“Change” is the most permanent thing in life. Be it any good or bad change, we all advance towards change with a certain amount of anticipation and panic as to the potential consequences that might result from it. India today is in the grip of some of the most radical changes that simply leaves me astounded and makes me feel awestruck as to how far we have come. And I am not even talking about days long before I was born. As recently as a decade back there was a sense of decaying politics and age old idealisms that were doing the rounds. We were happy arguing with each other in the quintessential “cha er dokaan”, or “rocker adda”, vociferously critizing the shenanigans of the various “left”, “right” and “central’ politics, “mamataisms” and the recent India defeat /victory in cricket. But today the right to information has changed the whole fabric of the nation. Today every celebrity, every politician and every other “who’s who” has to be accountable for any action that they take and they have the right to be questioned by the public freely in national television. Today college students can vociferously and openly charge the Shiv Sainiks on the recent happenings of the Shiv Sena, and can also demand a justification regarding the opposition of the women’s bill. Be it villagers, students, intellectuals, writers or simply cynics, there is a platform for everyone and I think this has revolutionized mass media as a whole. Today we believe more in action than in words and are less tolerant of age old politics and the reassurance of “talks”. Perhaps this change is a good change. To view such wielders of power in flesh and blood somehow makes us more connected as country people, to demand a straight answer rather than diplomatic political verbiage, and to fight for a cause in a united manner rather than having dozens of opinionated “intellectuals” interpreting every action for us “simpletons”. In recent years modern technology has received a lot of flak as well as praise for the use of various forms of social networking. In India parents are concerned about their children spending too much time on twitter and facebook and other modes of communication rather than open exchange of thoughts. My question is, when have we been given the platform for such open exchange of thoughts? Even a decade back whatever news we got about the various happenings in a country came in the form of newspapers and news reports, where the general public was not given any scope of voicing their thoughts out in the open. Today with programs like “we the people”, where the news agent sits with the general public and questions the politician or the superstar, that feeling of disconnection or distance is no longer prevalent. Facebook and twitter has brought celebrities and the public in the same platform and the remoteness of the star has given way to real people, who face real problems like you and me. Today we have reality shows were married women are given a chance to compete against each other in dance performances. And we are not just talking about Indian forms of dance. I myself have watched these episodes and seen the “boudis” from Calcutta as well as the suburbs perform hip hop, bollywood style, salsa and other western dance forms.
There would always be one section of the society who would always criticize change. But just pause for a moment and think that even a few years back we were receiving news about dowry problems and wife beating and child marriages in India. Today a married woman from Calcutta and a married woman from Bankura are sharing the same dreams, sharing the same stage and doing it with élan in front of their husbands, their in laws (who are very proud of them) and on national television. No wonder the age old Marxist politics in Calcutta are losing in popularity and giving way to a new wave of change which propels people to come out of their secured life and voice their opinions freely. No wonder the septuagenarians in the Parliament are insecured of women like Chavvi Rajawat who left corporate job to become the "sarpanch" of Soda, a village in Rajasthan, to spread awareness amongst the villagers so that they are more aware about the goings on in the country. It is unfortunate that the people whom we have placed in power are still caught in a time warp and find it difficult in accepting change, but to us, the future of the country looks promising and hopefully we have more inspiring examples from our generation to teach the wielders of power a thing or two about accepting change with dignity.
Friday, March 12, 2010
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
The blessed strangers
It is extraordinary how at some point in your life, you encounter complete strangers who leave a mark on your life by the spur- of- the- moment helpfulness that they show despite you being a complete stranger. Today I dedicate this blog to all those people who have been such Knights/Princesses in shining armor/corsets, each of whom I remember clearly, their acts of kindness firmly etched in my heart.
