The Fortunate

The Fortunate
She walked down the pavement passing by the Nandini hotel, holding her son's hand. She walked briskly and passed the Ganga hospital, stopped at the circle, waiting for the signal to cross the road. She sped up as soon as the vehicles from the other side stopped. The child slowed down looking at a balloon seller. She gave him a stern look, and pulled him forcefully. Then she took right, walked a few steps. There the bank was.
A man coming out of the bank looked at her curiously. She bit her lips and loosened her frowned face thinking to herself, "I really need to work on hiding my feelings."
She did have a reason to frown. Her husband had escaped from all the work at home and was sitting in the office on a Saturday morning. There was a release apparently. Her son had been cranky all morning. He had refused to eat breakfast. Over all that her husband had called her asking her to deposit a cheque in the bank. "Today is the last day. Please...." She had angrily cut the phone.
She wrote the cheque details on the deposit slip. "This cheque was valid for 6 months! Just how ignorant can one get? He has been sitting over it for 6 months! Now he goes to office on the last day, that too a Saturday, and asks me to deposit!"
She could have forgiven if this was the first time. Last Saturday too, he had slipped to office and asked her to send money to his father. "Damn! Anyone else will laugh at me, for it's my fault listening to all this."
That was not all. There were many such incidents in the past. Just a month after their wedding, she was waiting all the way to go to her hometown for Diwali. He had procrastinated booking train tickets all the time and finally they had to change two trains and a bus to reach. They were in no mood to celebrate the festival by the time they reached.
She was growing sick. "Just how could I teach him a lesson?" She wondered while walking back. She waited at the circle to cross the road, holding her son's hand tightly.
Suddenly, a waft of sweet fragrance reached her in the thick of traffic. "Ah! jasmine flowers! How fresh!" She started feeling better. How it brings back child hood memories! In summer days, her mom picked up flowers from the backyard and distributed them between her sister and her. They fought over their share and counted the flowers to make sure each got equal share. They would each tie a small garland, put it over god just for a while and wear it over their plaits for the rest of the day. How it filled the house with a sweet scent!
She came out of the chain of thoughts and looked around. It was the woman who was selling flowers. Freshness of the flowers peaked out of her basket, which was covered with a wet cloth. She stopped and bought some flowers. She was going to go home, wear it, and fill the house with the same fragrance.
"So where was I?" She tried recollecting after crossing the road. "Ok, there I was. How do I teach him to be more responsible?" she wondered.
"But I must admit sometimes he's good..." she thought. Last week, he had made the right decision to sell the shares just before the market crashed. He had made a small fortune. That was quite smart of him.
He had travelled all the way to her hometown last term to leave their son in her mother's place for holidays. She stayed back because she didn't like to travel all the way and come back right away. "Oh that was so tiring for him!" She thought.
"Well, let me think about it if he does that again", She decided as she stopped the balloon seller to pick the most colourful one.
Epilogue
So, do you think you are one of those people who think rationally? Then read on, this is for you. Researchers have found that human thoughts are mostly driven by emotions. We often reach conclusions based on our emotional state. We then try to justify them by reasoning. Fortunately or unfortunately, we get enough reasons to justify anything. Unless you were lucky enough to be triggered into a completely positive state of mind, it's most likely that you went back and shouted at your spouse, or child, or friend if you were in a similar situation.
Knowing about this research may not really help you change your thought process next time. But chances are high that you will understand the situation and wait before you talk!

