Information overload and Progressive Compromise

It was 130 am local time,and my head was bursting at seams! tried skyping once,twice but in vain!
Well i didnt know the real life name of that sexy bi sexual killer catherine trammel, the woman who crossed her legs in the movie Basic Instinct.At 0230 local time(700 am IST) "Sharon Stone" is what my wife responds in an instant to the question on skype,to which my reaction was "AAh! you are right".

When one completes thirty five years ! one does get a bit old and the brain does slow you a bit(thanks to the uncountable amount of booze and pot plus parties as an irresponsible single- these have slowed you down &tends to hurt ones senses)! however the fact is that I can clearly remember the Boltzmann constant 1.380 x 10 raise to -23 (or its confusingly similar avogadro number 6.023 x 10 raised to 23) or clearly remember the holidays that I have had as 6 year old to Elephanta and Ellora caves or the lovely Shimla hills(Himalayas) but when I enter into another room I forget what I entered the room for when looking at my shelf what was I searching for? this is what biologist(and later on economist who wanted to make a career in financial markets) define as "Progressive Compromise".

That in local parlance is the incredible ability to remember unrelated information but the inability to remember simple things like Sharon Stones name.

I try to spend my weekends here at Frankfurt with senior citizens so that I can at least remind my self that I am really young,I managed to get in touch with a few Sri Lankan tamils who have made Frankfurt their home after their troublesome past. On the banks of the Main I walk with these guys and spend time with them joking in my mother tongue, Ulagaalantha Swaminathan approached me today and asked me "you are going to business school come on use your intelligence and guess what is my age ? "

I told ok, "sir lift your right hand and left leg and point your nose to the river", well he did it.
Now sit down and put your right hand under the left and left hand under your right and make noise as though you were a hen", well he did it.
Finally i told him "stand on the bench keep your right hand on the top the left hand in front of your mouth and act as though you were a train engine with chugh chugh noise", he did that also.....

I said" Sir this September you completed 70 and you are now running 71"!

"WOW they must be teaching you something at the University business school !you are a GENIUS Vengudu" Swaminathan said.

"No genius sir only last weekend at the same place you told me your age and your entire family history"! so much for progressive compromise


V


thanks to writer sujatha!