Imagine… you’ve had a terrible night. And then in the morning you are expected to go through life like nothing untoward happened. Would you be able to do it? Would you find reserves within yourself to be polite and have conversation with a mother-in-law who seems to be in a particularly garrulous mood? Would you be able to smile at colleagues and wish them a cheery morning? Would you be able to plough through work like there’s no tomorrow? I can’t. Or if I do it’s such an effort – it makes me feel like a volcano about to erupt! So after a terrible night – thanks to a combination of messed up thinking, mosquitoes, a husband with a tummy ache and daughter having football dreams – this morning I’m a wreck. I want the world to leave me alone. If I were a dog I would be snarling at everyone!
But then I’m not. So social etiquette demands that I be ‘nice’.
First and foremost to the mother-in-law who wants to discuss what to make for breakfast and then what to make for lunch. I want to scream and say I don’t care! I will starve or eat raw cucumbers and don’t care what others eat. But whoa! I can’t do that can I? So I pretend to take interest and we arrive at a consensus on breakfast and lunch. We begin preparations for it and she proceeds to chat chat chat. I want silence. I don’t want to hear how she chose a sari for her sister’s birthday. I really, honestly don’t. But I listen, make appropriate approving noises and smile at the right places. Then I escape with my cup of tea to the balcony. Father in law arrives there with his coffee and wants to discuss the importance of voting. He insists that I register and vote as a conscientious citizen. Ah…the world conspires to annoy me and test my endurance levels! Again I put up a delightful act. (I deserve an Oscar guys. I really do).
Pretty soon my daughter wakes up and asks her usual bunch of trillion and one questions. I answer them all patiently because I have a policy of not letting off steam at my daughter. Then she wants a story to drink her milk. And then another while bathing and yet another while having breakfast. By now I have developed a dull headache. The volcano is starting to rumble and bubble!
At this point something very practical comes to my mind. I’m sure everyone has these oh-leave-me-alone days. So how do we communicate that to the world without actually being offensive? I’m sending an application to God to create a Moodometerfor us mortals. Every hour of the day the moodometer must adjust itself according to our state-of-mind. Imagine how many wars, battles, arguments, skirmishes and headaches could be saved this way!
Wishful, impractical thinking huh? Don’t blame me guys. It’s not my morning today!
But somehow I’ve stayed sane. I did not erupt. And no I did not snarl at anyone either! I got myself and my daughter ready and we reached her school on time. I’m relieved as I now can go to my corner in the office and let off steam with an MS DP!
Ah…feel better already. If you’ve read this – do let me know what’s on your moodometertoday!
