Friday 24 January 2014

Tick tick 10, and done!


It’s strange how, when the clock is ticking before your eyes prodding you to write, your mind goes blank. Dead-lines! Some call them life-lines, I don’t call them anything. All I know right now? The clock is ticking, and I have 10 minutes to write. Certainly not the end of the world beyond the 10 minutes but there is pressure. To complete a task. To produce something worthwhile. Gah! Typical!

But the mind is blank, so I look around for clues.

I can see my son’s toys are yet to be minded. They are basking in comfortable glory on the dining table where he was playing before he left for school, and where I sit and write. No order in disorder for me. I like to keep things neat. Organized. But today, I am yet to. I should do it once I’m done with this. Especially since I like things in their place. Plus, this is a dining table!

A dining table. Ever realized how it is symbolic of a certain ‘getting together’, of a certain convergence of the family for a common cause – a cause which is as basic and as essential as eating? It’s not the food that is served which matters the most. It is the fact that everyone is around a “fulcrum”. With chairs, designated chairs, for each member of the family. How this designation comes about, I have no clue. But it’s there. We have our chairs. We automatically sit in our places when we are ready to eat. We know our places. Sub-consciously.

The sub-conscious interests me. Freud told me all about it, and more. But what amazes me is how impressions are formed even when we don’t realize it. So, I may think therefore I am, but what about a sub-conscious which is “beyond” my hold, my grasp? As I type, I am conscious of the ticking time, the milk boiling on the gas and the slices of bread in the toaster. A little tick-tick I hear coming from it too as it browns my bread. Or is it just the stop watch ticking in my sub-conscious mind? All that my senses capture affects me. Inside. See? Big word comes to mind – Existential. And I hope I spelled that right!

I look at the time. Says nearly up.

Pressure again. And I can barely think, forget writing for other eyes. Or am I thinking too much? I’m racing my fingers on the key board. Click click tick tick is all I hear, and a fighter plane practising Republic Day parade. But why? Why am I stressing to fill this A4 up? Two sentences would have been enough too, right? Do we try to fill our lives with men and material in the same manner? Pack it up knowing the end is round the corner, or far. But sure that it will come? So that means more is less, and less is even lesser. We need more and ask for more. We even fret for more. More words, more people, more things, more love, more claps, more bling.

The last 15 seconds, of 10 minutes when I just did not think. I only typed – more and more and more. And the dreadful feeling that I cannot even edit.

Whoever says ‘brilliant’ for this will be a proven liar.

The milk boiled over. I got my timing all wrong.

But done. Full stop.

[Written for WordPress Daily Prompts : 365 Writing Prompts aimed at posting at least once a day, based on the prompts provided. The prompt for today was Ready, set, go - Set a timer for ten minutes. Open a new post. Start the timer, and start writing. When the timer goes off, publish.]



23 comments:

  1. Ok, so it wasn't brilliant. But considering the tight time frame and the effort you put into making a rambling yet meaningful post , I will say it's turned out well. I know and have read of people who with 10 hours have come up with far crazier posts. So you have, once again, proven your writing prowess. Well done Sakshi, far from your best work but considering the challenge - pretty awesomely executed and interlinked. Now go get that milk off the stove.

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    1. Truth be told - made no effort to 'make it rambling yet meaningful'. But if that did happen, then you can say your 'brilliant' 100 per cent. :P Thanks, Sid. The milk did boil over, and certainly more than a pint. But the toast was just perfect. :D

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  2. I love such posts. They make a wonderful read! I can feel a connection :D

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    1. 'Feel a connection' sounds good. What else can a writer hope for?
      Thanks, Pooja. :)

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  3. Here are my take aways from this post provided you were brutally honest and just typed out whatever came to your mind in those 10 mins -
    1 - You are an organized person which is why N's toys lying around on the dining table troubled you
    2 - You wonder about how we subconsciously assign places and positions to people which is why you wonder why people sit where they actually do at the dining table
    3 - You are a bad cook as if you toasted bread for 10 mins, that is, well unpalatable, and the milk also boiled over
    4 - You are an 'editing freak' for lack of a better word.

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    Replies
    1. I put in the commas and stops later, but the rest was indeed me racing against time. So you got a sneak peak into me did you? Well, streams of my consciousness were bound to do that. Point 3 I take offence. But if you call toasting bread 'cooking' I give that offence back to you. I am an editing freak. Period.
      By the way, the toast was perfect. Who said I put it in before I began the post? :)
      Thanks a lot. You really read me well! :D

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  4. Errm...ok, then. At least there weren't any grammatical mistakes except the one I saw.

    But yes, I could hear the clock tick and smell the toast, well, toast as I read this.

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    1. What would I do without you, Rickie. :)
      And despite the mistake (where?) If you could smell the toast and hear the tick dare I ask for more?

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  5. Stream of consciousness, of life and musings. Good

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    1. Thank you, Ritu ma'am. Streams of consciousness indeed. :)

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  6. O, I can relate to this part - "And the dreadful feeling that I cannot even edit."
    Well said!

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    1. Then I am ready to be your best friend, Beloo. I only edit 31 times. Next birthday onwards, it will be 32. And so on. You? ;)
      Thanks for stopping by!

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  7. You know I liked this post. Simply because it talked about so many mundane things we see, hear, feel and how those things are placed in our lives, how we connect with them, how we connect them to people around us.

    I liked it!

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    1. You really found a flow of meaning in my post, something which even I was yet to see. Thanks, Kajal. This comment I love.
      And great to know you liked it! :)

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  8. Brilliant! As I said on your previous, your thought process is admirable. Also, I dare you to label me a liar. So there!

    Dagny

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    Replies
    1. I cannot label you a liar. We are related, or going to be. :D
      Thanks, Dagny. A 'brilliant' from you means a lot.

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  9. This I believe is the only truthful 10 minutes post I've ever read. That's exactly what can be written in 10 minutes on a clean slate. Loved it. Especially Existential.

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  10. That was actually a very cool ten-minutes ride.... On the face of it, what takes you 10 minutes to write doesn't take us ten minutes to read, yet it is so full os subtle references to you as an individual, just as Jairam has rightly observed above. You are indeed good with what you write, and 10 minutes can't make your article any less bright. Good take on the prompt, Sakshi :)

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    Replies
    1. Sorry for the typo ' os' for 'of' :) and 'just' 10 minutes can't diminish the brightness of what you write , that's what I meant ( I doubt the last sentence provides some scope for ambiguity :D )

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    2. How interesting. I never thought of it that way. My time taken to write is not equal to your time taken to read. Hm. I knew this would be full of references to me as a person. It could not have been anything but streams of thought. It is a technique I want to be good at one day - of showing a character just by the character's mind. The 'bright' gets me very encouraged!
      (Forget the typos. I did not see them at all!)

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  11. I think it's good you plan your posts, at least a remedy for procrastination, I'm guilty of that. I end up not doing nethg. Gonna try it from today itself.
    Cheerz

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    Replies
    1. Good idea, Vishal. Good luck with that! :)

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