No Comebacks
How would you react if there was no ‘Backspace’ key on your keyboard?
Wouldn’t it get tuougher to write those politically and grammatically correct letters? The dumbfounding posts that leave the reader speechless?
Would newspapers be interesting without that white correcting ink? Won’t lawyers be having a field day with every Tom, Dick and Harry suing the other for being misquoted?
Would Little John really have the guts to hand over his Class 1 English paper where he had no eraser to correct the spelling of Mississisisippi without letting the teacher realize the change was the effect of a sneak peek at Little Lucy’s paper?
How will Ambujam Aunty react when she can’t rewind to her favorite scene in ‘Magalir Mattum’ and laugh one more time at Urvashi’s antics?
The reaction would be, in a word, catastrophic.
Yet we take this particular concept for granted. IMHO, this is in fact Man’s greatest inventions, much bigger than the satellite and a great deal more important as a life-safer than the safety pin. This is Man’s moment as he plays God.
If God really wanted us to have that option to go back and change our decisions, couldn’t Eve have just gone back to the point where Mr.Serpent meets her and walk past him without so much as a flicker of the eye towards The Apple? Wouldn’t we in that case still be living in one Big Garden of Eden? And our immediate worry would have been if maple leaves were worn around the waist or below to make a fashion statement.
But, mes cheries, that is not the case. You cannot go back to square one (unless you had an excellent partner for Square dance). Never. Not in this lifetime or the next. I can not walk back to 1989, to a classroom at No: 10, Ormes Road and say sorry to Timmy for calling him an idiot; I cannot rewind to Room: 140 in Pilani on Sep 28,2000 at 12 midnight to erase the sight of a closed door and weeping ~D outside; I cannot do a complete 180 degree turn and run back into my past and expect to meet dodo. It doesn’t happen that way. Man is not God. Period.
And that is why I HATE those darn erasers and rewind buttons and backspace keys. It gives you a heady feeling…makes you believe you can Right every damn Wrong; makes you want to remove every struck word, delete every profanity, wipe every tear and muffle every cry of pain. But you can’t. He can and he won’t.
This is a journey with no comebacks. No turning around. No return trips. You can just look ahead and walk and hope at the next turn there would be a basket of roasted peanuts.
And for heavens’ sake somebody burn those ^#@*ing erasers.
**Updated
In hindsight, i am glad we aren't able to go back to our past. I just watched Kate & Leopold and i realise what a bummer it would be if time travel did exist...coz for one we would all be so busy going 'back' we would just forget to look 'ahead'. I guess the pragmatic approach would be, like Jax said, to be doubly sure not to make any of those mistakes again and wiser would be not to regret what u have already done. And yeah, Hugh Jackman looks utterly, butterly delicious. No wonder Meg Ryan wanted to go back :D
Wouldn’t it get tuougher to write those politically and grammatically correct letters? The dumbfounding posts that leave the reader speechless?
Would newspapers be interesting without that white correcting ink? Won’t lawyers be having a field day with every Tom, Dick and Harry suing the other for being misquoted?
Would Little John really have the guts to hand over his Class 1 English paper where he had no eraser to correct the spelling of Mississisisippi without letting the teacher realize the change was the effect of a sneak peek at Little Lucy’s paper?
How will Ambujam Aunty react when she can’t rewind to her favorite scene in ‘Magalir Mattum’ and laugh one more time at Urvashi’s antics?
The reaction would be, in a word, catastrophic.
Yet we take this particular concept for granted. IMHO, this is in fact Man’s greatest inventions, much bigger than the satellite and a great deal more important as a life-safer than the safety pin. This is Man’s moment as he plays God.
If God really wanted us to have that option to go back and change our decisions, couldn’t Eve have just gone back to the point where Mr.Serpent meets her and walk past him without so much as a flicker of the eye towards The Apple? Wouldn’t we in that case still be living in one Big Garden of Eden? And our immediate worry would have been if maple leaves were worn around the waist or below to make a fashion statement.
