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TM has a fascination with escapism. He sometimes worries about being trapped
and so tries to prove to himself that there is nothing so absolute that it cannot
be escaped from. As a little kid he would cajole his brother into tying him
up in new (and, at times, creative) ways in order to see how long it would take
him to get out. When his brother tired of this game, TM bought some handcuffs
and began to practice with them. After he could escape from handcuffing his
arms behind his back through a ring on his shelves about shoulder-blade-height, TM
was sufficiently convinced that he could escape from physical restraints if
given enough time unobserved. He still keeps a standard handcuff key on his
key chain.
Around the time he was in England, TM turned his attention to begging.
One day a dirty young girl approached TM as he was walking to the drugstore.
"Please, sir, could you spare me 50 pence?", she asked.
"No time for love, Dr. Jones!" replied TM in a squeeky voice as he usually did.
TM had once suffered from a fear of dying in poverty which was rival in magnitude
to his fear of being restrained physically. While he was no longer so frightened
by thoughts of poverty, TM felt obliged to tackle this "trap" as well. Since he
had nothing better to do that day, TM decided to try out the life of a beggar.
For effect, TM stowed his jacket behind a trash bin so as to aid in looking
cold and pitiful, and ground a little dirt into one cheek. TM began begging
thinking that most people, when asked to contribute a few coins to his cause,
would get a pained look on their face and maybe pretend not to notice him but
would definitely not give him any money. This was largely true, but there
were some people who smiled at him and offered him a coin or two. One small
Indian gentleman smiled when he saw TM walking towards him, and dug into his
pocket to produce a 5 pound note.
"I was just looking for you!", the man exclaimed.
"You were?", TM asked, perplexed. The Indian waved a hand in the air,
"You or any one of your kind.", he replied, "I have a big presentation
tommorow, and my father is sick."
Thought TM, . o O ( As if that explains it all... ) TM smiled at the man,
and, remembering a book he had read somewhere-or-other, gave the man a blessing
on both his presentation and for the continuing health and prosperity of his
father.
"Why do you seek out a beggar this day?", asked TM.
"You Americans have the wrong idea of begging", the man replied, "In my
country it is practically a legitimate profession. Beggars serve a much
needed service. When one sees a beggar, one need only ask himself, 'Am I
in need of a beggar today? Do I feel the need to have Vishnu smile upon me?'"
And with that the man left, and so TM spent the rest of the afternoon
begging happily, and made 20 pounds, which equates to about minimum wage for
the 6 hours worked. As he walked home, he passed the girl who had approached
him in search of money earlier; he gave her his earnings from the day and went
back to Teddy Hall to sleep in comfort.
The next entrapping fear which TM attacked was homelessness. This was a
rather unexciting feat involving spending the night sleeping in the doorway
of a downtown store. TM saw only several people, none of whom would speak to
him save for a young man who offered to give him some money for performing a
sexual act. TM returned home the next morning and fell asleep in his bed
worrying that someone he knew might have seen him and that his parents, who
were in England at the time, might find out.
This last cage, TM escaped by going off to college.
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