The Potato Question

It was a dusty and windy day. I came out for a breath of fresh sea air and went through the exercise of taking the lift to the first floor- waiting for the 30 seconds that it takes to reach it and then thanked the lift man as I walked out. I inhaled deeply trying to smell the “wonderful perfume” which Mickey says she always gets to smell when she walks the corridor to the entrance but failed as usual! Not for nothing am I a Taurus (I never give up!).

I took the side door out and stood enveloped by greenery on one side and the glass fronted building of our apartment on the other and gazed at the turbulent sea before me. I took gulps of fresh air and withstood the ferocity of the wind blowing through this man made “Corridor” and closed my eyes in pure pleasure. The biting cold and the viciousness of the wind almost took my breath away. I stood there in bliss. Suddenly something hit my bare feet and I looked down with an “Ow!” and what did I see?

A dusty elongated potato was lying near my feet. I bent down to pick it up and felt a certain amount of dampness. I was stunned to see  that the potato had tears in his eyes! It was very natural that I ask him,”What happened?” and it was equally natural that he told me his story...

He had just recently shifted into a new apartment and till a couple of days ago had been happy making new friends who lived in the basket. He suddenly noticed that every day some of his newly made friends would disappear and never come back. He was worried and asked “Someone” why this was so. Someone or (was it “Anyone”?) replied that they were taken to be cut into fingers and fried and stuffed into a dark tunnel. Multitude of voiced described the horrors that they would face as they traveled through this tunnel but no one knew the reason or the necessity of this whole ritual.

That day, my potato could not rest. He dodged and avoided the fingers that groped the basket but he knew that one day would come when he would be the “chosen” one. He decided to run away. He somehow rolled out of the basket and out of the house. Through the process of trial and error he managed to reach my feet. He wanted answers and help from me!

I felt like God with a devotee at my feet. With my limited wisdom I tried to calm him down. I told him that each of us are born with some reason- that  there is a reason for our existence and maybe the reason for potatoes existence was to be cut into fingers. This did not satisfy him. After all he was a post-revolution Egyptian Potato!

 He questioned me, “Why can’t I change my destiny?”

“Well” I replied, “it’s either that or you rot!”

He looked so downcast and sad at this statement that I tried to make it sound better,

“You have a choice, you know”

“What choice is there in my blighted life?”

“Either you make someone happy by being fried (I know it pains!) Or you make no one happy by rotting and stinking”

This made him thoughtful and he looked confused and sad.

“Give me some time” he said

“Sure” I said, quite confident that he would see my way and accept his fate. I put him carefully hidden amongst the shrubs in the garden and went back home.

As I walked back,  I was oblivious to all the beauty around me as the questions put up before me led to more questions and my mind echoed with them. I was not satisfied with my answers anymore. I knew that my wisdom was limited and I needed to dig deep to find a permanent solution. Tired and a little despondent I wracked my brain for the next two hours. I even discussed this with Mickey and Junu. One thought I was just telling her a story and the other (as usual) tried to look at it seriously and gave me a variety of solutions (thinking off the cuff) suddenly Lo and behold ( fairy tale language!) the answer had always been staring at my face (“the answer my friend is blowing in the wind.....)

Now when I meet my potato I will have an answer that will satisfy him and me too. I will dig him a small pit and cover him with warm earth and let him germinate and produce a plant and let life go forward. I believe this is the clichéd “win-win” situation.

But then he might object! I will be imprisoning him within the earth.... what do you say?