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An Inquisitive Mind!

Discussion in 'Cheeniya's Senile Ramblings' started by Cheeniya, Feb 21, 2019.

  1. Cheeniya

    Cheeniya Super Moderator Staff Member IL Hall of Fame

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    An inquisitive mind

    Please do not consider this as boasting. You know I am a modest man and I never talk about my road to stardom. I suddenly felt this urge to share with you my progress through the dark and deep woods. I have been a thinker right from my birth. When I was barely 3 years old, I started wondering why I would not be able to fly like a bird. I took a large towel and kept it behind me in my two arms. Waving it vigorously with my hands, I jumped from the top of the staircase and reached the ground faster than flying. There is no need to add that I broke my knees in the process and was in bandage for nearly a month. This start-up tragedy stood in the way of my aspiration to become the fastest guy in the school. Seeing me limping, a friend asked me why I was walking like a lame duck. I asked him if he had seen a lame duck walking. When he hummed and hawed, I raised my voice and told him that I wanted an answer in one word. My scared friend, who had never seen me so angry, admitted tamely that he had not seen even a healthy duck walking. ‘I have seen them only swimming’, he admitted with guilt written all over his face. That was me. I would never accept anything at face value even if my closest friend said it.

    By the end of my schooling, I acquired fame as an argumentative guy. Another friend of mine corrected them saying that I was not argumentative but a tireless questioner. That upset me and I amended my friend’s remark saying that I was not a tireless questioner but a relentless seeker of knowledge. I never wasted my time asking questions like if the egg came first or the chicken. It all depended on what you consumed first if you were served both egg and chicken curry.

    When I joined the Bank, staff members and customers kept a safe distance from me being unable to face my inquisitive mind. Once when a customer wanted to draw money in assorted denominations, I asked him why. Money was money in whatever denominations they were, I explained to him. He took me to the corner of my room and confessed to me in a broken voice that he too was of the same view but it was his wife’s instructions. He asked me ‘Would you ever disobey your wife particularly if she is double your size?’ There I got enlightened about a question that remained a mystery till then. When I handed over the notes to him as desired by him, I told him, ‘Wives I tell you!’ That cheered him up considerably and he warmly shook hands with me.

    Whenever I visited a Star Hotel for lunch or dinner, I would feel overawed by the size of the menu cards. When I asked the steward if they really had all the items listed therein or it was just a marketing gimmick. The steward looked on either side and whispered to me that many customers went through the menu card meticulously and ordered for a cup of coffee. From what he told me, I could further gather that some of the items written in non-English names held the customers spellbound. Some of them even asked the steward how to pronounce the names of those items before ordering for their cup of coffee. ‘I’ll have finger chips and a cold coffee’, I told him. ‘You mean French fries?’ he asked me and jotted down my order. As he was about to walk off, I asked him if he had any idea why it was called French fry. ‘Search me Sir’, he answered and added that I might get some info about it in Wikipedia!

    I have now reached a stage (or age) when I have more answers waiting to gush out of my mouth but nobody is asking me any questions. ‘Don’t bother grandpa with all your silly questions. You may find all answers in Wikipedia’, my daughter tells my grandchildren. Wikipedia has indeed become a super grandpa!
     
    Last edited: Aug 1, 2020
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  2. satchitananda

    satchitananda IL Hall of Fame

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    Dear CS,

    I could not help but laugh when I pictured with a towel over your arms trying to fly! Inappropriate response, I agree, but ..... Am sorry about that. :)

    Talk of inquisitive minds, I had an extremely inquisitive one. I had to ask, know, look, see, touch ..... but I had it beaten out of me literally and figuratively in good time (for my parents). I don't know where I got that streak from, given that neither of my parents were so inquisitive. I also had a day dreamer's mind (something like what you are witnessing here on this forum) and the teachers at school made sure they beat it out of my skull. For many years I lived like a zombie, neither questioning - all formulae are empirical - nor dreaming. What could one dream of (I was not Kekule to dream up the structure of benzene) or to question if one was forced to accept that a certain bloke called Coulomb had already worked out that the force between two charged particles is the inverse of 4Pi Epsilon zero r squared? Mine not to question why, mine not to reason why, mine is to learn or die. And so I bravely charged into the valley of death and eventually gave up anything to do with inquisitions. Though unexpressed the questions always danced inside my head, making a huge racket and giving me migraines. Just where did he dream up this faboulous number from? How did they fix the value of constants before applying them to things they discovered? Why was it empirical? If it was deduced from observations, should nobody be able to explain all that to me?:BangHead::BangHead::BangHead::BangHead::BangHead: Why? Even light travelled in straight lines as long as I was in school and then suddenly did a wavy dance once I was in junior college. As for matter, their electrons or whatever - nobody could even say where they were. What kind of matter was this? It was obvious that it did not really matter.

    As a daughter, I faced many inquisitions and was often caught doing what I should not have been doing. As a dil, I avoided such questions through silence. Now when my students ask me why some verbs in German are separable and others not, or why the letter must be signed on the left and not the right, I tell them it is that way and not to ask too many questions!!! :p

    To your question about denominations, I desperately try to get the new currency notes - 50s, 100s, 200s. Why? I am bored of the old ones. After all the drama of those two months, I should at least experience the joy of new ones, right? So you have your answer. Now, sir, if you would kindly oblige with all my questions about things that matter and things that don't, I would be greatly obliged.
     
