A conversation between Heritage and History !

We speak, we do not speak. But we think of the silence felt by each other. Every second is a dormant seed with the doubts, questions and curiosity about the void we share. This void is not empty or dark! In turn, it is cultured with the threads of thoughts exchanged in last few years. These thoughts largely were the epiphanies of everyday life. We refuse to get overwhelmed by multidisciplinary scholarly analysis about what is the meaning of life. Instead, we are driven away by the nuanced understanding about the small ironies bearing bigger meaning behind those sequels around sphere of mutual imagination.

These threads of thoughts are true identity of our existence. We know each other by these thoughts. We nurture ourselves by coloring these thoughts in different experiences of life. We do not have any prejudice about the colors. We are equally rigorous about weaving positive and negative, pleasant and unpleasant feelings of color. Every day, what then makes this process most fascinating is that it never stops us from unfolding new secrets about this shawl, woven by the versatile colors of constantly thinking threads of celebration of the virtues we inherit and virtues which continue to search new aspirations of time.

Have we ever understood that time around us is simultaneously withering away and also building up a different world for us? Second, seconds; hour, hours; week, weeks…just go for nothing. For all these timelines, we continue to adhere to the ambiance around us. We enshrine and continue to emerge in certain kind of affinity towards the life- solely assigned by singular vision about the voyage to be embarked upon. We suffer a lot due to this affinity; still we do not acknowledge that there is great degree of urgency to address the uncertainty about the voyage. We think that this singular vision has all the answers of the daunting challenges waiting to shatter us in coming eras. But many times we are proved wrong; this living concept of time has established itself as a greatest falsifying agency of the universe.

Can we catch those missing moments? Yes, we can. Is it so easy? Not, surely. But we will. Picasso said, “Art is a lie to tell the truth.” Anecdotes and Quotations surrounded in our life and literature are the stars in the sky of commentary about how life may be evolving. Art and Culture are one of those quotations of life, to throw light upon. Science and Economics are others. We can write stories, essays, articles, travelogues, poems about the evidences and witnesses of the mortality. This materialism encompassing all of us, no doubt, has greatest impacts on our lives. But can we go ahead audaciously and courageously to try to sculpt the immortal signs of those times which are somehow lost in the quagmire full with rubble of shallow rituals of ordinary life. The extraordinary moments embedded in this ordinary life are moments of trust and hatred, at the same time; affection and doubt; passion and detachment; love and agony; pleasure and helplessness; solidarity and ambition.

So, the seconds, hours and months we do not converse have to have certain kind of special introvert engagement with creativity. In the absence of conversation, the quest for creative, innovative passion will usher for both of us in countryside of blooming flowers. This welcome ushering then will grant us such a unique energy to sustain each other`s legacy for future that for forever we will be bound by the strong attachment to the heritage of minds we have strived to establish. This gift will then enhance and sustain our combined belief in life, being such a massive force coming from natural beauty, humanly adventures and astronomical mysteries. 

Solitude and Companionship are nothing but the two giant lenses to view and to interpret this astronomical mystery, to know the vastness of the problems we could work upon and minute pleasures hidden at every walk of life, with you; without you. Eventually, “I, You and Time; vaporize in Solitude and Companionship.”

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Once Upon a Time in Mumbai...Convergence of Common Filth and Common Wealth !

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Copernicus Marg, 5th October:

Words are the only jewels I posses,

Words are the only clothes I wear, 

Words are the only food that sustains my life, 

Words are the only wealth I distribute among the people. 

     --- Saint TUKARAM (1609-1650) 

                                                                                                           

            Dilip Chitre (1938-2009) : Introduced Saint Tukaram and Namdeo Dhasal to the contemporary globalized world

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True to the spirit of Sahitya Akademi whose official motto above reflects the life and blood relation of an author with that of rigorous engagement he/she has with the process of literary creation, the unique festival and meet of Commonwealth Writers was inaugurated today. The enlightened ceremony was presided over by legendary former President of  Sahitya Akademi Prof. Gopichand Narang (http://gopichandnarang.com/profile.htm).  Opening class of authors were lead by renowned Marathi writer who is instrumental for creating flutters in the so called 'pure, orthodox, conservative' class of literary class where the destruction of form, degree of intellectual connections with the critical social life and potential to penetrate into the narrow comfort zones of the trend setters of established aesthetics was not respected. This poet-writer was none other than Namdeo Dhasal. 

