Rosy Wings!

A long time ago, when I was writing a post on my old blog, I got the phrase " time flies by on rosy tipped wings" in my head. I knew I had heard something similar somewhere but I just couldn't place it. This was roughly two years ago. During those two years, I've scoured the internet for any sign of this quote but to no avail. Obviously my search was intermittent, starting whenever my mind retrieved this unfinished business that was floating around in its abyss and stopping whenever it got weary of searching.

I had a vague idea that I came across it somewhere during my ISC. My first suspect was Great Expectations by Charles Dickens. Yes, I did read that book voluntarily after leaving school. I endured all of Pip’s nonsense only to come up empty handed. Next up was The Tempest by William Shakespeare. Another book I detested. Prospero, Miranda, Fernando; what a load of tosh! Key thing to note, I was still empty handed. These were my two main targets and I drew blanks.

Anyways to cut a long story short, I asked several friends whether it sounded familiar to them. Basically it was to ensure that I wasn’t imagining that I read it somewhere. Alas! It was familiar to quite a few, but none could put a finger on it! "Try The Needle" by Isaac Bashevis Singer, "Read K.N. Daruwalla’s Love Across The Salt Desert" they suggested. I even hunted down Guy de Maupassant for his The Dowry and The Necklace. It was a long time since I finished school and I couldn’t recollect all the short stories that were there in Figments of Imagination.

The day before; exhausted from work, my 10 P.M power nap found me waking up at 1:30 A.M. Subsequently, I was unable to sleep after tossing and turning in bed for a while, my mind did that what I had now come to dread. It retrieved from the abyss the fact that I still hadn’t found the quote. Switched on my laptop at 2:30 A.M. and began my search once again. At 3:30 A.M I finally found it! Well not ‘it’ exactly. I had a feeling I hadn’t remembered the quote verbatim and that I probably had the essence of it right. It was hidden away in one of O. Henry’s ironic stories. And without much further ado, let’s get to the quote (or the essence of it).

Oh, and the next two hours tripped by on rosy wings. Forget the hashed metaphor. She was ransacking the stores for Jim's present.

- O. Henry (The Gift of the Magi)

There it was! At 3:30 AM I felt like Archimedes shouting Eureka through the streets of Syracuse! The long search was over and perseverance (or stubbornness to let it go) finally paid off!

There is only one other search that rivals this one. The search for O Fortuna! But that is a story for another time!