doordarshan news. I would have used the word soporific but Triazolam (Halcion) seems more appropriate (that is the most powerful sleeping pill according to ask.com. Yeah I googled it). TP could attend a Modi rally absorb all the cacophony and have you feel like you are at the library. This concludes my shining introduction to TP.
So this day TP was trying to get us interested in scheduling and budgeting for our films. And he had all the control that I have on my hair, on a sultry humid summer day in Calcutta. Blase. I was taking keen interest in the graffiti on my desk, which was making a strong case for anarchy. The fragments of conversation that I remember
TP:What is Premise
(No one volunteered to answer)
TP: Random classmate answer the question
(Random classmate wondering why would he even ask this question)
Democracy is dictatorship in a suit. I added this to make the case for anarchy more compelling, having lost interest in a class where people discuss the meaning of premise
This was followed by a detailed monologue on the importance of pre-production. Snippets of the monologue
TP: Pre production...production meet..budgeting...costs spiraling out of control...silence
The silence made me look up. Poof! TP had vanished. I was befuddled. I had looked up a moment ago, he was there, heard his voice a split second earlier and now he was just gone. No one can cover a distance of five feet in that short a time-period and it was a short time-period because it could not have been a disembodied voice that was arguing for cost control. If it were I would have been paying attention. Lingering on to every word. Disembodied voices seem wise - convincing. Remember Mahabharat.
Just when TP had redeemed himself by performing this bit of magic. Just when there was closure and forgiveness for his sleep inducing presence, by the exciting prospect of him being a wizard he was discovered by a bunch of us - who had run out to celebrate this bit of magic - coming out of the loo. He had to pee urgently.
PS: I could have been in a limbo and lost sense of time (I never have a sense of space. If u show me an empty space I will not be able to tell you whether it is 5 feet/inches/yard/km). Maybe the instant between the cost control and silence was in reality a long elaborate rant by him, trying to shame us for our lack of attention, interest and respect and maybe after that he stormed out in a fit of rage, at super sonic speed brought out by his urgency to pee . But I like to believe in magic
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