 

Someone has said that:

Oh my master poet, 

Remember one thing, 

After the collapse of this ocean, 

You are my last link to the desert, 

Are you not ?

So, Namdeo is that link which connects our life to that of devil desert which is present in our own life towards which we refuse to pay meaningful attention.

 

The world should know him in following way but still refuses to recognize his credentials for appreciating gravity of the beauty and the pity of life and death in the convergence of clean and dirt. In 2004, India’s national academy of letters, Sahitya Akademi, honoured Dhasal with the only Lifetime Achievement Award it gave during its golden jubilee celebrations.

      "Namdeo is a big poet in the sense Whitman, Mayakovsky and   Neruda are big. But unlike them, his poetry contains large chunks of a real and dirty world peopled by have-nots and their slang. Henry Miller once said, “I am not creating values; I defecate and nourish.” Namdeo did precisely is for Marathi poetry. He restored its soil-cycle by feeding it the very excrement and garbage that could fertilise it for the future. 

                                 --- TEHELKA, October 23, 2004

 

 

Namdeo, struggling to recover from his physical weakness and treatment, showed no sign of downfall in spirit, enthusiasm and argumentative integrity when he was evocatively speaking for the need of literature to focus on the diverse experiences of life instead of being complacently happy and overjoyous in the ivory tower. He expressed his regret about lack of enough attention towards the translations of great, diverse Indian regional language literature. He believes that Indian language literature is in no way behind in experience, expression and excellence compared to its western counterparts but due to paucity of quality translations it is not being recognized worldwide. 

Dhasal shared his childhood days. Then he elaborated about younger times when he was kicked out of his home by parents because of affair with a girl which he never regretted. He was driving taxi upto 1972 when the movements of "Little Magazine"and radical dalit explosion of progressive sentiments erupted under the banner "Dalit Panther".   

Criticizing elite class attitude bypassing real life experiences feeling those not worthy of having attention of great synthesis of literature, Dhasal even did not forgive Nobel Laureate V.S. Naipaul. Naipaul when few years back visited Dhasal`s area and home in Kamatipura, a red light area in Mumbai and then suddenly Naipaul refused to relax there due to dirt and filth of the surroundings. Dhasal argues that if this is the commitment of the award winning author towards the stark realities of the life then I do not wish to get such kind of global recognition which pushes you to the brink of compromise your sensitivities. 

We can sense his angusih if we carefully read his poem "Kamatipua". He concludes in that poem:

Here queue up they who want to taste

Poison’s sweet or salt flavour

Death gathers here, as do words,

In just a minute, it will start pouring here.

O Kamatipura,

Tucking all seasons under your armpit

You squat in the mud here

I go beyond all the pleasures and pains of whoring and wait

For your lotus to bloom.

— A lotus in the mud.

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Being Visible or Invisible (4 July 2010)

Exiled from my own voice, language and roots,

I am invisible to the world I belong,

Only my pain, grief and despair is visible nowdays,

How I am going to show that who I am actually?

So, I laugh, rejoice and celebrate my unseen face

In the small epiphanies of the everyday life,

To forget that invisibleness none wishes to write upon and

For recalling the buried visibility of my glorious past !

Who wants to be invisible anyway,

People like me who do not want to tolerate

The deliberate and shameless mockery of my sufferings;

Or people who resepect me  only because they fear

I hold the key to tarnish their corrupt visibleness ?

Penetrating the code of existence, this realistic invisibleness,

Negotiating with the identities of the multifaceted life, this imaginary visibleness,

I am stranded between the two giant pillars of my own personality;

Both helping me to actually play hide and seek with my fate,

With spontaneous and seamless conjectures and refutations of my image!

What if I could defeat my invisibleness, unavoidable anyhow,

What is I could hide my visibility, reluctant to change anyhow;

I do not want to be judged by relative insight of someone else,

I wish to be remembered by the absolute outlook of everyone else,

So, let me first decide what I really want, being visible or being invisible.

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In and Out of Night ! (3rd July 2010)

When everything around is hibernated, our mind is awakened to touch the countryside fields of utter silence. There we are with ourselves rising to every warm radiation coming from the sky to brighten the pulse of enthusiasm for the nutrition of the times ahead. How many times we have realized the true color of the dark curtain of our life which says show must go on and also says show must go on with ambience of equanimity. It is a black book of solitude, a night of my life. None can snatch away this from me. This is my greatest treasure trove.

