I have an extraordinary talent.

do you know daniel tammet? remember him? well anyways, he thinks of numbers in terms of colours, shapes, textures, landscapes, feelings even. which is why he can do stellar calculations just by sitting there and feeling his way through the images in his mind, fitting things together and finally arriving at the solution. well, my exceptional talent is like his. except that mine deals with words. to put it simply,

numbers : daniel tammet is like words : me

so, give me any word, ANY word at all, and i can think of it in terms of colours, shapes, textures, landscapes, feelings even.

take for example, the word potato. when i see this word, an image is conjured in my mind. i see something not large, perhaps fist-sized. brown. a bit muddy-looking. it's a bit oval in shape, and feels rough.

and say, the word, green. what i'm getting is this...this...all i see is a patch of something. you know what's it like when you mix blue and yellow together? yeah, i see a whole lotta THAT. just a huge bare patch of THAT.

how about, mirror? i see someone... a girl, good-looking and cute, her features are coming into focus... and... and she looks JUST LIKE ME. okaay, i made that one up. what i really see is this, silvery substance. it sort of repeats whatever is in front of it, copies it down and shows it again. it's rather cold, and definitely solid to the touch. somehow, it doesn't feel...i mean, it feels, a bit, insidious. a bit...untrustworthy. yet, somehow comforting.

the word, blank. i'm picturing this...this....sort of nothingness that's so empty, yet so solid at the same time. it's like an entity, yet an absence of something. it takes up a lot of space, and just...feels.....white and indistinct.

slap. when i look at this, several faces swim into view. is that....is it?....i see some people, and i feel this tremendous, urge, to connect my palm to their cheeks. to inflict pain and humiliation. and i hear, this sound, which is sort of like a clapping noise. a sharp noise. and i see the faces wince. then i get this new feeling of satisfaction, it feels good, mixed with a tingly sort of feeling on my palm.

fairy. what i see is... a ship, or a boat. oh wait, it disappeared. what i see now is this tiny figure, and i somehow think of the name....Tinkerbell. hmm, wonder what that means.

snorklecrackywhamhiggledypoof. erm.. this one's tough...it's taking a long time to materialise and take shape in my mind. well...what i'm picturing is a....sort of.....pig-looking creature, and it's chomping on a bowl of...crackers?....something that makes a lot of noise. and the creature then disappears! just like that, into thin air.

and you know how tammet thinks the number 6 is like, a very small, sort of number? very tiny and minute. i get the same thing. when i see the word itsybitsy, i feel just the same way tammet does.

and tammet also hates this number, 9. he says it's very tall, and imposing, a very boarding-school-master-from-hell type of number. when he went to new york city, surrounded by all the looming skyscrapers, he felt like he was surrounded by the number 9 on all sides. i have a similar feeling when i see the words, boarding-school-master-from-hell. it's amazing i tell you. it's one of the rare times where many words join to give me just one feeling, a feeling of dread and horror and disgust.

and i have my favourite words too, just like tammet loves pi. personally, i don't think pie is anything fantastic, i'd rather have a cake any day. but anyways, i like words like fame, fortune, money, status, power. okaay, i made those up too. those words seem so...shiny and glittery and attractive at first sight, but later, this creeping feeling sneaks up. i feel a bit.......sad, cautious maybe.

my real favourite words are, velvet, apothecary, kumquat, quidditch, spongebob, elf, scaramouche, widdershins, supercalifragilisticexpialidocious, shakespeare, moot, roar, sashimi, snorgle, princess, dream, sky, sparkle, and many many more.

so, as you can see, i have a rare talent that is probably unique to this world. i hope that perhaps, scientists somewhere can understand my gifts fully, and research into this phenomenon.






note: Mr Tammet sir, honestly, i was just horsing around. don't send an army of numbers after me! i repent! i won't make fun of you anymore!