In the beginning was one…. Nah. Scratch that. Let me try and start afresh. In the beginning was none. Those were the days, carefree, filled with laughter, with no thought of impending doom.

Then there was one ….one line. It stretched innocuously from one end to the other, horizontal. Camouflaged so well, I missed it for what it was for quite a while. It didn’t matter so much that it it was there, though why it should be was still a puzzle. It was not as if the line wasn’t straight or something. It definitely was.

Straight is okay in my book. Straight is good. It doesn’t drive one up the wall like a line that is well ….not straight. Have I told you of the time I had to stop myself from getting up and adjusting the carpet which wasn’t aligned parallel to the walls of the room…. in a house I was visiting for the first time?! Table cloths do the same to me. Taunt and tease, daring me to get off my seat and straighten them. Ditto, pictures on the walls. Anyway…

Within days there appeared a second line as if to keep the first one company. Parallels! Small mercies. When the third appeared it too was parallel to the first and second. Together they looked like the pages of the ruled books back in primary school, the lines equidistant from each other. It looked like at any moment I could start practicing cursive writing.

When the fourth line appeared, it snootily kept its distance the first three. Or perhaps it was a loner. A porcupine, if you will. The fifth, a copy cat, mimicked the fourth. You porcupine, me porcupine too. But the sixth line decided to stay close to the one above.

Frantic messages were sent to the sons. Lines appearing out of nowhere on my laptop screen. Google says blah, blah, blah, and blah. What should I do????? Uh-ho, said the sons. This might only worsen. Don’t worry, we’ll buy a new laptop if/when it gets bad.

The history of blogging – mine, by the way – has seen a line up of blogging-machines. First there was the clunky desktop, followed by the Inspiron which died on me one fine day after a long and beautiful association. Next came the Vaio, still going strong, having switched sides and now the L&M’s trusted lackey, which change of hands paved the way for the slim, beautiful, and totally zen Zenbook that I loved at first sight, and still do, years later. Why, why, why did it have to go all zebra on me?!!

© Shail Mohan 2020