Why the day and not the night has gained all the privileges of mortal life. Everyone is used to adapt their life as per the rigid schedule of natural sunlight. We as an organism are not growing food from the sunlight by photosynthesis. We as a pioneer of technological innovations have made it easier to transform the labyrinth of night in a legitimate luxurious liberty to sustain our everyday (?) livelihood. Apart from the question of energy consumption, we can make night in letter and spirit, a true companion for the quest of the goal which somehow is lost in the crazy rush of the day life.

Nisha i.e. Night, my dear friend, with whom every time I converse gives me a feeling that there is someone, something in my alone life that can understand my thoughts. It gives me a very close and affinitive relation to claim for which every time I can rely on to introspect, scold myself and sometimes to sincerely praise and cherish whatever adoring left in my little life. Sometimes when I was immensely grieved due to intolerable self criticism however unjustifying, I took refuge in the embrace of this night, with some droplets of pure emotions out of my eyes washing my sad face. Other times, when I was discovering the talisman of happiness in the occasionally encountered epiphanies and accidently surfaced serendipities, I am left with this night only to share that irresistible joy.

Every time night seems to me equally heartening sandalwood compensating my parting away with the daily quests, however small. Every other time the night seems to me an engulfing fire of imagination the flame of which heralds me towards citadel of creativity, deep reflection and some strength to provoke my capability to strive for true deserving outcome.

I was never so close to understand the subtle character and underlying currents of the beautiful anti-world of night. As there is parallel for matter and anti-matter, electron-positron, there is this pair of day-night. Deeply engaged with each other; different polarities; and still very much dependent on each another to signify the meaning of each other`s existence. We cannot claim to whom entirely all pervading spectrum of colors in the evening and morning sky belong to. We cannot validate whether where is the real demarcation between day and night; in the emergence of light & dark and in the disappearance of those. Even we cannot prove that night and day differ in thinking about how to be in the gripping, obsessive mind being away from the carefully analyzing the relation of self with the surroundings and about how to in free, wandering state of mad mind believing in randomness of action.

Life in the times of night may be solid indicator towards how much I achieve in day. It is a bond of war and peace. In the peace, we prepare for the war. So, in the silent prosperous moments of evening, night, mid-night, early dawn, dawn, early morning, and morning we are empowered to ponder over the day ahead. Night is a think tank of the day. Night is the power and warehouse of the days ahead. Squandering the nights is invitation to ruin the days. Unfortunately we never realized the true essence of the dark shades of our lives so as we stressed on bright borderlines of achievement. Night is fabulous composition of diverse possibilities beyond objective and certain probabilities of which we are afraid of due to vastly certain uncertainty embedded in it.

When we are away from the happenings, events, celebrations, cremations, gatherings we are only ‘we’ in this course of night, trying to be in sole symposium of self-engagement. Can we gamble on our other privileges to meet this jewel of the season? Can we embark on the discovery of endless virtues becoming explicit in the voyage of this dark passage? Can we consolidate the determination that we will never forgo the blessings given by night? Can we ever bargain with kind of freedom awarded during this solidarity with the invisible struggle for being alone at midnight? This freedom and these blessings are the epitome of our existence in our lives impoverished in terms of new ideas, novel perspectives and unique way in which we philosophize our pragmatic struggle in affairs of the world we breathe.

Night, of course may be very vague, haphazard and widely unstructured in its manifestation. But compared to the day it is this openness of the night possessing the ability to usher into meaningful out of nothing that is remarkable. This openness holds our attention leaving us in astonishment, shock to give the feel of path breaking phenomenon shaping the upcoming scenario. Why night is so unpredictable, so away from our senses of anticipation in its method of expression? May be it is our ignorance or lack of will power to make a friendship with the night, to imagine a life inside life i.e. life in a day and life in a night revolving around each other in concentric circles of thoughts and action.