I will start with an incident from my childhood when I was lost in a crowd of people in a market, desperately trying to find my way to my mother who, equally harried, was looking for me in all the nooks and corners of the market. I was I think 4-5 yrs old, with a bald head (I hated having long hair or any hair at all that time!!) running around wildly. And all of a sudden this very gentle giant of a man (to me he looked like a giant) swooped me up in his shoulders. I was scared and for one moment I thought he was planning to kidnap me but then he calmed me down and told me that my mother was looking for me and he knew where she was. I was amazed that he knew my predicament and asked him how did he know that I was lost? He smiled and said that he was sitting and chatting with his friends when he noticed a young girl wandering on her own. Within a few minutes he saw a lady looking hassled and worried running here and there and asking everybody and gesturing to them that she cannot find her young girl. My gentleman immediately came forward told her not to worry and assured her that he will bring me back to her.
It is strange that in all these years that face has blurred but I still remember clearly every soothing word he told me to calm me down.
A few years later on when we were visiting Europe, I got lost in a tram in Vienna. I hopped on to it before the rest of my family could board the tram and then the automatic doors shut closed and took off. I was scared out of my wits but outwardly I acted very calm. The whole tram was empty except for this Bangladeshi guy who was looking at me realizing full well that I was in trouble. He could see my father running after the tram, my sister and mother crying since they thought they have lost me forever. He came up to me and asked “tumi ghabraio na, ami tumaare porer stop e namaiyaa dimu” (don’t worry I will help you get off the next stop). Wow it was muic to my ears, hearing this man speak not only kind words but speak my dialect as well!! And as the next stop came he stepped out from the tram and waited until my father reached me and waited for the next tram to get on.
We were in Italy for 2 months. Every morning after father went away to teach, me and my sister along with my mother used to visit the children’s park right opposite to where we were staying (Ripamonti residence). The first day we went me and my sister huddled together shy and a little intimidated by the tall and fairly large children playing there. We hardly knew how to speak Italian and could only understand snatches of it. It is here that a truly quintessential knight in shining armor came up to me and my sister. And that was when I received my first kiss!! This boy took my hands in his kissed them and said “venire bambini” (come child). Me and my sister couldn’t stop giggling afterwards and we felt so embarrassed. And after that day everyday we played with him and his sister but strangely we never needed to know each others names. For him I was always his “bambini”
When I came to Chicago I did not know anybody, had no cell phone or any form of contact. I had to go through a lot of problems the first two days since upon reaching I was notified that there was some mix up with my housing accommodation on campus and I had no place to stay!! It was a terrible moment for me and I did not understand what to do or whom to contact. And then suddenly this girl who was in the receptionist came up to me and asked me what the problem was. I told her and she made a few calls and put me up in the dorm for 2 nights. I was so hassled and worried that I could not thank her properly and next day couldn’t find her.
After a week went by I was put up in a truly beautiful dorm in another institute nearby. However my problems did not end. One after the other I had to face problems the solutions to which I had none. All this took a big toll on me and I just couldn’t think straight. One day I was sitting in the study room with some of my other roommates and this really sweet looking girl came up to me patted my shoulder and asked me whether I was ok or not. I couldn’t keep it inside any longer and I burst into tears!! She was a little taken aback and tried consoling me and some of the other girls came up and asked what the matter was. I told them everything that had happened. They were shocked and sympathetic and tried to calm me as much as possible. After that day they regularly invited me up to their rooms to chat, we cooked together, played foosball together and never made me feel lonely. During Hanukkah the girl who had consoled me kept a bag of chocolates in front of my door with a note “from your guardian angel” and I like to think of her like one.
Once I went to Milwaukee with a very close friend of mine. While returning to the station we got lost and were desperately trying to figure out where we were when this old lady who was stuck in a traffic jam called out to us and asked whether she could help us or not. We said that we were trying to figure out where the station was. Without thinking of her troubles, she offered to drive us to the station and bade us farewell once we reached safely.
