“I know , but lets talk about something else for the time being. I don’t want to think about cold” – the rabbit responds.
“Ok.. what do u want to talk about?”
“Anything.”
So they talk about anything.
A wave of cold hits the mouse again after a while.
“Really, you are ok with this temperature? I feel we should adjust the thermostat”
“Yes I am ok… you see my fur? I am afraid I will be uncomfortably hot if you increased the temperature” - the rabits says after a long pause , after realising that the question isnt rhetorical and the mouse is indeed expecting a reply.
“So you are saying you can’t take out the fur, at all? Never? So you never feel so hot to want to take off the fur?” - says the surprised mouse.
“Ok all this talk has made the room much hotter than before. I can’t breathe”
“Maybe we should open up a window for fresh air?" - says the mouse, genuinely concerned now for the rabbit not thinking of the cold wind that would come in from the window.
“Sure, great idea! Here, I opened it” - says the rabbit , now standing in front of the window and breathing normally again.
“Ok with this window open, i dont think this automatic tuning of thermostat is enough. Really wouldnt a little more warmth be better? Can we adjust the thermostat please. And winter is approaching too…” - slowly speaks the mouse after not being able to withstand the very cold room now...which has been getting colder ever since opening of the window.
“I don’t know what to say. I already told you about my fur. Remember I have fur? And if you are cold …maybe you should change the room”
“But... but I like it here. I don’t know if its perfect but I am comfortable here. Yeah sure I feel the roof will leak sometime, the chairs will break… but I know the colour of the walls, I know the print of the bedspread.
Ok tell you what, lets not touch the thermostat.. Lets keep it at what it is, a little above room temperature for that warmth that we both feel ok with” - sighs the mouse
“Well… now that you mention it I think I need to turn the heat down actually. I need to open the door as well. I am having difficulty breathing again. Maybe we should go out of the room back to the path we came from. We eventually would have to move out of the room , right? Now is a good time to do that" - suggests the rabbit, trying to provide a clear direction to the predicament that it thinks the mouse is expecting to be resolved.
“And whys that?” - utters the confused mouse , thinking about how the rabbit wanted to enjoy both warmth of the room and the cold from the open window , wondering if the idea of eventually closing the window of the room could have transpired this thought of opening the door as well, or quitting the room altogether.
“Because … You are a mouse. I am a rabbit”
“But I was always a mouse! Even when you found me and stopped me in my way to walk together, even when we entered this room!” - says the shocked and exasperated mouse
“Because …because... err you are brown, I am white. You fit in a hole, i dont”
The mouse closes its eyes. Closes its ears. Shuts off everything.
The rabbit decides to wait till this passes.
And now the thermostat is broken. Beyond repair. The doors are open. The rabbit is out but is still peeping in through the window.
The mouse has taken a leap...not in the direction it was hoping for.....jumping out of the cosy cushion on that not so perfect chair (that it loved, inspite of the chair missing back support), earlier than it expected but confused....confused for the smell of death hovers around its head, yet it doesnt feel dead.....and so scurries out of the room.
The room now is empty.
The same room which the rabbit and the mouse had stumbled upon without realization after months of travelling together on the path of playful leaps, boring naps, stimulating jumps...and had liked so much that they even stopped looking out of the window.
You see when they started walking together, the rabbit didn’t know the path travelled together led to this room and the mouse didn’t know it ended there.
22 comments:
i am having one of those zen moments,when i have this weird sensation that something profound is being said, but unfortunately it has whizzed past even before I realized that.
Well written whatever you have written.
But Sorrie, i missed the point or was that the point.
The vagaries of a life spent together far outbeat the very thing that brings us together; unconditional love.
Brilliant stuff!!! You wrote it? As per my perception, I understood some of the message... but still missing out on understanding the whole story :(
If the message is quite simple, then I think I am more dumb that I perceived myself to be :)
Ok guys, i have to admit that i didnt think it would come out as that cryptic....Did i go too far this time in trying not to be so obvious??
Have added some more words... hope it pulls down the "incomprehensible-status" of this post..
Lemme know either ways.
