Of the mind’s business
by Rajbir Deswal
Mind your own business” is not generally followed by a pleasing “please,” in tow, but a kind of disgusting gust, bordering on the side of rudeness and riddance-seeking, like swatting a bug with a “Go away or get off !” The true connotations tantamount to almost the expletives of the expression, which eluded me many times I was told to, ‘mind my own business’!
I had never known how seriously did the South Indian matinee idol Rajni Kant flaunt his verbalised challenging aggression, when he let loose that “maaeend it,” on his detractors, thereby flooring them more with the “valour of his tongue,” than the sword of his sinewy gesture, of slashing of the still air made musical by a thichang-phichang variety of the obtaining symphony in sync(-apologies Mr Shakespeare!).
Enlightenment came my way when I had to tell a musician to mind his business (of playing his guitar), on the pavement at Piccadilly Circus, in London. Obviously I had refused to, when he wanted me to, cough up money (that too in Sterling — my mind’s calculation again being at play!) after having shot his video in my handycam. He almost held me by the collar when my host told to him to “mind his bloody business” — one time again.
At home, our own variety of beggar-musicians don’t indulge in that kind of behaviour. Rather, they either ignore you or at the most hurl an innocuous curse invoking the Gods, for they know we understand Almighty, expecting us to “mind our business of charity.”
On a serious note, the business of mind is always productive to a great extent. But unfortunately that is not the intention of the one exhorting a hurl like that, rather, it is to just implore the offender in carrying on whatever business is at his hand, be it counting waves on a seashore or finding forms in clouds in the sky. Generally we refer to the mind’s business as the obtaining occupation.
But yes, if you tell someone to mind his business he may quip, “I have no business to mind!.” And also maybe he has a Freudian slip to blurt out, to make matters worse, like when once President Bush reportedly said in a speech he was giving to a group of teachers, “I’d like to spank all teachers.” Probably he wanted to say “thank” all the teachers; then they could have retorted, “Mr Prez, mind your own business of tackling the Iraq war!”
Mind blowing, mind boggling, mind washing, mind tracking; all these are understandable, but what is ‘mindless?’ — particularly when it qualifies, violence. How can violence be mindless, since a sharp machination and well-orchestrated endeavour go into its execution. It definitely becomes the mind’s business then. Which again means that mind’s business may always not be productive!
Sometimes it happens that you dial a wrong number, but surely the one at that time in your mind, which turns out to be a wrong one, because you were absent minded, and still captured in your own mind’s cobweb — of not letting you go “astray”. Isn’t it your mind’s business that you are minding at that time?
Remember the “absent minded professor” Brainard, missing his wedding to Betsy Carlisle, as a result of discovery of the Flubber? Was he really out of his mind? Or did he take his mind’s business a tad too seriously, in deciding not to marry at all. As I said, the mind’s business could be productive. And counterproductive too.
By the way, my course-mate while pursuing our Masters in English Literature, who whenever empathised with an assuaging ‘“Don’t mind” always quipped with a ‘I don’t have a mind to mind”, is a Reader in the English Department of a university. Shouldn’t I mind my own business!
Mind your own business” is not generally followed by a pleasing “please,” in tow, but a kind of disgusting gust, bordering on the side of rudeness and riddance-seeking, like swatting a bug with a “Go away or get off !” The true connotations tantamount to almost the expletives of the expression, which eluded me many times I was told to, ‘mind my own business’!
I had never known how seriously did the South Indian matinee idol Rajni Kant flaunt his verbalised challenging aggression, when he let loose that “maaeend it,” on his detractors, thereby flooring them more with the “valour of his tongue,” than the sword of his sinewy gesture, of slashing of the still air made musical by a thichang-phichang variety of the obtaining symphony in sync(-apologies Mr Shakespeare!).
Enlightenment came my way when I had to tell a musician to mind his business (of playing his guitar), on the pavement at Piccadilly Circus, in London. Obviously I had refused to, when he wanted me to, cough up money (that too in Sterling — my mind’s calculation again being at play!) after having shot his video in my handycam. He almost held me by the collar when my host told to him to “mind his bloody business” — one time again.
At home, our own variety of beggar-musicians don’t indulge in that kind of behaviour. Rather, they either ignore you or at the most hurl an innocuous curse invoking the Gods, for they know we understand Almighty, expecting us to “mind our business of charity.”
On a serious note, the business of mind is always productive to a great extent. But unfortunately that is not the intention of the one exhorting a hurl like that, rather, it is to just implore the offender in carrying on whatever business is at his hand, be it counting waves on a seashore or finding forms in clouds in the sky. Generally we refer to the mind’s business as the obtaining occupation.
But yes, if you tell someone to mind his business he may quip, “I have no business to mind!.” And also maybe he has a Freudian slip to blurt out, to make matters worse, like when once President Bush reportedly said in a speech he was giving to a group of teachers, “I’d like to spank all teachers.” Probably he wanted to say “thank” all the teachers; then they could have retorted, “Mr Prez, mind your own business of tackling the Iraq war!”
Mind blowing, mind boggling, mind washing, mind tracking; all these are understandable, but what is ‘mindless?’ — particularly when it qualifies, violence. How can violence be mindless, since a sharp machination and well-orchestrated endeavour go into its execution. It definitely becomes the mind’s business then. Which again means that mind’s business may always not be productive!
Sometimes it happens that you dial a wrong number, but surely the one at that time in your mind, which turns out to be a wrong one, because you were absent minded, and still captured in your own mind’s cobweb — of not letting you go “astray”. Isn’t it your mind’s business that you are minding at that time?
Remember the “absent minded professor” Brainard, missing his wedding to Betsy Carlisle, as a result of discovery of the Flubber? Was he really out of his mind? Or did he take his mind’s business a tad too seriously, in deciding not to marry at all. As I said, the mind’s business could be productive. And counterproductive too.
By the way, my course-mate while pursuing our Masters in English Literature, who whenever empathised with an assuaging ‘“Don’t mind” always quipped with a ‘I don’t have a mind to mind”, is a Reader in the English Department of a university. Shouldn’t I mind my own business!
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