Monday, December 05, 2005

What If

She was the new girl in the class. She walked in late on the third day after school had started. You saw her standing at the edge of the gang of girls opening their lunch boxes during the break. Nervous and Shy. What if you had smiled at her instead of looking away?

“I’ve had enough - This is over. And this time I’m not joking.” What if at that moment, you didn’t open the door of the car and step out. What if you stayed? What if you looked back?

The proctor announces, “Your time starts now”. You tear open the plastic of the bulletin. Phew! 2 marks, ½ marks. You smile. At the very least, its going to be interesting. What if you had got up then and walked away?

What if you had got over your fear of cats? What if you had a dog? What if you had managed to keep diaries? Or resolutions?

What if you never started a sentence with “I need to tell you something”?

What if you had never heard that song? You borrowed his discman for the bus journey. Your Woman - White Town You remembered a tune from long ago that you had never found. You looked at him and smiled.

What if they had changed their minds? What if they had named you something else? What if you were the first on the roll call instead of 58th?

What if you had never cut your hair? If you were never called “The girl with short hair”? What if you had never discovered Ayn Rand that summer? Or Kundera? What if you had never found a kindred spirit? What if you had believed in the tooth fairy? Or God?

What if you had taken the plunge? Then, when you were young and the spirit was strong, before you became weak and "settled". What if you had kept old love letters?

What if you had cheated in that exam? What if you had just said "No"? What if you had saved those hundred bucks for something else?

What if none of it mattered? What if nothing changed?

What if all those years ago, early morning in a temple, one of them had said “Appa I’m not so sure about this”?

It has been said that something as
small as the flutter of a butterfly's
wing can ultimately cause a typhoon
halfway around the world


Inspired by The Butterfly Effect. Which is one of the most brilliant movies I've seen recently

14 comments:

RJ said...

What-ifs are very tempting. Something that can make you feel amazing about yourself. Or more likely, with me, like crap. Generally try avoid!

Anonymous said...

Butter fly effect, yes, is a good movie... But I feel they cud have have kept it a bit shorter... yep they explored all possibilities.. But it was kinda long
Liked it all da same!

Nayan said...

Innumerable answers!!
Few weeks back, I wrote on 'Maybe's :)

As RJ said, try to focus and avoid these whatif's. Very mind boggling... very interesting too!

Ducky said...

Actually, the Director's ending of Butterfly Effect was supposedly different.. and better (I'm guessing you would know that since you've linked the name to the IMDB site, from where I got this info:))
But still, it took me till just past the half-way point to GET the movie, and after that I was like WOW!

CB said...

Ya ya..butterfly effect is a high funda movie..Aaaah..actually I am so elated to have found somebody who's got so inspired by B.F effect, to come up with a wonderful post..thanx..!

(The day I saw the movie, I spent the rest of it thinking of my past..the various instances where I was on a cross-road, to choose the road mostly less travelled..!:D)

Suze said...

:) I read the director's ending only later. I think I like the theatrical ending better. The other thing would be too sad for me!

Been watching too many movies lately

Ducky said...

Well, if you're into the movie-watching thing, here's two more which will make you sit back at the end of it all and go WOW! (If you ain't seen them already)

Memento (APPARENTLY the movie on which Ghajini is based... NOT!!!)

Requiem for a Dream... A beautiful, sad, realistic movie... wonderful it was...

Suze said...

kau, no it's ooty..(jacket = cold)

anand, seen both a while ago. Both are awesome movies though.

I saw Chasing Amy, which is a cute flick, and the first cd of Mouna Raagam

Anonymous said...

Hey what happened to your Short Takes??
Anon3

Suze said...

hm. lackoftimitis :)

Anonymous said...

That was a titillating post,
to live in the land of decoherence, and, Quantum uncertainity; resolving it would be life itself. The great albert didnt he say, 'God does not play dice'?

Anonymous said...

Actually, he said "God does not play dice with the UNIVERSE"...

Anonymous said...

you never sieze to amaze me...

ganty said...

was inspired similarly with butterfly effect
but i guess after ur post
it doesnt make sense to make mine