The preferred lie and pride of place
HAVING missed the briefing before a golf tournament, a new player asked me about the facility of a preferred lie (for the uninitiated, it allows golfers to improve the ball’s position without any penalty). “Well, place the ball at an appropriate angle, not moving it beyond a few centimetres before you hit a shot,” I told him. It is a given that anything out of place bothers a person who is accustomed to seeing and finding it at its designated spot.
In all kinds of good arrangements, the fixed place of a certain thing is the most desirable. The other day, my wife asked me what place a calendar had in these times since every bit of scheduling was done on smartphones and other gadgets. We no longer hang calendars on the wall in our drawing or living rooms. In kitchens, they might still be useful, as the lady of the house has to jot down the grocery list, details of the daily supply of milk and the schedule of dishes for the week.
Status-conscious people look for seats in the front row, preferably near a VIP. If you are in the centre of a photograph, it confirms your importance in a group. Love birds often ask for a corner seat in a cinema hall, for obvious reasons. A few years back, Bollywood star Kareena Kapoor visited a stadium in my city to watch a cricket match. A man was heard talking on the phone, telling someone with pride and excitement, “Hey, I am standing right behind Kareena!”
Every householder knows the importance of a fixed place for everything. Some of them even brag, “Blindfolded, I can find a pair of scissors in my almirah.” Umbrellas, walking sticks, floor-moppers, brooms, nail-clippers, etc — all have a proper place in a house. Photo frames, souvenirs, trophies and medals are showcased either on the mantelpiece or in earmarked niches and corners.
We generally put jewellery and cash in bed-boxes, hoping that in case of a break-in, these are not found by thieves. But they know pretty well where to look for the valuables. An old lady hid the almirah keys at a certain place while leaving for the market. On return, she couldn’t locate it and looked confused. Smiling, the maid came to her rescue, “Madam, you left the keys under the table cloth!”
In an old movie, comedian Om Prakash tells his father that he has kept a secretary. “But why have you kept her on the table?” the father asks on seeing them together. My trainer in the police force gave me a guru mantra. He seemed to have taken a cue from Buddha’s Middle Path. He told me to always stay in the middle and run neither to win a trophy nor stay a laggard. Well, when you write a middle, it’s the preferred lie, and when it is published, it takes pride of place!