I look back on these events and I feel so blessed. Blessed because it is for all these knights and angels, that I never feel lonely or uncared for and makes me realize that amidst all the tensions and worries of day to day life, our destiny gives us the opportunity to meet strangers who sometimes make us feel more special than our closest of friends. I hope and pray that I meet more such people in future and that I in turn can do something for them that would always help them remember me with a smile on their faces.
I will start with an incident from my childhood when I was lost in a crowd of people in a market, desperately trying to find my way to my mother who, equally harried, was looking for me in all the nooks and corners of the market. I was I think 4-5 yrs old, with a bald head (I hated having long hair or any hair at all that time!!) running around wildly. And all of a sudden this very gentle giant of a man (to me he looked like a giant) swooped me up in his shoulders. I was scared and for one moment I thought he was planning to kidnap me but then he calmed me down and told me that my mother was looking for me and he knew where she was. I was amazed that he knew my predicament and asked him how did he know that I was lost? He smiled and said that he was sitting and chatting with his friends when he noticed a young girl wandering on her own. Within a few minutes he saw a lady looking hassled and worried running here and there and asking everybody and gesturing to them that she cannot find her young girl. My gentleman immediately came forward told her not to worry and assured her that he will bring me back to her.
It is strange that in all these years that face has blurred but I still remember clearly every soothing word he told me to calm me down.
A few years later on when we were visiting Europe, I got lost in a tram in Vienna. I hopped on to it before the rest of my family could board the tram and then the automatic doors shut closed and took off. I was scared out of my wits but outwardly I acted very calm. The whole tram was empty except for this Bangladeshi guy who was looking at me realizing full well that I was in trouble. He could see my father running after the tram, my sister and mother crying since they thought they have lost me forever. He came up to me and asked “tumi ghabraio na, ami tumaare porer stop e namaiyaa dimu” (don’t worry I will help you get off the next stop). Wow it was muic to my ears, hearing this man speak not only kind words but speak my dialect as well!! And as the next stop came he stepped out from the tram and waited until my father reached me and waited for the next tram to get on.
We were in Italy for 2 months. Every morning after father went away to teach, me and my sister along with my mother used to visit the children’s park right opposite to where we were staying (Ripamonti residence). The first day we went me and my sister huddled together shy and a little intimidated by the tall and fairly large children playing there. We hardly knew how to speak Italian and could only understand snatches of it. It is here that a truly quintessential knight in shining armor came up to me and my sister. And that was when I received my first kiss!! This boy took my hands in his kissed them and said “venire bambini” (come child). Me and my sister couldn’t stop giggling afterwards and we felt so embarrassed. And after that day everyday we played with him and his sister but strangely we never needed to know each others names. For him I was always his “bambini”
When I came to Chicago I did not know anybody, had no cell phone or any form of contact. I had to go through a lot of problems the first two days since upon reaching I was notified that there was some mix up with my housing accommodation on campus and I had no place to stay!! It was a terrible moment for me and I did not understand what to do or whom to contact. And then suddenly this girl who was in the receptionist came up to me and asked me what the problem was. I told her and she made a few calls and put me up in the dorm for 2 nights. I was so hassled and worried that I could not thank her properly and next day couldn’t find her.
After a week went by I was put up in a truly beautiful dorm in another institute nearby. However my problems did not end. One after the other I had to face problems the solutions to which I had none. All this took a big toll on me and I just couldn’t think straight. One day I was sitting in the study room with some of my other roommates and this really sweet looking girl came up to me patted my shoulder and asked me whether I was ok or not. I couldn’t keep it inside any longer and I burst into tears!! She was a little taken aback and tried consoling me and some of the other girls came up and asked what the matter was. I told them everything that had happened. They were shocked and sympathetic and tried to calm me as much as possible. After that day they regularly invited me up to their rooms to chat, we cooked together, played foosball together and never made me feel lonely. During Hanukkah the girl who had consoled me kept a bag of chocolates in front of my door with a note “from your guardian angel” and I like to think of her like one.