TFT Aloud: Ahem....(polite) cough cough, good, i understand now,
TFT In the mind: What has she changed? But better not to argue with.....
I think this is a brilliant piece!!
Correct me if i am wrong - I see the thermostat as the intensity meter of a developing relationship and the fur as the fear of committing. So while the rabbit comes with the fur inherently, the mouse doesnt! And ultimately takes the easy option of jumping out of the room when faced with a possibility of having to take off his fur??
And the death - i am sure, yes sure, that it referred in some way to the spirit of the mouse, the spirit which makes it believe in the goodness of others around. And i hope that the mouse mourning it by being alive simply means that the mouse is celebrating its own goodness rather finding the same in others
Tell me i am not too off the mark!
Damn, you are making me break the habit of being silent, and very frequently so lately!
But i dont mind, as far as you keep writing such stuff, my dear mouse :P
@ Shoe String - You must be good in solving the cryptic crosswords, right? :)
I appreciate ur breaking ur vow of silence for me. Really.
:O
Hun?? :O
oh now I i\understand..:D
@shoe string..thanks for the decrypted version man...:D
@...gina..brilliant...:D :p
you ppl make me realize about my...ahem...obvious dumbness..:D
@ Zubin - You are not dumb, i am too crazy to be understood by normal people :P
Much ado about Nothing, seems the apt title or rather the gist, Ms. Rabbit. btw since when rabbits and mouse have started becomg friends? the both are like rounded marbles, perfect as individuals, imperfect when together...
@ Sane Insane - You misunderstood... anyway like i said the reader has all the right to interpret the piece as he wants/deems fit.
@ Sane Insane - By the way, i just read it again with ur perspective and to my surprise, it makes perfect sense even when you do the role reversal...(although it becomes a totally different story , but a story nevertheless!)
Except for the fact that the mouse (the male in ur interpreted version of the story) basically betrays the tendency to seek variety ..when it talks about being comfortable in the room(the familiar souuroundings) and not wanting to explore any further than this ... and this, my dear reader is something which isnt a characteristic of the typical male behaviour... Wouldnt u say?
Heck I've been making a reply since friday. cant find enough time to complete. And anyways seems you do not answer my comemnts :P
@ Stupidosaur - Hey..thats not true about not responding to ur comments... I think i almost always do....except for the times when u leave me speechless :D
Go on... write what you were planning to.... i really want to know what you have to say.
Given the fact that different people here have interpreted it differently , i am curious to know if this reading makes any sense after all or not.
Here is the incomplete interpretation. Don't know when I will get time to complete. Not even answering comments on my own blog :(
//“Its getting cold in here”
Two people. Without anything tangible changing, are losing the warmth that once was. One person feels it and says it out loud.
//“I know , but lets talk about something else for the time being. I don’t want to think about cold” – the rabbit responds.
“Ok.. what do u want to talk about?”
“Anything.”
So they talk about anything.
Escaping that reality.
//“Yes I am ok… you see my fur? I am afraid I will be uncomfortably hot if you increased the temperature”
One of the persons always sees own interests. Selfish. Not even capable of attempting to comprehend the other persons needs and situation.
Or maybe the other person is used to the coldness of emotions. Even a little warmth makes the person uncomfortable. Psychological problem. Some guys have this I think.
//“Ok all this talk has made the room much hotter than before. I can’t breathe”
Like we said, the person cant handle emotions. So the discussion about the developing vaccum of emotions in teh relationship, which is a discussion that itself needs EQ, makes the person withdraw further
//“Maybe we should open up a window for fresh air?" - says the mouse, genuinely concerned now for the rabbit not thinking of the cold wind that would come in from the window.
Wonders, "Damn how can a person be like this?"
//“Sure, great idea! Here, I opened it” - says the rabbit , now standing in front of the window and breathing normally again.
The problem person has only one way of handling the situation - diversions, like maybe vacations or movies or whatevers, which tend to create illusion of activity and interaction, but still are "Full" of "Vaccum" if the basics of the relations dynamics are still the same. They are just are the gushes of cold wind through the window. But to the problem person it brings a sense of releif at 1)trying to contribute to the problem solution 2) Well if you look at it, the activities are supposed to be fun really.
