Talking About Idiosyncrasies...

Come to think of it, I am unimaginably odd. And contrary to popular belief, it doesn’t make me a genius at all because otherwise, I would have given all the Albert Einstines within the troposphere a good jog for their money.

Coming back to the point, I am so freaking odd, that sometimes I find it completely unworkable to identify with myself. That’s a first, isn’t it!

Some examples of my celebrated oddity:

• I like to flutter my eyelids when I am in prayer. (Completely no idea why…makes me feel that the Gods are listening!)
• I like to wash my hands after I have handled metal. The smell makes me nauseated.
• While eating a cookie, I like to shake it in my mouth so that the crumbs don’t fall on the floor.
•  I don’t have aerated drinks before I have a client meeting. Of course, this has a practical side to it…to stop me from burping and belching all the way through the Tête-e-Tête!

Let’s leave alone my idiosyncrasies here. We can spot enough idiosyncratic behaviour in the average Indian. For example, why does an Indian hold his elbow when he’s serving the Gods? Why does an average Indian make a guttural explosion while brushing his teeth or washing his mouth? Why does an average Indian, especially a Bengali, wag her (in this case) tongue accompanying it with a tribal sound? Good luck? Warding off the evil? Yeah right. With the kind of noise, the good spirit would usually run off too.

The fact of the matter is, we are all idiosyncratic in our own ways. Some of it is a mark of our personality, some of it is deeply influenced by the culture we are exposed to, and some of it comes from severe and incurable OCD, as it is in my case. But then again, it’s good to find humor as you get along in life. And what better way than to find it in yourself!