I’m sitting at home. I realize that I can’t put it off any more. I’ve been procrastinating, trying to avoid the inevitable. Finally, I figure, its time, time I stopped putting it off, and actually get around to doing it. What was the assignment again? I’m supposed to look at a fruit? Of everything that I could observe, I’ve been advised to look at a fruit. Not market pricing, not the share market, not even some speaker speak about innovation, and no, of course not a football game, but Fruit! Well, this is going to be interesting, I can say that much!
I rummage through the fridge and figure that an apple will have to do. I’m sure a nectarine might have been more interesting, but I’m too lazy to go out to trader joe’s and buy nectarines for this exercise.
Knife – Check.
Cutting board – Check.
Fruit – Check.
Me – Check.
Notes – Check.
The only thing that was missing was my mind. I was still humming that maiden song I just heard. Anyway, here goes.
The minute I look at the apple, the first thing that comes into my mind is Disney’s snow white and the seven dwarfs. An amazing story, considering the fact that the original story was a lot darker than the cartoon. Didn’t she bite into a green apple, and end up sleeping in a glass coffin? Creepy!
Well Aditya, this story isn’t about you and your tryst with snow white, it’s about that apple that’s lying on the table! … Yeah, yeah… the apple that ended paradise for Adam and Eve, making the apple, in a weird convoluted sort of way, causal to my existence.
But anyway, back to the apple. This is a green apple. Kinda small. Cold to the touch, considering that I’ve taken it out of the fridge. A beautiful, brilliant shade of green. The apple is a bit lop sided, not exactly the classic apple shape that we all imagine apples to be. But then, I guess apples are as different as people (that is irrelevant, isn’t it?).
I’m about to start wondering what the objective of the exercise is, when I suddenly realize that I now see the apple differently. I’ve been looking at the apple for around 15 minutes now, and suddenly the point that the professor might have in mind, begins to make sense. I can see the apple sweat, just so slightly. It’s as if the apple is demanding that it be put back in the fridge, rather than out here in this hot room. I try to tell the apple that today is a relatively cold day, and he shouldn’t be complaining, and then I check myself. Stupid idea.
I figure I’d like to cut the apple up, and see how juicy the apple is. Right now sitting on the table, it seems like a very very juicy apple indeed! I spend a couple of minutes debating whether the exercise allowed me to cut the apple up. I guess the dice were heavily loaded. I cut the apple down the middle. And get back to looking at the apple again.
Looking back at my notes, I see that I spent quite a bit of time just observing the apple with nothing else in mind after I had cut the apple open. Suddenly, it was like the apple was a lot more interesting than it was before. I remember looking intently at the surface, observing how the juice accumulates at the cut surface, before it starts oxidizing and turning that familiar shade of brown. That is weird. I actually do think that I was able to achieve a state of not thinking about anything else but the apple for quite some time, which, for me, is an achievement in itself. The apple is getting browner by the minute. And considering that I have a note which says “Very Juicy”, I think I should get around to eating this apple now. All said, a fair and interesting one hour spent on the apple, I would say!
