John was an ordinary kid. In fact, there was nothing about him that was worth noticing. Even his name was the same as one out of five people in the US of A. If only his parents had named him a Joaquin or a Jabeel or a Jason, things might have been a tad better perhaps.
He just blended into the milieu without any effort. When he was four years old, his parents decided to take him to the local fair. They drove all the way to the fair in their brand new car. They walked up the ticket counter and asked for two and half tickets.
"Why do you need the extra half Sir?", enquired the polite guy behind the counter. It was only then that they realized that they had actually left John at home. And they had thought he was with them all the time.
This was not the only time he had faced this problem. There were umpteen number of times during his teenage when his friends had actually made plans without including him. They would always meet up at the local coffee shop before proceeding to their destination from there. They would invariably leave without him. Not because they did not care for him; he was after all a long time friend. But they just didn't notice he wasn't there. Not a very comfortable position for our protagonist you say. And you would be right.
After twenty years of this treatment meted out to him, John could bear it no longer. It was not that he was dumb or anything. He was a kid of about average IQ. He was modest looking. His height and weight fell right in the median of the height and weight distribution chart of America's teenage provided by the local health department. But that was the crux the problem.
One day he started to do something out of the ordinary. He wanted to prove to the world that he could do something different. Heck, he wanted to do it to prove to it himself. And he started walking in a circle. At first it was a large circle and he was just walking at an easy pace. Once he got into the groove, he started speeding up. Faster and faster he went. It was a heady feeling. He felt a little out of balance, but at this point it was getting interesting. He could feel the tug of the centrifugal force trying to throw him off course. But he kept at it determinedly. And then he did something utterly unthinkable. He started spiraling towards towards the centre of the circle going faster and faster at the same time. He was now 'high' with the centrifugal force. It was an unimaginable high that you and me cannot comprehend. And he kept at this for a long time. Until his legs could take it no longer. When he finally collapsed on the ground, this return to reality was a wonderful if painful feeling.
And that was the beginning of John 'The Centrifugal' Junkie. Whenever he got the time or the inclination, he got into his habit of doing the circle. At first, he friend's were shocked, even stupefied. But, finally notice they did of him. And what a feeling it was to be noticed. Gradually, everybody in the neighbourhood started talking about him. Crowds used to gather around to spectate this curious if bizarre incident everyday. Then the news spread to school and everybody was talking about 'The Centrifugal Junkie'. He was unstoppable phenomenon. He could go on for hours on end without food or a nature's call. It was amazing, the determination of this lad.
And then someone suggested to him, why just do circles. So he started trying out squares, rectangles, Pentagons, and Hexagons. As he got bolder, he started to experiment with irregular polygons, twisted circles, and shapes we don't even have names for. John tried it all. After days of experimenting on various shapes in the two dimensions, he looked for uneven land like slopes of hills, so that he could add the third dimension to his experiments. When he thought he had done it all, he went back to his beloved circle. He knew that he had finally found his true calling.
And that my friends, is the end of this delightful story of determination, fighting against all odds, sheer grit, rising up from the ashes and to conquer the world, and more importantly discovering one's free spirit, and above all giving vent to one's innate creativity.
He just blended into the milieu without any effort. When he was four years old, his parents decided to take him to the local fair. They drove all the way to the fair in their brand new car. They walked up the ticket counter and asked for two and half tickets.
"Why do you need the extra half Sir?", enquired the polite guy behind the counter. It was only then that they realized that they had actually left John at home. And they had thought he was with them all the time.
This was not the only time he had faced this problem. There were umpteen number of times during his teenage when his friends had actually made plans without including him. They would always meet up at the local coffee shop before proceeding to their destination from there. They would invariably leave without him. Not because they did not care for him; he was after all a long time friend. But they just didn't notice he wasn't there. Not a very comfortable position for our protagonist you say. And you would be right.
After twenty years of this treatment meted out to him, John could bear it no longer. It was not that he was dumb or anything. He was a kid of about average IQ. He was modest looking. His height and weight fell right in the median of the height and weight distribution chart of America's teenage provided by the local health department. But that was the crux the problem.
One day he started to do something out of the ordinary. He wanted to prove to the world that he could do something different. Heck, he wanted to do it to prove to it himself. And he started walking in a circle. At first it was a large circle and he was just walking at an easy pace. Once he got into the groove, he started speeding up. Faster and faster he went. It was a heady feeling. He felt a little out of balance, but at this point it was getting interesting. He could feel the tug of the centrifugal force trying to throw him off course. But he kept at it determinedly. And then he did something utterly unthinkable. He started spiraling towards towards the centre of the circle going faster and faster at the same time. He was now 'high' with the centrifugal force. It was an unimaginable high that you and me cannot comprehend. And he kept at this for a long time. Until his legs could take it no longer. When he finally collapsed on the ground, this return to reality was a wonderful if painful feeling.
And that was the beginning of John 'The Centrifugal' Junkie. Whenever he got the time or the inclination, he got into his habit of doing the circle. At first, he friend's were shocked, even stupefied. But, finally notice they did of him. And what a feeling it was to be noticed. Gradually, everybody in the neighbourhood started talking about him. Crowds used to gather around to spectate this curious if bizarre incident everyday. Then the news spread to school and everybody was talking about 'The Centrifugal Junkie'. He was unstoppable phenomenon. He could go on for hours on end without food or a nature's call. It was amazing, the determination of this lad.
And then someone suggested to him, why just do circles. So he started trying out squares, rectangles, Pentagons, and Hexagons. As he got bolder, he started to experiment with irregular polygons, twisted circles, and shapes we don't even have names for. John tried it all. After days of experimenting on various shapes in the two dimensions, he looked for uneven land like slopes of hills, so that he could add the third dimension to his experiments. When he thought he had done it all, he went back to his beloved circle. He knew that he had finally found his true calling.
And that my friends, is the end of this delightful story of determination, fighting against all odds, sheer grit, rising up from the ashes and to conquer the world, and more importantly discovering one's free spirit, and above all giving vent to one's innate creativity.
"If the entire world wants to go right, and you want to go left, go left. No need to make a big fuss about it. Just go, its very simple."
- Sotiri, Yanni's father
5 comments:
One of the loveliest posts I have read ever.
Tanks. :)
@czar
Really? Was really quite a crazy idea. Didn't know it would have any takers.
Good to see that you reduced, the image size on the header.... That header would take hours to load.
One more thing.. Like I told you in college.... Unless you have some support.... when you go left, you get raped, and ass fucked left right and center...... Its not really that easy.... the better ending would have been that the boy was disowned and then sold off to some illegal immigration racket.
@mojo rising
Well as you know, since this is fiction, I have the liberty of a happy and inspirational ending.
And I didn't reduce the image size, it just behaves that way sometimes.
I see u've taken inspiration from Paulo Coelho.He writes bizarre stuff,yet they all have a revelation in the end.. something that means different things to diff people..
Nice going man..
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