Walter Mitty is a fictional character in the famous short story ‘The Secret Life of Walter Mitty’ written by James Thurber in the nineteen thirties. This meek hero of the short story was prone to day dreaming. In his day dreams, Mitty was endowed with extreme skills and performed heroic acts (e.g. air plane pilot, ace surgeon, super spy etc.).
When we are little, most – if not all - of us have a lot of fun indulging in ‘Walter Mitty’ moments. This blog entry was triggered by one such incident. It was a lazy Sunday afternoon and after a heavy meal, I was reading the magazine section of the news paper and had almost dozed off on the sofa. My daughter was playing alone in the corner and amusing herself chatting with imaginary friends. She was not aware that I had stopped reading and was following her banter. Her role play was so realistic that it seemed like she was having a conversation with an actual person. This triggered off memories of my childhood…
My cousin and I were (still are) crazy cricket fans when we were kids. We used to listen to radio commentary of test matches. Later in the evenings we used to mimic the commentary. In these ‘matches’, Gavaskar would almost always hit centuries and Kapil Dev would bowl deadly out-swingers! Our commentary sessions used to last up-to an hour at a time till we got bored and moved on to something else!
At the start of the vacation season, I used to travel quite a lot by ‘Express’ bus from Trivandrum to Ernakulam. At the time my heroes were bus drivers and I used to closely observe them in action from the front row. A favourite past time for a couple of summers was fantasising about driving a make believe express bus.
In 7th standard, my new friend (a new comer to my school) was literate in ‘pop’ music. More likely his elder brother used to listen to Rock and passed on this taste to him. This chappie lent me a couple of cassettes of AC DC and Pink Floyd. For a time I used to fantasise about being an electric guitar playing rock star dressed like the chap on the cover of the AC DC cassette! AC DC fever lasted about a year. Years later when I listened to an AC DC song, my connection with the band was renewed ! The Pink Floyd bug on the other hand lasted through my childhood and even today I am a Pink Floyd addict.
The extended stint of the Walter Mitty syndrome through my childhood is not surprising considering I was a single child. Maybe it was to compensate for lack of a sibling. As time passed, somewhere along the way I lost the ability to day dream....
Maybe day dreaming is not as bad it might sound – even for adults. A small dose of it might be the medicine for lack of creativity. As adults we lose the ability to dream and are too realistic and too ‘sensible’.
When we are little, most – if not all - of us have a lot of fun indulging in ‘Walter Mitty’ moments. This blog entry was triggered by one such incident. It was a lazy Sunday afternoon and after a heavy meal, I was reading the magazine section of the news paper and had almost dozed off on the sofa. My daughter was playing alone in the corner and amusing herself chatting with imaginary friends. She was not aware that I had stopped reading and was following her banter. Her role play was so realistic that it seemed like she was having a conversation with an actual person. This triggered off memories of my childhood…
My cousin and I were (still are) crazy cricket fans when we were kids. We used to listen to radio commentary of test matches. Later in the evenings we used to mimic the commentary. In these ‘matches’, Gavaskar would almost always hit centuries and Kapil Dev would bowl deadly out-swingers! Our commentary sessions used to last up-to an hour at a time till we got bored and moved on to something else!
At the start of the vacation season, I used to travel quite a lot by ‘Express’ bus from Trivandrum to Ernakulam. At the time my heroes were bus drivers and I used to closely observe them in action from the front row. A favourite past time for a couple of summers was fantasising about driving a make believe express bus.
In 7th standard, my new friend (a new comer to my school) was literate in ‘pop’ music. More likely his elder brother used to listen to Rock and passed on this taste to him. This chappie lent me a couple of cassettes of AC DC and Pink Floyd. For a time I used to fantasise about being an electric guitar playing rock star dressed like the chap on the cover of the AC DC cassette! AC DC fever lasted about a year. Years later when I listened to an AC DC song, my connection with the band was renewed ! The Pink Floyd bug on the other hand lasted through my childhood and even today I am a Pink Floyd addict.
The extended stint of the Walter Mitty syndrome through my childhood is not surprising considering I was a single child. Maybe it was to compensate for lack of a sibling. As time passed, somewhere along the way I lost the ability to day dream....
Maybe day dreaming is not as bad it might sound – even for adults. A small dose of it might be the medicine for lack of creativity. As adults we lose the ability to dream and are too realistic and too ‘sensible’.