Why we still are not able to narrate our life sketch in terms of what we will do in night against as always the foresights, plans and pathways of future only in terms of daylight life? May be we never respected other half of life, just like we never asked what really other half wants. We never organized, accommodated and assimilated the ‘voice of other half’ in the ‘vision of our life’. Other half is not the leftover of life, it is an equal signatory to the memorandum we have crafted about the projects we are going to build in this life. We have to ask what other half wants, otherwise hypocritically, shamelessly and unilaterally defining what other half wants will lead to underestimation, insult and subjugation of the values and institutions represented by other half, in this respect ‘night’.

The quiet journey of night is founding stone of the multitude facets of day life. The process of introspection starts in the dark shades of mind, expands in the stretch of extremely slow moving horizon of night and concludes in the decisions solidifying and witnessing the convergence of dawn and morning raga. How far we will avoid this heritage of night making us more humble and more able, more resourceful in our imagination to think and more enriched in our vigor to marshal the professional personification. Night, keeps giving us the keys to the universe of daily establishments. We have to be supremely loyal to this relation of ours with that of night.

The night is empowered light of the day. It is an enhanced insight about the visible world by engaging imagination about the unknown vistas of life which we can only visit in the realms of cool and less warm night. It is the channel of communication from self to others. It is a symbol of existence of our introvert personality trying to have a dialogue with the grave problems of our own and later those of beyond self. It is an award we have been cherishing since our birth, cooling our heads disturbed due to the unavoidable greed of the day life. Night has emerged out as an indisputable opinion leader across our walks of life. It is an endless companion, even after death.

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Epiphany and Life! (1st July 2010)

I rechecked once again the exact meaning of the word ‘Epiphany’, and then I came to know this. It is, “A sudden, intuitive perception of or insight into the reality or essential meaning of something, usually initiated by some simple, homely, or commonplace occurrence or experience.” After many months, started taking a silent and engaging walk on a momentous and breezy morning of summer I will never forget. Silent because, it was a revisit to earlier reflection of my most sought after true being with harmony of self; and engaging because it reinvented my ability to have a talk with myself which anyhow I lost in the mean time due to the uncontrolled growth of worry in which I was encapsulated. That worry, about the direction in which I was going, was however unwarranted.

We do not need authority every time to comment on the problems of life. What after all the authority means? They are actually the keen observers of the events, sequenced in the chain of epiphanies. The experts as they are called are sophisticatedly alert and active to sense the subtle trend of characters and pattern of behaviours reflecting out of occasional epiphanies. The hallmark of excellence is nothing but to deal with these apparently small epiphanies of daily life. These small things and incidences may be very redundant affairs for the person who is dealing with the professional virtues of precision and perfection but truly they are the gates towards getting ourselves exposed to the larger drama of reality unfolding in greater world outside our narrow imagination about what really a life constitutes for.

These epiphanies are not isolated events altogether. Interestingly it is our perception makes the epiphany out of an ordinary happening. Epiphany is like a traditional proverb, accumulating vast wisdom inherited since generations and still making a point to be uttered at particular moment, instance or crossroads of life. It is that state of receptive mind going beyond superficial attentive mind to grab the most obvious things to understand in non-obvious ways. Things do not happen just like that. They have rational meaning coming out of theoretical explanation through some practical mechanism to indicate towards larger possibilities.

It is a matter of supreme satisfaction that (if) we are discussing epiphanies every now and then. It is an evidence of hypocrisy coming due to wrong perception of authority, a feel of power and an arrogance of expertise when we see people ridiculing these moments which according to them are obscurely mundane.  When we watch every day with great curiosity, we observe many things which are not privy to the mind obsessed with competing with others. When we discuss minute issues, emphasis added on micro, it gives strength to have grip of visualising scenarios which are much more dynamic, complex and vast in their expanse of existence.

When we claim that we gain experience over the time, what do we mean. It is actually a self-generated wisdom out of these trivial matters. The trivial, not because of a sense of futileness reflecting from it, but due to feeling it gives about rudimentary arrangement of the building blocks it gives about how we think, how we behave and how we act. It is not about talking in a superficial way and in vain about the things which shape routine times in our consciousness. It is however, our urge with deep eagerness to absorb the germ of the thoughts we believe in from the events unfolding in front of our eyes, every moment, every coming step of the road ahead.

