Captured by : PG2. ANCHOR - Life is a side-dish_1
Before the kid goes for the maths exam, I advise to him, ‘Do a neat rough-work column. Do your rough-work there. And do it neatly so that you can re-check’. By now, he knows this routine, so he mostly completes the sentence for me. So, when I meet him after exams, my first question is ‘Did you do the rough-work column?’ Yes. I am That. Other. Mother. If I can, I might even say that they should allow a rough-work column for the languages. Yes. I am again, That. Other. Mother. And when I am given this answer paper to see on open day, I see the rough-work column too. Yes, again. The. Same. Other. Mother.
What is my fascination with rough-work column you ask? Well, I wish life has a rough-work column. I definitely would have much use for it for when I was a young girl, not knowing any better. A little girl growing up could do wonders with our rough-work columns “ solving, then cancelling it and solving all over again, till we reach, what we believe is the correct answer. Not that becoming an adult has made me know any better. We all need that little space where we can work out our problems (see, how similar Maths is to life?) before we give the final answer. We could use it for step-by-step working, using formulae of life, working-out what seems like confusing matters, finding the perennially lost x.
If life gives me a rough-work column, I will strive to keep it neat. Because I am sure, I will need to revisit it often. Like for every time, when I am stuck at my relationships, which are just equations coupled with emotions; my neat rough-work column could help me re-check and possibly figure out where I went wrong. I would use the rough-work column for those pesky moments, when I have screamed Mother-Banshee like at the kids. In my rough-work column, I would work out the step-by-step tutorial that Mother-Banshees NEVER get to solve the situation. One of the times that I would most use my rough-work column would be to conjure up some tasty food dish when a) either I don’t have time or b) when I don’t have the required ingredients or c) when I don’t have either. I would actually do a trial run to make something on-the-go in my neat rough-work column. It will be quite interesting to sauté some onions, chop some veggies, add in the spices and then add a bit of lemon zest “ all in the rough-work column. And viola! I will have the Chef’s Special ready, without anyone looking at my rough-work column.
I wonder if perhaps life does give one a rough-work column for some. Because I happen to know so many who are ever generous with time and effort, elegant even in their woes and remain pure at heart always. These people, perhaps, might have a rough-work column where they work-out their emotions, their relationships and show the final solution only to the world. Kids are another set of people who have wear their rough-work columns on their sleeves “ everything is on display, the hurts, the joys, the words “ and what do kids finally show us? Just pure, raw emotion of the moment, uncluttered by the ties of other equations. They can do so as they have worked out their problems in their rough-work columns as against us adults, who are never sure which equation is getting in the way of another.
And while I am asking for the rough-work column, I think I should also further a request for some life rules and then the exceptions for those rules. And include a tutorial too with detailed answers.
Sonia Kuncalienker is an avid writer on matters that have no importance to anyone in the universe
