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Distractions ! Distractions !! Or Enchanted !

 Distractions !! Distractions !! Or Enchanted !

Dinesh K Kapila
I was just about to unlock the latch of the gate for my last walk of the day. Scared by doctors, I break up my walk into say three parts of 4000 steps each, at least that is the intention. Noble intention.,Just then Akash, who irons our clothes drove up on his motor bike. Now do note and remember as you read on that what I describe is happening in seconds. One has to know exactly what is happening. Akash had just driven up. As he was driving up, I was stepping out of the gate and turned towards the gate to latch it while stepping out, I noticed a young girl coming from the opposite side. Meanwhile I completed dropping the latch of the gate. Young Akash, around twenty two years old, is dismounting from the motorbike, he sees the young girl in shorts. He is actually looking at her as he smartly unlocks the side stand of the mobike to make the bike and stand and remove the bundle of ironed clothes, yet he is mainly looking at her. I can make out they sort of know each other. Our young man forgot while acting suave that the side stand is just not activated, he is too busy nonchalantly dismounting and looking at her and it’s all in a flourish and ouch !! The motorbike falls to his side, hitting his lower right leg. Maybe the foot too. Obviously he had not not applied the side stand. The young girl sort of started to cross over, then thought it over in a split second and walked away pretending she had a call on her mobile. Akash in the meantime pulls his motorbike up and says to me, the side stand I don’t know why it just failed. Now I have only been watching, my watching has not been judgemental at all. So I told him, does it hurt, he, still looking at the girl who was very very slowly walking away, goes bravely with not at all, why should it hurt.

Ah!! The bravery and the could not care attitude of our young men in such situations. So I told him, young man, I was also young once and my heart is still young, I know exactly what happened and you certainly grimaced in pain but managed to smile. I admire your spirit but she is gone, you can hand over the clothes you ironed and sit and rest. But he would have none of it, even saying that he did not even see the girl! That he just did not know at all that there was a girl on the road. All said and done, I told him you know, I know, she certainly knows her role or power in what just happened and could only walk away smiling. He was so very distracted in reality but simply could not acknowledge it.

That is what happens many a times with many of us. Or was Akash enchanted for a moment in time. In this particular case, I am a trifle confused, distracted momentarily or enchanted momentarily. Men certainly and at times women can be really impacted by distraction, in some cases even letting themselves be corrected from one distraction by another distraction. This is best explained by a young professional, successful certainly and climbing the ladder of success but he just does not get married, with his parents waiting and praying him to be enchanted by a pretty young lady. And he tells me, just when I get besotted with one young lady and decide she is the one, that another beautiful young lady distracts me and I land up continuing to be a bachelor. How can he be ever enchanted when he is continuously distracted. The spell of enchantment just breaks. In fact he is seriously thinking if an arranged marriage would be better, but what if another lady distracted him or enchanted him post an arranged marriage.

These are serious issues, not simple mundane day to day episodes, do remember, Men stumble over pebbles, never over mountains. (H. Emilie Cady). As regards Akash and the distracted young man, perhaps they should read Shakespeare, ‘My high charms work, And these, mine enemies, are all knit up In their distractions. They now are in my power.”

Of course there are other distractions. Like fluorescent nail paint. It distracts. It’s shiny, reflects light and while the speaker pontificates or stresses a point, the bright shiny green or yellow or garish nail paint makes one wonder what ever happened to the subtle shades which do not distract. What is only worse and more distracting than fluorescent nail paint is badly chipped nail paint but that is another story. Another angle.

And then. Years and years ago, an acquaintance was enchanted by a young lady, the daughter of his landlord. He was from a hilly state and she from a state which thinks it has a supreme God Given right over anything and everything cultural and literary. Both were enchanted. Deeply enchanted. Love can do that, not always, but in some cases, so very certainly. This was that only. Now the major distraction, the parents. One set of parents was even threatening suicide, now that is a major distraction for any young couple in love and thinking of marriage. My only advice, I found them so much lost in each other, that data does indicate that parents do not commit suicide over a marriage, though they may create a great drama, specially if the guy is nicely placed. A second advise, if you have a kid early, the grandparents are surely to get enchanted and that would be the end of the worrisome distraction. Luckily it went well and hence nobody asked me to justify my so called data and its parameters.

Just saying, Multitasking is just another name for getting distracted till you get further distracted and then still further distracted. With nothing to enchant, the distraction only leads to trying to do several tasks at one time, since University Professors have to keep reinventing, they conjured up multitasking. But let’s stay with distractions and enchantments, they keep one young, engrossed and quite chilled out. Stay distracted, stay enchanted. Live life happily.

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