#fromthediary

Little change or modification can bring big change. Like take the word ‘custom’ its dictionary meaning is: “a traditional and widely accepted way of behaving or doing something that is specific to a particular society, place or time.” Now, an addition of one alphabet ‘-s’ as suffix to this word totally alters the meaning; ‘Custom-s’ means–“the official department that administers and collects the duties levied by a government on imported goods.” Further, another modification of the word ‘Custom’ by adding ‘-er’ as suffix instead of ‘s’ also deviates the meaning from original; ‘Custom-er’ implies ‘a person who buys goods or services from a shop or business.” Instead of two alphabets ‘-er’ if we add three alphabets ‘-ary’, even then also the meaning deviates from the original, however, it’s meaning is somehow connected to the originality. ‘Custom-ary’ means ‘according to the customs or usual practices associated with a particular society, place or set of circumstances.” Interestingly, in this meaning, ‘Customs’ is used as an ‘adjective’ instead of ‘noun’ and does not denote its meaning of Customs which is a plural noun, as observed above. Further insertion of two alphabets ‘-il-’ between ‘-a-’ and ‘-y-’ creates the adverb ‘Customar-il-y’ which means–‘in a way which follows customs or usual practices.’ If ‘ize’ (also ‘ise’) is added as suffix to ‘custom’ then the verb ‘custom-ize’ gets into the picture which means–‘modify something to suit a particular individual or task.’ Now taking further, this modification-game, instead any suffix, if we add ‘ac-’ as prefix it becomes ‘ac-custom’ which takes the word to first alphabetical order from third. ‘Accustom’ means ‘be used to’. The difference between ‘suffix’ and ‘prefix’ is that: suffix keeps the word in same alphabetical order but the grammatical variations occur and on the contrary prefix altogether shifts the word to different alphabetical serial. It is pertinent to adopt this trait of change or modification into our life, as little of it can bring big change. So be the customer (in literal sense) who is accustomed to the customary customization of his or her behavior and habits to ensure that you remain as valid and meaningful as each and every varied form of the word ‘custom’ is.

Change evolves us so that we can fit into the present that arrives from future and move ahead from past which was present. Catching up with the evolution of word ‘custom’, the below flowchart describe the evolution chain more vividly:

Source: wikipedia

Small invisible moments, where the film has already started and the story is underway but there is no resolution in sight. I witness these daily, trying to observe the situation closely, scrutinizing the players to see if I can gather enough clues to place a narrative together and give meaning to the play I have just stumbled upon. 

For example, today there were the Indian girls in the gym’s changing room. They were wearing awkward swimsuits that looked like something that had time-travelled from the 1920′s and had somehow become fused together with a lightning-patterned spandex nightmare. However, despite the suits, they were still beautiful. Laughing and happy to be in each other’s company while they confided in their thick accents. I thought about how, the older I get, the more I find everyone beautiful.

Then there was the man in the wheelchair. I see him everyday at the pool. He makes a grueling effort to get undressed, stand up and walk/crawl into the pool. It takes him many tries to do this and he mumbles to himself throughout the process. He then swims for 30 minutes and undergoes the same ritual all over again in order to get out of the water and back in to his chair. I am infinitely moved by him, not because I feel pity or compassion, but because I admire his determination and consistence despite the odds.

And lastly, there was the most intriguing of the three: the young student couple at the traffic light, both wearing baggy shirts and shorts. They seemed very serious but I have to admit that their mood wasn’t what made me look at them at first. I looked at them because I was surprised to see that he was a white redhead and she was of Indian descent. I felt happy because my theory of how racism will become obsolete with time thanks to younger generations felt somehow validated. A small victory. I digress, as I was saying, they seemed very serious or maybe sad, it was hard to tell at first. The three of us waited for the light to turn from red to green and when it did, the girl stepped forward holding on to his hand but he didn’t move. She turned around, looked at him and then burrowed her face into his chest and started crying. I continued walking but tried to look back to see what was happening: I glimpsed the girl crossing the street, she was trying to hold back her tears and he had disappeared. She climbed on to a red scooter and rode away while she burst in to tears.