Destructive Distillation

This is one of those things which I have written about a long existing latent idea. It is such a relief when you have finally paid thought to these minor post-its lying in some nook and corner in your head.

Aavu Vyaasam. Translated from telugu is the ‘Cow essay’. There is this story behind this idiom, parents and elders tell us in traditionally telugu households. A small kid is asked by his teacher to speak about a few topics. But he has learnt only one essay, that of the cow. So each time he is asked to talk something he slowly leads his speech to something related to cow and then conveniently talks about the cow. Something like when asked about “Fish” he would say, “Fish are in swimming in the pond. On the bank stands a cow. It is white in colour and has 4 legs.. It eats grass …..”. Similarly when asked about the Village he would say; “A Village has many houses. People live in these houses. They have cows. Cows are white in colour ….”.

Well, whats interesting about this seemingly trivial story is its applicability to me and almost everyone else. Each one has got an ‘aavu vyaasam’ of his own. Sometimes we are gripped with some idea, a terrible infatuation on something or someone. Maybe some untenable situation arises or gross injustice is done and we are left voiceless. Whatever the possessed thought may be it props up in the conversations having the faintest of connections. We tend to vent our frustration, express our dire need, beg for help and all other such tendencies creep in. We subconsciously steer conversations to fulfill our needs, be it egoistical or materialistic.

• My dad always comes around to the point of how big a criminal I am not for not utilizing the opportunities present, for not having enough grip on my subject and my whiling away time.
• My grandmother always talks about not having a own house inspite of having all other comforts.
• A teacher incessantly complains of the decadence among the students of my class.
• A friend is going on and on of how good (yikes! make that great else i am dead) her boyfriend is.
  
• While another cant stop lamenting of how miserable life is.
  
• A classmate cant stop on of how others have been unfaithful to him, always "gossip"ped about him and bad mouthed him behind his back
• Another leads conversations to some lame telugu movie and its success.

As for me I have lots of Aavu vyasams. Er… This post is already too long.