Once I went to Milwaukee with a very close friend of mine. While returning to the station we got lost and were desperately trying to figure out where we were when this old lady who was stuck in a traffic jam called out to us and asked whether she could help us or not. We said that we were trying to figure out where the station was. Without thinking of her troubles, she offered to drive us to the station and bade us farewell once we reached safely.
I look back on these events and I feel so blessed. Blessed because it is for all these knights and angels, that I never feel lonely or uncared for and makes me realize that amidst all the tensions and worries of day to day life, our destiny gives us the opportunity to meet strangers who sometimes make us feel more special than our closest of friends. I hope and pray that I meet more such people in future and that I in turn can do something for them that would always help them remember me with a smile on their faces.
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Whats in a name?? History, Geography, IT, etc etc etc..;-)
"Nicknames stick to people, and the most ridiculous are the most adhesive."
And so said Thomas C. Haliburton and how right he was!! Its always an unusual (read peculiar, weird, inappropriate, downright ridiculous, etc etc) name that makes us glance up and take a closer look at the name's namesake, to suppress a smile, to look away, to recall it in the middle of a party, to crack a joke about and eventually immortalize it in our minds.
Here is a sample list of the top five weird names that I have come across (psst...you are most welcome to add to this list):
5. Tsunami (Why should someone one to name his/her offspring after a natural calamity is anybody's guess!!)
4. "Republica" and "Swadhinota" (Two sisters from an apparently patriotic neighborhood family from my mother's hometown)
3. My roommate from Delhi had a cousin who had a nickname "Bho" (The bengali alphabet)..I mean he was just Bho to the family..just one alphabet formed his whole identity!! I feel sorry for the poor guy!!
2. Pappan- Japan ( I still don't get it why Bengali parents especially have to make their children's names rhyme with each other, to these levels!!)
1. But the top spot goes to the recently heard nickname in this year's book fair.. believe it or not ..."DOT COM"!! I guess the IT sector will be booming in this family for quite sometime for somebody to be called dot com throughout his life:-)
And so said Thomas C. Haliburton and how right he was!! Its always an unusual (read peculiar, weird, inappropriate, downright ridiculous, etc etc) name that makes us glance up and take a closer look at the name's namesake, to suppress a smile, to look away, to recall it in the middle of a party, to crack a joke about and eventually immortalize it in our minds.
Here is a sample list of the top five weird names that I have come across (psst...you are most welcome to add to this list):
5. Tsunami (Why should someone one to name his/her offspring after a natural calamity is anybody's guess!!)
4. "Republica" and "Swadhinota" (Two sisters from an apparently patriotic neighborhood family from my mother's hometown)
3. My roommate from Delhi had a cousin who had a nickname "Bho" (The bengali alphabet)..I mean he was just Bho to the family..just one alphabet formed his whole identity!! I feel sorry for the poor guy!!
2. Pappan- Japan ( I still don't get it why Bengali parents especially have to make their children's names rhyme with each other, to these levels!!)
1. But the top spot goes to the recently heard nickname in this year's book fair.. believe it or not ..."DOT COM"!! I guess the IT sector will be booming in this family for quite sometime for somebody to be called dot com throughout his life:-)
Saturday, August 8, 2009
"Magnetic Personality":-)
I have and always will be a dreamer...so much so that sometimes it has proved to be the biggest impediment to my leading a normal life:-) Everytime I try to figure out myself I surprise myself with the revelation of some well hidden truth about myself which had not shown me its truest form until just at that moment when it was not supposed to show:-) I realize with some delightful insight that in the last three lines the most oft repeated word that I have used rather synonymously have been the words.."I", "ME" and "Myself"..well that kind of sets the tone for this blog...after a brief hiatus I want to talk about myself about my little eccentricities and my delightful little anecdotes from life.
