Thursday, 17 January 2019

Men and the art of (not) finding things



Man searching: Photo taken from the internet


Let me start this piece with an optimistic assumption.

Most of you must have read at least one story where Sherlock or Hercule cracked a complex crime by observing tiniest nod of head or a piece of broken match stick, connecting dots and thus zeroing on that crucial missing link. You feel good on behalf of mankind when they solve high octane murders (besides other crooked activities) and what initially looks like an unsolvable crime; they help make the world a little better place to live in, so what if it is all just fiction.

Apart from legendary Holmes and Poirot, there are of course a battalion of famous male detectives - Wallander, Morse, Dalgliesh, Lord Peter Wimsey, Harry Hole, Bosch, Cormoran and closer home in India -  Byomkesh, Prodosh C Mitter aka Feluda, Kiriti Roy, Vimal among others. Having devoured books featuring these men who can find needle in a haystack, I somehow harboured a notion that if nothing else men are good at observing and finding stuff.

Stuff: Defined herein as basic household items like cutlery, socks, eye wear, soup bowls, thermometer, conditioner, paper napkins – you know the stuff you need for bare minimum survival besides oxygen and water?

But alas there is a huge difference between fiction and the truth.

Photo taken from the internet

Being married more than a decade has taught me that finding basic things in the house is like a small adventure in itself. Every time you request (note to readers: not instruct) a straw for the cold coffee or a spoon to scoop ice cream is met with a horrified look. It is as if I have ‘requested’ for the most precious jewel kept in a complicated password protected bank locker that only the Ocean’s series level heist can achieve.

He can never find anything inside the house. Never, ever. And this is not happening in our house as a standalone adventure. I have seen the same scene unfold in most houses. Completely clueless husbands behaving as if they are guests in their own home!

Photo courtesy: Internet

We were invited recently to someone’s house for the first time for lunch. As I went in the kitchen to get myself a glass of water I found the man of the house (a C level exec and quite intelligent) muttering under his breath. On asking what ails him I figured he cannot find forks needed in the lunch table. I had never stepped inside their kitchen prior to this but it took me just 1 minute to find the forks. Nopes, I am not a magician. It was kept where most people keep forks, spoons. But for some strange reason he who lives in that house for nearly 8 years could not find them.

My neighbour cannot locate his car keys (every morning) and throws a fit, my nephew cannot find his own pencil box, my uncle doesn’t know where he keeps his own spectacles, a male friend of mine routinely accuses his wife of misplacing his socks (like why will she do something stupid like this!), a friend couldn’t find his own daughter in a group of kids at a play area, my cousin cannot spot the laundry basket and thinks dropped clothes will land inside the washing machine on their own and my male dog expects me to find his favourite toy which he keeps securely in only two places inside the house!

Photo courtesy : Internet

However point to be noted that my husband NEVER misses spotting his favourite cars even when they are half a km away, he and my other guy friends NEVER miss spotting some really nice looking woman a km away and the same nephew who can’t find his pencil box in his own school bag can spot a tiny piece of his favourite leftover Pizza in an over-crowded fridge where normal eyesight will miss spotting a small sized animal.

Just like most men have selective hearing mode on, their vision and ability to locate stuff is also selectively activated? Or as my husband states that he cannot find anything because apparently I keep moving them from usual places. Which frankly I do not; it is a baseless allegation. I just rearrange things once in a while :) 

Photo courtesy : Internet



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