A relation which empowers our every drop of blood is the conference room of such epiphanies. We constantly discuss about all these epiphanies to make the sense of the position and direction we are headed towards. We may not be academically sound in the deliberation about the true meaning of the daily events occurring but that does not matter. The fact that we never stop of debating about all these issues makes it more worthwhile. It gives a space to intercept the possible risks, uncertainties and destabilising factors in our today, tomorrow from having a brief look of the yesterday. What more, by having a frequent chat about all these things, we develop a capacity to overcome the problems which at the outset seem overwhelmingly challenging requiring audacious courage to contest those out rightly.

Therefore we need a mirror, very very transparent and reflective; so as to see the things they are, not as they should be. Then after watching those things in the mirror, we begin the conversation with mirror itself about how things should be. So, mirror is actually creator, disseminator of the values we are searching in the life. Discovery of that mirror enables us to search those values in every walk of life. In the mean time, mirror becomes everything. It becomes soul gravity of our being. We revolve around that mirror. We constantly need to have insights about life from that mirror. In a sense, that mirror evolves and ushers in a role which is actually a larger epiphany radiating the essence of our mortal life. We are in search of that radar and telescope which enlarges and maps the outer universe and distant future for us. We are in a passionate mood to construct that microscope which will tell us everything about us so honestly, so ruthlessly to shape our times in turn. The discovery of that epiphany in our mental and physical realms makes us profoundly happy and unquestionably wealthy.

When we ask ourselves about what is novel in our lives we should ponder over the exceptions rather than uniform criteria of achievements. Success, recognition and honours are really the pedestals strongly craved for. We earn respect after we gain something. We earn laurels of history when we lose something in a unique way like none has lost that in common ways. We do not discuss what legacy is hidden behind the silver appreciation and golden mementos. The persons who are keenly observing us are witnesses of the true meaning of legacy we are carrying with us. That legacy may not be qualified according to the principles of history but for our life, that legacy is no less than figment of history. A localised history, a history of solitude. Epiphany is the true historical account of our solitude.

None knows true inner being of ours better than the mind of epiphany. That mind may be enshrined in an epiphany of any pure human body, in a legendary book, in a great story of drama or film, in a symbol of inspiration, a deity deserving devoted worshipping or any material thing we consider worthy of adoring for it`s structural beauty. Then to instantaneously engage ourselves, to know the true meaning of epiphany is actually the sole and soulful project of our whole life. That project drives our every physical senses and divine aspirations. That project alone carries logic to live. Only that project gives excuses, justifications and mad reasoning to everything we do. That project in its entirety captures our every breath making ourselves desperate to die to embrace the spirit of that project. We become nothing but a small epiphany for that project which is actually the greatest epiphany of our life.

So, epiphany is whole universe of imagination and living for us. If there are no epiphanies we will not understand, rather we will never try to interpret the extraordinary out of ordinary. Epiphany makes us selfless to respect the virtues of the nature around us only to enrich us in return. That enrichment is like royal lighthouse which bestows upon us the enlightened pragmatic philosophy which everyone chases to have at their disposal by paying any value. Philosophy, not coming out of its shear rational logic, but to give a vision. To understand it better, let me quote what William Somerset Maugham said, “The value of art is not beauty, but right action.”  Isn`t it! Let us go for right action and then see maybe we could realise beauty of the art. An art of making sense of epiphany and an art of linking that sense to the larger story of life unfolding by the expression of all the proud and regretful epiphanies.

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Power of a Lonely Soul! (8 December 2007)

    “All the birds have flown up and gone,

     A lonely cloud floats leisurely by.

    We never tire of looking at each other,

    Only the mountain and I.”

In merely one stanza, Li Po described the void of endless loneliness.  Which loneliness we are suffering from?  Is it by choice or by compulsion? Even Tolstoy has underlined the significance of loneliness. “It is when man is alone, away from the influence of other men and their acts that he can work on himself. It is in solitude that he must correct his thoughts, driving out the bad and stimulating the good.”

How strange it is that we love loneliness and hate passionate companionship? The reasons are not so complex as are perceived. We are never alone, mind well. Our thoughts are always leading us to random directions.

           

Let us see what William Hyde has to say about this: “Live in the first person, criticizing yourself, rather than finding fault with others. Live in the singular number caring more for the approval of your own conscience that for the applause of crowd.”

Many critics and historians believe that the spontaneous tradition of individualism aroused out of    the aesthetic interpretation of beauty through expressions like poems, paintings, sculptures etc. All these great artists were doing that for their own pleasure and not for crowd as enumerated above.

