Idyllic Thoughts

The law locks up the hapless felon Who steals the goose from off the common, But lets the greater felon loose Who steals the common from the goose. --Anonymous, England, 1821 Just felt like sharing. I remember this when I see everyday that thieves, pick-pockets, small-time burglars are locked up while the greater felons travel in considerable security surrounded by well-wishers to temples, mutts, resorts and abroad. Recognise anyone? Oh! there is a multitude of them around us! We watch through hapless eyes when thieves are warned of being shot-at-sight and rapists, murderers, terrorists, scamsters are let go with crocodile tears in their eyes and fake heart conditions.

While reading our Editor's article on Girish Karnad and UR Ananthamurthy, I remembered reading URA's Samskara a long time ago. I was at an impressionable age and was awed by all the books I read. Even then, Samskara failed to impress me; in fact, it was like swallowing a mouthful of bad smell suddenly. I regretted reading it after managing to finish it somehow, because I never left even a bad book unfinished. This is my personal opinion and it was not because of caste reasons. I do not know the criteria for Jnanpith , but his other works may have been the reason for the award.

Here is a line on love by Joesph Conrad in his short story Amy Foster : "...you need imagination to form a notion of beauty at all, and still more to discover your ideal in an unfamiliar shape." This may the very truth about the emergence of love. Somewhere along the wavy line called life, we meet someone and fall in love. I don't believe in love at first sight. It is an emotion which comes of being with a person for some time, seeing our notion of ideality in that person and imagining him/her to be beautiful beyond description. One can be utterly happy and in love with the ugliest person -- I say this because I see many happy couples who do not have an iota of physical beauty in them, yet are in so much of love with each other that it often makes me wonder at how love and mental closeness disguise the physical ugliness. Once you become closer to someone, their colour, features are invisible to you. Though, at first you need imagination to see beauty in a person as Conra...

Relationships are very hard to maintain, especially if those involved in the relationships are insecure. Marriage is quite complicated as it is embracing a whole new family, with their interests, ways that differ from ours, likings and not-so-likings, stories and light moments, fears and emotions. Someone recently told me that being unmarried makes us retain our individuality. Maybe so. For someone who has been independent in thinking and has their own beliefs, it would be quite difficult to stay in a marriage happily, where one has to constantly consider the likes and dislikes of the spouse. Is love, family, worth sacrificing one's individuality for?

Last week I spent an evening with my hubby on the serene Maravanthe beach near Kundapura watching the aeonian waves splash on the sand and drag away some reluctant sand away. Watching the waves compete with each other, I felt that they were trying, just like humans, to surpass their predecessors on their path to success. Aren't we too engrossed in continually outdoing others in our professional or personal life? This is what compels us to achieve. If there was no competition, there would be idle people all around, with zero achievements and a complete lack of enthusiasm to work and live. And in this regard, I think jealousy can be a positive emotion.

Once upon a time, I felt love was overrated. I thought love was the most overhyped feeling ever. But now I realise that love is like a mixture of a heady potion in which drugs, hypnosis, addiction, vulnerability, dreams, attraction are mixed potently forgetting to add logic, reasoning as seasoning. When somebody loves you, it brings such a happiness that is beyond description. It is like floating up in heavens carefree and looking down upon mere mortals who are unaware of the joys of love. It is also like a personal little fairydom of dreams where no one else has the permission to enter.

From many days, a question is bothering me. I haven't found a satisfactory answer yet. So I'll write it down here. Maybe anybody who reads this may think of an answer. "Just because we are journalists, writers, opinion creators and thinkers, do we have the right to judge others? Either personally or professionally? If not, then how can we write without judging? Our writings obviously focus on judging others."