August 24, 2008

Bring A Tale, Take Two Away


Just when a person gets tired of thinking what to do with his own life.....the only thing that seems to be the next feasible option is to......start thinking....what to do with......OTHERS' lives!!
No, I'm actually serious on this one....why can't people mind their own business?
Like others' business is easier to mind, and nose-poking into foreign matters gives some pleasure that I haven't experienced yet?
And being a social animal even I can't help being dragged into this stuff of discussing absurd details about other people that would otherwise seem irrelevant to me.

Like the other day, I was fiddling with my pen and looking out of the window of my classroom. And I didn't realise that the class Gossip-monger, let's call her Lola, nah...Pupu...nay...OK, let's call her Guddi........fine, yeah.....Guddi........I didn't realize that she was closing in on me. Had I known I would have reached for the nearest book and some copy and scratched a few lines on it with my non-functional pen to give her the impression that I was not to be disturbed. Oh well, I was too late to implement my plan of action (damn my poor reflexes)...And she came down on me like I was the only person in the world she had to talk to.

"Hiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii, whatcha doin'?", she squealed.

I fumbled with a book I held, and mumbled something like, "Uh.....doing a bit of reading for the proje-".

"Ooooooohhhhhhhh.........So studying?????", she asked me.
"Yes, kind of". She didn't buy it. Obviously.

I looked at her. Away from her. At the desk. At the non-functional pen in my hand. At the book that failed to serve its purpose in warding her off. At her again.

"Okay......."
, She heaved a sigh.

It was a cue to what I was supposed to do. I kept the book down. The pen, too. And asked her.
"So wat's up?"

"Hmmmmm.....nothing." Yeah, nothing, right.
"So who's there with you in the project grouping?"

"Ashi, Dev and Richa...of course Richa didn't show up. And so I have to handle most of it." Oh you poor soul, I thought for a split second.

I asked the most logical thing I could ask..."Why didn't she show up?"
I opened some floodgates I realized.

"Well she said she had a tutorial to attend, which was a lie, obviously , because a friend of mine saw her at an ice-cream parlour that evening with....."

I don't know what followed for the next 20-odd minutes. It all droned into something about a guy.......a date...... roses....movies....I remember nodding to her animated expressions, and nothing else.

".......and then she also flirts with......."
5 minutes go by.....

"And I'm sure this you haven't heard of....that she....."
8 more minutes....

"...And could you believe that she could........."
13 minutes.....

".....I was Shocked!!!".......that stress on the last syllable woke me up.
"Oh my Gawdddd.......reallllllyyyyyy?????"...This is what I usually say...and what she usually wants me to say.

"Yes!!...Even I didn't believe that!!....Anyway.....promise me........you won't tell this to anyone else....ever!!.....Okay?"...I'm sure I'm the 63rd person in this week she has told this to.

"Yes..yes....I promise...this dies with me....", I say.
"You are a true friend....Okie, byeeeeeee!!"

Contended, she finally leaves.

I look across the room to where poor Richa is busy with lab work. I wonder if she knows how popular she has become in the past few days.
Even if she knew....there's nothing much she could do about it, because trying to squash a rumour is like trying to unring a bell.

The above was just a teeny weeny example of how people deftly mind the business of others more than their own. By the end of the day, I collect a lot of info about a friend's heartbreak(how, when, why, all perfectly detailed), another friend's shopping spree( including what items she added to her cart! ), yet another's secret(?) crush, someone having a bad hair day(details of how bad!), and a lots of other stuff, from people other than the ones concerned, of course.
People like these seem to amuse me...and amaze me as well, to some extent....because they are so capable of witnessing with their mouths what they have never seen with their eyes.
But then these are the kind of people you would mostly find around you...and perhaps even one inside you, knowingly or unknowingly, spreading a word we never should have bothered about, lending ear to what we should have never cared to hear.
But confining his interest to his own activities would probably rob an average person of half of his existence, of course. I wonder why people don't gossip about one's secret virtues........funny......

I guess it's apt enough to cite here, that...

"What is told in the ear of a man is often heard 100 miles away."
~Chinese Proverb

6 comments:

MangoMan said...

lemme tell ya da truth...i visited ur blog aiweii n wz pleasantly surprised to find a new post. to understate, dat wz an understatement. i wz thrilled!!!

ever experienced da feeling wen u sip ur favourite milkmaid kheer dheere dheere...relishing every minute portion dat goes down ur throat...n wishing dat da kheer didnt end...

spellbound!!!

n dats one of da most ingenious titles i've ever cum across...exchange offer on tales...

way to go!!!

Simi said...

Thank you so so much :) !!
....I am as pleased to see ur comments as u r to see my posts ;)

Unknown said...

nice post...hmm does dis hold any kind of resemblance to a real life character or person??

Simi said...

Take a guess, dear ;)

MangoMan said...

hey may i borrow ur phrase "normalcy challenged"??? i mean i dun want any legal hassles regarding the copyright issues in the future!!!

Simi said...

:p ......that was lifted off from somewhr regardless of copyright issues .....so no issues anyway!!