It is shocking that your own mind would do this to you. Stupid mind! Your mind is supposed to help you and not play games with you. However, it is a fact that your mind plays games with you and tricks you into believing that you are not what you are. Here are a few incidents, which might as well get classified as Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, but believe me, are not. It is just my mind playing games.

I saw the movie Spiderman and for many days after that, whenever I would see a spider, no matter how small or big, I would feel like maybe sneaking closer to it and allow it to bite me. It happened a lot and one fine day I almost thought I had it, when a spider, out of nowhere, dropped on my forearm. God was going to fulfill my wishes. I thought this was the day, when I would be transformed into Spiderman. I didn’t move my arm and willed all my muscles into semi –consciousness, lest any of them twitched and undo my destiny. Neither did the spider move. The poor sod sat there, wondering, what to do next. There was no one in my room, so I said quietly, and sweetly, “Bite.” It did not. The damn thing did not move even when I raised my voice a little and then more, getting frantic at the stupid arachnid. Finally, frustrated at the stubborn creep, I picked up a newspaper with my left hand and was about to strike it, when it finally made a decision and took a leap to the floor. To the spider, it must have felt like a scene straight out of an Indiana Jones movie, but to me, it was the end of the movie without even beginning.

My son’s exams were going on and the onus of teaching him fell on me. There was a chapter on mosquitoes. The chapter talked about Ronald Ross and malaria and how the diseases were transmitted through mosquitoes. While on Ronald Ross, the book talked about how he discovered the female Anopheles. We finished the chapter and were watching TV when I saw a mosquito sitting on my foot. Without thinking, I squashed it with my bare hand. Then suddenly, I wondered, could it have been the female Anopheles. I tried to look at the dead body, but it was crushed beyond recognition. Since that day, I have been closely scrutinizing all the mosquitoes coming into my airspace and any mosquito which has even a tinge of brown or any spots on the wings has had it from me. To those, in love with the animals and insects, I would like to apologize, but the mosquitoes just can’t be coaxed into getting under the microscope for inspection and focusing a microscope in hand on moving airborne targets is way too difficult.

Mind Games! It’s the thought, lingering in the subconscious and surfacing at will to make you do stupid things. Why would it happen? I don’t know. But it sure keeps my life interesting.