Tuna fish sandwich

It was a dark, stormy night. Well, not so much stormy but it was sure dark because rain seriously disturbs the electricity supply in my city. So.....I went out to buy some DVDs and on my return I made a stop at Subway. I never liked Subway, no offence Atif. But that was all about to change. Since the KFC near my house was no more (you know the story) and a Subway opened beside it, so I decided to check it out. Looking at the various options I decided to go with the Tuna sandwich. Why? I don't know. I had never tried it  and it sounded and looked delicious. It was. When I got back home, filled with enthusiasm and looking forward to enjoying a nice and scrumptious sandwich, there was not light. The electricity was shutdown because of the expected downpour. It felt as if it had poured on my heart.

I sat beside the window in my room, completely dark except for the faint light entering from outside. I brought out the sandwich and took a bite. It was the best sandwich I ever had! What? How did that happen? I have tried Subway before and it never tasted any good. It used to be bland and insipid, like hospital food. What did just happen right now?

For the past few weeks I has noticed that food had lost its taste. No, I was not in love. It was just that my dining habits has changed. I, for some reason, had developed this habit of eating dinner in front of my computer. I always put on some movie at that time or if none was available I at least switched on the TV. With my head doing time-sharing between the movie/TV and the food. I did not notice when I had finished dinner and forgot what it tasted like as soon as I finished it.

Scientists are already warning of the harm caused by multi-tasking, as our brain is not designed for the purpose. Multi-tasking is just one way our computer using generation expresses its distractedness. We tend to be distracted a lot these days. Distraction kills the taste in food. For us to enjoy food, we require the services of two senses: taste and smell. But for these two senses to do their job, we need enough free "brain time" to process their signals. When I was eating that sandwich, there was not distraction, nothing to see, nothing to hear. I had all the attention resources free. Because of that, it was a different experience altogether.

I realized another small bit at that moment. Distractions kill the joy of life. Great things happen few and far. Mostly, its the small things that need to be enjoyed. A nice meal, a good chat, an exhausting workout or a task well done. These small droplets of happiness accumulate overtime, just like the pebbles of frustration. They give us the energy to lift the burden of disappointments that we cannot throw away. If they were not there, we would be too exhausted and overwhelmed by the burden. Bitterness would inevitably emerge out of such helplessness. And bitterness is like fire, it creates more fire and burns everything. So, better throw some water on this fire and make something better of the life we can only live one day at a time.