why doesn't anyone want the cup?

[ that’s the trouble with you sad-city types: a place has to be miserable and dull as ditchwater before you believe it’s real - salman rushdie (as blabbermouth, in haroun and the sea of stories) ]


i see it sitting at the corner of my desk, on an empty document tray. The white china mug that I got from Whizz when I developed the pics I took while on the 5 day drive (Now that’s another story, isn’t it?) I don’t know why it’s bothering me. Is it that my mind cannot accept the pointless existence of the empty cup?

i remember Josh grabbing it from me the moment I took it out. I had bought the picture books in my backpack and while taking them out, I inadvertently took the cup out and he pounced on it, “Hey, I want this!” I could not think of doing anything with it so I let him have it. He used to use it as a penholder in his desk, diligently locking it up with its contents inside, in his locker. Then the day he was packing all his stuff he said, “Hey, can’t think of doing anything with it. You can have it back” Then I realized that probably he had just borrowed it, to give it back later. I said “Fine, I’ll take it probably use it as a penholder”. However, I never took it. There it would have ended and I would have never seen this porcelain thing but for Sai.

one fine day, about a week after Josh left, Sai came down from his new “dwelling”, which was now at the edge of the floor (he was banished there due to his non-interactivity with the team). He had the cup in his hands and said, “Duuude” Sai has a funny way of saying that word, elongating the “u” to a squeaky level, “Josh, asked me to give you this” .I said nothing and just took it. He was saying something about the resolved ratio but my mind was somewhere else, looking at a white shiny round cylinder. The Cup.

that is how it came to its current residing place. I usually do not trust anyone with my pens, having lost quite a few of good (and expensive) ones to friends and hence didn’t have any to keep in the mug. Many people expressed interest in it. Poo (That is Poornima, one of the Managers) once came and said, “That’s Nice, Where did you get it from?” I offered the cup to her and she said “Sure”. However, it transpired that the cup was to remain there; maybe she forgot about it. Even Girish said he wanted a penholder and I promptly offered it to him. As always, the offer was accepted and forgotten.

its still there, standing forlorn. Unbelievably, right now Arvind (Argan, one of the new STs) came over and asked me about it. I just said, “That’s a gift”. Yes, I guess that is what it is. What else do you call something that comes back to you however hard you try to shrug it off? Maybe, it is not empty. Not after passing through so many hands and minds.

(Hmm….Notes to self: 1. Try to use time productively rather than writing irrelevant crap!
2. Get rid of the cup! )