Ruchira's Ramblings

If wishes were horses... Napowrimo2019 Day 7 prompt from napowrimo.net: "Our prompt for the day (optional, as always) is inspired by Rachel McKibbens, who posted these thoughts on her Twitter account a few months back: 'What do you deserve? Name it. All of it. What are you ready to let go of? Name that too. Then name the most gentle gift for yourself. Name the brightest song your body’s ever held. Summon joy like you would a child; call it home. It wanders, yes. But it’s still yours.' Today, we’d like to challenge you to write a poem of gifts and joy. What would you give yourself, if you could have anything? What would you give someone else?" Happy wishing to all of you.

Last week, someone I knew on Facebook posted a Calvin & Hobbes cartoon.   It was one I had seen before- did I mention I was a big Calvin & Hobbes fan?- and shared with my academic friends, sort of as a light-hearted in-joke- a nostalgic reminder of our experiences as clueless students trying to hand in assignments within looming deadlines. As one classmate very memorably said on encountering a discomfiting question- “What’s the point of studying literature for all these years if you can’t use the language to fib and improvise?” Strangely enough, I had never seen this joke as a specifically literary one, but found its humour revolving around the fact that Calvin didn’t actually know anything substantial to say about the subject. As a teacher one knows that the less a student has studied, the more likely she is to “inflate weak ideas, obscure pure reasoning” and write longer and more convoluted sentences. However, my Facebook friend graced this little strip with a...

“Lend you my batmobile? You gotta be kidding, right?” The Batman exclaimed, glaring at me with equal amounts of outrage and disbelief. “You’re taking the batcopter, so you can spare-” “Do you even know how to hold a steering wheel?” “Don’t think there are any flipper compatible ones, Bruce,” the CatWoman sniggered, “I dare say even Wayne Industries is yet to come up with one.” I ignored the collective jibes that followed and tried to plead once more. “I can peck at the button controls. Look, how else am I going to deliver gifts in time to so many people?” How does Santa do it every year, anyway? Note to Self: Find out working up plans from reindeers. Must find one first though, opposite poles! “I don’t care,” Batman replied, “You’re not going anywhere near any of my cars.” This is so damn selfish! He’s supposed to help people. Well, perhaps he doesn’t consider me to be people enough.:( “Then let me come with you,” I said, “I’ll help you rescue Santa and someone else amongst yo...