Can I uNdO it?

Make it bold. Perhaps not. Italicize? No. Change it to arial. Maybe not. Just undo it. Its fine as it was. Its so easy to go back these days.

True that this is the age of computers. So addicted we are to it that often we find ourselves perhaps a bit too dependent on them. I am sure each of us have atleast one funny computer story that we chuckle about. I too have a bunch of them. This is surely not the  best but the most recent.

Its happened before. Then... I chose to ignore it. I should have done the same perhaps.  But looking back through the glasses of weird and sick humor, I found it funny and felt its worth telling the snakes, worms and classmates. 

Getting ready to take off on a space trip all by myself or wrestling a croc with one hand tied would have been the ideal situation. Bungee jumping, sky diving, roller coasters, merry-go round... virtually anything would have been acceptable. Anything but adding some papers to a file. I begged for drama. But there was none. Fate had me filing papers.

Since the file was already nearing its limit, a big chunk of papers fell out as I unlocked it. Although upset and angry at myself for not being careful, I managed to keep calm.  Proud of that achievement I thought "Nevermind. Its easy" and said "Undo". Nothing happened !

I said Undo again. A bit louder this time. Nothing changed. I wasnt used to this. The Undo always works. Angry by now, I said it a third time (really loud). The papers still din't move an inch. Staring at the papers, I repeated the trick, i dont know how many times. I could not just not undo it. 

I was a failure.I felt like a loser. I looked around, dejected at my inability to get something this trivial to work I cursed. How could I get a PhD if I cant get to undo this?  I'd be lying if I said it got me sweating but I was close to it. I went blank when a common trick failed to work. Helpless, if that makes any sense.

  " Are you okay Achuth?" - came a puzzled chinese voice.

It was a  friend who shares the work space with me. He had just witnessed some of the craziest moves a normally sane human would do - stare at a bunch of papers lying on the floor and scream 'undo' -  expecting them to go back where they where. I knew he cared but I could not explain what happened. Sure he would laugh at me. Acting crazy is better than being a genuine joke.

 " Magic " I told him as I walked away.

Sometimes its best to leave things as they are. The more you explain the more you screw it. Sitting in front of a computer the whole day trying to make a poster, I realized I hit the undo button probably a zillion times more than I should, and that got me thinking that it solves everything. 

UNDO - its easy, effortless and efficient. But I see the perfect setup for disaster right there in that single click. Atleast for me.

P.S. Philosophically undo is a difficult task. Sometimes impossible. Just like I found it that day.