The culmination

Our interview ranged from one topic to another. In between out of nowhere the topic of his (hotelier) partner came about who passed away a few months back. I asked the question how it happened. Was it a natural one? He said it was an accident; hit and run to be precise. What! I exclaimed. Yes and the bad part is that it happened in the service lane just outside his house. None knows about who did it.

That was indeed a sad story. I told him that it appears even sadder because there was no reason for that to happen at least in a service lane considering Delhi’s driving sense on main roads. To that he said… well, my friend, death will take place when the time, place and reason all come in a perfect alignment (caressing his finger on his forehead horizontally). That’s why we sometimes say, miraculous escape! Don’t we? In that case, at least one aspect out of three will not be in the alignment with the other two.

His thought forced me to think over the issue again and again throughout the day. I am still thinking and don’t believe, I will ever come to terms with this thought. Yet, I will concede that that is perfectly true in all respect.

The imagery line

Have you ever considered how difficult it is to express something that exists just because we map it and nothing more than that? It is difficult to explain the significance of any such thing. I also bumped into something like that as we, as group of people, were moving towards Sanchi from Bhopal. As we traveled some 45 minutes from the capital city, our route guide (aka driver) suddenly braked. Before even asking him why, we knew our answer. There was this board that was etched with ‘Tropic of Cancer’… ‘Wow!’ we all chorused. It was an amazing sight upfront, which we never expected. Since it was unexpected, the sight became even more enticing and exciting. It was hot of end May, yet all bumped out of the car in a flash like a child coming out to enjoy first rain out of his home. Then, it was fascinating photo-op that took over the arid landscape…. the signboard of the kark rekha, we, devastating heat and the bright sunshine.

Now that I am back in Delhi, leaving back that significant line that traverses through the small village of Dewanganj, that should be 20 kms away from Bhopal, I was enthused by the desire to know whether there are any specific big town or city that falls on this imagery line. Though, another fellow rider had told me during that trip that Jabalpur and Nagpur do fall on this line. As I Google-d, Ujjain also figures under this. While Jabalpur falls on it, Nagpur falls short of it; the city is located below the line. By the way, The Tropic of Cancer is best described as lying at 23° 26′ 22″ north of the Equator.

It is amazing to find a discovery of human specie, that did not required brains as such. Yet, a commendable act to find the right location where the line needs to be imagined. This very feeling enthralled all of us. At least, coming close to it, I was. I am also happy for no reasons, as I experienced something not to be seen to say the least. It is just an imagination after all.... The only help is that the point of imagination is well marked. Next spot of imagination… don’t mind to imagine somewhere where a step upward or downward will make me either tilt north or south, respectively, of Earth. I mean Equator.

Co-existing with the dead

Standing beneath the clear night sky takes me to a different realm of reality. When I see the stars twinkling in all sizes, and sometimes with different aura as well, it is difficult to come to terms that many of them actually not existing. If we go by the theory of astro-physics, the twinkling lights, well most, seen today are generated millions of light years ago and reaching earth today. Effectively then, we are surviving with some which are non-existent today. But, we still are with them that defy our mental logic and yet true. Very similar, around us, we are all living with many bodies, working perfectly, which are completely dead. They are all humans of different kinds and we should constantly discount this fact to live sanely. That said the only thing we can take from them are some flashes of brilliance, which we need to imbibe, as everyone possess something or the other, that may not let them sparkle, but at least twinkle. For rest, I can look up in the sky, when it is clear and twinkling, anyway.

Perfect Timepass

Mr Ankur Bhatia, a new entrant in my chat list, popped up a line in between which was a real good one. He said, "We all are at some point of time in our life…" The liner was not a mere philosophical one. I was quite surprised to get such a liner from a young chap so early in his working days. The consequence of that shock evoked me to query him further for that liner…

According to him, no matter whatever we do and feel happy or sad about at a given point of time, the situation is always ironical to us and cent percent true. It is that paradigm that never shifts. We were talking about being methodical in our approach and he came up with that liner. He felt, that we both are actually talking about different times, which eventually lead us to a result that is same. I added onto his by saying that that point is always the present; there's neither past to it nor future, to which he smilingly (courtesy a smiley) acknowledged. In our mind, our life is always messed up and there is always scope to make it simpler, he said. From one of his favourite films - Gulaal, he quoted: "Iss mulk ne har shaqs ko jo kaam tha saaunpa, har shaqs ne uss kaam ki maa…. chiss jala ke chhor dii.."

Then we went overboard... he said: maachis jalane ka scope bhi hamesha hota hai na... to which I replied, par maachis se mashaal tak ka safar adhura reh jata hai. He reverted by another wonderful liner which is a perfect metaphor for our current political scenario and the undying urge to change it. “haan raaste mein hi bujh jaati hai maachis,” he concluded, restricting our drifting minds to come back to the present… i.e. work. It was working hours still.