Two days ago, I was trying to cross the busy road near bus stand in Mysore. A girl too was there carrying a heavy bag. Then she saw me and came near me so that we could cross together. The same thing always happens to me while crossing the road. There would be somebody else and we would look at each other, then cross together. For a brief moment, we would be stranger-allies against the onslaught of traffic. While travelling to Orissa recently on train, a middle-aged man who couldn't understand our language brought us water in bottle whenever our bottles emptied. He did not know us and yet helped us. Somebody helps us in bus by keeping our heavy bags on their laps, others by leaving the seat to an elderly person or a woman with a child. In all these incidents, there is no need for words, a glance, a gesture is enough. And sometimes, it was just mutual understanding without any kind of gesture. After alighting from the bus, train or crossing the road, we are strangers again.
'Caught in a strange land in a net with other butterflies, I'm a caterpillar yet undecided to remain a caterpillar and perish or turn into a beautiful butterfly and live a life full of joy.' Readers don't laugh. But I came up with this one night recently when I was travelling in a train. I tossed and turned, not being able to sleep, upset over unexplainable things and frustrated over events not in my control. Then it occurred to me that our life and its usefulness depends on our decisions -- whether to remain a crawling caterpillar whose existence otherwise is either ignored by all and sundry or who is cursed for just being there and thrown out with a stick, or to develop wings of life and metamorphose into a beautiful butterfly whom everybody adores for its beauty and colour, for its flitting liveliness, for its service to the flower's pollination... I thought that I should be a butterfly, of service to others, but then again I thought, anyway, who really cares?
Good observation. Perfectly right.
ReplyDeleteGood observation. Brilliant.
ReplyDeleteeven i experienced dis several times but never thought about dis great thinking...
ReplyDelete