Fear Factory

What would it feel to have a gun to your head?

Not a routine question, I’d say.

Now, lest my asking the above question gets me a permanent spot in the sadist bracket, let me spell out that this is just some rudimentary digging by me into assessing which other scenarios are equally sweaty-palm inducing and downright terrifying for people.

So while it could be a seemingly innocuous lobster floating in a sea of sauce for a sworn vegan, it could be the mention of death to someone who is horrified at thinking of what lies beyond this mortality.

Some others too traipse behind…

A set of panic-stricken parents – their child, a habitual returner from school at half past two, is no where in sight. And the clock just struck three. Worse – the offspring’s phone is unreachable.

For some, it could be the very thought of being friendless and alone. For others, it could be the slow, haunting music that creeps up in a horror / thriller flick – right before the bloodcurdling scream...By the way, you might want to check that curtain behind you….

I can imagine I would be all cold and dripping with perspiration if I were to look out of the window at night and see an intruder trying to break into the house. Armed with a shiny object, which I was sure, wasn’t a gift for me….

Any talk of putting on weight could perhaps make shivers run down the bone for an athlete, a deliberately-anorexic woman, or for the flight attendant who could lose his / her job if the pounds were to add up.

A perfectly radiant teenager’s face could turn pale when his parents announce that they would return from the wedding in the suburbs late night. While being a teenager had its own advantages, one thing you couldn’t possibly ask was a babysitter. The adolescent couldn’t fathom being alone in the huge brick structure they called home – demons of the past haunted him, and worse – it was already dusk? He was a confirmed nyctophobe – terrified of the dark, much like his idols Megan Fox and JLo, but much too embarrassed to admit it to his folks.

Some people’s hands get clammy when they are intimated that they would be flying to another city for the upcoming conference. Give them an option to take the train, and despite the over two-day long journey, they would do so – such is their aversion and fright of flying.

A model wrings her hands nervously while watching a feature on her – the journo has done his homework thoroughly and would, any minute now, spill the beans that what she claimed as her natural body frame, was in fact the work of a reputed LA plastic surgeon.

Hair woes. A woman somewhere cups her face in her hands, moaning – she’s spotted her first grey strand amongst her otherwise full crop of blacks. Let’s concede - at least her eye-sight was flawless!

Another ha(i)rried soul looks despairingly at his reflection in the wall-mounted mirror – his thinning pate is only getting worse by the so-called miracle hair-boosting vitamins that the pricey hair clinic had suggested him.

A father-to-be spends anxious moments outside the OT, striding nervously, sweating profusely despite the controlled inside temperature. An additional doctor has been summoned to make an emergency entry into what was supposed to be a routine delivery. Ten minutes had never seemed so long…

Thanks to the MD’s missed flight, the VP of the company is asked to address a few hundred people about the business benefits of a new strategy. Despite a kickass memory which remembers every minute detail from the review document, he can scarcely bring himself to speak – such is his fear of public speaking. Between battling with a hostile army and a cold audience, he would rather combat the former.

A 20-something, despite his rushing adrenaline and unmistakable swagger, cannot bring himself to plummet down the cliff as his friends did nonchalantly. Digging his nails into his palms, he sends up a silent prayer above, while people fidget behind him in line impatiently.

Another – an until-recently gleeful bachelor treasures the last few days he has, until he has to hand over his life to the girl who has taken the reins, making him trot smartly towards the mini-handcuffed version of prison, often termed matrimony. His T-shirt gets drenched as he decides what to make of his few remaining days of freedom…

An anxious girl sends up a silent prayer above each morning that the terrible secret she’s harboured all these ears – does not reach the ears of her unforgiving family.

An otherwise easy-going, gum-chewing corporate executive stares gloomily at the calendar. In a few months he would hit the dreaded 40 mark. The date loomed red in front of him – so much so that he could only spot his date of birth on the floral calendar.

A famous closet queer, caught schmoozing his same gender partner at a glitzy party, is paranoid that the next day’s city supplement might fall into the hands of his extra-conservative parents. All hell was sure to follow, especially with a Hitler prototype ex-defence Colonel as a father. Since prayers for the next day’s paper getting misplaced sounded a tad hollow, he decided to take things into his own hands. Despite returning from the party in the wee hours of the morning, he remembers to set his alarm – to do what needed to be done – waylaying the newspaper vendor and ensuring that the paper got flushed…

A politician, considered honest and holier-than-thou, fears that he would lose face, and more importantly, his adulating vote bank, if news of his alleged involvement in the flesh trade leaked out – thanks to the work of an assiduous – read snoopy - reporter. Even though the incident happened donkeys years back, and his level of involvement was only ‘alleged,’ he doubted if he would ever save face if it came out..

Everyone, everywhere fears something or the other. It could be the unthinkable, the unspeakable, the unimaginable, or something from one’s forgettable past.

So, what do you dread?