So basic premise to start and establish a probable hypothesis must support the loneliness. Let us    start a brief voyage to understand what the ‘isolated harmony’, ‘musical solitude’...many facets of unique, single, loneliness!!!

“How wonderful to wander in the woods or to have blessings of solitude amidst magnificent mountains and gorgeous valleys! How beautiful even a small hut by the side of a valley, amidst of rustic charm all around!” Nature is best teacher what we can imagine of.  Many species of birds and animals prefer to live alone than in herds. Humans are most socialized species, some say. Some counter this argument.

All great initiatives in history of mankind have been the guiding witness to the defense of solitude. Creativity demands isolation. Generation and delivery of valuable art and performance requires concentration to take birth. Mad focus and alert observation are matter of   the consistent engagement and hard work which is to be done when we are alone. It is always said that it is better to be alone than in bad company.

Loneliness preserves purity. Conservation, preservation, maintenance of tradition continue if institutions build the stand alone human resources independent in infrastructure and isolated from influence of external thought process which can affect the commitment of the members.

Why there is need to judge or investigate loneliness? There may be two reasons. Either current mental state is unable to attain the calm of loneliness due to practical or any other reasons or there is a real need and resolve to understand loneliness as a value and as a precursor to the emerging chain reaction of developments in life in recent future. Both statements can be either true or false. 

“No one to share my feelings, my soul always wept, 

The sorrows passed away, but the pain is still kept, 

The whole wide world, alone I roam

and live in a lonely room, in a lonely home ,

Will there ever be someone, someone by my side?

But now it is too late because long back I died.”

                                              -- -Nutty Always

           

Introvert innocence is always attributed to the purity of the mind. It is very challenging to preserve these attitudes in real-time world. But loneliness provided the breathing passage for that construction of foundation necessary to erect a monument of logical thought process.

What is philosophy? It is silent investigation of the abstract nature of environment around our culture. Russel says that it is a place where rigidity of theology and objectivity of science cannot claim the privilege to comment upon. This means that this is the area where science and religion fails. To acquire the art to interpret this essence of culture, silence is must. How silence will come if we hate isolation? Rene Descartes says, “I think, therefore I am!” Therefore, thinking a powerful process of synthesis derives all of it`s energy from the lonely search of self.

We are discussing here about loneliness not out of compulsion but out of choice. As a individual what a term of loneliness may signify? It may signal complete isolation from current, social structure so as to go away from civilized habitat. We are not discussing loneliness.

Let me ask you a question, do are you afraid of loneliness just like death? To understand this we go back in history to listen to Khalil Gibran:

                        “Death, my death, my solitude and my aloofness,

                         You are dearer to me than thousand lives

                         and sweeter to my heart than all world glory.

                         Death, my death, my bold companion,

                         You shall hear my songs and my cries and my silences.

                         And none but you shall speak to me of the

                        beating of wings and urging of seas

                        and of mountains that burn in the night

                        and you alone shall climb my steep and rocky soul.”

We can’t say who can found rest where...What is the basic question? Does loneliness provides security? Or is it the result of lack of those? If we can answer these questions satisfactorily then our exploration on this issue will bear some fruits.

 A big full stop to communicate is not loneliness. Rather it involves peace of mind because in isolation there should not be any lust for attachment. But why we are more sad, envy, jealous, worried when we are alone? Therefore we have to change the definition of being alone. Isolation with detachment from society still searching for the answers which whole world is asking. Isolation may not necessarily lead towards luxurious life but also it might not lead towards certain contemplative life having no struggle. Normally we cherish our desire in isolated daydreaming when desire is unqualified for the realization in our life due to some extraordinary difficulty.

           

When the distance between desire and possibility of realization widens, we run away from other pleasures of life so as to nurture our grief in isolation. Because we have created an image of unrealized dream in our mind. We are not ready to accept the facts. So, we offer for signatures on surrender papers.

Ego raises the morale of the argument. Ego also diminishes the individual assessment in a distinctly biased fashion. Isolation is masterpiece example of determined efforts to reflect individualism with an inbuilt ego. Ego is neither good nor bad. Ego is the design of personality. Refusing to sign the accord of independence is the open invitation to check the validity of loneliness because very few are capable to be vindicated on this stand.

