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ShareFor a Thursday afternoon, the newsroom was unusually quiet. The only sound that broke the silence was the intermittent clicking of the mouse, which alternated with some lazy typing on the keyboard. And then, the packet arrived. In it was a book that not just brought cheer and laughter to that one afternoon, but also had its effects on the days that followed.
This was no profound book on life and its lessons. It was, in fact, couplets strung together to make a fat book. The couplets were alphabetically organised according to categories -- love, laughter, weight, sex, attitude, bravery and so on -- and were forced to rhyme.
Short, snippety and easy to remember, in no time the newsroom was giggling to these pearls. By evening, the tempo had built to such an extent that we were shushed into lowering our tones. The couplets came up as status messages on GTalk and Facebook. They were discussed over coffee in the canteen and peals of laughter travelled across the room in waves and even outside to the smokers' corner.
Inanities are not so inane, after all. Sometimes, all it takes to lighten the mood of the day is a dose of meaningless conversation. I have friends who, after a long day's work, meet at a pub and end up discussing the shape of the beer mug. Then the conversation veers to beer mugs around the world, then attractive coasters and, from there, to where one can find the world's best beer. Nothing intellectual -- simply allowing the conversation to flow and take any course it leads you to.
This book of couplets had done just that. It took our minds off deadlines and anything loaded with seriousness and, in its place, injected our thoughts with a dose of 'nothing in particular'. It's like the shifting of gears; asking the mind to slow down; to think the unthinkable; to do the absolutely insane.
We all need that time out when we can loosen up, let our hair down before we tuck it back into the clip. It's the time when we allow mirth to take charge so we can walk out of the structure for at least a while before getting back in. It's the exclamation mark that lifts an otherwise boring line.
Inanities are fun. We must open up to them.
Sumaa Tekur works with DNA.Sunday
