Art of Procrastination
Two days back I was in the washroom and somehow felt obliged to read all the fine prints that accompany all the toiletries. I thought someone took the trouble to jot down the “how to use”, “ingredients”, etcetera and it seemed only fair that I should read them once. I mean read them properly, starting from the first sentence and crawling my way down. It did seem like crawling, you know how scarce is the real estate of back-space. There was another reason for doing this, apart from the benign writer-reader relationship. Immediately after the bath, I was to sit with the priest for the ceremony which would put my father’s soul to eternal peace. I was not feeling too enthusiastic about the prospect of muttering incomprehensible Sanskrit for two hours, under the public gaze. And so I was trying to procrastinate. And what better way to do that than to read the fine print at the back of the hand-wash soap!
Purified water, Sodium Laureth Sulphate, Cocoamidopropyl Betaine, Cocamide DEA, Glycerin, Sodium Chloride, Glycol Stearate, Fragrance, Triclosan, PVP/Dimethylaminoethyl methacrylate copolymer, Citric Acid, Methyl-chloroisothiazolinone and Methylisothiazolinone, Melaleuca Alternifolia (Tea Tree) Leaf Oil.
It should not take much to visualize the predicament I led myself into. This is the same person who till the other day pronounced Thames with an extra t and a thud! Thhaemes. The same person who has his tongue knotted in twists and turns trying to pronounce the new wave of cinema, bout de souffle ! Who takes Louis Malle literally and says Mal-le. So what began as a mean to procrastinate, started taking the shape of an embarrassment. And midway through Cocoamidopropyl Betaine I remembered you.
And I am certain I blushed a little, since you were constantly at it, without really being audible. So I tried more and hence I fumbled more. And I was smiling and I looked up to meet your eyes and say, “Ok then! Let me hear You try!”. And at that point I met my eyes and remembered the priest, the caterer, the huge garlands and everything else. I stopped procrastinating.
