Juxtaposed!

Learning the GRE wordlist is a daunting task (feels like trying to download Guru on dial-up!!)! But for us lesser mortals who can't load the list in their heads like Trinity, we have to struggle and slog our way through it. Some words are easy to register and others need some legerdemain (see i'm even using them in daily conversation!!) but there are always some words that are elusive to say the least!! Turn your back to them and they are immediately lost in oblivion.

It makes me feel like Dorothy, the girl who

"learnt her tables to and fro
and backward and forward too
but couldn't remember what was six times nine
and didn't know what to do!!"

Atleast she had a sister who told her to call her Mary-Ann (her doll!) 54 for a while so she could remember it. Oh didn't you know what happened when her teacher asked her wat was 6 times 9? She answered 'Mary Ann'!!!

Anyways to get to the point, I cudn't apply this technique to words. So I resorted to applying the words I learnt to everyday situations, characters from TV serials, movies and books and even to people around me. I learnt most words that way but one word that I just cudn't grasp was "juxtapose". Maybe it was because I wasn't able to fit it to any known situation or thing or maybe it was just a strange word but I failed to fix it in my memory.

That was till a new class of mine began just a few days back. On the first day of class due to acute shortage of space (as is the case with Mumbai engineering classes) a girl I didn't know atall sat next to me. Not that I'm averse to strangers but I'm not so gregarious that I make friends like Maggi Noodles!

To get back to her, the minute she sat down, she started telling me how, why and when she took the class. In hardly the time it takes to blink a dozen times, I knew all her academic background and she had moved onto her family history! 'Expatiate' suddenly became crystal clear (I even put a reminder in my cell to write down this clue on the flashcard!). And by the time sir arrived I knew she hated her CSM prof last sem and her sister's friend's cousin's daughter had returned from the States!!!

I had hoped to seek solace in the fact that she would keep quiet in the lecture. But that was a misconception. She soon proved that her knowledge of DWM surpassed sir's and that she could seamlessly merge it with her gyan of other subjects! When it was time for a break I had lost sight of the subject I was supposed to be learning though I'd a clear idea of previous sem subjects!! After the break the story repeated itself. While she continued her parallel lecture to me, I wondered idly how many gigahertz her processor operated at to allow her to talk so fast!!

The lecture ended (THANK GOD!!!) and I rushed out fo the class happily. Solemnly vowed never to have anything to do with Ms. err-what-did she-say-her-name-was!! Ate a huge Jumbo King vada pav in celebration of being emancipated. Ran home to review the real lecture that I was supposed to listen to.

Next day I peered around cautiously before taking my seat in class. I didn't see her anywhere and heaved a sigh of relief. 15 minutes passed since sir started the lecture and no sign of her yet. I began to breathe easily and was even laughing at sir's joke when...

...the class door opened and there was my nemesis!! No prizes for guessing where she sat down!! And she had the audacity to even say an excited 'Hi'! As I resigned myself to another day of parallel lectures, I scribbled in my notebook...

..."juxtaposed yet again by fate!!!"