Thought Bubbles

A trip to the doctor’s for me is always a horrifying experience, and it doesn’t get any better when the “doctor” attending to me takes one look at my hijab and in all sincerity of his ignorance asks me if I was wearing it because of the cold. Now one wonders why, oh why are we surrounded by stupid? As the state of this country’s heat is and in February, its proper hot, so why in the Holy Ghost’s name would I be wearing anything on my head because I was cold? Made me wonder what it would be like if we had these thought bubbles coming out of one’s head stating what the speaker was thinking ( akin to the dialogue bubbles in comics) . Would we be able to control the stupid in us before we say it loud? Would we then be able to tailor our responses and deal with situations in a better manner? Hmmm….

To be fair and honest (and I do hate both these virtues to the very core of my existence, but can’t help emulating them) this bubble concept is not really unique and not my own. When I was teensy weensy, I had read this story about a kid who wished for a perfect world where everyone’s thought bubbled into text and the others can read them. As with every utopian concept, the downside is more of a landslide than a subtle downward curve, and this one created more problems than imagined.

As in conversations, heated conversations (read arguments), and interviews or for that matter any human interaction, one tends to assess and evaluate the other persons thought process, reactions, arguments and what would one’s counter arguments be. Now how much easier would it be, that whilst one is getting fidgety during that awful pregnant pause, this sliver of thought materializes into a text bubble atop one’s head and the other party would know what they were “actually thinking”. How awesome would that be? Now if this were to really happen, one would improve their performance at the game of bluff, have the most mind boggling debates and probably win most arguments.

This music blasting in my head right now makes me think that we could get rather creative with these thought bubbles. Maybe we could have different channels with video clips! Hmmm…the possibilities are endless.

Most critics of fanciful ideas would frown at this one, yet I don’t think it is that farfetched. How many times have we looked at people across us and wished like our life depended on it, to really know what they were thinking and if the words coming out of their mouth were the ones they were really thinking. The thought bubble doesn’t sound too bad then does it?

Are we brave enough to face such base? See, basically we as evolutionary beings realize how fragile our understanding and ego is and to a certain extent can also estimate how much damage can be done to the same in the other person. Now that knowledge is the crux of all human interactions. We bolster, coax, play, manipulate and ignore that knowledge to suit our convenience. Methinks a dried, cut, sorted presentation of the verbatim thought process would hurt more than benefit. It’s like a catch 22 process. Kind of like when a woman is all dressed up and asks you if she is looking fat. Now the question is not if you thought she was looking fat. The question is would you admit it? That said; if more people admitted to how certain people looked in a specific attire, we would have lesser fashion faux- pas! Hah!
Unfortunately some things cannot be selective like morality. Either we accept a procedure as is, or we let go of it in its entirety. As wonderful as this utopian concept might sound, truth at times can be too bitter and harsh to take. So I propose another utopian alternative, which is –Remotes! Not suggesting that we walk around like chipped bots, but the remote gives us an option to read or not read the text bubble. Seems like a reasonable enough option isn’t it? Wives of cheating husbands will have a field day with this one!