MIDWAY : My emotion quotient

Tara Bhatta

The first thing they did when I applied to Johns Hopkins University last month was subject me to a super intelligence test. I was praised for my IQ of 185, something I had never hoped to deserve. It was followed by a personal essay that reflected a “lucid image of my experiences

and attitudes,” which led them to conclude that my emotional quotient was eclipsing the former. I try to figure out what defines my inordinate emotional inclination. Does that pertain to my poetic deflection on seeing a beautiful rose or my getting overwhelmed by the melody of music? Or is it about my full perception of the genuine love in her lovely eyes the moment we parted before I came here? Emotions, one’s only tools for a serene mind and soul, are what I always embrace to quench the ravenous thirst to lead a meaningful life. They would rather call me quixotic and note my determination as aiming for utopia. If I am weak, I love my weakness to seek happiness along my way, not at its end. Or, use it to cry for the one who always wants to make me cry, or in finding a real genius not in an impressive mind but in a compassionate heart.

How blindly they could defy the value of emotions like an owl claiming there is no sun. I challenge the so-called materialists, no matter how big my adversaries might be. I might be in the last moment of despair but nothing will abate my crusading zeal for this attitude. Sometimes I get mad with disappointment and decide not to be any more sentimental, not to believe anymore in the absurd emotions, learn from her to love no one but myself, do nothing but use people for my business, and become a perfect cynic. But this idea fades away as evanescently as snowflakes and eventually I succumb to my invincible honest instincts. What can ever be wrong with something that rouses the sixth sense and fourth dimension within me?

Why do you crave so much to imitate me, my brothers? They might easily hurt you. But never mind! They won’t possess that power until you love them a lot. For belated response and other reasons, I was not selected for the University. As a matter of fact one’s probability of getting admitted there is very, very slim. Nevertheless, that essay and moreover, it’s analysers really turned me on. I am a student of brand new applied science. Now, how shall I calculate my emotion quotient? May be by first inventing an emotion measuring equipment. No wonder that adds one more chapter to my utopian instincts.