Tuesday, October 05, 2010
just my imagination
when i studied mass communication, or mass comm as we liked to call it, in the mid-eighties, our one-year programme was divided into interesting segments/papers. there was film, and my unfortunate little communication with satyajit ray; and advertising, how sure i was that i was never going back to it; journalism, which gave me the chance to spend a whole morning sitting next to dharmendra, smiling in absolute adoration never asking a single question, will someone tell me why they're so abjectly mandatory for interviews. never could convince my editor that i'd contributed a lot by taking all the trouble i had over my appearance - saree, cut away sleeve blouse, eyeliner at 7 am - c'mon i'm a serious journo type gimme a break. then there was market research, fundamental concepts of communication, public relations, press, television.
yet i don't recall a single paper on communication with another universe. you know, like mars, or venus, or the star i saw twinkling bright last night.
or that other nameless space people i know and love have gone to. what do some of us like to call it? yeah, the supernatural world.
of late i get the feeling this other world is trying to message me. and not just me, many of us.
(also the medium it uses is not yet known to us. maybe someday we'll get around to exploring it. and you, my dear internet, will cease to be the coolest.)
what else was that lucid thought i had in the train on my way to work yesterday.
I will hear today he is no more. He is gone.
i was sensing the words, neither hearing nor touching nor smelling or seeing them. just part of my sense, my knowledge.
a colleague of many years, exactly my age, had been diagnosed with the c word early april. the previuos week, doctors had moved him to a hospice. yeah, we all know enough to know that's last stage, or whatever label we've found for it. he and i worked together in the same department; we often disagreed, it was not unusual to find his exasperated scrawl across the job bag on my desk reminding me of deadlines (what a label we have here). i was usually late hehe. and i talked so much, that had him in a complete tizzy most times. yet, strangely, we got along. in fact, i was rather keen on making this eccentric, lottery-winning, card-playing, devoted-to-work, and generous-to-a-fault man my son-in-law. he was so very open with his wallet when my daughter was born. what's more, he was a rat, just like me.
so why on this monday morning 9.20ish was i sensing these words? i had not gone to see him in the hospital or hospice; there were many much closer to him than myself. ah, i thought, just my imagnation, let me walk into office and i'll know.
when i got in i went straight to my art director's room, she was very very close to my son-in-law. we talked about a job, we raved a bit, i turned to leave, yes everything was as usual. just my overactive imagination.
then she said: hey, a bit of a bad news.
at the wake, my boss (also a rat and extremely close to our fellow rat) told us how he'd suddenly woken up at 1.40 am (about the time our friend was dying), and how early morning two words drifted in and around him.
gone fishing. gone fishing.
he used to love to go fishing. sometimes the catch would be brought to office and the restaurant downstairs persuaded to steam it for us.
someone was communicating with us sure that a.m.
maybe i'll hear from there again? shall keep you posted.
ps: i went back to advertising to become the world's most unknown copywriter and my college team editor who so disapproved of my interview techniques is the big chief editor of a successful travel magazine today, we are both happily mass comming.
yet i don't recall a single paper on communication with another universe. you know, like mars, or venus, or the star i saw twinkling bright last night.
or that other nameless space people i know and love have gone to. what do some of us like to call it? yeah, the supernatural world.
of late i get the feeling this other world is trying to message me. and not just me, many of us.
(also the medium it uses is not yet known to us. maybe someday we'll get around to exploring it. and you, my dear internet, will cease to be the coolest.)
what else was that lucid thought i had in the train on my way to work yesterday.
I will hear today he is no more. He is gone.
i was sensing the words, neither hearing nor touching nor smelling or seeing them. just part of my sense, my knowledge.
a colleague of many years, exactly my age, had been diagnosed with the c word early april. the previuos week, doctors had moved him to a hospice. yeah, we all know enough to know that's last stage, or whatever label we've found for it. he and i worked together in the same department; we often disagreed, it was not unusual to find his exasperated scrawl across the job bag on my desk reminding me of deadlines (what a label we have here). i was usually late hehe. and i talked so much, that had him in a complete tizzy most times. yet, strangely, we got along. in fact, i was rather keen on making this eccentric, lottery-winning, card-playing, devoted-to-work, and generous-to-a-fault man my son-in-law. he was so very open with his wallet when my daughter was born. what's more, he was a rat, just like me.
so why on this monday morning 9.20ish was i sensing these words? i had not gone to see him in the hospital or hospice; there were many much closer to him than myself. ah, i thought, just my imagnation, let me walk into office and i'll know.
when i got in i went straight to my art director's room, she was very very close to my son-in-law. we talked about a job, we raved a bit, i turned to leave, yes everything was as usual. just my overactive imagination.
then she said: hey, a bit of a bad news.
at the wake, my boss (also a rat and extremely close to our fellow rat) told us how he'd suddenly woken up at 1.40 am (about the time our friend was dying), and how early morning two words drifted in and around him.
gone fishing. gone fishing.
he used to love to go fishing. sometimes the catch would be brought to office and the restaurant downstairs persuaded to steam it for us.
someone was communicating with us sure that a.m.
maybe i'll hear from there again? shall keep you posted.
ps: i went back to advertising to become the world's most unknown copywriter and my college team editor who so disapproved of my interview techniques is the big chief editor of a successful travel magazine today, we are both happily mass comming.
