Miscellany-at-Work

Today happens to be the day I was born twenty four years back. And as I pondered, over the last twenty and four years of my life, a very pertinent question crossed my head. What does it take to make ones life truly fulfilling?

          In his classic work Julius Caesar, Shakespeare talking about Brutus as distinct from all the conspirators conspiring to kill Caesar, attributes these lines to Brutus:

          "His life was gentle, and the elements
           So mix'd in him that Nature might stand up
          And say to all the world, 'This was a man!' "

          Well Shakespeare was not the first one to use the Expression “This was a Man” to describe a virtuous life.

Drayton must have been in an emphatic mood when he wrote the following lines which appeared in his 1598 Book “The Baron’s War”:

“He was a Man (then boldly dare to say),

In whose rich soul the virtues well did suit,

In whom so mix’d the elements all lay,

That none to one could sovereignty impute,

As all did govern, so did all obey,

He of a temper was so absolute,

As that it seem’d, when nature him began,

She meant to show all that might be in a Man”

These great qualities of head and heart, of valor and gentleness all in one seem to have been lost. These great qualities which have always seen the ascent of man. Jacob Bronowski in the last chapter of his masterly book “The Ascent of Man”, brings out a beautiful message when he says,

“The personal commitment of man to his skill,

the intellectual commitment, and

the emotional commitment,

working together as one,

has made the Ascent of Man”

          A good life is very difficult to measure. Even the most famous, the richest, the most successful artistes, musicians, painters, the statesmen, authors, all who have earned recognition in their respective fields do not find themselves immune from the ordinary frailties of human life. Perfection eludes us and keeps doing so consistently. Perfection is always a mirage, which can only be chased but can never be captured.

          Or is a life most fulfilled if it conforms to what Milton says in extraordinary book “The Paradise Lost”, if someone stays,

          “Unmoved, unshaken, unseduced, unterrified,

           His promises he kept, his love, his zeal,

           Nor number nor example with him wrought

 To swerve from truth, or change his constant mind.”

Is such a life so chaste and austere, so balanced and sober is a life truly fulfilled. The search for an answer, I believe, will always remain a pursuit. As Lord Cranworth once remarked, “There is no possibility of mistaking midnight for noon, but at what precise moment twilight becomes darkness is difficult to determine”

  

Walk in the Rain, Don't Just Get wet

If there is a single accident of birth that I have been proud of (apart from having such lovely parents), then it is the blessing of being born and brought up in as good and picturesque a place as Goa. And come rainy season and I often begin pining and my eyes grow thirsty to see tiny raindrops come down and wash the Goan Landscape and drape it with a beautiful and fresh layer of green, my nose longs to smell the fragrance of the earth when the first drops of rain trickle down its surface, my body yearns to get soaked in the divine showers.

For the last two years Bombay (what’s in the name, Roses by any name would still smell the same) has been my abode. Bombay is a strange city. But the most apt description would be that of Suketu Mehta. He calls it the “Maximum City”. I realized very soon that there are more reasons to love the city than there are to hate it. And one reason, and a big one, has to be the rains on the Marine Drive.

I am eagerly awaiting the rains this time. The ocean kissing the shores of Marine Drive swells up in its pristine glory. The waves are fast and furious. The noisy cars and the dust and heat and all that we hate the city for, suddenly seems to go into oblivion. I can sit for hours together on the Marine Drive in the rains and experience the bliss of solitude. But this time around, I do have someone special with me who will join me on the Marine Drive. But that doesn’t matter; the two of us can be on the drive lost in OUR solitude.

       “What is this Life, if full of care,

        We have No time to Stand and Stare” – W. H. Davies

In fact, it’s not just the rains but every season has its own charm and mood. As John Ruskin said “Sunshine is delicious, rain is refreshing, wind braces us up, snow is exhilarating; there is really no such thing as bad weather, only different kinds of good weather.”

It’s still a few more days for the rains to reach Bombay but its worth the wait. . .