Tragi-Comic

Ram Shankar Shukla

It is not funny should you wake up one morning and not recognize yourself in the mirror. Or perhaps, cannot remember your bank signature. Or miss a flight, because you just forgot. Or that you do not remember your way home and, as it happened with Ram Shankar Shukla, you end up in a post office instead!
Loss of memory is part of growing old. It happens to the best of us. But what would you say of Yusuf Rassiwala who walked in today in an olive-green T-shirt, does all his exercises and only later, while resting on a bench, realises that he has worn his T-shirt inside out?
Shekhawat is another. He very easily loses track of days and dates and on countless occasions has had to be told that just because he chooses to wear green, it does not automatically become a Wednesday. Today, he even forgot he had already done a certain exercise and while the rest of us went on to

Yusuf Rassiwala explains how he forgot to check his t-shirt

the next step, he continued to merrily repeat himself, till Arun Patil had to rudely jolt his memory and bring him back on track.
Now, these are more in the nature of absent-mindedness than serious lapses of memory or amnesia (though definite indications exist). The mind tends to wander away from the now and here when subjected to a routine day after day, same time same place. We effectively lose our sense of alertness.
A real issue arises when we struggle to remember the sequence of exercises, even as we have been doing the drill for years, if not a decade. Some of us have even forgotten to count and need to be repeatedly prompted on something so basic. It is not as if anybody is unlettered. Quite simply, most of our ladies have had no use for numbers while running the kitchen and raising children.
The best joke of the morning was when Dilip Babani revealed how easily he forgets where he keeps his spectacles at home. Banoo Apa spoke of her husband having three pairs of spectacles and being just as forgetful. Other issues were also being discussed. In all the cross-talk, somebody mentioned that if you want to find something, simply go to Google.
Banoo Apa’s ears instantly perked up: “If my husband misplaces his spectacles again, will Google find them for him?” She wasn’t joking. Or was she?
Bihari Milwani:
It is high time we start doing memory development exercises too.
Kiran Prakash:
I feel such stories about forgetfulness can be avoided in the blog. It is scary. I don't remember whether I had gone to the Garden this morning. I have started imagining that I have landed at a post office and am dumped with hundreds of letters in a big bag to be despatched to the railway station. OMG!
Anonymous:
Thank God, Kiran Prakash remembers he exists and his name is Mr Kiran Prakash -- Andheri mein ujala dene wala!
Anonymous No 2:
Rest assured KP Sir, if you are carrying your identity card, the Postal Department will safely deliver you at your place.
Lt Col Angad Singh (retd):
Forgetfulness is the essence of life. It is commonplace though not commonly admitted. Laugh it off as good members of Big Laaf. Keep smiling.