PROLOGUE

There are various ways to begin a paragraph: in an essay, review, speech or any of those write-ups which were common place in school. I am writing an article or any sort after a very long time (my unfortunate readers would thank God for minor miracles!). When I was in kindergarten the writing assignments invariably were to the likes of 'The Cow' and 'Our Country India'. The common beginnings therefore were: 'The cow is a mammal.' and 'India is a beautiful country',respectively. One of my teachers, being in retrospection, rather Laloo- esque, even made us write " The Cow is our holy Mother." My Mother was not very pleased as this intrusion into her motherly duties. It resulted in the change my primary school.

As we grew older and as I adopted my new missionary school ways, beginnings of essays changed substantially, but changed into a different cliche. Class 4- 8 was the era of quotes. ' No man is an island entire of himself.'( I used it so many times that John Donne would have twisted and turned in his grave). 'The quality of mercy is not strained.' But I showed no mercy: quotes, cliches, aphorisms galore. The ten mark essay would yield at least a seven. The English teacher would be impressed. She would make me read my essay in class. My peers (also known as competitors, sworn enemies, currently known as old friends) would snub. One would say his 'Dream the impossible dream ' was far better than my 'Hold fast to your dreams'. The other would take answer sheets for comparison. We used to just write eight letter words. Then we started speaking in eight letter words. One of my classmates had started saying 'Greetings' instead of 'Hi' as it had nine letters. He would then take our permission ' to inflict his company' on us. (Sigh!!) Our teachers would talk in the staff room about the 'healthy' atmosphere of competition in class. 'Constructive criticism' was a commonly used phrase.

Ninth and tenth were different. We developed our own styles of writing. Plagiarism was common. But, we all had distinctive styles. Eleventh and Twelveth: ready to experiment, more mature in expression, puns and euphemisms being the latest fad. Unfortunately (fortunately, for the English teacher), nobody had the time or the inclination to write. Time passed, creative writing started getting restricted to those answers in theory papers in Medical School. In my final year of medicine, creative writing in exam papers had reached its pinnacle. My three page answer on pelvic injuries had captured my imagination, would also have enraptured the examiner. Fortunately, I passed all years. My achievements in creative writing were minuscule as compared to those visionaries who showed applaudable originality in answers on Iceberg Phenomenon ( ice is melting-sea levels ) and Sexual asphyxia ( will leave it to your fertile imagination).

I wield my pen again and as I would have said in Class seven: I put on my thinking cap. This time there is no English teacher to impress, no bleary eyed audience to 'inflict' my speech on, no classmate to eclipse (damn!). This is just succor of my VEXED!!! mind. May be I ' ll throw in a quote or two. (Heck) 'Life itself is a quotation.' ( Jorge Luis Borges ) Blastoff! [;)]