Decoding my Mind

I’m now going to answer the million-dollar question-‘ what’s going on inside your head?’ with an exclusive insight into what happens inside Aishu’s brain. Let me rephrase it -‘ What happens inside Aishu’s mind’ as some enthupatanis will immediately say, ‘We know what’s inside a brain… cerebrum, cerebellum, thalamus, Hypothalamus…’ 🙄

My brain aka mind resembles a scene of shopping in Pondy bazaar during Deepavali. Before you get to your actual shop you’ll have to navigate through autorickshaw driver shouting-‘vutla soltu vantiya’, pass the ‘3 for 30’ earring sale, ensure you are still holding your handbag safely, and still stop for some ‘cut mangoes’ that are on display. That’s exactly how my mind works. I will give you some instances and henceforth my mind’s voice aka mind-voice will be in blue.

My math is still 2 in the mind, 5 in the hand level but the irony is I work in the Insurance domain and have to deal with a lot of numbers in my day-to-day work. So when I ask my brain to remember 14234.56 and ask back in a few minutes, the response will be- ‘Un dros Tres..','One-u,Rend-u,Moon..uttale apna phone'List of all songs related to numbers will be thrown at me and finally 'Twooo too twooo too..I love you too‘ will be playing throughout the day. This is at least okay, there will be times when I will be randomly presented with a tune or a BGM , and the entire day it will be buzzing in my ear. I will cajole my brain to remind me of the song but my brain will vehemently deny like the boy in Milk-Bikis ad'Sollamaatene...Nee Enna pannuva'. Knowing this problem, Google decided to help when the brain is in Sollamatene mode. The ad looked wonderful where the girl asks ‘Hey Google…which song goes like Laa la la aaa’ and Google gives her the song but when I do the same, google asingapaduthifies, ‘Sorry, I can’t understand. Can you please repeat that?’ My brain –

Sometimes my biggest villain is my brain. When I’m on a call with my mom, she gets irritated if I do any ‘noisy’ activities during the call like filling the can with water or throwing the vessels in the pretext of taking something. In order to avoid any thittu, I have to act very discreetly as that’s when my brain- the villain would have reminded me to do some such ‘noisy’ tasks. I will have to take exactly the vessel at bottom of the drying rack to soak channa for the next day. As I carefully remove each and every vessel, my villain would order my hands in a base voice- ‘Vitru Jeeva...Ellathayum vittru‘ and there you go, all the vessels would fall crashing down along with the ‘Aishu… why are you always so noisy? Can’t you do it carefully?’ My brain-

Similar to the above scenario, when there is a serious discussion or I’m getting an earful from someone, my brain has the perfect sense of timing to bring something very funny to my notice. I have to put in all efforts to stop myself from giggling. Shhhh habbba…

But my brain is an excellent entertainer. When I’m very bored or I have to pass time during my 30-minute train commute, my brain is my go-to person. ‘Lights- camera-action’- director mode on. My brain will scan the people around me and come up with a story and screenplay that would keep me occupied for a while. Sometimes it will add BGMs to scenes around me- If there is a lovey-dovey couple- it will play Illayaraja violin, fight scenes, entry/exit from the train, everything will have a BGM attached. Yesterday our uber driver was telling us how he was trying to be a teacher but he wasn’t given a chance even as a substitute and now after lockdown, they are asking him to join while he said no…This scene as he narrated played in my head as ‘Ashokkkk...indha naal... un diary la kurichi vechiko....' with BGM to end the scene. It will be like watching Tamil-dubbed English movies but of course, it is entertaining. Sometimes my brain would turn on its detective mode and make me observe every tiny detail including the color of socks that the people around me are wearing but I’ll gladly oblige as I have nothing better to do. But at times, this comes in handy. My husband asked casually- ‘We have to check if this is available in that shop’. My brain searched its detective records and gave me the answer- ‘Oh! That’s after the vegetable section, 3rd rack on the left, 2nd row from the top’. My husband gave me a reaction that had questions of whether he is married to an undercover agent.

My mind is very sensitive to food. If I eat any favorites like today – Vethakozhambu and baby potato fry- my brain will be in a trance. I can cajole and get everything done- like this blog post 😉 However, the same brain before having fresh filter coffee in the morning will be like a union worker on strike. If I ask a simple question-‘Did I add sugar?’ There will be a pin-drop silence or at times I’ll get answers like ‘Maybe or Maybe not. If not, you should...If you have already, then you shouldn't.’ 🙄

I have got into this habit of solving the Wordle puzzle ‘ 5 letter word’ of the day while I have my morning coffee. My brain dreads that and as soon as I open the website, I could feel it disguise and run into hiding.

My brain when I open puzzle in the morning

I think the lunch trance is wearing out and before your highness becomes cranky, let me finish this post thanking my brain for the unparallel cooperation. I am very happy, Start music 😉

Me- Vadivelu and my brain- Parthiban