Why We Write What We Write | Flash Post 441

Button, you know why we write about the things we write, right? About the birds and the butterflies and cats and dogs or about the pink nail clipper I picked up 40 years back and wove a story around?

There’s just one reason.

And what is that?

That we do not want to talk about the ugly and painful stories that are playing out regularly and being thrust upon us via print, television and, of course, via social media. Every ping on our handsets every now and then bodes disaster. I guess that’s the reason why both Dost and you gave up reading newspapers. Television channels cover the same dark and dismal stories and, what is worse, the same dark and dismal stories are flashed across screens over all those channels. I heard Dost mention how news on television and through social media is a hundred times darker than what we read in print.

Exactly! I can’t recall having read a positive bit of news in a long long time. What I do every morning is scan the first 3-4 pages of a newspaper and if I see they are grim and unpleasant, I head straight to the page on plays and musicals and, if they grab my attention, I make a note of them and try and catch them while they are still showing. The news that the other pages carry is either about some gunman having opened fire in a school killing hundreds of innocent children or a shoot-out in some mall or place of worship taking more innocent lives or news splashed on page after page after page about some heinous murder or news related to torture being meted out to stray animals or frightening examples of nature playing havoc on climate where the unlikeliest of places are being ravaged by floods, fire, earthquakes and the like. Then there are news of bridges crashing every other day injuring and killing people, newly built roads inaugurated by some dignitary caving in, sea levels rising alarmingly and how it is becoming increasingly difficult for the common man to live because of the ever-increasing prices of essential commodities like food, clothing and gasoline.

There’s no way you can turn a blind eye or a deaf ear or pretend at being dumb to everything that’s going on but it’s dismal. It’s sad. It’s hopeless. It’s grim.

So how can we bring some sunshine into this post and steer our readers gaze into something that’s happy and joyous?

Our best bet, as always, is Messi. Let’s talk about him and what he did when you’ll were playing Rummy yesterday and the evening before.

I can’t understand why he did what he did. And on both occasions! Did you see how he came and curled up right in the midst of the pool where we were throwing our cards, stare at each of one of us without blinking an eyelid as if to say—let’s see you dislodge me!

I adore Messi.

He did manage to draw our attention away from the game though and focus on him. It was a give and take of a lot of affection when he walked up to us and rubbed his nose against ours and tucked his head under our chins. We reciprocated by petting him, scratching him under his chin and on his belly. Since the other two were fast asleep, he was the sole recipient of all our attention and, it was clear that he was loving every minute. He gradually sprawled out and fell asleep.

I too fell asleep around the same time, I know. Did you’ll carry on playing?

Of course. We actually played by throwing our cards around him while he continued to sleep and snore.

Oblivious to what was happening around him and totally at peace, I guess.

What he did afterwards took the cake. He got up slowly, sauntered off but not before showing off his expertise at doing the cat pose, stretch till his body could stretch no further and casually walk away with his nose in the air.

Quite a character, our Messi.