Queue is a word that could have done without its followers and made it in life all on its own. I am sure it does feel rather bitter about the useless pairs of u and e sharing the limelight – which could have been its alone – by simply standing around doing practically nothing.

What difference would it have made without them tagging along? It would have sounded absolutely the same with Q standing tall all by itself, isn’t it? Anyway, what’s been done is done, and cannot be undone. Now queue has no choice but stick to the present arrangement.

Talking of queues reminds me of the inability of my fellow Indians to queue up properly. Queues apparently work on the same lines of how the traffic works here, nose to bumper. Unless your body is not pressed against the one before and is pressed upon by the one behind, unless there is no mutual sharing of body odours, it is apparently not a queue. In short, whether it be a queue at the railway station or a wedding reception, the principle seems to be the same, stick to the other like a leech. When O when will we learn of respecting personal space?

Now to questions.

Questions I had, and do have, aplenty. But growing up, I was probably shushed way too many times (and also sent away with a flea in my ear) that I stopped asking them quite early on. Stopped completely I mean. Instead, observation became my thing. Any doubts I had in classrooms were never voiced. Instead I tried to find solutions on my own, by thinking, thinking and some more thinking which eventually became second nature to me in all walks of life.

Stopping a child from asking too many questions does not mean the questions go away. They will remain in their heads going round and round and round with no answers anywhere in sight. Well, we cannot have answers to all the questions children (or adults) ask, its true. In such cases however a simple ‘I do not know’? suffices. To oneself or to others. Unfortunately, a frank ‘I do not know’ is hard to come by.

Anyways…

I still have questions, and still feel hesitant to ask most times, in spite of teaching myself over the years that it is not a bad thing. But now there is no problem because there is Mother Google at my service, ever ready to give answers at any time of the day or night, whatever be the question. All I have to do is to frame my questions right choosing the right words and also take care in finding my answer only from verifiable sources. That’s way better than being asked to shut up.

©️ Shail Mohan 2024