Monday, July 5, 2010

A penny...er..."pensieve" for your thoughts!

For the un-initiated and non-Harry Potter fans: A Pensieve is a stone receptacle used to store and review memories. Dumbledore had one to store his thoughts when his mind became too cluttered!

A few days ago, when I was on my way home, I met this girl, sitting right opposite to me in the train, and smiling as if she knew me....now we all have at some point or the other smiled at random strangers just like that...But, no, this was different...she was gesturing and looking at me as if I would acknowledge her and exclaim "HII!! So long since we last met...!"
Well, her face seemed familiar, and although I pride myself on my memory
and don't forget people easily (at least I thought so till then!) , I couldn't for the life of me imagine where I might have met her...

Then she asked me if I recognized her. I stuttered a bit and finally admitted that I couldn't recollect exactly who she was and where it was that we had met...
She then reminded me that we used to go to the same tuition classes during the 11th std...hmmm...yeah...now that I thought of it...yeah...may be she was right, but I still couldn't remember her name...

I felt real foolish, especially when she started on how we used to hang out together and stuff...GOD! Was it embarrassing! I couldn't do anything else than "yeah-yeah" and nod and wait for my station to come...and think "How CAN I forget her name?!"
It was not if I had forgotten everything about my 11th/12th std. tuitions, I am in touch with many of my friends from there AND some of my Profs too, but THIS particular girl I couldn't remember having been with!
It was as if some one had torn that single page with this girl in concern out of my memory...

Another incident added fuel to this fire of forgetfulness...
The other day, my mother and I were discussing my admission process after 12th std and how I had goofed up at the process for Medical CET @ JJ hospital(the goof-up is another story altogether, and deserves a post of its own) but again , the point is I DID NOT remember having EVER been to JJ hospital at all!
My mother in desperation to make me recollect, started giving out hints like "Don't you remember there was this lonnngg winding queue and we had met XYZ person and you had forgotten to bring your black ball pen...etc etc"
I tried and tried, but come what may, my grey cells refused to budge and remember anything even remotely related to JJ hospital!
At long last, after much effort, I asked her whether there was this Hanuman temple bang opposite the Hospital which we had visited. Although that turned out to be true, I couldn't remember having ACTUALLY been INSIDE JJ Hosptial...
It was as if my memory had been wiped out clean just at that particular point - leaving everything else intact!

Now this had started getting creepy, there were parts of my life, not too distant a past, mind you, just 4-5 yrs down the line and I seemed to have forgotten them as if I had never ever lived them! :-o

Then it struck me!!!! OH, how convenient! Amazing! How I wish I had a pensieve!!! :-)

A real pensieve, where I could store away ALL of my memories, good-bad,happy-sad, new-old, silver-gold and never have to worry about forgetting anything ever again!!
How very very awesome could that be!
Just imagine this - you could remember every single thing your best friend and you shared, talked, gossiped and laughed and cried(?) about!

Sometimes, I really wish I had a pensieve, a place to stash away all my thoughts, aspirations and dreams - always there, easy to find and relish on a lazyy lazzy rainy Sunday afternoon!
Just dig and voila! there's your buddy from Kindergarten happily munching her tiffin while taking a sneaky bite out of yours :-P
Look, that's your very favorite dress *sigh* how you used to love wearing it!
But wait! It'll also have ALL of the things you tried hard to forget, the pains, the trials,the tribulations, insults belted out and insults borne, friendships that withered with time...things which are best forgotten (and forgiven).....

May be, as they say, forgetfulness really IS a gift...

I can't quite figure out how to end this post, so I leave it up to you to make up your own mind...
So long then,
Till I decide whether I want a pensieve or not,
Signing off!