Where to dump your trash?

Where to dump your trash?

It struck me when I noticed how tediously a colleague of mine was scribbling notes onto a writing pad during a lecture. He noted almost anything that the lecturer said. In normal course of things, most of us write down whatever we think is important; a habit sequent to how we are taught to learn at school.

I remember what the teacher used to say when I kept staring at the blackboard with a smiling face as if enjoying the melody of her voice:

"Write that down! It is important"

Then,in a flurry pens and notebooks would appear and the soft scratchy sounds of ball-pens moving upon paper would coalesce into a collective irritable sound that would die as abruptly as it had risen.

Coming back, we keep filling notebook after notebook with 'important' information and then we spend our time searching for the right notebook or probably preparing a record of what information is contained in which notebook.

Now, this guy he had noted everything on this writing pad and had forgotten to take the pad with him after the lecture. What was he doing? If he didn't have any intention of taking the pad or learning in the lecture then why did he take the pain of writing down everything?

I took the pad and walked out of the conference room. After a few brisk steps I managed to reach the guy and gave a soft tap on his shoulder, saying:

"Excuse me, sir, I think you left this behind"

He turned around and smiled:

"Thank you, but frankly, I don't need it anymore"

I was amazed at the confidence the guy had upon his memory and somehow without my saying it he understood that I was taken aback.

"Have you opened and seen what is written in the pad?"

I must confess I had not seen the writings inside the pad, so I flipped it open. It was filled with everything except anything related to the lecture. It contained names of celebrities, movies, prices, a few timings, car prices, loan interest rates offered by different banks, vegetable prices, cricket scores and a score of other things.

I said "There is nothing about the lecture in here"

"Exactly"he replied and walked off, with the smile still spread upon his face.

It then dawned upon me what he had been scribbling so furiously during the lecture. He had been writing down all the 'trash' in his head, the useless information.

"To fill a cup that is brimmed, one has empty the whole or a part of it."

The lecturer had said that line but I was too busy noting it down in my diary rather than putting it in my head. From that moment on, I pledged to dump my 'trash' where it belonged; on the writing pad!