I started out by saying that I am and will always be a dreamer...I love to dream, I love to imagine different situations, in which I might or might not play a role and try to imagine how I would try to act in that particular situation...in a way we all are pretty dramatic isn't it? We normally "play" out a situation in mind, thinking how we will "act" in a particular situation....well you can ignore that last bit..thats just a lazy musing of my mind:-)
I have always dreamed about situations or rather "played" out situations in my mind where I have "acted" as the superbly successful professional, the delightful and passionate lover, the frightfully efficient all rounder, the quintessential bored little spoiled brat who holidays only in the french riviera and meets wonderfully charismatic young italian artists as a lazy timepass:-) but no matter how much I "rewind" the "tapes" of my imagination I realized till date that one situation that has never "played' in my mind is how I would "act" in a situation where I am completely broke, where I do not know what to do with my $50 bank balance, where even the "frightfully charming" me can run into numerous problems the solutions to which are never found and you have to be patient in sorting things out. And like many other twists of fate called life, this is the exact "situation" where I have found myself "playing" the "lead actor" since the last 3 months.
It is at time like these, situations like these where I doubt myself...whether my approach towards life is somehow weirdly different from others. And it is exactly in situations like these that some well hidden truth about myself presents itself to me in a way so much so that I sometimes am baffled about my own self. I jokingly tell the "CEO" that I have a magnetic personality...I attract all sorts of weird problems, people and plebeian personalities. Once during a very pleasant conversation with "Ansel Adams", we were discussing about life. One thing struck me and I told him so too. I think what confuses others about me is that I take certain things (perhaps things which would appear to be pretty weird for others) very naturally and really do not care as to how others would consider me as in the event I do such a thing. "Sheldon cooper" agrees that I am complicated, but man sometimes I myself am amazed as to how complex I sometimes can be!!
I went through many troubles, many problems, many moments in the past 3 months which have kind of made me realize a whole lot of things about myself. How I react, how I should react, how I tackle problems, how I used to tackle problems and yes how much I have grown:-) Of course I would not have been able to handle so many things had it not been for the wonderful support of "CEO", "Sheldon" and "Chrysler" but yet, there are times when I have remembered the words that "Sindbad" had told me, the troubles he faced fighting the wars at Somalia, the hardships that he had to endure and the resulting growing up and "playing" the "role" of the thoroughbred gentleman in the face of death, that he had to "act" as. Yes I guess I had a lot of growing up and taking stock of the situation to do and I think I am able to do it in a rather happy-go-lucky manner, at least on the outset (although my nails might bear testimony of the opposite I am afraid!!).
I realize why Freud, Sindbad and yes Chandler Bing always say that humor is the best form of defence..it is actually a great weapon to fight the demons of fear, tension and anxieties. Never knew that a joke, a smile a burst of laughter can prove to be so significantly meaningful in life. I wow never to delve into the depths of depression and would scorn upon it as much as I scorn upon gossip about myself:-)
Anyone reading this blog or even bothering to listen to my gibberish has a patience that I can only dream of...but somehow I am in a crazily selfish oriented narcissistically endowed eccentric mood today and just felt like writing....I dream on:-)
I started out by saying that I am and will always be a dreamer...I love to dream, I love to imagine different situations, in which I might or might not play a role and try to imagine how I would try to act in that particular situation...in a way we all are pretty dramatic isn't it? We normally "play" out a situation in mind, thinking how we will "act" in a particular situation....well you can ignore that last bit..thats just a lazy musing of my mind:-)
I have always dreamed about situations or rather "played" out situations in my mind where I have "acted" as the superbly successful professional, the delightful and passionate lover, the frightfully efficient all rounder, the quintessential bored little spoiled brat who holidays only in the french riviera and meets wonderfully charismatic young italian artists as a lazy timepass:-) but no matter how much I "rewind" the "tapes" of my imagination I realized till date that one situation that has never "played' in my mind is how I would "act" in a situation where I am completely broke, where I do not know what to do with my $50 bank balance, where even the "frightfully charming" me can run into numerous problems the solutions to which are never found and you have to be patient in sorting things out. And like many other twists of fate called life, this is the exact "situation" where I have found myself "playing" the "lead actor" since the last 3 months.
