At last the dailies have come out with something that has tantalized the tastebuds of my creativity… Two prominent dailies of the emirates have come out with the same news on the front page—on ‘Synaesthesia’! Seems the media exercise of one-upmanship is passé and they are employing the same reporter ( the words are identical!)! Well, as it happens, their cold war is the least of my concerns. What interested me was the news item itself. It appears people who are synaesthetic experience a triggering of some taste by some words. Corny eh? ( Bet that triggers off the taste of ‘Cupo’corn’ the mall- stands dish out for weary shoppers…the tangy taste of the masala used.) I can understand someone drooling when I say ‘masal vada’ or ‘cinnabons’ and even getting a taste of those even as I mention it! But what the researchers claim is that the synaesthetes get the taste of something remotely connected to the word uttered. One participant is supposed to have tasted tuna fish when she was about to name a pair of castanets.
Just wondering if I was suffering from the condition, I started testing myself! For the general benefit of mankind I share my scientific findings…
‘Work’- I think… I can taste acid that has come rushing up my oesophagus!
‘Diet’ - tastes like burnt intestines… (in fact, whenever I diet while others don’t, I go through the ‘vayaru paththi eriyaradu’ a k a ‘pet jal raha hai’ syndrome).
‘Exercise’ … I get the taste of hot chocolate…And that’s the end of it! Now no one can blame me for my ‘obelixity’!
‘Fever’—I can taste Horlicks but Freud would relate that to my sickly childhood and glasses of Horlicks Mom used to make me drink!
‘Popcorns’ … whoa! That word triggers the heavenly smell of fresh, hot --popcorns! That must be the proverbial exception proving the rule!
One consolation is that, apparently, Synaesthesia is very common among artists, poets and musicians.
So, ‘Write’ I think….and voila! I can taste success! ( Pssst! It tastes sweet!)
Just wondering if I was suffering from the condition, I started testing myself! For the general benefit of mankind I share my scientific findings…
‘Work’- I think… I can taste acid that has come rushing up my oesophagus!
‘Diet’ - tastes like burnt intestines… (in fact, whenever I diet while others don’t, I go through the ‘vayaru paththi eriyaradu’ a k a ‘pet jal raha hai’ syndrome).
‘Exercise’ … I get the taste of hot chocolate…And that’s the end of it! Now no one can blame me for my ‘obelixity’!
‘Fever’—I can taste Horlicks but Freud would relate that to my sickly childhood and glasses of Horlicks Mom used to make me drink!
‘Popcorns’ … whoa! That word triggers the heavenly smell of fresh, hot --popcorns! That must be the proverbial exception proving the rule!
One consolation is that, apparently, Synaesthesia is very common among artists, poets and musicians.
So, ‘Write’ I think….and voila! I can taste success! ( Pssst! It tastes sweet!)
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