Tuesday, February 15, 2005

Seek, suffer, and soar

Every once in a while, life calls and puts you on a threshold of greatness. It shows a door and a question mark. You have to leave back every promise, every love you’ve ever had, to pass through that door. Greatness beckons you but at a cost.

You have to hurt the very people whom you loved the most. You may have to go back on promises made without foresight. You may have to relook and redefine your self and what is natural.

There is no light. There is no way. And it’s a jungle out there.

Most of the time, it is us, poets and authors, who take the first step, the first leap. It has to be us to experiment, to experience so that others stay free. Stay out of mess. Stay stable and mundane.

Life calls on us to the pedestal and expects us to fall from glory. Rebel against societal norms and sacrifice our very souls so that we light the path for the next generation that seeks the sea; their final frontiers.

And, yes, we willingly light their paths like fireflies in the dark meadows and sometimes, one of us gives so much experimenting with truths that that one becomes a lighthouse.

A lighthouse that beams out light but has no light within anymore. Us, poets and authors, lose parts of ourselves trying to attain that state. In the process, we are shunned by all till we illuminate and save a few lives here and there. Till we show the shores to the sailors lost and the sea to the adventurous men.

I am being beckoned right now. I have to decide whether to be a lighthouse or a flickering firefly tossed in the wind. I want to be a lighthouse; always wanted to be one. And so be it.

Light travels in the form of waves, they say. No mere coincidence, this is I think.

All the while, while I write this at this time of the night, a man carries a heavy sack of food grains on his shoulders, he bent forward so much so that his spine will one ay crack, to the godown from a truck.

2 comments:

Rangakrishnan Srinivasan said...

A wonderful post. People sometimes tend to forget the suffering and the tears shed when it comes to evaluating the established greats.

The journey towards greatness or perfection - that sublime elusive state, the state of being there, is a long and winding road.

Shanti said...

No matter how bright the light maybe, some still get lost; And then there are those who may have reached the shore, but unfortunately, either cannot see the light even though it is in front of them or choose not to see because of their pride.

Then amongst all these, there maybe one lone simple individual who manages to overcome all obstacles.... humbly he thanks the Almighty for showing him the way with the help of His light.

In this Kaliyug, it is not easy to see the actual true ray of light amongst all the other false glitter and pretense.

So as not to go astray or be lost, we need to stay focused and on course.