Have I
mentioned that I cackle? Not sure. It's the menopolyxinaemia y'see. Forgive me if I have. Giggling was always there. Famous for my giggling. Even been known to snort on the odd occasion
worth the embarrassment. But cackling?
Goes with
crone territory I guess. In the middle
of the night sometimes - given that one is highly insomniac and therefore awake
enough to be aware of one's nocturnal activity - a random thought will occur
and cackling will ensue. Used to be
there were night beasties in the trees over the fence there who would make
cackly-sounding noises. Since the
cackling has become a normal inside the
window, they've gone a bit quiet. Or
maybe I just don't notice them any more.
Joined them instead.
Then
there are the chatterbox whitterings.
You know, the thing provided in email sites which permits live
conversation through finger work. Love
the chatterbox.
Mostly
it's Aitch and me on that thing. Mainly
because of timings. India's stuck between OZ and UK; average 5 hours difference either way. At the time I'm mainly active online, generally speaking it's only Aitch who's around. Aitch has been a friend pretty much from the
first day I arrived at Claydon Secondary Modern School. Many centuries have passed since then and
we're still making mischief.
Our kind
of mischief. Tame and civilized compared
to many. We, rather, were known as the
goody two four shoes of the
school. We counted in our circle,
though, some varied and different characters.
Looking back as I type this I can see that perhaps that core five were
of the personality type known as 'eccentric' by virtue of not fitting into nice
tidy categories such as 'troublemaker', 'sportster', 'whiz-bang genius',
'teacher-pleaser' or 'out-and-out brown-nose'.
We were library-based and free-thinkers.
One, (a character you will read more about in due course) kept the
entire school entertained with her weekly cartoon magazine. All hand drawn, with verbal contributions
made by the group and sometimes by those outside of the group who, if they
asked nicely, would be featured. I may
have this wrong (menosoup attack), but I think perhaps the article on the
headmaster led to some difficulties.
Point is,
we were often to be found in hysterics on the library floor.
My
departure to climes different resulted, as so often happens, in loss of
immediate contact with all but Aitch.
Through her I have kept abreast of how other members of our school group
have fared. All very different. All well in their various paths.
Thing is,
Aitch is not the most attentive of writers.
We could go a whole year without hearing from each other. The friends you bond with this deeply though, are as strong (if not more so) as
family and when you reconnect, no time has passed, it seems. Since I have succumbed/been forced to utilise
modern technology to the extent I now am, something has dawned on me.
Aitch is
nothing but a chatterbox after all! She
won't mind me saying so. It turns out
the direct contact is more her thing.
Immediacy. I get that.
We've
been cackling together most Mumbai nights for the past several months now and
it has been great.
Menosoup
shared fills the pot of creativity.
Oh, I can cackle too, Yamini, and snort and go into fits of helpless giggles. But I do think cackling gets worse with age. :-) Still, there are few better things in life than to laugh with someone you love....
ReplyDeleteHari om
ReplyDeleteA wise person once said - "best medicine" - and I can back that up with experience. :}