My friend's pet passed away and in her grief, she took 10 days off and flew out to a remote holiday resort to come to terms with her grief. Since she had only communicated her predicament to a handful, there was so much speculation about her disappearance.
Friends, acquaintances and even friends of those acquaintances began discussing her. It began as harmless gossip until some malicious slanderers took over and like Chinese whispers the news reached her ears ultimately that she was mourning the death of a failed courtship!
Of course when she returned, the air cleared, however, it was really tough to understand why would someone want her to fail at a painstakingly nurtured relationship.
But that is the nature of "gossip". We might condemn it or praise it but we cannot do without it. According to the etymological origins of the word, the word gossip means god-parent of a child, indicating a close kinship or friendship. Tattle that close friends indulge in was what it meant.
Irresponsible rumour
However over centuries it degenerated into some kind of irresponsible rumour mongering, the kind that we all give into, when lapping up flashy news about filmstars and pop singers. Now gossip has metamorphosed into a branch of literature that reflects popular culture of its time.
Conventionally, handmaidens, personal groomers and barbers were known to spread wild slander from royal palaces to the hoi polloi.
As a child I recall reading the tale of one such irresponsible royal barber, who by default discovered that his king had two tiny horns growing on his head.
Sworn to secrecy about it, he couldn't contain the news to himself, and fell violently ill. His stomach begun to swell with the weight of the news, but threatened with capital punishment, he didn't dare open his mouth to anyone.
In the end, he couldn't bear the pain of the terrible secret, so at the dead of the night, he ran into the forest and blurted out the truth in front of an old willow tree, besides the river.
Now it so happened that the king ordered for a set of new drums in the royal court and the craftsmen cut down the willow tree and shaped new drums out of the timber.
The drums were brought to the court for a demonstration and every time they were played, they drummed out a sinister message which was clear to everyone. That the king had a pair of horns, so said the barber!
The poor barber was put to death! Such is the nature of gossip. It's inevitable, irresponsible, wreaks havoc and in most cases, except that of the poor barber, it is untraceable.
Much as we would want to condemn the paparazzi and the grapevines, we might as well admit that the world would be a lot less colourful and flamboyant without a dash of spicy gossip.
Very often we are driven to morally question ourselves about the morality of indulging in irresponsible tattle that could mar someone's reputation for life.
But in most cases our "gossip mongering" sensibilities prevail over our more serious and morally upright personas. That is because like the barber we can risk our necks, but we cannot bear the agony of a bloated tummy-ache that can arise out of our need to share spicy news with our colleagues.
