Mountain Qualia

NaNoWriMo Day 1

"Thump!"

It was not a big sound. In fact, nobody noticed it in the rumbustical activity of the crowded village street. But for one man, this teensy sound was extremely significant. You could even say this was the most important event in his life, right on par with being born.

"Naaaa!" the man yelled out lifting up his arms to seek the aide of the ancients. But Their help was clearly not due soon. "The agony!"

The pavement was wide enough to dance on, and very new. The village council had been renovating the entire street last month. And except for the unsightly flower urns and the sudden appearance of surveillance camera's at strategic positions, there wasn't much to complain about. However, somewhere on the concrete plains, there was a disturbance in flat-land. An unsurmountable summit rose out of the desolation. And if you think this is a grotesque exaggeration, because that one tile only stuck out an inchling above the rest, you have clearly not read the rest of this story. In that case, please carry on.

And you are right; it is easy for a human foot to rise above this satanic summit. And the big toe of the left foot of this man, often addressed as Tipi, would agree if it had any consciousness on its own. But it was propelled forward by a long chain of bones connected to ligaments and muscles and nerves and what not. There were too many things involved to point to a single one for blame. The toe hit that concrete precipice.

There was immediately damage. The nail which had been due for maintenance for some time, tore just a tad too far to be acceptable. And from a small cut blood flowed. It took some time more for the nerve endings to come to terms with the current situation and gather enough confidence to send a distress signal to the powers that be. This signal resulted in the first yelp of Tipi.

Feeling powerless and clearly overreacting, the nerves sent out an all-out panic wave that in the brain translated into a feeling of having lost the nail entirely, crushed the bones in multiple places, and being skinned alive. It resulted in a disintegration where mind and body could no longer occupy the same region of space-time. It was in this instant that Tipi lost the gift of enlightenment.

A middle-aged woman had reacted to the outcries of Tipi, dropped her groceries and scuttled towards the agonizing male figure. Not sure what to do, she rubbed his back. This resulted in Tipi launching a series of coughs, to which the woman responded with more violent patting on the back.

"Stop it! Stop it, woman!" Tipi managed. "What the hell are you hitting my back for? As if I'm not in enough agony."

"Are you alright, sir?" the woman said, undeterred.

"No, I am not alright!" He pointed to his left foot. "It's my foot. It hurts. Who did this?"

Tipi looked around to see who could have committed this heinous act, but he saw only confused faces of simple business professionals, tourists, and giggling kids that should have been in school. Because everyone looked suspiciously innocent and the dawning of actually not even knowing where he was exactly scared him, he returned his attention to his podiatric problem.

"Why am I barefoot? Who doesn't wear shoes in the middle of the street? What kind of person am I?" He looked around again knowing full well nobody would respond to his rhetorical questions.

The helpful woman, who also did not know the answer to all the questions posed, also could not help feeling ignored by Tipi and was seriously considering whether her help would reap the karma points she was hoping to get out of the interaction.

Tipi sensed the woman felt left out.

"And what are you still looking at? Shoo! Get lost! Or do you want to comb my hair with a fork or do something equally painful to some other unrelated body part?"