A day's off, after six days of rigorous sameness at work. On the workday that follows (for me usually a Wednesday), you tend to be more receptive to the impulses from the surroundings.I find it difficult to stop myself from going into an imaginative mood, when the bus heading to my work place moves smoothly on the Diplomatic Avenue, embassies and high commissions of various countries on both sides of the road still in sleep.
You have options, how you want to utilise the time, rather than sitting idle on the moving vehicle and reassuring yourself the authenticity of Newton's laws of inertia, inertia of rest and motion.
You can try to remember the National flags of different countries. You read the name of the embassy on the gate and jump eyes to the flag on top of the building. I believe the subconscious mind will record the two in two related memory cells in your brain. Remembering them will not help much in living your life. But it can save you from many embarrassing situations, especially when you are spending time with a quiz-kid who has decided to test you GK...
Or you can add to your prejudices about the countries by reading the features of the embassy structure. Embassies are the symbols of pride of the respective nations.
The US embassy is the most guarded one...there are chances that the first timers will mistake the Pakistan High Commission, thinking it a mosque...you can find the longest queue of Visa applicants with the maximum number of Sardar in front of the Canadian embassy...miniature world tour...
"I need to go to Belgian embassy, which stop do I have to get down?"
"I do not have any idea. I am also a newcomer."
The conversation dragged my senses back inside. I tried to recall the position of the embassy of Belgium.
That's the last embassy on the right side of the road; it took some time to work it out.
But before I could respond, an assurance came from the elderly man sitting parallel to me, in the other row.
"Do not worry, I will tell you when it comes." It was not a difficult guess that he was blind ("visually impaired"?), he was wearing a pair of black goggles (on a winter morning) and holding a foldable stick.
I became curious. But proving my suspicions false, he delivered a proper instruction to the enquirer to progress towards the exit just before we reached the embassy. "You will have just to cross the road, it's on the right side of the road," the blind man emphasised.
The whole episode refreshed a question I have been fostering in my mind for a long time. "How can one who does not have sight be so precise?"
I tried to be polite enough to ensure that my question does not hurt him. He turned to me with a big smile.
"I can understand what you want to ask. My son let me assure you that having eyes is not a necessary and sufficient condition for being able to see."
After pausing for a while, as if to arrange the words he said," If you have a strong desire to see, you can do that
even without your eyes."
"Do not mind, but are you sure you sighted ones see everything in front of your eyes?" That was really a big question mark to push me back into "please wait, request in process" mode.
Do we???
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