The fear rhapsody

Of late, I have been reading a lot about fear and its physchosis. First in a leading daily and then in one of its supplements. Is it worth talking about? We will see. Fear is irrational, we all know. If not so, how else would you explain a 6 footer jumping onto a bench on sighting a frolicking squirrel inch towards him, in a public place like a park or some portly 30-something lady, screaming "cockroach, cockroach..." in the midst of a board room meeting? Pritish Nandy says his fears define him. Rightly so, for him. But then we all possess some, in some measure and varying degrees. Admit it or not.

The question then is, how phobic are you? As a child, I had phasmophobia...from reading Vikram Betaal stories and watching ghostly serials in Doordarshan on leisurely sunday evenings. When in bed, I imagined all kinds of winged creatures and vampires hovering over my head and eerily transporting me to no-man's land and usually ducked into the blanket, perspiring heavily. This fear didn't last long however. As I grew, my definition of fear continually changed. I for one, always seemed to fear the unknown. I also realised that I'm claustrophobic. One fear that I haven't been able to overcome yet is bdellophobia(fear of leeches) having once encountered a nasty one, several years back. They don't bite, they suck..ughh!!

Too many of my friends are acrophobic, by their own admission. Some suffer from thanatophobia or necrophobia, fear of death which is unreasonable. Some are needlessly agyrophobic and have to look at both sides even in a one-way street, while crossing.

But to gain some extra nods and approvals or even sympathy when in a group discussion, you need to be able to highlight what you have and others don't. So, how about suffering from some exotic fears like hexakosioihexekontahexaphobia(fear of the number 666) or phobophobia(fear of being fearful)? In recent times however, it would be more appropriate to suffer from something like "fear of scams", "fear of excess cricket(for Indians especially)", "fear of tele-marketers forcing all kinds of loans down your throat", "fear of commonwealth which is actually not so common but limited to a few like Kalmadi"or even "fear of being in social company(sociophobia)"? Highly recommended.