Aug 21, 2012

Making sense.

Picture credit: http://www.moillusions.com

The angel and the devil were back to what they do best.
"You do not make sense," one complained to the other.
"Why do you think so?" asked the other.
"Because at times you are absolutely foolish, your actions absurd and your thoughts eccentric."
"And, why do you think so?"
"Because that is what you are. Absolutely senseless."
"Yet, why do you think so?"
"Because that is how you appear to me."
"Or is it because you think so?"

Aug 14, 2012

The enigma called 'women'

Picture credit: broadrecognition.com

Men themselves have wondered
What they see in me.
They try so much
But they can't touch
My inner mystery.
                         - Maya Angelou 
                         ('Phenomenal Women')

            Oh women*, the greatest enigma ever to have existed, will we men ever be able to understand a billionth of you? Or will it always be that you are from Venus and we from Mars!? What creatures are you? What is it that fills your heart? How many emotions, how many feelings have you buried in there? Each dimple and each wrinkle on your face, do they hide beneath them epic stories in grace? Has ever a man deciphered at least one among the million thoughts masked in every gaze and stare of yours?
         How come is nature so unfair? You women are made so calm, composed and complex all at a time while we men can't even claim the credit to be at least one at a time! Is this inherent unfairness because nature too like you all is a graceful lady who prefers to shoulder her emotional traumas all by herself? Is it that you women are not wired the way we men are? We men are poor in looking at what is invisible, understanding what is not told and reacting to what is yet to happen. To us, what is white is white and what is black is black. But to you, like those intelligent physicists who widened the horizons of our knowledge, white is made of seven colors! Oh wait, only seven? I am talking of 'women' and they are blessed with the ability of such enormous multiplicity of thoughts, that maybe even seven billion or trillion thoughts might get triggered in them by a single word of ours.
         No, I don't complain of incompatibility. After all you are nature's most prized creation! All that I intend to say is that I am simply amazed by the ability that women possess. Any supercomputer, however technically superior, shall fare poor if it had to compete with the thought processing ability of the female brain. What extraordinary parallel processing of thoughts. You are now here, now there and now everywhere. You handle this, that, even that and what not! To men a super hero is either a Superman, or a Spiderman or a Batman. But not to women, for each one of you is a combo of Superwoman, Spiderwoman and Batwoman!
       The simple presence of women in the lives of men, in whatever form- daughter, sister, friend, colleague, wife, girl friend, guide, teacher or above all mother - makes our life come alive. (I have not had the privilege of the company of women in all these forms, but only a few. And a friend of mine remarks that is precisely the reason I am more appreciative of them.) You have the best shoulders to cry on; you are the best shock absorbers in times of crisis; you have that magical 1000 Watt smile that lights us up on any gloomy day and that genuine gentleness coupled with child like innocence which eases the process of living and makes life simply beautiful!
         But why is it that most of the times, you mean different from what you say? Given the foolishness of men like us, how come do you expect us to read between the lines? If it was Shakespeare, Voltaire or Dostoevsky we could have managed for they were all men, but you are women. Those high energy thesis of the Higgs Boson experiment seem understandable because they are told the way they are. Oh, how I wish there was a compiler which decoded your words into your thoughts. If technology ever manages to come up with such a decoder, that will be its greatest contribution in easing the life of men! You share events and expect us to react to your emotions which arose as a consequence to those events. Who on earth gave you the false impression that men are damn smart? I doubt if God himself is so smart!
         When it hurts, do let us know it hurts. When you are happy, please reveal it to us. We are dumb enough to pick up the wrong vibes, insensitive enough to fail noticing changes (which always turn out to be significant to you, when we fail to gauge its - forget the significance - presence itself) So, you tell us and we shall know it. Not that we shall always be the same dumb fools, but you help us increase our sensitivity. And one fine day, maybe we too will reach that peak of minimum maturity where reading between your lines becomes a possibility. If possible, please be a bit more insensitive. When we men say a thing, we usually mean only what we say. Please do not derive interpretations which never actually existed.
       But maybe it is all easy said than done. Is it? And we men may find it too hard to understand why it is so tough for you to put your thoughts into words. Well, if this is the way it is, then let it be so. Sometimes a status quo is the only thing which is the way to progress, because that is the only way of survival. We expect when things seem to be in our sway and accept when we realize we are in the sway of things. What better can we mortals do? The battle of the sexes has no end, for its end only signifies the arrival of the doomsday.
     Yet, we owe to you much much than you ever owe to us. What if Shakespeare said, 'Fraility, thy name is woman!' The universe itself is frail, isn't it? I have sincerely come to believe that the best in the business deserve every word of exaggeration in appreciation. And as I see it, certain women are more than the best when it comes to living a complete life! So, the appreciation of women in case is exaggerated, is still justified! I step away and would prefer to take a bow to you, the unbelievable species, with whom we men coexist. Not just coexist, but on whom we depend much more than you do on us. Women, without you, life would not be what it is. Nay, wrong again. Women, without you, how on earth would life be!

* Obviously not all women are alike, especially not the way described in this post. A lot of women might themselves disagree with this. But there are adorable women made of this stuff of legends, living epic lives. And they are the enigma that elude me!