WARNING :: Thinking could be injurious to joy ......

I was going to Pune this weekend [it was a three day weekend after eons and i didnt want to waste it]. I took a bus to pune and as any other normal bus it stopped at around 10 pm at a restaurant dhaba sort of place on the highway. Keeping with my policy of 'minimum food while travelling in a bus' - i got down , stretched my legs and had just a fruit plate. It was over in a matter of 5 minutes but the bus had stopped for half an hour.

Then something happened which has happened a million times before and atleast hundreds of times i have seen it earlier - it started to drizzle. Very fine sized water droplets - so small that even little wind that was there was enough to push it in any direction it wanted. And i was standing there looking at it as it fell on the front glass of the bus. The drops slowly coalescing to form bigger ones and then rolling down along the glass leaving a streak of water behind them - and all i was able to think was the damp smell that would be there in the bus for the rest of the journey.

Ambling around in the corridor just outside the restaurant. I looked up when i was at the end of the corridor with no particular reason and saw a very simple phenomenon. There was a light on the wall but the light was not visible from where i was standing - and in the background was the dark sky - so actually there was nothing to indicate that there was a light there but for the reflections of the light on the tiny droplets of water that were falling. As long as the droplets were in the scope of the light they were visible and then they would dissappear.

The moment i looked at it - all the inferences were drawn - the location and the colour of light - droplets shape - water's property to reflect and refract - the wind that was moving them in all directions. The explaination came naturally to me as i had learnt all these principles already. There was nothing interesting there anymore - nothing more to know - it was just a 'so ordinary phenomenon'.

But i stared at it for a bit more than usual time - and wondered - what if i did not know all these things - what if i did not know where the rain comes from or how water reflects - if i didnt know there was a light and didnt know what was happening. What would it be like ........

And then i found myself staring at the drops with amazement. What are those things? - appearing out of nowhere - dissappearing into nowhere - glowing as they flow - shining like balls of energy of some sort. As i stared at them for longer - i was able to see each and every droplet now - and track their motion - they were moving in slow motion now - the invisible wind playing with them - tossing them around up down sideways - their movements were so amazing - was this light - am i seeing the motion of light. Suddenly there would be a flurry of wind and the balls would become streaks of light. The streaks would loook like interwined strings of light. And then suddenly as if a slow motion button is pressed the droplets would be visible again. The transformation was amazing.

A broad smile came over my face, my mind filled with fascination, my brain refraining from giving me any explainations. And i stood there for atleast 10-15 minutes staring at that amazing display of something wonderful. Then it struck me where i was - people might be looking at me with curiousity - was i looking like a fool - smiling while looking at perceivably nothing special. But then were they seeing what i was - were they thinking what i was - were they feeling what i was - NO they had no idea. One guy actually tried to see something in the direction i was looking - but i guess he didnt get my point.

I realised how intelligence sometimes has the potential to steal away joy from us. I was enjoying a completely ordinary and fully explainable phenomenon because i didnt try to explain it. I am a pro intelligence guy - i draw inferences and explainations even before i know i have - but sometimes it is worth telling the brain not to work so much - there are amazing things all around us happening every moment - and they can be enjoyed no matter how trivial.