Past is present

It is the talk of the virtual town. Charles Darwin's notes and books and the all the stuff have been made available online this month! Being a non-scientist, this information of course did not send me into apoplexies of ecstasy. But I was just curious.

Seeing all those handwritten notes right there left a strange feeling inside. Imagine, those very papers had been held by a man about 200 years ago and they had recorded all his thoughts and ideas.

The period of 200 years is not completely conceivable by the mind. At first, you think you know it but you really don't. At the most, we can easily think back to maybe 15-20 years and relate to it. 200 years loses its magnificence and its true distance from us when it cannot even be perceived in the first place! But by a hard effort, we can try to imagine going back 200 years and when we do, the effect is staggering!

He had existed in this completely different world from ours. In addition to their content, those papers must have volumes to tell us about their time. To whom Darwin showed them, how the people looked, what they were wearing, what they were eating, where the papers were stored, what the furniture was like... I can go on.

I got the same strange feeling when I came across some letters written by my grandfather and my great grandfather. They had lived so, so far back in time, but looking at and touching those documents actually have the power to transport you back. Suddenly you get the feeling that the past is right here, in front of you, on nothing more than a piece of paper. And the journey leaves you with an inexplicable feeling of transience!

The Unreasonableness of the Girl-Being

A friend of mine and I had stumbled upon a blog site quite recently. She was a little more impressed than I was and was quite vocal about how interesting she found the writings. One day her initial enthusiasm gave way to a slight dismay at finding out that the blogger was married.
'How does it matter' you ask me.
'I'm not sure, but it does', says me.

What's it with girls that assumes that interesting guys they come across must be eligible bachelors, even though the guy has not even a smallest inkling of their existence? Why are we on an eternal search for Mr.Right?

It doesn't matter how far removed he is from us, geographically or otherwise. It is this same feeling that makes us go sad over hearing that Darren Hayes is gay; the sane part of our mind gives us a good bonk on the nose while asking 'how does it even remotely matter where his preferences lie?'. The insane part answers dejectedly, rubbing the nose, 'how can a guy who croons insatiable so sexily be otherwise?'
'Yeah, right, like you even had a chance if he wasn't', shrugs the sane part walking away.

Something must be fundamentally wrong with the genetic makeup.

What do you see in the mirror?

For a human, looking at the mirror is as habitual as eating. It is an everyday occurence and for some, every hour!
When you check your mirror, what do you see? I mean, after checking your dress, hair, makeup etc. Beyond that. What do you see?
Did you ever look at a mirror and wonder how you might appear to others?
Sound weird? It is. It feels weird too. Atleast it did, when I tried to look at the person in the mirror as I would look at a stranger. I began to feel scared. I use 'scared' here for want of a better word. The feeling may be better explained as one of haunting bewilderment. But I did. It felt like I did not know the person in the mirror. That scared me because I always prided on the knowledge that none knew me better than I. But here, apparently, I'm not what I thought myself to be!
Does that sound crazy?
Let me illustrate with an example.
I have this complete obsession with straight hair. Be it man or woman, whenever I behold a head with straight hair spewing out of it, I immediately feel the little green monster in me arise. I personally do not have a great opinion about my own bunch (why else would there be the green monster!) At the best comparison, I would call myself Medusa-ic.
What really incenses me is having those lucky buggers with straight hair come upto me and go gushing "Oh I wish I had your beautiful curly/wavy(according to them) hair. Oh your hair is so much more lovelier than mine!!"
Can't they see the snakes of Medusa? Incidents like these led me to the mirror experiment.
Does everyone feel weirdly scared when they keep staring at their own reflection for a long time? I once shared my mirror experience with my cousin who (to my utter surprise) immediately responded with a "You too??". Oh it was so heartening to know that I wasn't alone in the bandwagon. But probably it only runs in the family.
Has this ever happened to you? If not in the past, I invite you now to take a good long look at yourself and tell me what you feel!