Apparently this idiom is used in two senses. The first one being a suddenly developed problem which keeps growing in magnitude and the other being a member of a group not quite popular with the group but who is not kicked out by the group out of consideration of her/his sensibilities or inertia or because there are other factors working behind the scenes.
Let me briefly write about both by starting with the first. Both my hip joints suddenly started to be very painful and lateral movements became extremely difficult for me in December 1980. It was 18 months before it was diagnosed properly and it was another three years before a surgeon would agree to replace one hip and I had to wait for another two years before the second hip was also replaced. I had to be careful and give up a lot of things including golf but I managed to be pain free if somewhat careful about my movements till the year 2000 when both the hips started to give trouble and I had to get them revised through two surgeries back to back within three months of each other. Things statblised again till three years ago when one had to be revised again and I am back to restricted movements till the second one becomes too unmanageable before which time hopefully I would have gone off to meet my maker. That cuckoo is still very much in the nest and how it will all unfold is yet to be seen.
The other story is about a colleague who was my senior who I overtook. This man was a climber and not a team player in an environment which had a lot of bonhomie and team spirit. He meandered his way till retirement and I was at least able to prevent his getting an extension to his employment as it would have demotivated younger colleagues waiting in the queue to replace him. He kept the top in good humour and kept the bottom kicked till the very last day of his employment with us and he was the only cuckoo in the nest that I ever came across in a group setting despite having worked in a number of positions and been part of many other groups. Perhaps I was just lucky as I am sure that others would have many more in their lives. In retrospect, I am grateful to have had that man in my life as at least I have one experience to write about for this blog post.
Other than these two sharings of my life, I have nothing to offer my readers on this subject which was chosen by Padmum, a presently non participating member, for the weekly Friday Loose Bloggers Consortium where five of us write on the same topic. The four other bloggers who write regularly are, in alphabetical order, Ashok gaelikaa, Maxi, Shackman. Do drop in on their blogs and see what their take is on this week’s topic. Since some of them may post late, do give some allowance for that too! Ashok too is having prohlems with his blog being down and may or not participate this week.
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