The layered onion and parallel universes

A friend and I were having this discussion the other day about no one knowing us the exact same we. We are multiple personalities to multiple people to an extent that I think it’ll take some serious meditation for me to get to know ME. It’s like this layered onion metaphor that has been done to death one layer at a time. I’m not quite comfortable with comparing this thought to an onion, because honestly, once peeled, there is no way to put the layer back on the onion and also onions wither and die. While multiple facades are versatile - you put some on, you take some off, you mix and match, sometimes you reveal more and sometimes less, sometimes you add color and sometime make it monochromatic or stick with shades of grey. The permutations are so many that it’s almost impossible to create the same picture again.


So I’d like to think of them as parallel universes instead, not connected through a wormhole, but right there inside you. And one can pick the universe to be in at a point in time. You can flit in and out of them, escape from one to another and you don’t even need Lyra’s knife. There is no need for layers as the number of universes is infinite, so they can accommodate any number of your personality traits and create a new you. It’s the number of pictures that you create that makes a complex personality and that much more difficult to know YOU.

Sounds crazy? Maybe it is. But then, what isn’t :)

The slow death of creativity

So this Sunday Ju and I volunteered for Dream a Dream (DaD. Note: This is my short form for them, nothing official) Grad day. Dream a Dream is this NGO that works on developing life skills in underprivileged children. They were having this grand celebration for children who had completed their tenure with DaD. So we pitched in to help on the final day and arrived at this big auditorium at St. Joseph's school. Everyone was busy decorating, putting up cutouts, balloons, lights, speakers etc. to complete the set up for the afternoon ceremony. Ju and I were given the task of putting up streamers to brighten up the dull walls. And after a LOT of thought, THIS is what we could manage!!! Like really!!!

However, we did have an interesting chat on age and corporate culture destroying creativity. We couldn't do random things with the streamers! We had to arrange it neatly at the same height in the same pattern all over the place. And even AFTER we had this conversation, we went on sticking them the same way! That's adherence to guidelines for you! Bah... if only we were kids, we'd have had a field day with those paper strips.

But in any case, we did have a good time doing our bit for the decorations and the overall look with everything - the lights, the lasers, the fog machine, the music was really awesome and I believe the kids had a field day :)

A totally awesome way to spend a Sunday :D