ತರಲೆ ಫಿಮನ್

ಫಿಮನ್ ಕಾಲೇಜಿನಲ್ಲಿ ಓದುತ್ತಿದ್ದ ದಿನಗಳು. ಓದುವುದು ಬಿಟ್ಟು ತರಲೆ ಮಾಡುವುದೇ ಕೆಲಸ. ಹಾಸ್ಟೆಲ್ ನಲ್ಲಿ ಮಹಡಿಯ ಮೇಲೆ ಅವನ ರೂಂ. ಮೆಟ್ಟಿಲಿನ ಪಕ್ಕದಲ್ಲಿದ್ದ ಒಂದು ರೂಮಿನ ಹುಡುಗರು ಯಾವಾಗಲೂ ಬಾಗಿಲು ಹಾಕಿಕೊಂಡು ಓದುತ್ತಲೇ ಇರುತ್ತಿದ್ದರು. ಇವನಿಗೋ ಒಂದು ದಿನ ಅವರ ಕಾಲೆಳೆಯುವ ಆಸೆ. ಒಂದು ದಿನ ಅವರಿಲ್ಲದಾಗ ರೂಮಿನ ಬಾಗಿಲೊಂದನ್ನು ಕಳಚಿ ನೆಲಮಹಡಿಯಲ್ಲಿಟ್ಟು ಬಂದು ಬಿಟ್ಟ. ಆ ಕುಡುಮಿ ಹುಡುಗರಿಗೆ ಬಾಗಿಲಿಲ್ಲದೆ ಓದುವುದು ಹೇಗೆಂಬುದೇ ಸಮಸ್ಯೆಯಾಗಿತ್ತು. ಎಷ್ಟು ಹುಡುಕಿದರೂ ಸಿಗಲಿಲ್ಲ. ಇವನಿಗೆ ಮೆಟ್ಟಿಲು ಹತ್ತಿ ಹೋಗುವಾಗ ಅರ್ಧ ಬಾಗಿಲು ತೆರೆದೇ ಓದುವ ಅವರನ್ನು ನೋಡಿ ಒಳಗೊಳಗೇ ನಗುವೋ ನಗು. ಕೊನೆಗವರು ದೊಡ್ಡ ರಂಪ ಮಾಡಿ ವಾರ್ಡನ್ ಗೆ ಹೇಳಿ ಹಾಸ್ಟೆಲ್ ನಲ್ಲಿದ್ದ ಎಲ್ಲರನ್ನೂ ಸಾಲಾಗಿ ನಿಲ್ಲಿಸಿ ಕೇಳುತ್ತ ಬಂದರು. ಎಲ್ಲರೂ ನನಗೆ ಗೊತ್ತಿಲ್ಲ ಎಂದರು. ಫಿಮನ್ ಸರದಿ ಬಂದಾಗ "ಬಾಗಿಲನ್ನು ನಾನೆ ಕಳಚಿ ನೆಲಮಹಡಿಯಲ್ಲಿಟ್ಟು ಬಂದಿದ್ದೇನೆ " ಎಂದ. ಸೀರಿಯಸ್ ಆಗಿ ಕೇಳುತ್ತಿದ್ದರೆ ಜೋಕುಮಾಡುತ್ತೀಯಲ್ಲ ಎಂದು ಬೈದರು. ಫಿಮನ್ ಸುಮ್ಮನಾದ. ಆಮೇಲೆ ಯಾವಾಗಲೋ ಯಾರೋ ನೆಲಮಹಡಿಗೆ ಹೋದಾಗ ಬಾಗಿಲು ನೋಡಿ ರಿಪೋರ್ಟ್ ಮಾಡಿದರು. ನಿಜವಾಗಲು ಫಿಮನ್ ಇಟ್ಟಿದ್ದೆಂದು ಗೊತ್ತಾಗಿ ಮತ್ತೆ ಕರೆಸಿ ಎಷ್ಟು ಕಷ್ಟ ಕೊಟ್ಟೆಯಲ್ಲ ಇಷ್ಟು ದಿನ ಎಂದು ಬೈದರು. ಅವತ್ತೆ ಹೇಳಿದನಲ್ಲ ನಾನೆ ಕಳಚಿ ನೆಲಮಹಡಿಯಲ್ಲಿಟ್ಟು ಬಂದಿದ್ದೇನೆಂದು ಅಂದ ಫಿಮನ್.

" Surely you are joking Mr Finman" ಈ ಪುಸ್ತಕ ನೊಬೆಲ್ ಪ್ರಶಸ್ತಿ ವಿಜೇತ ಭೌತವಿಜ್ಞಾನಿ ರಿಚರ್ಡ್ ಫಿಮನ್ ನ ಆತ್ಮಕಥನ. ಸರಳ ಹಾಗು ಪ್ರಯೋಗಶೀಲ ಫಿಮನ್ ಭೌತಶಾಸ್ತ್ರದಲ್ಲಿ ಅಲ್ಲದೆ ತನ್ನ ಬದುಕಿನಲ್ಲಿ ಮಾಡಿಕೊಂಡ ಪ್ರಯೋಗಗಳ ಬಗ್ಗೆ ಹೇಳುತ್ತಾ ಹೋಗುತ್ತಾನೆ. ಸರಳ ಹಾಸ್ಯ ಕಥೆಯುದ್ದಕ್ಕೂ ನಗಿಸಿ ಓದಿಸಿಕೊಂಡು ಹೋಗುತ್ತದೆ. ಎಲ್ಲಾದರೂ ಸಿಕ್ಕರೆ ಕೊಂಡು ಓದಿ.