Fascinating Trivia On Elephants Fulfilling A Need For Connection!

I am a paradox. I talk a lot with the people I know and consider in my inner circle, and with others, I keep quiet or talk enough to get the work done. With my inner circle, there is an underlying assumption that they will listen to me - they do not have a choice. It started as a child - I remember narrating my entire day to my dad, who would be reading a newspaper. I would ask him randomly to repeat what I had just said to ensure he was listening. It continued even when I grew up, in my MBA, and even when I was working. Now, it is over the weekend - I speak to my parents for an hour or a few hours.

It is incredible how much we talk about week after week—mostly, it is me talking and they listening. They have been trained well. We talk about all sorts of things - our relatives, my work, what happened during the week, strange rumours, myths, etc. A couple of weeks ago, I told them about elephants, as for some weird reason, I have started following baby elephants. So, I have collected a lot of trivia on them, which I unleashed on my unsuspecting parents. Facts like elephants carry babies for twenty-two months, breastfeed them for a couple of years, and are a matriarchal society. They are a lot like joint families where the babies are cared for by mom, aunt, cousin, or sibling. The baby elephants are so cute - when they are newly born, they do not even know how to walk, or use their trunk, so they end up face palming a lot or stepping on it. A newborn baby elephant can weigh anywhere from 90Kg (198lbs) to 200Kg (400Lbs). Despite their size, they play like young kids, tumbling over and sitting on each other, and they love to cuddle. My poor parents had no idea they would be infused with all this information about elephants.

The next time we spoke, we chatted about various things. As we were finishing up, I told them about an elephant in an Australian zoo that had given birth to a baby. My dad immediately said, ‘Let’s save it for the next class.’ I burst out laughing, as he was right in some sense—they attended these video calls with me like students, and after we were done, they went to bed. But, underlying all this is the soul for food I get from talking to them - it just so happens that they have to suffer through my talking for two hours—or, as my brother sometimes likes to call me, BBC radio.

So, why do I talk so much to my parents and demand that they listen to me? In some ways, this is the smallest piece in my life that gives me some illusion of control—an illusion of permanence—a place where I know I will be listened to. It is knowing that my parents will listen to me—maybe! Or maybe there is a child inside of me still who loves to narrate her stories to an audience who she trusts will care enough to listen. I am a different persona for my inner circle and another for the rest of the world. Don’t get me wrong, I can charm you, tell you stories, be really present in interactions, but it is in the moment, not permanent. When it’s done - it’s done. I need both sides of the coin to be who I am.

Now that I have unleashed all the elephant trivia and my talking paradox on the readers of this blog, I am wondering what the point of this blog was. Maybe this blog is also an expression of me. Thank you for reading. How do you express yourself?