Monday, August 21, 2017

The Wisdom


People say, too much wisdom is never good. It results in nothing but collapse of the brain. Like how Socrates got killed because of his brilliance or maybe the madness that gripped doctor Nash. Too much of anything pushes you away or put you in an isolated state. Bearing the testimony of all those losses, if I may say so, I still tried to hold on to my wisdom for long.

Occasionally I tried to digest the pain of bearing it alone and ostracizing from the social acceptance; and sometimes I was rebuked incessantly for being so ardent in my decision.

I have carried my bold semblance for years, not bothering the care and concerns of my fellow beings. I have paid visits to the chambers to ease the boggling mind filled with wisdom. But alas, it always came back bouncing stronger than before and backlashing the jaws harder.

So with lots of vigor and subdued ego, after 4 years I decided to let it go.

On Saturday morning, when the sun got shrouded behind the black clouds of August, I got down from my apartment. My birth giver insisted to take a rickshaw, but I was not ready, because I want to let it go valiantly. So I walked the broken roads, the undulated terrain and the swarming marketplace. I crossed the faces of men and women I know and those I don’t.

And finally, I reached the chamber.

The chamber that will take away a part of my soul, caressed for years inside my mouth. Behind all the others, it stands, at the corner, where my gum kisses my tooth… yes my Wisdom Tooth, for years unknown.


Soon, the white coated man approached, accompanied by a woman nicely draped in seven yards. She got a pearl necklace around her neck and there was a smile studded on her face, mocking the very existence of those useless set of teeth. Now, was that comforting?

The doctor is an acquaintance of mine. He has an extremely brotherly affection that I cannot deny and has also a resemblance of a distant cousin of mine. And of course, I must say, he is handsome, well mannered and a man with an agreeable character.

He asked me to take a seat in a chair which suddenly turned my universe flat. May be this was the reason for the learned individuals of yesteryears to think the earth was flat, I presumed. Anyway, there was a light right on my face and I lay my hand on an extended armrest trying to relax my sinews. There was a holder beside the chair that had quite a number of instruments, many of which were beyond my knowledge. But they all look very much like the movie Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

Well, now the doctor asked me to relax with a 3 inch needle pointing towards my mouth. Destiny is definitely mocking me and I realized there is no way out. So I opened my mouth half-reluctantly and the 3 inch needle swooped in, pinching my gum.

Within a few minutes I realized I was looking like Sylvester Stallone, I am relating only to the facial part as the rest of the muscular thought is nothing but a fantasy. And when I mentioned this feeling my doctor said, “Relax, its anesthesia effect, your face is not deformed.”

Then comes the most astounding part of this event as I realized I can swallow a whole head at one go. The doctor could actually put two of his hands in my mouth and indulge in mechanical engineering with his god knows what toolbar. Can you imagine his two hands inside my mouth, which used to be timid? It is funny how the human body works; keeping you astonished revealing some of its dark secrets.   

After a little bit of pressure and gloves full of bloody affair, finally it was uprooted (literally uprooted actually). I must say, it was painless and a successful uprooting moment. The doctor showed me my wisdom tooth and I kept staring at it with mesmerized eyes, as if I was given an infant to hold that I just pushed out of my womb.

My mother, who was in the chamber for last 1 hour facing the wall and not turning around and trying to pretend as if she was invisible, excitedly plunged in to see the wisdom that I held with love for many years. And then immediately she asked to get rid of it. I, on the other hand, objected the decision and declared the full authority of my wisdom.

Wrapped in a tissue and holding it in one hand, I kept my mouth open letting the doctor perform the last rites of stitching the recently usurped throne and concluding what started 4 years back.

After I came back home and gobbled 2 chocolate cups of ice-creams (it has always been my dream to experience this feeling, which turned out terrible), I dug a hole in the soil of a potted plant belonging to my mother’s window garden and laid the wisdom to rest.      

May be some day when I will grow old and start telling my grandchildren the stories of my bravery, I will unearth the wisdom and tell them, “No matter how much you are in love with yourself, just get rid of this wisdom!!”