 To remain isolated is not the goal and sole objective. We cannot cheat ourselves by querying the hallmarks of loneliness. We can use that solitude for the larger goal of life as an instrument, as a catalyst rather than an obstacle. Therefore we can justify loneliness only if we have larger objective for which we are striving every day, second by second. Let we join to solve this deadlock in understanding of this ever pervading experience.

Beauty of Loneliness: “A man thinking or working is always alone, let him be where he will. Solitude is not to be measured by miles of space widening man and his fellows but by degree of commitment to the silence which decides the result of work.” 

Loneliness is not isolated chamber. It is a tightrope walk in a dark leading to the gateway of enormous challenges having potential of joy.  

“Moon is lonely, sun is so; why life on earth always glow?” It is very important to know about this aspect of life. We cannot imagine companionship without loneliness. It is only loneliness which gives true meaning of companionship. Someone has said, “I was in the crowd still, I was alone.” I cannot stop myself without mentioning movie ‘Caste Away’.

                                   

Everyone has every right to be alone. None should question that right. Value of freedom is spirit as propounded by many revolutions throughout history. Every value comes along with some responsibility. Is loneliness a value or is it illusion? Is it distant dream or it is blessing?

Essential spirit of the life is to strive for thousand dreams even if they are not realized after thousand efforts. Loneliness is best, long lasting companion. When everyone comes into this world, gets married with loneliness. Should we get divorced with loneliness for any reason? If we have achieved all glory, wealth, fame then the seeking of loneliness turns justifiable. Right now we having to relinquish except our ‘crown of silence’ i.e. Solitude.

Even if we relinquish solitude, it remains. I hope, this understanding of grief is colorful. This effort of writing is not invitation to mourning meeting. Rather this small childish literary voyage is a celebration of solitude. Great discourses are dominated by determination aroused out of deep thought process.

Why every festival has the communion, gathering? There may be hardly any festival which

celebrates solitude. I know one of such festival--Literature where solitude is given the due respect. Recognition of individual appetite to know, to share is very pleasant. Even mass media are also subsystems of vast river of literature.

We need not be alone all of our life. The moment we catch the finger of any writer you enter into the cave of silence to know what the words are saying. Our prejudices react more than our understanding of the subject. Always our concentration is vulnerable to number of external factors.

Concentration should be independent of any influence. We always live under some or other kind     of influence. Why so? Because it is very difficult to be alone without any predominating viewpoint. Man is the victim of his situation. So it is hard to maintain balance between inherited dogma of influence and independent style of rational thinking.

We might remember the short poem of Soloman Grandy which we have recited in schooldays.

                      ‘ Soloman Grandy’

                        Born on a Monday

                        Christened on Tuesday

                        Married on Wednesday

                        Took a ill on Thursday

                        Worth on Friday

                        Died on Saturday

                        Buried on Sunday

What a wonderful sketch of lonely life across the length of one week! What and how we want to be remembered? A person who spend all of his/her life investigating charm of innocent loneliness or a person who helped to build bridges of trust to establish a web of affection through  the matrix of relationships? Which one will be more honorable for us to do? Which one will be more pleasurable for us; to engage in the consistent process of knowing the complexity of interdependence or to embed the singularity in our personality? Life is ready to give us whatever we deserve. Life is not ready to award anything which we really do not wish to be permanent. So let us embrace life in its full solitary engagement.

Engagement of silence with loneliness! How we can define peace of mind by loving the invincible will power generated by introspective self reflection. Is desire of peaceful mind a selfish one? Everyone will answer differently. At the same time the term loneliness is turning out to be virtue, value, reality. But, is it powerful reagent of happy life? We have to search for the answer for this question. Zero is alone, having null value. But when it joins the company of other digits it empowers and enriches others so as to live with certain dignity, pride and some recognition.

 The area of loneliness is very abstract. I am really lacking to explore it because I have not practiced it. I only know that, “Great deeds are accomplished neither by infinite patience and perseverance. And this patience and perseverance will certainly be gifted by our lonely dedication to the work, cause and mission.

           

I could write this because I was alone without any other preoccupation of external thoughts. But inspiration to write was not motivation of being lonely. Let us walk few steps and understand solitude to it`s true spirit and significance. Solitude can transform our lives. Welcome to the kiss of the meditation…!

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