Pradeep Maheshwari

Don't make Me Talk Pradeep Maheshwari

I lived alone by choice. So I could remain silent for long periods if I chose to. But on my father's death with my mother with me all that changed. All of a sudden I found myself constantly irritated and tired. And as flash came the response: That I was now constantly talking. In homes I find people keep others engaged in mostly useless conversation as if their identities would get lost. Most people I realized are not complete by themselves. They need others around them to engage with in veiled sort of way to attract attention and validate themselves. THEY MAKE YOU TALK; Often for no good reason. There is a constant string of words being unleashed and cannot be ignored or you do so and create an emotional impasse. The energy that is wasted! The mind could be silent, meditate and contemplate. But with a family around you it is like small whirlwinds all around you at every moment with windmills attacking you from all sides. I can now understand the allegory in the book Cervantes' Don Quixote. It is even more galling when you realize that they make you talk, make me give answers that they promptly forget. Kind of using me as a "tablet for Googling"; after all I am always there and can be touched upon as and when needed again and again.