“Ok with this window open, this automatic tuning of thermostat is not good enough. I need the room to be warmer. Winter is approaching now…”
'Mouse' is uncomfortable with
ahh..com'on..different ppl..different interpretations..and I can't even come up with ONE..!! :D
thats ought to be dumb..!! :D
@ Stupidosaur - Hey, you are very close to the original idea :) .. with only few exceptions here and there. But then I don't know what would have been the gist, had you completed the interpretation!! :P
@ Zubin - Awww... dont be so harsh on yourself... like is said i get hit by these moments of insanity sometimes :)
The other readers being the kind souls they are, are just trying to make me feel otherwise by offering interpretations, you see!
Hi!
We aren't really acquainted to each other... but I thought it might help release your anger if I share this with u...
I was also a rabbit not so very long ago... & I'm still evolving into the mouse even now as I write this comment here... still trying to get rid of all the protective fur around me, which as I'm sure u understand very well, was developed in response to the hostility experienced from the cold world outside!
Not trying to make an excuse for the rabbits, but it's just that some people are able to adapt to the cold climates very comfortably, whereas others (like me, yeah!) freeze up from the inside. Icebergs, u know! And then we develop this coat of fur around us, 'coz we no longer wanna depend on the outside world for keeping us warm. And the more brutally we hv been hit by the cold winds in the past, the thicker the coat becomes. And if we are repeatedly hit by cold waves, we develop layers after layers of the coat.
Asking a rabbit to shed off his/her fur is like asking them to strip naked in front of the whole city! They'd rather die than make themselves so vulnerable! People who have the softest core are the ones most likely to turn into rabbits! The most sensitive souls who hv been brutally hurt in the past... maybe more than once...
No one is born a rabbit. Something happens that forces us to turn into one.
As for the rabbit interacting again with other species on the same road.... well... some, like me, decide that it is not realistically possible to have your cake & eat it too! so they either drop the idea of sharing that room with someone, or drop their fur instead.
Some others are more foolishly optimistic... which cud be due to some planetary influences (check their horoscope if u will)... & they continue carrying their iced hearts on the edge of their sleeves, hoping they'll eventually find someone who can make them feel safe enough to let go of the armor!
It has nothing to do with YOUR color or YOU in anyway. It's more of an internal thing with the rabbits. Living like a mouse is what we are meant to do... its the natural state for us... and we all have guides n angels who help us acquire that state... AT OUR OWN SWEET PACE THOUGH!
I remember... for years, everyone around me has been using all forms of "saam-daam-dand-bhed" to make me enter the room with someone, but I just couldn't do it! And then suddenly 1 day, just a few months ago, I woke up & found myself ready to take on the entire world! Without my fur, yeah! I hv no clue how or why it happened, but it did! Just like that!
And now the mouse in your story has 2 choices...
a. Seems that it's a sensitive soul, so it can follow the footsteps of the rabbit & develop this coat of fur around its own body, so it doesn't get cold again!
OR
b. It can take inspiration from the Sun instead & turn itself into a powerful orb of light that can help not only this rabbit but also millions of other rabbits around the world to evolve into their natural state (mouse) again!
Loads of love...
'A fellow blogger'
Anon - Hey..thanks for taking time out to write your perspective... and providing me with a very fresh one to view the whole situation.
First of all, i am glad that the transition happened for you :) I am sure you would life more fulfilling this way.
For the options as mentioned by you
a. I dont think mouse can ever grow its own fur... for the simple reason that its not made that way. While now it can understand that some creatures need it, but it still is pretty sure it would take the cold anyday over getting a fur. The fur is not for the mouse. Its as simple as that.
b. Now thats a good thought. But here's the thing. Mouse tried...and tried some more. But then had to draw the line somewhere. You see, it can only take insipiration from the sun, can not become the sun itself.
Yeah one more thing - The mouse still likes the rabbit for various other things..just that it has decided to do that from a distance now
Post a Comment