  3. Viswamitra

    Viswamitra IL Hall of Fame

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    Dear Cheeniya Sir,

    I am surprised by your action of having a towel and trying to fly when you were young. Movies of Superman was not even conceptualized at that stage and you demonstrated more creative instinct than the Hollywood writers. Your action reminded me of a joke in a movie when a person asks a comedian to differentiate between a man and superman, he responds, "Man wears his underwear inside his pant whereas superman wears his underwear above the pant". Please find below an image of Superman.

    [​IMG]

    When I started questioning anything and everything, I had my father and brother to answer most of my questions. I was worshiping them for knowing everything I didn't know. I get upset only when they refuse to solve my math problem stating that I should use my brain a little to solve similar problems.

    When you were dispensing the multiple denominations, perhaps, you imagined a cashless society foreseeing the future. :) Even now, I am surprised by the Menu cards in the restaurants as most of them through a challenge how to pronounce them leave alone ordering them.

    So, you have more answers now than questions but there are no takers. I am looking up to you to prepare myself for that stage.

    Viswa
     
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  4. Mistt

    Mistt IL Hall of Fame

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    Hi uncle, I enjoyed your write up thoroughly.
    :roflmao:. Your cute adventure reminds me of my childhood. When I was 5 years old, I thought I could touch moon from top of the any 2 storey building or climb up any tall tree. I realized truth slowly.:smile:

    I am very grateful to Google founders ( Larry Page and Sergey Brin) and Wikipedia inventors ( Jimmy wales and Larry Sanger) for finding answers to my questions without asking anyone.
     
    Last edited: Feb 21, 2019
  5. shyamala1234

    shyamala1234 Platinum IL'ite

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    Dear Cheeniya sir,
    Inquisitiveness... relentless seeker of knowledge sounds very good and true also in your case. Storehouse of knowledge and wisdom.
    In big hotels, yes the menu book(it is not card ) is huge. In New Jersey we went to an Italian restaurant and their
    Steward also explains the recipe in English with Italian accent, of what ingredients it is made!!!! Cannot understand a single word. Ended up with eating boiled (almost raw) vegetables.
    Because we do daily purchase of vegetables, fruits etc. we need notes of smaller denominations. If I give him a 2000 rs. note how would he give me the change? That must be the plight of the gentleman in bank. His wife knows the practical problem.
    Finally.... No Wikipedia or Google can replace a tatha and that too a tatha like you who is a great story teller!
    Syamala
     
  6. Cheeniya

    Cheeniya Super Moderator Staff Member IL Hall of Fame

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    @satchitananda
    My dear Satchi
    What is inappropriate about it? There is a laughable side to every incident of our life. If a person slips on a banana peel in the road, we laugh automatically. We laugh more if the victim is fat (like me). That's why I don't fall in front of all and sundry. I fall only in front of those who I want to be happy and laughing.
    Archimedes was such a genius that he kept thinking of something or other even during his bath. His 'Eureka' was no empty shout from the bath tub but a shout of a genius. His parents probably knocked their heads on the door of their son's bathroom dismayed by his stupidity. Ramanujam's mother could not even keep an account of the dues to be paid!
    Did you notice something about this man? Though bearing the surname August, he missed it by a few days both at his birth and death! And you did the right thing in not wasting your dreams on silly things.
    I am reminded of Rodin. You would have been a more appropriate model for his 'Thinker' than the stupid crouching man.
    Sri
     
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  7. Cheeniya

    Cheeniya Super Moderator Staff Member IL Hall of Fame

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    @Viswamitra
    My dear Viswa
    Striking Viswa! It was a red towel that was supposed to launch me skywards and I see superman having the same colour! When I fell down, I threw the towel away in anger and disgust. See how Superman got hold of it!
    This is an age-old trick. Whenever my daughters asked my questions for which I had no answer, I used to fire them saying, 'Can't you see I am busy with something more important than answering your questions?'
    Don't worry. That honour will be thrust on you in another decade or so!
    Sri
     
  8. Cheeniya

    Cheeniya Super Moderator Staff Member IL Hall of Fame

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    @Mistt
    My dear Mistt
    Thanks a lot for rolling on the floor laughing! I feel encouraged to come up more such nonsense.
    You are lucky but truth has remained elusive all my life! But let me tell you this. Truth is a big bore. It seriously erodes your imagination. Beware of truth!
    Sri
     
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  9. Cheeniya

    Cheeniya Super Moderator Staff Member IL Hall of Fame

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    @shyamala1234
    My dear Syamala
    I am a 'snorehouse' of knowledge. If I take up anything serious for reading, I start snoring. If I am forced to read a serious book, I stick a Breatheasy on my nose to avoid snoring!
    In some hotels, they are called 'starters', Boiled vegetables are saviours of life if you happen to dine in a hotel in China!
    Ah! Now how to live up to that description? Must check up with Wikipedia!
    Sri
     

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