Something’s happened to me.
My presence of mind has gone for a toss. I do not see the obvious.
I have always been wee-bit absent minded, I live in timelessness. By timelessness, I mean I never realise what today’s date is. If I happen to notice the date, I will remember – Oh, Today is K’s birthday! It also means that because I have no sense of time in my personal life (in professional, I can be as good as you can get), I am rarely the one to close a meeting or call (unless it’s a deadline to be back at home or an emergency of sorts). It also makes me passive in relationships, I usually react rather than act. I prefer if someone else decides to initiate/end a meeting or call or take the relationship forward or vice versa. There are several pitfalls of such behaviour though. But I digress. This time I have taken my absent-mindedness too far.
The two examples I am going to share involve my two blogger friends. I will call them R and G. So R had told me her real name several months ago. Yet when a discussion about real names came up recently, I asked her name again. She told me. I found her name very familiar. I dismissed it as general forgetfulness. Imagine next day when I receive a sms from R, I realise I had saved her number in my phone along with her real name. Her real name flashes on my screen every time we sms/call each other. Yet I was clueless!
Another friend, this time a personal friend and fellow blogger told me how a person G had tracked her down at a social networking site. I went on tell my friend about my interactions with G in the past. Late at night while I was about to sleep I realised that G had also tracked ME down in the same social networking site and sent me an invitation too. That email was lying unread in the mailbox. Why didn’t I relate and tell that to my friend while we were discussing!!
Several nights, when I go to sleep, I belatedly register the intended meaning of what my friend had tried to explain me on chat during the day. During the day, I had rushed to berate him while he had said nothing that was strong or bad. He, being a sweet gem, had let it pass. Believe me this has not been first occurrence, where I have jumped to take offence at something unintended and innocent. This is typical ‘tubelight’ behaviour that has never been associated with me. It doesn’t sit well with me.
To put an icing on my cake, I keep losing things. Other day I dropped the book I was reading while travelling. The book was Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd. (Yeah, it has a movie made on it too.) Reema gave me a soft copy of it while I was lamenting my loss of losing an ‘unfinished book’ (As if losing the book after I had read would have OK). Thanks, girl! 🙂
Today too I left behind a jute bag carrying my lunch, milk, scarf and some papers (Thank God, there was no money) in the auto. Darn! I miss my glass of milk.
Btw, Happy April Fool’s Day! I wish I could say I was making a fool out of you. But every word here is true. 😦 Meanwhile, here is my last year’s April Fool’s Day post.
Birthday calendar courtsey Smiley me.
Visceral Observations 
wake up the woman inside you.. we are supposed to make 2 & 2 = 4 of all the things happening around. 🙂
well it happens with everybody some time or the otherwhen we say.. oh that’s what it meant..!
Yes, wrote this here so that I can wake myself up. 🙂
“here is my last year’s April Fool’s Day post.”
Where ?
Edited to add now. Thanks for pointing it out and being a true ‘editor’!
lol,when you wished us april fools day, i thought i was caught out 😛 …
hmm…more seriously don’t we all behave like that? And it is a tendency to realize a few things later…in my case,my head sometimes travels far ahead of me 😛
That was sweet, Vishesh. Yes, maybe at sometime or otehr we all behave like that. You made me feel better with your comment. You know what thats what I beleive too that my head travels faster than me. In fact, sometimes I speak fast too keep up the fast chain of thoughts in my head.
lolz..happy april fools day..actually this habit is quite prominent…anywayz what’s the name of this blog..vis…I forgot 😛
This habit is quite prominent in whom? you too? Naah, don’t forget the name of my blog. 😛
good one 😀 and yea, I am really bad @ remembering Bdays etc … !!
This was good one LOL Almost all men say they are bad at remembering birthdays. And I remember birthdays but I never register what date is today!
Hehehe 🙂 You are welcome.
BTW u carry a glass of milk in your bag?? How do u prevent it from toppling down? 😛 😛
I m sure Vee and Vimal will have something to comment on your tubelight behavior and being angry at innocent sentences 😛
Thanks, Girl for book and now NET info!
Well, I carry milk in a Tupperware airtight tumbler. I don’t carry warm milk for then it may open due to steam pressure. 😛 Well, I have never been tubelight with Vee and Vimal, though I concede I may not have gone easy on some of their statements. But that has been intentional. 😉
hehehehe…*same pinch*
I can relate to everything you have said but yes not the tubelight part 😀
BTW In college we had a fren who was tubelight and ham log pyaar se use ‘Tubbu’ bulate the 😀
Milk?? In bag??
