FOCUS : A SHORT NARRATIVE
The other day, she ordered a loaf of brioche. When it arrived, it turned out to be much bigger than she expected. She wondered if she would be able to finish it before it got mouldy. She hated to freeze bread.
As she picked up her bread knife to dig in, she realised that it was small compared to the size of the loaf. She couldn’t cut a clean slice in one go. Suddenly, she was excited. This new obstacle inspired her to eat more sandwiches over the next couple of days.
She tried many permutations and combinations - begin slicing in the centre, and reach towards the edges evenly. Slice one side first, turn the loaf and slice the other. From the bottom up. With each try, she seemed to get better. Which motivated her to eat a sandwich at random hours.
Every sandwich was not just a snack or a meal, it was also an experiment in the slicing of two slices from the loaf. An activity she looked forward to, a few minutes where she could suspend reality and enter an imaginary world where there was a story unfolding between her, the brioche loaf and the bread knife. At night, she stayed up a little late, just to be awake for a quick midnight snack.
The brioche, being midway between bread and cake, made for a very soft and cakey loaf and while she got better, nothing seemed to come close to perfection.
She is finally satisfied on the last day, with the last slice she cuts. As she butters the bread, she ponders about how just as she figured out the best way to cut an even slice using her bread knife, the loaf is over. She lets out a little sigh of disappointment.
‘It’s just like with a lot of things in life. Just as you start to understand how something works, it’s time to say good bye.’, she says, later that night, to a friend. ‘It struck a heavy chord and I started to feel a little uneasy. Thankfully, I remembered how it all started and reminded myself to be grateful that at least it didn’t get mouldy! Now that’s a different kind of disappointment.’, she says.
‘Wait a minute, you ate an entire loaf of brioche in 3 days?’, her friend responds.
‘I was hoping you would not catch on to that.’
S enjoys looking for wonder in the synchronised dance between inward and outward experiences of life. She weaves stories about how that which is termed as ‘the other’ or the ‘outward experience’ seamlessly comes to merge with that which is termed as ‘the self” or the ‘inward experience’