As simple as simple gets

A while back I had the good fortune to read an yet to be titled book by Bragz. It’s a love story involving three different couples, who are friends and colleagues and how each of them impact the other in arriving at a critical decision about their individual lives form the crux of the story. Towards the end of the book, there is a Sunder C movie like comic caper that hastens the happy ending as well and overall it felt like a movie script. The reason for this post was not as a review for the book, but for the singular character, who albeit was not the titular or lead one, yet, the characterization couldn’t be more profound. The story begins with an intro scene for his character, Paulraj, which is reminiscent of yesteryear Mahendran/Balu Mahendra movies and makes you sit up and take notice right away. I read the novel more than a month back so the version might not be verbatim. But, here you go.

It begins with a cyclist, being overtaken by an auto. The cyclist, Paulraj, on his casual ride till that time, suddenly feels an urge to overtake the auto. It’s not out of thrill of the need for speed, not to prove a point or out of anger. He simply wants to overtake it once and even if the auto goes past him again, he is least bothered. That single instance of “victory”, the happiness of overtaking the auto just for the heck of it when the other party is not even aware that a race is happening, The “rush” that you get when you savor that moment, might sound so much trivial and childish, but for those who get to “have” such moments, it would make a resounding connect. I often do that while walking J Quite often I have to walk for at least a mile to reach my bus stop and incase of no songs to listen, it makes a boring affair. If I see someone walking ahead at a distance, I goad myself into crossing them within some short time or before they cross a nearby landmark and push myself to walk past. At times when I do manage to cross them before my “stipulated” time, used to feel like Bolt cutting across the winning ribbon on Olympics. I know it sounds “pakkiest” to say the least J But it’s a fun feeling. It takes mind off so many other things that might pull you down and for what it’s worth it goes on to prove that even for the most  trivial of matters if you put your mind to it, you can actually overcome. But putting such a positive spin to a simple activity would be robbing it off its meaninglessness J Why should everything have a motive or necessity or have any meaning itself in first place. You may not risk cutting across a speeding auto in Chennai traffic, which is more of a death wish than anything. But time to time, a simple act, which has no sense in the “grander scheme of things”, feels like…fun.
As per the story, Paulraj is a glorified wastrel for almost three fourths of the book, pampered by his brother (emotional blackmail/self-inflicted penance) and wife (for reasons best known to her) and is hardly the role model you would want to remember. In fact his entire characterization is engrained in that singular act of “winning” over the auto. Typically he would never be your hero material in an ideal world, but the single scene of carefree joy that he gets to enjoy, surely found its mark.