But, mes cheries, that is not the case. You cannot go back to square one (unless you had an excellent partner for Square dance). Never. Not in this lifetime or the next. I can not walk back to 1989, to a classroom at No: 10, Ormes Road and say sorry to Timmy for calling him an idiot; I cannot rewind to Room: 140 in Pilani on Sep 28,2000 at 12 midnight to erase the sight of a closed door and weeping ~D outside; I cannot do a complete 180 degree turn and run back into my past and expect to meet dodo. It doesn’t happen that way. Man is not God. Period.
And that is why I HATE those darn erasers and rewind buttons and backspace keys. It gives you a heady feeling…makes you believe you can Right every damn Wrong; makes you want to remove every struck word, delete every profanity, wipe every tear and muffle every cry of pain. But you can’t. He can and he won’t.
This is a journey with no comebacks. No turning around. No return trips. You can just look ahead and walk and hope at the next turn there would be a basket of roasted peanuts.
And for heavens’ sake somebody burn those ^#@*ing erasers.
**Updated
In hindsight, i am glad we aren't able to go back to our past. I just watched Kate & Leopold and i realise what a bummer it would be if time travel did exist...coz for one we would all be so busy going 'back' we would just forget to look 'ahead'. I guess the pragmatic approach would be, like Jax said, to be doubly sure not to make any of those mistakes again and wiser would be not to regret what u have already done. And yeah, Hugh Jackman looks utterly, butterly delicious. No wonder Meg Ryan wanted to go back :D
posted by Kumari at 3:21 PM
6 Comments:
Nice post da!But would you really go back to the past and smudge out bits that dont fit right if you could?
In retrospect, nothing from my past seems to have gone right! I'd have too much to erase. I just grin about it and hope not to repeat my typos.
Initially the very same qsn was running though my mind...there are so many things that i wish i could erase,or change in my past..
everyone knows that'll never happen,its one of those things u think abt n sigh..u know..but the post actually made me very frustrated...it jus conjured up this horrible image of me regretting a gazzilion things ive done,the wrong decisions ive made..and desperately wanting to go back n undoing those mistakes n not being able to..like making sure amma n i sorted things out..we hated each other's guts...n she left feeling the same way...n i wish i realised it earlier
ammukuttz
p.s-sorry for the long comment :P
Nice post.
I thought Ambujam aunty liked to fast forward through Magalir Mattum to have a look at Kamal in the climax sequence :D.
A post along the lines of "The Butterfly effect" - didnt watch the movie fully (couldn't watch more than the first 15 mins), so doubt I can manage with that kind of power in this lifetime :)
Interesting trail of thoughts...
A beuatiful post on something we all probbaly wonder about but very few us can put into words. Not having a Delete button, not having an Undo option may sometimes be very good...atleast that way you don't accidentally erase a precious para of life that probably took hours of thought and effort. Look at it this way, some smart soul decided to call it wisdom. This is one of my favourites...
"Wisdom
When I have ceased to break my wings
Against the faultiness of things,
And learned that compromises wait
Behind each hardly opened gate,
When I have looked Life in the eyes,
Grown calm and very coldly wise,
Life will have given me the Truth,
And taken in exchange -- my youth.
-- Sara Teasdale
@Jax: I guess i wouldn't but there ares ome glaring pages that i would love to tear out :)
@Ammai: Don't regret anything my girl...it never adds to sanity. Trust me :)
@Kopos: i guess that could be the reason or the fact that we have a 20/20 hindsight and never a clue as to what we should be doingw hen we start it :) Yeah, maybe we wouldn't have worried aboutl eaves at all :D Okay done, erasers are left alone.
@Pagala'k': Puhleaze! Kamal in Magalir Mattum was one sick lokking guy. Prefer the Kamal of Punnagai Mannan :)
@Rs: Butterfly Effect? Pray do tell me what is that.
@Anyesha: You get extra points for quoting my fave poet :) Yeah, the poem does make sense tho i don't like to exchange my youth for wisdom :)
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