The beginning of the End ©

I began the vacation with a bushy tailed bright eyed resolve to do something. Not like finding a cure for cancer or writing a magnum opus, but something. A vague definable something that involved filling these 25 days with a sensible mixture of reading, exercise, writing, statistics( well yes that bete noir of my youth and childhood is rearing its extremely ugly head through the next semester in the shape of one of the BSAD courses- can I help it if the University also labels stat courses like this). The something also stood for getting adequate rest to get back to school and start the New year, the new Semester the PhD with whatever it is that one starts stuff with.

Nopes this is not a rant on how I managed not to do any of the above. Rather a discovery of a few new theories. Umm can you discover a theory.. Or invent one, umm ok propound one. Here goes the first rightaway. It is very possible to forget stuff learned for years and years- if you have sufficient time. And no it is not about a deliberate unlearning. Rather a letting of the stupor steep in slyly, clying the mind, overpoweringly smother and then smooth the convolutions of the brain. Sand down the roughed edges as it were into a somnolent sensation of knowledge. A demonstration of which I gave only a few sentences back- the “I know the word, it is on the tip of my, darn what do you call that pink thing when you squint at your nose and stick it out of your mouth.”

Oh did I mention these theories are all unrelated. Giving me ample opportunity to develop seminal works on insignificant nothings. Like the observation that it is very possible to depress both seats on a couch beyond all description. And this is not about the weight of the posterior resting on it. Rather the length of the time it has been ensconced there- Time measured in books and then repetitions of the same book.

Humankind, I have found out- again through the process of experimentation on the self (can you find a more selfless martyr to the cause of discovery, etc etc) can do with an infinite amount of sleep. No quantity of sleep is too much. Nro is there any such thing like affixed time for it. Or place even( well maybe the kitchen or bathroom tiles are not exactly ideal). One can sleep anywhere, anyhow for any amount of time- and still feel sleepy after that. Seems to be related to the Universe and Human stupidity( remember the famous Einstein quote about there being no limit to the universe an human stupidity and him not being so sure about the universe)

And work fills time available. But only to a degree. If you have no work and plenty of time- time- rather the passage of it loses meaning… Vacant day follows vacant day in a gradual trickle, work becomes a distant memory, as does the anticipation of deadlines. One becomes slow, languorous even so tolerant of the human frivolity of being punctual. It is glorious- till the realization dawns that on Wednesday all this ends…….