It is at time like these, situations like these where I doubt myself...whether my approach towards life is somehow weirdly different from others. And it is exactly in situations like these that some well hidden truth about myself presents itself to me in a way so much so that I sometimes am baffled about my own self. I jokingly tell the "CEO" that I have a magnetic personality...I attract all sorts of weird problems, people and plebeian personalities. Once during a very pleasant conversation with "Ansel Adams", we were discussing about life. One thing struck me and I told him so too. I think what confuses others about me is that I take certain things (perhaps things which would appear to be pretty weird for others) very naturally and really do not care as to how others would consider me as in the event I do such a thing. "Sheldon cooper" agrees that I am complicated, but man sometimes I myself am amazed as to how complex I sometimes can be!!
I went through many troubles, many problems, many moments in the past 3 months which have kind of made me realize a whole lot of things about myself. How I react, how I should react, how I tackle problems, how I used to tackle problems and yes how much I have grown:-) Of course I would not have been able to handle so many things had it not been for the wonderful support of "CEO", "Sheldon" and "Chrysler" but yet, there are times when I have remembered the words that "Sindbad" had told me, the troubles he faced fighting the wars at Somalia, the hardships that he had to endure and the resulting growing up and "playing" the "role" of the thoroughbred gentleman in the face of death, that he had to "act" as. Yes I guess I had a lot of growing up and taking stock of the situation to do and I think I am able to do it in a rather happy-go-lucky manner, at least on the outset (although my nails might bear testimony of the opposite I am afraid!!).
I realize why Freud, Sindbad and yes Chandler Bing always say that humor is the best form of defence..it is actually a great weapon to fight the demons of fear, tension and anxieties. Never knew that a joke, a smile a burst of laughter can prove to be so significantly meaningful in life. I wow never to delve into the depths of depression and would scorn upon it as much as I scorn upon gossip about myself:-)
Anyone reading this blog or even bothering to listen to my gibberish has a patience that I can only dream of...but somehow I am in a crazily selfish oriented narcissistically endowed eccentric mood today and just felt like writing....I dream on:-)
Friday, March 20, 2009
The Tete a Tete
Triingggg...Tringggggg
"who is it??" I said in a small voice. Silence..."who is it?" This time I detect a note of trepidation in my tone and as I tiptoe downstairs and peep into the eye hole, I see a blur of colors, but not the face." Who is it? what do you want?". "Cant you recognize me? how can you forget that today we were supposed to meet? you were the one who invited me over, don't you remember?" Somehow the voice sounds familiar and then it hits me. "Ahhh its you Bambi!! please come in come in".. I eagerly unlock the door and the swirl of colors rush past me and takes a seat at my favorite seat by the window. "Whew it was a tough journey, and made even tougher by you not letting me in. But you know me, I am a tough nut. I dont give up easily". Bambi smiled, but I was not paying attention to whatever was being said. I was too mesmerized seeing the details of the brilliant hues that Bambi was wearing, the brightness of the face made all the more brilliant by the sun rays coming in from the window. In the midst of my trancelike state Bambi interrupted me gently. "When's princess Fui coming??".."is she coming at all?". I detect a peculiar tone in Bambi's voice..something akin to derision mixed with sympathy. To confirm my thoughts, Bambi continued. "You know I can never understand what that Fui is up to at times. Sometimes she is happy as a bee sometimes she is glum, sometimes she is lost. What is wrong with her?". I nod my head indicating that I too am as lost as Bambi regaridng this matter. "Well, all said and done I have been looking forward to this tete a tete for quite sometime. You know we have lost touch with each other and its always good to reconnect. And all because of you". Bambi smiled. I blushed. I have never thought that praise could sound so sweet and genuine, and looking at those sparkling eyes, it was hard to believe that Bambi was feigning. Just then we heard a knock on the door. "O why cant Fui use the doorbell, its louder and clearer!! really that one needs a good shaking", Bambi commented in an exasperated voice and before I could move my feet, bounded across the living room and opened the front door. "There you are!! but Oh dear what a mess!!" I heard Bambi's shocked exclamation and hurried