Random Story #4

It’s been a while since my last post, I guess I have been offline for rather long I see a few people have visited my blog during my absence and some have even written comments, well that’s always pleasant anyways thank you all for reading. Most of you have liked my stories, that’s a pleasant surprise and for those who weren’t satisfied there is always a next time. So Happy New Year to all and here is Random Story #4.

A HERO'S TALE

It’s a lazy winter afternoon and our hero is getting bored everyone else in the house is busy with an afternoon siesta but he being a 10 year old boy is bubbling with too much energy to engage in a similar act. He is getting increasingly restless , “what should I do?” our hero wonders. After a little brainstorming he decides to hit the neighborhood playground. He calls a few of his friends but apparently their mothers don’t think it is such a great idea, so our hero decides to go solo like heroes often do. The park was rather empty , “so, this is why our performance at the Olympics is so pathetic” our hero concluded. After a bit of wandering around he got bored and decided to visit the nearby mall to check out the new toys and maybe update his list of birthday wishes. As he was scanning through the toy store he saw something and his eyes brightened, on taking a closer look our hero realized it was a Rs.500 note.

What should he do now? Give it to the owner of the owner of the place, there was no one else around , ”but why should he get it ? it wasn’t his either and moreover he didn’t even let me touch the toys properly”, our hero thought of the new power ranger toy he could buy, his father had turned a deaf ear to this demand of his, “it’s too expensive and you always get bored and throw them away” he had said. But what about the fact that every other friend of his had one of these in their possession, he had resigned to the fact that his father will never understand and he was never going to get it but this was his chance to redeem himself infront of his friends to be the cool kid once again, our hero weighed the pros and cons and came to the most logical conclusion, “I am going to take the money”, the decision was made. Before anyone could see our hero picked it up, slipped it into his pocket and clandestinely fled the scene, not a very heroic exit one could say.

After our hero had made the list of the things he decided to buy with the 500 bucks he recently acquired he went ahead to buy the first thing on the list, his favorite ‘Dairy Milk’, as he was busy counting the money left a very old lady approached him with a semi naked  5 year old suffering from malnutrition beside her begging for money. The plight of the five year old moved our hero and he generously gave them 50 bucks, the old lady was surprised and elated at the same time, she thanked him a million times and wished for his well being, but our hero was surprised by the fact that how good this felt, so our hero radically decided to sacrifice the socially critical toy to help the beggars, they were easier to find then he had thought and within half an hour all his money was over.Our hero was ecstatic with the turn of events of the day, maybe even overjoyed. On his way home biting on the dairy milk he had bought he was sure he had never been more happy and content at the same time.

Our hero like most others was not blessed with good fortune. The place from where he got his beloved chocolate was a place his father frequented to buy cigarettes, the shopkeeper had returned our hero Rs. 10 less then what he should have, our hero was in a philanthropic spree and couldn’t have cared less but the shopkeeper was an honest fellow and gave the 10 bucks to his father and told him about the 500 rupees. Our hero’s parents had a quick meeting  and they came to the conclusion that their son had stolen the money from somewhere, oblivious of this recent build up our hero was sitting in his room basking on his own glory. What followed is for you to imagine. All I could make out from the screaming and squealing was a hero’s fall from grace.

Just a Thought

The human brain approximately weighs 1600 grams, it’s essentially a walnut shaped lump of neurons, widely considered as nature’s best work, but considering the fact that we humans are the only party allowed to vote I have my doubts but certainly it is one of the best if not the best. I fail to notice any innovation in the designing part, guess nature is not a firm believer in out the box thinking but I like the fact that it is compact, very aptly located at the top of our body it is supposed to be the controller of all our voluntary and involuntary actions, just like us it is unreasonably demanding, it requires up to 20-25% of our body’s oxygen to function properly no wonder we are the most greedy and demanding species of our planet. The world that we live in is the creation of our brain, there are questions on how real our surroundings are but real or illusion the fact remains we have to deal with it, so what makes our brains so much better than those of the other species, there are a number of things that makes it superior but if I have to pick one that really sets it apart then it has to be our imagination, our ability to visualize things and events that aren’t happening.

What I find really difficult to fathom is the fact that how little we use this instrument of ours. It is amazing how much stupidity is happening in and around us, just rotate your head within a range of 180 degrees and I am sure you can spot an imbecile.  It’s like owning a Porsche yet driving an Ambassador. The fact is that routine has completely overpowered human life. Thinking has been made redundant just 1% of the people   are doing the thinking for our entire population, the major side effect of routine is the depletion of our ability to think, from the moment we are born we are discouraged to use our brains in the name of manners and good habits, everything has been decided there is absolutely no need to flex our neurons and before we know it we are completely lost in our routines. It is so intricately entwined with our day to day life that one can go through his entire life without sparing a moment to think. We are so used to the idea of routine that it almost seems natural, completely oblivious of the it’s adverse effects we try to fit ourselves in the routine, we even condition our involuntary events like hunger to follow a routine, I remember visiting a relative’s place, I was ten and around 1 am I found my stomach making weird noises after the initial confusion and panic I finally came to the conclusion that I was hungry, I reported the matter to my mother, she seemed almost annoyed by the revelation, “this is no time to be hungry, you should have finished your supper” “but mummy I am very hungry” was my argument followed by the cute little boy look, the look worked my mother obliges but food comes along with a group lesson from all the elders about my need to eat at the right time.

Please don’t misunderstand me, I am not saying that we must start living like nomads, routine works, it  brings some order in this already chaotic world, it is a very efficient mechanism that keeps the world running in fact it is so good that it has ended up controlling us and there lies the problem, all I want to say is that every once in a while we can use the instrument residing within our head, just stop and think  what am I doing and why I am doing it? Use routines to attain your goals don’t make attaining a routine your goal.

PS: I never intended to preach, it just happened and now it's too late.