"Selective" Concentration

The part I hate about traveling is the packing and unpacking. Especially packing, since I almost always forget something. Never the essentials: I always remember to take some reading material with me, generally in the form of fantasy novels. But non-essential paraphernalia are a different matter altogether. Like bus/train/flight tickets. Or my toothbrush.

I'm not exactly an unsystematic and unfocussed individual for such things to happen. Quite the opposite, in fact. I can study quite well, even with the TV showing a cricket match and the music system playing rock music in the background at the same time. I can sleep with the light on. If I set my mind on something, I do it correctly, methodically and without distraction.

Perhaps a little too well for my own good. I vividly recall an incident when I was in fifth grade (or thereabouts), when my Mom had to treat a lump on my head and she asked me how I injured myself. I told her earnestly and truthfully that I'd been solving a math problem in my head and walked into a wall. She and my brother laughed for days at my expense. Grrrr.

There was one time when I was with some friends and teachers from school, doing some sightseeing in Singapore while we could take time off from the contest we'd gone there for. I was pondering some obscure piece of philosophy and stopped to tie my shoelaces. When I stood up, the rest of the group were nowhere to be seen! We re-united after the lights came back on (we had gone to watch the musical fountain), but people kept shaking their heads at me. Yet another time, in Disneyland with my family, I forgot where we were supposed to meet and started wandering aimlessly. I finally found them after twenty minutes, sitting quietly at the point from where I'd started my wandering. Harumph.

It hasn't gotten any better over the years. Just last week I went to watch the new Superman movie with my t-shirt on frontside-back. I realized it only on the way back. Out of politeness or amusement (I suspect the latter), nobody had pointed it out to me.

No wonder then, my cousins have always regarded me as the absent-minded professor of the family. I take umbrage at being called absent-minded, for what my indignation is worth. I prefer the more politically correct term of Selective Concentration. I manage just fine with things I consider important at any given moment of time, and choose to concentrate upon!

Why this post now? I've been traveling, and am at Pittsburgh at the moment.... and I didn't forget to pack a single item. I'm rather proud of myself :)

Or at least, I like to think so until I finish unpacking....

Cheers,
Prashanth.