Baffling Situations, Bizarre Solutions

Every meticulous household is meticulous in more or less the same way, every unscrupulous one is unique. Well, I do not intend to trivialize Tolstoy’s opening remarks to his classic Anna Karenina in any way. Yet, I believe that there are certain things that always go berserk in an extraordinary fashion in every household. I have given it much thought and have come up with the view that if innovators could put in half as much thought as I have, in compiling the list of things that leave us at our wit’s end, the world would be a happier place.

That one missing from the pair of Socks: A few years ago, my elder one was obsessed with black socks. I bought her twenty pairs with slight variations in the pattern. Despite my best efforts, every time I tried to put them together in pairs after the laundry, there would be one missing from the pair in the end. That solitary being would haunt my thoughts till I found the missing counterpart and put them back together in their compartment.

The mystery of the missing Knife: Every winter, one of my most efficient knives tends to disappear taking refuge under the seasonal foliage. Earlier I thought this happened only to the ones with green handle as they managed to camouflage. But now, I’m of the opinion that green or not, one of them is bound to take off, leaving me desperately searching every nook and corner of my kitchen.

The case of the missing Remote Control: Even after earmarking a definite slot for it, the remote control loves to play truant and goes missing at the exact time when every second counts. Exasperated by the effort, when you surrender, it would peep out from under the nearest pillow, cushion or sofa seat.

The Key without an owner: ‘Victoria No. 203’ pops into my mind’s eye whenever I come across a key whose owner is unidentified. Every time I clean the drawers, I chance upon one or two orphaned keys. Unable to identify their lineage, I put them in a glass jar where they continue to rust for years together.

The Missing Book from the shelf: Every time I lend a book to someone, I hope that it would be returned soon. When the borrower fails to turn up even after months, the empty slot in the book shelf glares at me and I, despite my best efforts, fail to conjure up the image of the borrower.

The curious case of the Smart Phone: When you act smart by putting your mobile phone on silent mode, that’s the exact moment the mobile plans its retribution for disregarding it. You borrow your husband’s phone to trace it but the smart phone refuses to give away its hideout. Thereby, reaffirming who’s the smartest of the two!

Vanishing in Plain Sight: If you wear specs, you can empathize with me. Spectacles happen to be vanishing lenses, leaving behind baffled gazes. Most times, they end up perched upon your crowning glory while you leave no stone unturned in your household.

I wish scientists, visionaries and inventors could put together their collective minds and come up with, maybe bizarre but, solutions to these baffling situations. They can try inserting microchips inside these things that would ‘beep, beep’ when we call out or maybe develop a remote sensor to locate them.

Well, that’s my wish list. You can continue to add your own baffling situations in the comment box below…

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