Monday, May 31, 2010

Wisdom Pangs

The inclination was nearly 145 degrees and the temperature was steady at 23 degree centigrade. My heartbeat had crossed the normal limit of 100 and was hovering around somewhere 125-130. There was a sense of slight anxiety in the air surrounding me. It was then a bright light flashed through my face and moved sideways. Just then, my dentist appeared in his usual demeanor and took a quick glance over my wisdom tooth. He pitied but nevertheless gave a helpless askance. In a time where nations hegemonise their economically weak neighbors, the third set of molar was dominated by its not so friendly neighbor, denying it any space for growth. "It needs to be extracted". My heartbeat jumped by another good 20 beats. This is one thing I couldn't bear for the psychological stress that comes along supersedes any relief that is caused by the anesthesia.

Today, he began the much anticipated extraction process. I tried to put a brave smile but my anxiety oozed out like sugarcane between cogs. Then came the localized anesthesia which deadened one side of my jaw completely.

The dentist had to struggle for good 30 minutes to get rid of that tooth completely. Now I understand why people say that I have a deep rooted wisdom. The anesthetic effect lasted for good 5 hours and now when I am blogging, the effect still remains, albeit at a much subdued level. I had to give bhajias a miss today as the dentist prevented me from having anything hot and solid till tomorrow noon. It seems I will have to do with the usual mango juice and bread.

Till then, Bon appétit to me!!

Saturday, May 29, 2010

Why I believe in curves not straight lines !!

I have been thinking of speaking my mind on this topic for quite some time but till now my ingenuity at procrastinating things weighed on the vestigial rationality prevalent in me. Having unfettered myself from the so called writer's block, I have finally decided to put up a rational explanation at why I believe in curves not straight lines.

Till not so long ago, I was a firm believer in planning things ahead in my life. I always thought that our lives should be carried on as per planned. This axiom held true till a certain time in my life and it was only thereafter that I was exposed to the non linearity in my life. I had umpteen events and experiences that I went through in the past 5 years that strengthened my belief that nothing works as per plans. If we believe in plans A, B and C, we might encounter X, Y and Z instead. As of now, I have learnt to deal with this strange but true concept and so far have been successful to step out of myself and enjoy how different facets evolve in my life. I just do what is best for me at any given point in time. There can be no better way to emphasize the axiom that "Sum of parts is greater than the whole". I am just enjoying this non linearity in my life. So it is no more straight line for me, I have generalized it to curves. After all, even straight lines are curves with zero curvature.

Stepping out a bit, from stock market indices to our GDPs, we cannot find a perfect extrapolation from historical data that would lead us to say for sure that things would work out in an expected manner.

As one of my professional mentors said, "Just stand out and watch your life unfold. Don't just remain a mute spectator, live it." We cannot find a better analogy to the theory of evolution than this.