Penelope’s Puzzle

PENELOPE’S PUZZLE

Entering the classroom for the first time

With chalks, duster and a register in hand

Flashing a bag

Bulging with reference notes and vanity

A mind sizzling with the desire to communicate

Ideas and concepts of literature

A spirit teaming with the excitement of exploration

I found

I stood on the spot

I had started my voyage from.

My roving eyes probed the faces

Some blooming

Some brooding

Some brimming with stupid smiles

Some teeming with smug sneering

I felt frozen

Like a statue at Madam Taussad’s.

Suddenly a giggle jolted my contemplation

I landed on the ground zero

And discovered

I was standing on the podium of wisdom

In the Room No CB-26

Where once I sat on the benches

Hearing the lectures of my esteemed professors

Years and years ago.

I felt puzzled

The puzzle Penelope once felt

While waiting for her warrior husband Ulysses

Weaving with patience spools of laces

To ward off her admirers,

I also tried to weave a web of enchanting words

The magic web of learned discourse,

As my affinity with words and concepts

Lead me gradually

From the outer-inwards

From one partial truth to another

From one struggling discovery to another

I realized

I was working on a mystic puzzle

Inside a Penelope’s web

Trying to spin and de-spin ideas

Deported into me by my teachers

Hoping that someday

One of my students

May un-puzzle the myths, legends, archetypes,

We are busying in weaving

To fool us, them and everyone else!