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MIND MATTERS

AMNESIA: BOON OR BANE? PART 2

Navigating the Fractured Boundaries of Domestic Life, Professional Duty, and Memory

A.K.Girisam

6 min readAug 29, 2026

A watercolor-style split-screen illustration. On the left side, a traditional Indian home interior shows a man and woman standing near an open doorway, looking out toward a passing train; a Ganesha shrine and a low table with a red journal are visible in the foreground. On the right side, the same man in a blue uniform stands inside a high-tech industrial control room surrounded by radar monitors, gauges, and technical schematics, with the identical red journal resting on a desk. — Where does the boundary lie between the quiet, unpredictable routines of home and the demanding, high-stakes world of a Chief Engineer? Part 2 explores the startling chasms of memory — balancing everyday domestic slips with the sharp focus required in complex industrial environments. ((Image created by the author using Grok AI)

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Sacred Blunders and Forgotten Tickets

My wife still retains the habit of placing examination hall tickets, flight passes, and important documents in the pooja room so that Lord Ganesh and other deities can take cognizance of our petitions and grant a favorable outcome. On our very first trip to Tirupati immediately after our wedding, she dutifully placed the train tickets in the pooja room to seek divine blessings. We boarded the train, only to realize with horror that we had left the tickets behind after they were blessed!

On another occasion, I changed my trousers at the last minute simply because my children disliked the pair I was wearing. Only after the train chugged out of the station did I realize I had left our train tickets (including our return journey passes) in the pockets of the discarded trousers. We endured a grueling ordeal on our return trip as every single train was fully booked. We were forced to check into a hotel and eventually hire a taxi to return home. My kids and wife were wonderfully understanding and supportive, bearing the entire inconvenience…

NEW LITERARY SOCIETY

MIND MATTERS

AMNESIA: BOON OR BANE? PART 2

Navigating the Fractured Boundaries of Domestic Life, Professional Duty, and Memory

Sacred Blunders and Forgotten Tickets

Written by A.K.Girisam⁠

Published in NEW LITERARY SOCIETY

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