Once upon a time I used to really enjoy this program called “Takeshi’s Castle”. It was a game show in which participants overcame various hurdles with the aim of seeking victory over the Takeshi’s Castle. The participants were Japanese/Chinese/Korean/Taiwanese looking youngsters (to an ignorant person like me they all look the same), who came in all shapes and sizes booming with confidence. The hurdles that they were to cross, were interesting ones and the voice over by Javed Jaffrey often drove me to splits. It was funny watching the participants roll, trip, fumble and tumble and fall down. However sad and unfair it may seem, the truth is that I cannot control my laughter at a ‘great fall’. I can’t help but enjoy it. I have myself fallen many a times in public in the most weird and embarrassing ways. I have fallen on all types of terrains with or without the right kind of footwear, with or without reason. I have always blamed all my falls on anybody but me and anything that has anything remotely to do with my fall, even gravity- Is it possible that sometimes the pull exerted by Mother Earth is more?- simply with the objective of ‘bringing you down’?
My ‘other half’( I prefer to call him that since I feel that exhibiting any modesty in this regard will be artificial and unnecessary on my behalf), has always helped me get back on my feet( you see lifting me up is just not an option) but not without laughing away to glory. I will never forget the wounds that I have had to nurse from these falls. Yet I continue to shameless laugh at others.
What reminded me of Takeshi’s Castle was an activity called Skittles where participants wore bulky outfits and lined up like rolling pins in a Bowling Alley. A large ball was sent rolling on to them till some of them fell down clumsily. Here in Hamburg at -8 today, after wearing all the layers of clothes and a jacket full of down to keep myself warm, I feel like those Skittle from Takeshi’s Castle- always prone to trip and fall and roll .
