"It's always a bit of a struggle to get the words right, whether we're a Hemingway or a few fathoms below his level."
~
Rene J. Cappon
One drawback of thinking too much is that you must supply your mind with an unending stream of words, all the time. Many a time, it so happens that you know exactly what you are thinking, but you cannot recall the word or term that describes your thought. For instance, this morning I couldn't recall a certain word. I don't know why I thought of it in the first place; but I did anyway. I was in the process of preparing a glass of chocolate milkshake for my breakfast when suddenly obscure thoughts start racing my mind, and they halt on the thing you use to pluck the strings of the guitar. I know the word. I will recognise it if I just hear it once. It is almost at the tip of my tongue. But I cannot recall it!
This is one situation I dread and hate; and one that I am confronted with very often. My mind is not at peace until I remember the word that I have forgotten. It becomes impossible for me to do anything unless 'the word' is discovered. Today, I panicked and pestersed my parents to tell me the word I had forgotten. They racked their memory, Google was consulted but the word was not uncovered. This had to end. I thought where I had come across that word for the first time. It was an arts & craft book which has been in the family for nearly 40 years now. I ran to my book shelf, and almost instinctively my hand went to the shelf where the book was. I was lucky that the book was still where I had kept it almost an year ago. I flipped through the pages and saw it - plectrum. It was the joy of heaven!
On other ocassions, too, I have inflicted torture on mankind when my memory tricks me. But most of the times I have come to my own rescue. Words may slip out of my mind, but strangely I always remember where I came across them. I once scoured through a particular dictionary because I remembered the location of the word on one of the right hand side pages, and also what it meant, though I had forgotten the letter with which the word began. I was successful in the end; but I did this atleast 5 times. This word was bezel. Another time, I sent out panic stricken text messgaes to my parents in the middle of a lecture pleading them to tell me what was Pranoy Roy's expertise. Thankfully, they obliged. The word here was psephology. The other day, while I was strolling through a mall, and I noticed that the counter of a particular brand was missing. I kept straining my head but couldn't get the name of that brand at all. Not even a hint. How, then, was I supposed to ask the salesman about it? After I got home, and the first thing I did was to dive into my wardrobe to hunt for my floral dress and check its label. I had forgotten Remanika. These are just a few of occurences out of so many.
I have spent innumerable afternoons scanning through magazines, newspapers, thesauri and even novels trying to search for words that escape recall. I have a little notepad where I note down the words that I usually forget - yes, there are some words that I regularly forget. I cannot locate that notepad now by the way, and okapi is the only word I remember writing in it. Then there are those words which I am not able to recall for a very long time - despite all my efforts -and consequently I forget that I have forgotten them and eventually when such a word does come back to me I don't know that it was the same elusive one that had agonised me sometime back!
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