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This is quite strange, especially if you consider the coup to be a history-altering event. I can still type "Suchinda Kraprayoon" robotically and get it right every time, and I automatically remember that Kaset Rojananil was Air Force commander-in-chief when the National Peacekeeping Council dethroned former prime minister Chatichai Choonhavan almost two decades ago. The critics may be right after all; the Council for (or "of"?) National Security is something we all want to forget.

But like everything else in life, what Sonthi Boonyaratglin, Saprang Kalayanamitr and Anupong Paochinda did on that fateful day - before, with the exception of Anupong, they disappeared into the background in a hurry - means different things to different people. From my own observation, here are a few diverse examples of how the local and international public perceived the coup:

As botox: Believe it or not, a sizeable number of Thais are convinced that Thai politics requires regular facelifts, and nothing is more effective in regenerating fresh tissue than a coup. If democracy is a woman's face, then Thaksin must be a natural wrinkle that had to be immediately dealt with.

As chemo: If the above analogy is kind to Thaksin, this one is obviously not. He is an incurable cancer that warrants chemotherapy, although it will only prolong the suffering or make things even worse.

As cancer: If you ask Jakrapob Penkair or anyone like-minded, even if Thaksin had paid all the taxes and his ex-wife Pojaman had not bought the Rachadapisek land, the coup would have still happened anyhow. Military opportunism and the elites' raw impulse to hold onto the status quo simply hides patiently in the system and waits to grow.

As a stroke: When you take in as much "cholesterol" as Thaksin, a brain attack is just a matter of time. The coup, goes this theory, was the inevitable result of the man's ill-disciplined diet.

As a transitional guy: It took the yellow shirts about three weeks to realise that the CNS didn't like to shower, had bad social manners and snored like a pig.

As a clueless child at a burning house: Even those who didn't think the CNS was politically malicious, had strong reservations about its naivety. If the coup-makers were a child trying to lend a hand when the house was on fire, in the hand was a bucket of gasoline, not water.

As a Wondergirl ringtone: It's a bit complicated to explain this one. If Thailand as a whole is a person, he must be an up-and-coming business executive. You know, with the impressive GDP, democracy and freedom. The coup was, in the perspective of the international community, like when you call this businessman and get, "Nobody, nobody but you!" It just doesn't fit.

As sour grapes: I'm not saying all anti-coup critics or activists are hypocritical. But if tanks rolled out today to put Abhisit Vejjajiva away and "returned" power to the Pheu Thai Party, I seriously doubt that any member of the Democratic Alliance Against Dictatorship would ram his car into a parked armoured vehicle.

As an experimental separation: To the "I'm sad but not angry" lot, the coup meant the same house but different bedrooms. The marriage with democracy was becoming extremely troubled, and pretending that things remained perfect would pave the way for something worse than one party having to sleep on the couch.

As a wrong turn: In this school of thought, if Thaksin was leading the nation astray, the coup was a greater mishap. The economy plunged as a result and Thailand's image was in tatters. In addition, the yellow shirts were unsatisfied and the red-shirt movement was born, sealing a deep national divide that threatens to get only deeper.

As a Quentin Tarantino film: You either like it, or hate it, or don't know what it's really about. You can get a sense of revelation, or enjoy dark humour or simply despise life. The coup took away Thaksin and eventually gave us Abhisit, sedated the yellow shirts (for a while), and delivered the red shirts. All this has been fast-paced, and if Saprang was a feared man two years ago, you don't even know where he is nowadays.

As an abstract piece of art: It's garbage today, museum piece tomorrow, or vice versa. It's up to future generations to tell, wrongly or correctly.