Sunday, October 19, 2008

Escalophobia!

“Slowness to change usually means fear of the new.”

-Philip Crosby

Escalophobia - My fear of escalators ! I've always wanted to come out of the uneasiness of "gliding" on an escalator. I usually "esss" (escape) when there is an escalator, taking every tortuous path possible. Anything but an "escalator"! ! Why is it so hard for me, when I'll have to face it anyway at some point of life ? Well, like how a kid listens to you and obediently has food, at the mention of a "non-existent", daddy-made , blanket covered, one eyed , child snatching character, my fear of escalators is psychological too. I guess I was around 14, when we had star movies, HBO etc without the "angel-set-top-box!" . Those were the times, when any movie , anytime, me and my bro would watch (provided that our folks were still at work ;-) )There was this movie on HBO about a man with a kid and a step mom who is actually a witch in disguise. She wants the kid out of her way, to have the man all to herself. The kid is a teenager and she goes to a mall, to freak out with her friends. The witch decides to finish her off. She starts chanting inexplicable spells, while still at home. Like every other mall, the one in concern has the "hero" of this post - an escalator! *grrr* The girl, along with a bunch of mates, takes the escalator. Suddenly her shoe lace unwinds. There is an appropriate background score, hinting us that something important is coming up and hence "Stay put!" and have control over all the other senses and be deaf to "nature's calls" ;-)) The girl just happens to notice it, while the escalator has started moving. She makes an attempt to bend down to tie it. Exactly at this moment, the angles shift, a spin of the camera brings to us, the witch at her best mystic attire possible! She is in deep meditation. She keeps uttering incomprehensible spells, making us wonder about the girl instead, inquisitively wondering if she had finished tying the shoe lace by now. By all the laws of Science and as per the Theory of Logic, the girl should have finished the job by now. But since the director wants us to just "assume" that things are happening in parallel (the witch chanting and the girl bending ;-)) we are forced to forget the laws of Science . Instead, we start concentrating on the "little" of the camera tricks that the director displays, showing us the witch, her mouth, the girl - in several stages of bending down . Another loud cry, indicating that the bend has now become a "bent" - complete. We silently applaud in the mind's eye.The witch throws some powder, instantaneously the girl's chain gets caught in the steps of the escalator when she has just finished the job and is about to raise. And in one shot, she is strangled to death. Any ratiocinator would thank the "holy God" for giving the director the sense for avoiding the depiction of this process in the previously adopted strategy for showing the girl trying to tie an unwound shoelace, in a million steps and a zillion shots !! Finally,a grotesque figure "glides" to the destination. Ever since, I've had this fear for the "E's"!(Bored of typing the entire spelling). I know there is no witch in my life. Forget the step-mom! I know its dumb to be scared of it. And I know it can never happen, if I don't wear shoes. :P Clever ain't I? ;-) And if I hang on to the railing by the side. And if I am busy, chatting away or staring at the person ahead or holding hands with someone and if I just don't think about the movie at all . . . But still... what is the use of knowing all this? What is the use of even blogging about this ? Because, when it comes to reality, when it comes to standing face-to-face with the E!(lazy again!), I 'm far from all reasoning. My brain refuses to conjure up all this theory I've typed so far. A microsecond back, I might have thought I was just acting silly, and allowed my friends to compel me into the "ultimatum". But when I'm just about to do it, pop goes all my decision making. All my logical reasoning abilities go null. I become a loser in microseconds, not able to think, not able to stick to the decision made(though not by me! :P). I'm blank, staring at the E, wondering if I'll ever get over it at all?! And all I do is... turn around in search of the label "Stairs..This way ---> " and again "Pop goes the weasel" .. ~!~!~!

Note :
If you haven't noticed till here, Thank you. If you are just about to notice, Hang on !!! Yeah, I haven't said the name of the movie. That's because I don't know. I' m not even promising that I'll do some research and find out and update the post again. So please assume its some "X" or to make it more like a horror movie "Aaaaaaaaaaaaaah!" !! (SJ SURYA, on his way to hit me for partial plagiarism.! God save my blog!! !! :-) :-)


4 comments:

Ice-Thorn said...

hahahaha!! omg!
just u wait till we go out :P
oh n did i mention I love ur writing style? :P

Sharanya Rajendran said...

Gee... babes even I was scared of escalators. I remember this incident which happened in delhi where a small kid died cos her dress got caught between them! I was able to overcome it only a few years back. Thanks to my bava, infact we both used hold hands and say 1,2,3 and keep our foot! :P :P will never forget! :) :) YOu also try over coming it baby... USA la ponna, asinga padapore apram enna maari (in blore garuda mall!) :P :P

gaddy said...

i'm sure more than de director of the "sowmi" rated film.. u've given so much thought abt dat particular scene:D:D..well i've seen u take de stairs..never thought u wud 've such a story behind..:D..comin to ur writin skills..it's marvellous as usual..something dat i say everytime..u make it easy for de reader to visualize the situation..because there's so much of info..datz always been ur strength..:)..u just need to move on..keep rockin sowmi..:)

Vivek_Gangadharan said...

good one as alwasys .. not my favout=rite though ... i like the linkage between SJ Surya and "X"... that was nice ...

will be continued due to lack of time ..

Stumped!

This happens whenever I take a train from Chennai to Bangalore (Ahem..read as whenever I travel alone!). After taking consecutive modes of ...