The Round Truth

It was but just a look round the table and I was overwhelmed by my sheer lack of exercise. In not too abstract terms, it was made very clear to me that in a few years, maybe one or two, I shall forever carry a round, rotund and hopefully not too jelly-like, belly. A circle of richness round the table and I to break that circle, almost an outcast. Though I might add, I do have a great potential and a talent to add to the midsection.

And there started my new resolution to look like a willow. As a start, I decided to eat less.

The lesser I ate, the more miserable I got. Not that I fancied food very much or that I was almost always hungry. It was just the fact that I was eating less, somehow, not a comforting thing at all. As long as I am not reminded of the fact that I am on a diet, I can manage just fine. But one cannot forget when one is making an effort. Call it paranoia or my imagination. But truly speaking, I am comfortable to have abundance around me and sometimes, occasionally, in me. Finally, after many losing-to-temptations to eat and having severe guilt pangs afterwards, I have hit upon one of the greatest truths of life...one that has taken me closer to renouncing the 'Maya' of having a sculptured Greek god body...we must eat to live happily. Uninhibited indulgence of the palate leads to supreme peace.

Then I decided to balance what I ate with what I did so that Hall and Knight would be happy. The equation would balance.

So what if I had eggs for breakfast, I shall eat only rasam rice for lunch. If I succumbed to the temptation of pineapple cake, on the last Friday of a month, I would spend a lot of energy worrying about it and then after a completely depressing weekend, wherein having walked for two kilometres and eaten very less and feeling fatter still, I would have one of the severest rebounds the next Monday. The rest is a vicious circle. You see, equations that have a solution will balance out!!! That is the second greatest truth. That good and bad, cause and effect and abundance and starvation are just two variables on either side of a balanced equation. Oh yes, I might add that when I return from the cafeteria with a packet of my favourite, sweetened, water melon juice, I also take the stairs. They might not balance in the calorific sense, I do agree. But those who make this argument are not aware of their spiritual selves. In my spiritual dimension, they do balance out just fine.

A fast a week keeps the flab away.

And I could not be more wrong. But then why not. I chose my favourite god and fasted on the corresponding day of the week. Though Hindus have innumerable gods, my favoutite is quite the powerful one and has a complete day of the week. After a series of hunger pangs and headaches and yearnings for food, I realised God was indeed there and therein I realised, through hungry meditations that there exists a spiritual dimension of existence where everyone fat and thin are equal. So what can a few extra kilograms do. Eat away!

Today.

I inch closer to attaining the dimensions required by the brotherhood of the table. Many at that table have tried in vain to keep me out. Some have also expressed their desire to get away from that table. But what do they know. Fat or thin, the battle of the bulge will wage forever. Just as I take note of a particular someone, very slim and becoming, sailing past me, I also notice the tiny chicken salad bowl in that person's tiny hand. I sigh as I sit down to a hearty meal, shake my head and revel in the peace of my great understanding in matters relating to the round, rotund truth.