09-06-‘12
A
Splash from Rain-drenched Psyche
Azeem-o-shaan
Shahenshah! His Highness Lord Varuna’s magnificent caravan has made its
majestic arrival in Bhavnagar. The first rain has cleansed the ambience of the
city. Needless to say, I rushed to be blessed by it, placing Chekhov aside. I
stood in the Christ pose in the terrace and tiny, enchanting rain drops began
to caress and pamper the bare skin of my chest and arms the way an overwhelmed
father’s tears roll down on his son’s neck whom he hugs affectionately
(furthermore) or the way a lass showers tender kisses on her man’s rough face
and the man finds himself on cloud nine.
In
such a contemplative state, I told myself: “If thou hast to surrender to the
Divine, surrender absolutely.” Hence, I prostrated myself on the terrace and
the cool, soothing breeze drenched me in ecstasy. I felt like the Good Angels were
escorting me towards the mercy of the Omniscient. Meanwhile, I overheard kids
chirping, twittering and yelling to celebrate the first rain. Rather than any
poetic composition, I found these innocent cheers, this hullabaloo to be the
most fitting response to the sacrosanct benediction. A cuckoo, some sparrows
etc joined the chorus and this orchestra of existence poured honey in the ears
of my psyche. Even the trees stood stunned and rejuvenated. All the grievances,
frustrations, weeping of life get swamped by this gift of Nature – rain!
However,
an undercurrent of agony pulsated throughout. There is a thin line of
demarcation between loneliness and solitude which usually gets blurred in such
fragile moments. I felt like “I WISH……” Words from Chekhov’s story ‘The Night before Easter’ resonated in
my mind:
“Can you tell me, kind master, why
it is that even in the presence of great happiness a man cannot forget his
grief?”
I
think there are no square boxes in human mind where a person can
compartmentalize affirmative and disturbing feelings. Consequently, they get
jumbled up time and again however hard one may endeavor to sustain equilibrium.
People have various ways to tackle it. Some maverick, lunatics may seize
writing material and scribble something like this write up, others may drown
them in mundane activities of life, some others may channelize their thoughts
to their favorite pastime and so on. To each his own!
Whatsoever,
I advocate one phenomenon vehemently: Nature teaches humans to stay alive and
enjoy life in its totality. We are surrounded by droop-headed, walking corpses
who go on complaining every now and then. Dale Carnegie opined:
“Any
fool can condemn, complain or criticize, and most fools do.”
Even
such cynics find rain to be a disturbance. Poor ignoramus creatures don’t know
that the plights they encounter in rainy days are largely human-generated. Had
a human being continued his affinity to Nature, he would not have been so
pathetically synthetic and hollow.
So,
Return to Nature? No. in fact, Nature returns to us in multiple forms and
shades. We just have to let her in. Let’s expand the horizons of our psychology
and be true to the self as much as we can. I know that this sounds like a
mirage in Indian society but we can at least give it a try. Allow me to sum
this up with a tiny poem.
LIGHT
The
night has a thousand eyes,
And the day but one;
Yet
the light of the bright world dies
With the dying sun.
The
mind has a thousand eyes,
And the heart but one;
Yet
the light of a whole life dies
When love is done.
-
F. W. Bourdillon
(Source
of the poem: Poetry for Pleasure, selected by Maung Kaung, OUP.)