Why o why???
Well, I have never been a tubelight. Never ever anyone has called me that too. 😀 I am usually sharp, and can see things coming in terns of talks, arguments, and situations. Of late, I ahve made many mistakes in people judgment, losing my things, forgetting important tasks and so on. Which is why I am not able to accept my absent-mindedness?
Tubbu naam achcha hai, maine to bahuton ka rakh diya hai ab. 😛
Carry milk to work because early morning there is no time to warm it and drink, so warm it and drink it at work during breakfast. 🙂
Mayb you should just tie everything to yourself so it gets dragged behind you.
LOL…I have been dragging things for so long. So one day I slip up. 😦
😦
arre baba…(((Hugs)))
you scatterbrain you 😀
milk ? sho cute 😀
dont you worry 😀
I am in the same boat kinda :D(((HUgs)))
muah!cheer up 😀
uff I thought that friend was me..whose ename flashes on the screen but you said several months ago so I was like thank god! 😀
Naah, I call you by your real name and always remember that. But this friend is called by someother name on Internet. And yes, dear, I do carry milk everyday to work. I Don’t drink tea. Milk is the only constant bevarage that I drink. 🙂
i was thinking you were trying to fool us but i was disappointed to read that it was all true 😦
well its okay, nobody is perfect . its perfectly normal to be a little ” abnormal ” 😆
and just think that you gave a hearty treat to the auto driver 😛
in between when are you joining danceworx? because willow reminded me too to join it till the time i am idle
Naah, I too wish I were trying to fool you. As it turns out, I did not leave it in auto but had left in a restaurant at ISBT!
I will join Danceworx, but not this month or next month because my weekends are not free as I have some errands to run for the house I bought. When are you planning to join? May?
I thought I was the absentminded professor around !! I once forgot my ATM pin and ended up locking the card in the ATM vestibule. The heights is that it was just a day before when I withdrew money using the same card and in the same ATM vestibule.
awwwwwwwwww, you are not a tubelight when it comes to chat sessions. YOU ARE THE STREET LIGHT SEEN IN VILLAGES. They never glow 😉
and with the above comment, I promise to never ever come in front of you 😀
Neech, Vimal, I am streetlight??? HUH You are the TUBBU one always. 😛 Oh, you can come in front of me anytime, I have nothing to fear (nor you) for I know your tubelight won’t light up until I have delivered my punchline and left.
So which part of this was April fool’s joke? The Milk in that jute bag, rt? 🙂
Tell me about the absentmindedness. I am master of it. I refer to people with different names and it has created some confusion at times. Just recently at a blog when the blogger was praising Sheila Dixit I somehow read it as Pratibha Patil and lamented the Prez. Even the picture staring at me from the post couldn’t correct me.
I am a very organized person who goes by a planner and still I space out at times which results in such guffaws. So my sympathies to a fellow sufferer of absentmindedness.
Naah Re. I do carry milk in Tupperware tumbler in jute bag to work. There is hardly any time to drink and eat anythign in morning when I rush to work.
And I laughed at your anecdote. Dear, I understand sometimes we do the unthinkable in our absent-mindedness. Thanks for understanding and coming by!
Jhoothhi… Sare-Aam Jhooth.. Who shuts the shop exactly at 5:43, eh? Deadline.. huh.. !!!
And bottle of milk in Jute bag….Hahaha… Sachi? U serious? Lolz, Btw, u did not tell u lost the bag while going to work or when u were returning… ? Hahaha.. I am still imagining milk in a jute bag.. Mashallah…
Shhh–Vee. But that has nothing to do with not-meeting-deadlines. Yes, I carry milk in a tupperware tumbler to work. I lost the bad while going on way to work. But I FOUND it while going back home! Yay! 😀
I’m rarely forgetful and am frequently irritated by my wife’s forgetfulness. I sometimes think it’s the upbringing that determines how we deal with our absent-mindedness/forgetfulness.
What surprises me is how you can be at one end of the extreme perfonally and the other professionally!
Upbringing has nothing to do with it. I am usually sharp and can see things coming. There are personal phases when you are careless and mind is preoccupied, you slip up. I have never had any trouble in my professional life. Never. When I am at work, I don’t remember anything like my sis is unwell or this or that. In my personal domain, my thoughts are completely chaotic. I forget to check my to-do lists (that is when I make them). I used to have photographic memory at school, I excelled academically throughout without much effort (this si something I will never admit to my parents). I am always laidback in my personal life (tasks always pending for long before I do them), and at work I am hyperactive. I am not sure how I can explain this either.