to join her. There stood Fui with her hair all unswept and she looking weatherbeaten. From the looks of her swollen red eyes, there was no imagining that she had been crying for quite some time and the way she clutched her bag and held on to the door was enough indication that she had gone through a terrible ordeal. "Whats teh matter princess? what happened?" I tried to sound sympathetic, but to my own ears my words sounded hollow and lacking in genuinity. "I..I....I...ddoooon't knnooww whhaatt happpened..i-i-i-mm sso....hic...connfuuu-hic...sed". With great difficulty thus spoke Fui. Bambi and I exchanged looks, mine worried and troubled, bambi's- exasperated and amused. "Well well, dont start crying standing in the front door. At least come in and sit down". Before I could say anything Bambi had taken charge. she took Fui's expensive bag from her hand and led her to the living room. Fui sat down on the black leather sofa and looked glum and Bambi sit down in her previous seat. I sat between them, thinking whether it was a good idea to call all of them for this gathering...was I better off having lost touch with them? I looked at the two of them hoping to gain some solace, but saw all of them lost in thought. To end the UNCOMFORTABLE silence I cleared my throat and began.....
To be continued...........
"who is it??" I said in a small voice. Silence..."who is it?" This time I detect a note of trepidation in my tone and as I tiptoe downstairs and peep into the eye hole, I see a blur of colors, but not the face." Who is it? what do you want?". "Cant you recognize me? how can you forget that today we were supposed to meet? you were the one who invited me over, don't you remember?" Somehow the voice sounds familiar and then it hits me. "Ahhh its you Bambi!! please come in come in".. I eagerly unlock the door and the swirl of colors rush past me and takes a seat at my favorite seat by the window. "Whew it was a tough journey, and made even tougher by you not letting me in. But you know me, I am a tough nut. I dont give up easily". Bambi smiled, but I was not paying attention to whatever was being said. I was too mesmerized seeing the details of the brilliant hues that Bambi was wearing, the brightness of the face made all the more brilliant by the sun rays coming in from the window. In the midst of my trancelike state Bambi interrupted me gently. "When's princess Fui coming??".."is she coming at all?". I detect a peculiar tone in Bambi's voice..something akin to derision mixed with sympathy. To confirm my thoughts, Bambi continued. "You know I can never understand what that Fui is up to at times. Sometimes she is happy as a bee sometimes she is glum, sometimes she is lost. What is wrong with her?". I nod my head indicating that I too am as lost as Bambi regaridng this matter. "Well, all said and done I have been looking forward to this tete a tete for quite sometime. You know we have lost touch with each other and its always good to reconnect. And all because of you". Bambi smiled. I blushed. I have never thought that praise could sound so sweet and genuine, and looking at those sparkling eyes, it was hard to believe that Bambi was feigning. Just then we heard a knock on the door. "O why cant Fui use the doorbell, its louder and clearer!! really that one needs a good shaking", Bambi commented in an exasperated voice and before I could move my feet, bounded across the living room and opened the front door. "There you are!! but Oh dear what a mess!!" I heard Bambi's shocked exclamation and hurried to join her. There stood Fui with her hair all unswept and she looking weatherbeaten. From the looks of her swollen red eyes, there was no imagining that she had been crying for quite some time and the way she clutched her bag and held on to the door was enough indication that she had gone through a terrible ordeal. "Whats teh matter princess? what happened?" I tried to sound sympathetic, but to my own ears my words sounded hollow and lacking in genuinity. "I..I....I...ddoooon't knnooww whhaatt happpened..i-i-i-mm sso....hic...connfuuu-hic...sed". With great difficulty thus spoke Fui. Bambi and I exchanged looks, mine worried and troubled, bambi's- exasperated and amused. "Well well, dont start crying standing in the front door. At least come in and sit down". Before I could say anything Bambi had taken charge. she took Fui's expensive bag from her hand and led her to the living room. Fui sat down on the black leather sofa and looked glum and Bambi sit down in her previous seat. I sat between them, thinking whether it was a good idea to call all of them for this gathering...was I better off having lost touch with them? I looked at the two of them hoping to gain some solace, but saw all of them lost in thought. To end the UNCOMFORTABLE silence I cleared my throat and began.....