P.S: Hey, go easy on your wife. It happens! 😛
I am absolutely mystified and intrigued by these two extremes…simply amazing!
Vimal i hereby declare an open war with you!!! You are gone man! And please don’t ask me why am i declaring war on you, you might just prove that you are a tubbu! *evil grin* 😀
Thanks, girl, for taking up cudgels on my behalf. Vimal IS tubbu. 😛
very few people are there who confess what they are ur one among them but it is always shows u r very ope minded and humility in you made you to write what u r and ur weakness. May be these issues are not very important for you and you will remember much more serious issues like public awareness, consumer rights etc. etc., any how I say “NOTHING HAS HAPPENED TO YOU” YOU r very wise and know what is important to be remembered yes I agree it may put you into some ackward situations etc.,
have a great day and Happy April Fools Day has made lot of people to ponder whether u r saying right or wrong they are all caught on wrong foot. so you have really fooled in a sense
pranesh
Thanks Pranesh for your reassurances. They always help. 🙂 I wrote it in public domain to get my mind commit to watfulness. 😀 I WISH I were making you guys, April Fool! Thanks for your generosity!
I too thought you were “having us on” for April Fool! 🙂 You are either Very Old (which I don’t think you are) 😛 or you haven’t been eating enough fresh vegetables for brain food!
I don’t think any of this is *too* serious, and I admire you for posting it!
I wish I WERE having you for April Fool. I posted it in public so that I can remind myself this is a phase I need to get out fast. I hope this is NEVER serious. 🙂
LOL…dont worry…yu have lotsa tubelight-sakes around!
In th past 2 months, four times, i locked my house, left the key in th lock n went to office!
Twice i screamed at my husband for not helping me “search” for my missing phone — which was hung around my neck!! (On a third, i wanted my phone urgently to save a number since i didnt have a pen handy; i was talking on tht very phone!!)
BTW, milk bottle??? For some strane reason, i’m reminded of Tom n Jerry! 😀
Hey, I laughed at whatever you told me. Believe me, I felt good. 😀 Yeah, I have to carry milk to work everyday for my breakfast as I leave too early to ahve it at home. Tom and Jerry LOL
Interesting Poonam. I’m mirroring a bit in what you are saying since I’m absent-minded too and live in timelessness since I also never know today’s date and sometimes react late to external stimuli. My mother was like that, so I guess I took it from her.
I don’t think blogging or internet made it better lol.
I think this is what an introvert is. But don’t worry Poonam, it’s not so bad. Being like that has great advantages too. I could be your father and I can tell you it can be an advantage. I have profited from this in life after all, even though it has been painful.
Maybe choosing a partner who has different qualities could though be of help for survival. Complementarity relationships can work well.
It is what I did, choosing a totally different person, she sees what I don’t see and viceversa, even though, sometimes one would really need someone of his/her own kind. But life cannot be perfect.
Yes, I see what you mean. Finding a partner who is different makes sense. Glad you could find someone liek your wife. 🙂 Complementary. I hope this excessive absent-mindedness of me was just a phase. It has bothered me a lot. 😦
Oh don’t worry Poonam. You’ll survive. And try not to take things too seriously, as your Indian friends told you (more wisely than I did.) For example a partner and/or friends with good sense of humour can help also. It is good to laugh away sorrows. And they say life gets longer this way.
Don’t worry….Alchemists are supposed to be scatterbrains…no? 👿
Lemme offer a lame (IMHO) suggestion: a friend who suffered form similar forgetfulness took to Chyawanprash and she “claims” it rid her of that! dunno how true is that 😐
No, not at all a scatterbrain..I like to believe it was a phase..will go away. I wrote it to commit myself to get rid of it. Chyawanprash, it reminds me of something. Recently I went to a trkking trip, it got hard at a point, my sister who could manage it better than most of us, would extoll the virtues of Chyawanprash she had eaten in past. All harrassed trekkers would amusedly (and bit enviously) pass by. 😀
u shd get a secy who’ll keep track of the mundane tasks for ya :-))
How I wish. 8) I also tried those online secy you get. But I forgot to keep track of secy! 😛
ha ha ha – ur conundrum sounds strikingly similar to getting a pair of glasses to find the original ones… Perhaps what u need is a SMART secy who will be able to find the boss with ease… lol! Kinda likea self-guided missile, only one that doesn’t blow up and is helpful 😛
Good suggestion! May be I should advertise and invite candidates for the post of my personal secy! How much should I be prepared to shell out if he is nice-looking bloke? 😛
Poonam, its totally ok, I am kind off like that passive thing too, I would rather respond to a question than to ask a one. That has a lot of disadvantages 😦 . Chyawanprash/Yoga helps LOL 🙂 Seriously dude.