To be continued...........
Thursday, October 23, 2008
The Archetypes and the Divas
| Over the past several months I have been musing over whether to write this blog or not, since the contents of this blog have particularly made me thoughtful for quite sometime. The concept of archetypes has always been a great fascination for me since the time I read Jung. An archetype is a model of a person, personality, or behavior. Archetype refers to a generic version of a personality. In this sense "mother figure" may be considered an archetype and may be identified in various characters with otherwise distinct (non-generic) personalities. The various archetypes such as the self, the shadow (the opposite of what our ego tries to present, which we normally try to suppress, but nevertheless posess), the anima (the feminine image in a man’s psyche) or the Animus (the masculine image in a female’s psyche) are certain things which will not fail to surprise man, and through and through makes me marvel how complex human nature is. At the cost of sounding like a true feminist, I could not help but reflect that in literature so many authors of different genres, eras and languages have modelled their leading ladies on different types of archetypes, so much so that they have become timeless legends by themselves and have, through the course of their writing, assumed such complexity of character, which defied all social norms, and which tarnished the concept of a “lady”. The three characters that immediately come to my mind are Shakespeare’s Lady Macbeth (Macbeth), Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina (Anna Karenina) and Tagore’s Binodini (Chokher Bali). Note that these characters have displayed so many layers of emotion, passion, anger, guilt, rage, defiance, dignity, that they have become boundless, timeless and fathomless not only for the readers but for the authors too. Tagore had always regretted the ending of Chokher Bali and why not?? There are many commonly known archetypal images that we have such as the Child, the Hero, the Great Mother, etc, but where would one place these legendary characters? What kind of image do they fit in?? They had passion, they had poise, and they were intelligent bordering on cunningness, yet a certain inner conflict, turmoil as a result of the oppressive society. They were bold and they were loving. Whenever someone talks about archetypes and literature, the first name that comes to mind is Hamlet, the quintessential example of a person suffering from inner self conflict and who epitomizes the initiation archetype of separation, transformation and return. But somehow I feel that more than Hamlet, it is lady Macbeth who is more interesting in terms of characterization. Perhaps it is a result of the status of women in the Elizabethan period that prompted Shakespeare to show the immense bout of guilt that she suffered after choosing her passion over duty. Perhaps it was again the status of women and the sociopolitical issues affecting Russia at the latter half of the 19th century that prompted Tolstoy to make Anna commit suicide so brutally. And again perhaps it was the uprising of the Indians against the British and the still ongoing strict laws of widowhood that prompted Tagore to feel dissatisfied with the ending of his Chokher Bali. So what does it tell us? How do these women reflect society through the ages? Each of these women stepped out from the suffocating laws of society to follow their love, to pursue their desire, their unfulfilled lust and need and craving. They defied duty to become slaves to their passion, to think about themselves and not the world to which they belong. And everytime they did, they met with a sad end….it makes me sad but it makes me respect these characters more, so much so that I want to read them again and again, to make them come to life in my mind with my own ending to each of their passionate tale…they are the ultimate DIVAs. |
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