BTW, If this makes you any happy, I was talking to my boss on cell phone and had to send her a file and forgot her email, ID, brilliant, right!!!
You, too are passive. Interesting. 😀 And I agree when you talk about the disadvantages. Chyawanprash, I can consider but unable to take to yoga for some reason. Maybe I should.
And yes, I DID feel better. Thank you! 🙂
hota hai, hota hai… umar badhne se aisa hi hota hai!! 😉 😛 😀
Nahi, abhi to mein jawan hun 😀
you lost something again…grrrr….don’t tell me.
Yeah, I did. I didn’t get a chance to tell you because by evening I had got it. How relieved I was!
My dear Poonam, are you sure you aren’t taking all this too seriously? I mean these things happen to everyone, right? Well that is what I always believed coz they happen to me and have always happened! 🙂 But I never worry about it because they are not a frequent thing.
Nita, I DID take this very seriously. BUt I must say your comment has been reassuring like others here. When I wrote this post, I WAS panicky. I wrote because making it public makes my inner self somehow responsible to things. I hope I don’t repeat this again. They were the bad days I had.
well these things happen to anyone (not the jute bag because I dont carry one 🙂 )
And I guess I blog about them a lot 🙂
Naah, you haven’t blogged about them lately (by lately I mean a year now), you usually post cynical observations. I hope with me, this is a phase, hope I can be more watchful as before.
It happens with me too! I even forget names of my best friends! 😦
And “the secret life of bees” was a wonderful book!
Yes, Secret Life of Bees is a good book. Which is why I felt bad when I lost it unfinished. You forget names of your best friends, thats bad. But in a perverse, it reassures me, as if I am normal. Weird, is it?
Came here from Tiger Praneshachar’s site… nice article… I think I was pretty absent-minded too, I have written about it in my comical nostalgia post… hope you have a look! Yeah I am a fan of Uncle Pai as well and it was really cool to read that other post of yours as well! 8)
Thanks, Sanjay, for coming by. I will soon read your post. No problem about the Pai post, I understand. 😛
i feel like this all the time…and i love my madness… 😀
I have never been so slow ever, so its hard to accept. I hope it is just a phase. Thanks for coming by and making me feel assured. 😀
PS: correction oops sorry the post on Uncle Pai was from another blogger lakshmi – what a coincidence that my post was related to both these posts!
No reply to my comment????? and Smita’s too??? Humse kya dushmani hai?
LOL, I normally start sleepwalking the moment I see my sons. My brain goes on auto-shut! I forget stuff, and then turn around and tell them that in my advanced age, I can barely dodder around. I should not be expected to remember anything
Hehe..expectation setting is pretty clear LOL 😀
Reminds me of a joke that I heard when I was in class 3 (7 years old) but understood when I was in class 11 (15 years old).
It is now one of my favourite jokes of course and it is almost a surprise to me how I am the first one now to predict a punchline or make a pun where no one else can see one. How things change!
🙂 Yes, extremes happen. I am usually sharp, I can see things coming. At school, I had a photographic memory. I just had to see it once to remember. But down the way something has happened. Memory is impacted, that doesnt bother much. But my absent-mindedness when it comes to relaiseing the whole picture hurts. I guess it is a phase. I hope it is.
you are not he only one. I have offended friends with my absentmindedness too. I remember zodiac signs but forget day to day things…
I think it also a matter of what interests us more, but that isn’t true I do forget even important dates and ATM pins etc. But I have learnt to live like that :
I have learnt to live like that too. I used to forget imp landmarks of my relationships. Relationships that were very important to me. But now I know thats how it always will be. Maybe I can keep a journal.
Well, all I can say is I understand what you must be feeling right now. I have been having the same problem.
I had to call up a colleague to discuss some work related topic. I work with this lady every day. And I knew who I needed to call, but I couldn’t remember her name. Since I couldn’t remember her name, I didn’t know which number to pull up on my cell phone to call.
I for some reason though then, that I would email her. But forgetful as I am, as soon as I powered up my laptop, I realized since I didn’t remember the name of the person, I didn’t know what her email address was.
I recalled the name much later in the day.
The same thing happened to me with my neighbor. I couldn’t recall her name, however much I tried. I only remembered her name today when I actually saw her.
This has been driving me nuts.
I can understand it can drive us nuts. Maybe we have too many things on mind. We think too much. I have started taking almonds. But sometimes I forget to take them too. 😛